“Since my first album – I always knew, I was going to make another one”

 I had the chance to sit down and speak to local country muso Justin Landers recently about his anticipated upcoming second album Free Time And Money.

 “I have been working on this second album for probably two years now. I think, COVID gave me a lot of time and a break to focus on writing and finishing this album. What I really needed to get is the money to finish it,” Justin says gleefully.

 This would segue into Justin’s inspiration for the album’s title, “That was the theme for the album, I decided to call it Free Time And Money, because I needed both time and money to be able to this second album.”

 Having self-produced his first album, Justin knew for his second musical venture, it was going to be made on the next level. Yearning to find musicians and music producers who were country enough to satisfy Justin’s sonic vision.

 He would eventually come across producer Simon Johnson from Hillbilly Hut Records. As Justin explains, “I met Simon in Tamworth, we discussed how I wanted to work on this album and record it. He was happy for me, to produce the demos in my Orange studio and send them up to him. Where Simon would reproduce and master the tracks from there.

 “I did the vocals at home as well, so it was very comfortable experience making the album this way. But in the future, I would like to have that complete in-studio experience, where you have a band in studio, the producer, and the artist. That’s the next goal,” Justin says.

 Inspiration came from Justin’s favorite American country artists Alan Jackson and George Strait helped in influencing this new album. “I wanted to do a Honky-tonk style song” Justin admits; however, the country musician didn’t have an idea for a song until one evening at a pub. “There was a guy who was rotten drunk and being refused service. I had a bit of yarn to him and he tells me the reason why he was trying to drink so much. And it was to forget his girlfriend because she left him. I thought immediately, there’s a song in that – that’s my song which became my favorite in the album I can’t Drink You Off My Mind,” Justin says.

 Free Time And Money launches on June 19th at the Orange City Bowling Club. Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm start. Three lucky door prizes are available to win on the night, along with a supporting set from acoustic artist Andy Penkow.

 The Free Time And Money album is available from all leading digital media stores from the 19th June 2021 and is also available on CD from Justin’s website: www.justinlandersmusic.com