Caleb, the multi-talented producer and musician behind Lord & Land, draws inspiration from his unconventional upbringing and experience crafting songs for film and television to create a sound that’s both bold and unforgettable.
Lord & Land is a musical project led by the multi-talented husband and wife team Caleb and Nic, a producer and musician with a bold and unforgettable sound and a songwriter extraordinaire. Drawing inspiration from an unconventional upbringing in Canada, Columbia, and Scotland, as well as their experience writing and singing songs for film and television, the duo has a “no excuses” attitude that permeates their music and fuels their drive to succeed.
Despite his success in the industry, Caleb remains grounded and committed to supporting his music community, both locally and online. For him, music is more than just a career – it’s a way of life.
Caleb’s latest work with Lord & Land, including the stunning single Growing Pains, tackles universal themes of new beginnings, change, and loss. But even as he grapples with weighty topics in his music, Caleb finds joy in the simple things in life, from his family and faith to good food and even Disneyland.
With a solid foundation behind them and an eye towards new opportunities, Caleb is poised for even greater success in the years to come. Whether crafting songs that hit you right in the gut or collaborating on film and television projects, Caleb’s artistic vision and undeniable talent make him one to watch in the world of music.
Happy: What are you up to today?
Caleb: We are finishing up our Video for “Growing Pains”, started building a play house for my son and chatting with Happy Mag.
Happy: Tell us about your suburb, what do you love/not love about where you live?
Caleb: We just moved to Conwy Wales and there’s little not to love at the moment. The people here are very friendly and community-oriented, we have never felt so easily welcomed before in our life. The small town is built around stone walls, with a large medieval castle overlooking the ocean and rolling hills. We spent many years in Victoria B.C which will always be our other home, we had an outstanding community there but have long felt we were meant to be in the UK, at least for a part of our lives. The things we miss most about Canada are the people we know and Canadian Costco.
Happy: Describe your average work day.
Caleb: I wake up before dawn usually to my 4-year-old asking to help make coffee. We all have breakfast together and then I’m off to my primary bread-winning job, which is electrical and teaching at the local music school.
While I’m working, my wife Nic is at home with our son and running LORD & LAND’s media and marketing. We never really stop writing or making music, it’s always intertwined throughout our daily lives, whether it’s writing verses on my lunch break , producing music in the evening and weekends, or coming up with random melodies late at night.
Happy: What about your ultimate day?
Caleb: I feel like it’s very cheesy, But working with Ryan Tedder, Ed Sheeran, or NEEDTOBREATHE on a project would be amazing. Maybe impossible, but I’ll always work hard and hope for the best.
Happy: Tell us about your creative community.
Caleb: As we recently moved to the UK we are in the early stages of networking, but we’ve already come into contact with a great many musicians, producers and mixers etc. The UK has an absolute abundance of talent and it’s been really awesome/ inspiring making new connections.
We love supporting others where we can in our music community both locally and through networking online. The great thing about music production/ the internet is that it’s very easy to work remotely and collaborate. There’s an abundance of new opportunities for us and we can’t wait to see how it grows.
We will always have our solid foundation back in Canada and couldn’t be more thankful for the people who have continually been a part of our journey.
Happy: What did you listen to growing up that fuelled your passion for music and songwriting?
Caleb: I mostly listened to NEEDTOBREATHE, One Republic and DC TALK. Those artists all inspired me as I grew up, and helped me through the high’s and lows of my early life. I started writing songs in my early teen years, as a way to process and express myself.
When I met my wife Nic, her musical tastes were much more diverse than mine. She’s heavily inspired by cinematic music by the likes of John Williams, Hans Zimmers, she also listened to a lot of classical, mainstream as well as other indie artists.
We both have grown to have a great appreciation for the many different genres available. It’s been a lot of fun exploring all of them as a couple and finding inspiration from each others favourite musicians.
Happy: Can you share some insight into recording Growing Pains and the creative process from coming up with song ideas to recording and producing your music?
Caleb: Growing Pains is really a transitional song for us. There was a lot of success, hardship, and near misses for us while we lived in Canada. In short, we lost a lot and learned a lot.
The song is inspired by when everything fell apart for us and became our motivational anthem to keep going. I created the melody while driving home from work as I was trying to process a painful situation.
Nic and I wrote the lyrics together when I came home. The chorus of the song was originally part of the second verse, but Nic was convinced we should switch it around and make it the chorus instead.
After processing it/ playing around with the new structure I agreed and I’m really glad we made that change. As for the production, when we started our family lived in a basement rental with one of my younger sisters at the time.
We had no free space for a proper office, so my wife cleared out just enough room in our son’s closet to fit in a small desk. She really has a “no excuses” attitude with our music which I love and admire.
That’s where we tracked and produced the majority of Growing Pains as well as some of our upcoming songs and singles we did for others in our community. Nothing about it was glamorous. We’d often work late so our son would sleep in our room. We had to do the majority of our work off of headphones so that we didn’t disturb the entire household, and we strategically planned when we’d use our speakers so we didn’t have to worry about getting a noise complaint. We loved it and laughed often about our strange little set-up. We finished production right after we moved to the UK.
We were staying in my in-laws little London flat. We worked in the kitchen because that was the only place with a flat surface for a laptop. We camped out as a family in their living room and shared sleeping on a couch for about a month before we headed up to Wales.
When we did eventually make it to Wales we had no furniture at all, just a bucket, my guitar, a hard case and one deflating blow-up mattress. We finished everything off with my laptop on that bucket and then sent it for mixing and mastering.
We have recently upgraded to a desk and a simple office set up which feels very luxurious in comparison. But we will always laugh and be thankful for that closest, where a long chapter closed and LORD & LAND began.
Happy: The dynamic between you and Nic is incredible, can you share a little about the creative process you share together?
Caleb: Honestly doing this together was not what we expected or planned. I had my own band before we even met. Nic was always a writer but never really showed anyone her work until recently. She did a lot of background work for my previous band for the last couple of years before it dismantled, and has always wanted to support me in any way she could.
We’ve always been each other’s number one cheerleaders since we’ve been together. She was the only one who really supported me when I decided to start producing for my previous band. I faced a lot of doubt and criticism, especially in the beginning while I was just starting to learn.
We’re both ambitious and driven, before we’ve released a song we’re already hyped/working on the next one and we’re constantly bouncing ideas off each other.
I’m more of the musically creative driving force behind our productions, she’s a lot more organized which has helped with the fine detailed editing as well as bringing focus to what we’re doing.
Between us we’ve lost a lot over the past few years, but the more pressure and hardship we seem to experience the closer we grow and the more inspired we get to create music/ pursue our dreams.
Happy: How has your music evolved over time, and what do you see as the key themes and ideas that run through your work?
Caleb: The incredible thing about becoming a producer is how many creative options you have. Not every song needs to start with the same instruments or needs to be the same genre if you have access to different elements. I don’t feel the need to stay within the lines and only make one style/write the same way every time. While learning to produce it really opened up a creative vault in me.
I feel more myself now creatively than I have in years. The one thing that will always stay the same in my music is I want it to be encouraging in some way. Not to say I don’t write about hard topics, but I generally like bringing it back into an encouraging theme regardless of how hard the story is.
Happy: What role do you see music playing in shaping and reflecting the current culture, and how do you hope your music contributes to that conversation?
Caleb: We’re at a time in the world with the media where the music industry and every industry is super saturated. There are a million phenomenal singers, producers and musicians out there.
It can make it feel daunting to an independent artist as social media can feel like a popularity contest. The truth is no matter who you are there’s always someone who is going to be better than you in some elements, or maybe in all elements.
We’ve learned it’s best not to compare where we are at with others as we’re all on our own journeys. We hold on to the belief that if your song connects with one person. Or has helped someone in some way, you are a success.
Our greatest hope is that our music will help people throughout their lives, where it not only expresses and inspires our hearts but also others.
Happy: In the current music industry landscape, where streaming and social media play a huge role in how music is distributed and consumed, how do you navigate the business side of things while staying true to your artistic vision?
Caleb: We’re unsigned so we’re able to stay to our artistic vision easily enough as we currently DIY everything. The hardest thing is continually creating engaging content between releases.
Right now we’re going with the theme of letting our followers see our day-to day lives to help build up relationships, community as well as releasing our promotional ads which we make ourselves.
We have just recently launched LORD & LAND so building up our profiles organically is very important to us, and we know it is going to take some time, work, and experimenting.
Happy: Can you talk about a particularly memorable performance or moment in your music career that stands out to you?
There’s been a lot of moments for me, but definitely being flown out to L.A to work with ASG, a Music Publishing company for the film and T.V industry with ties to Universal Music.
Working with them really made me realize the different avenues musicians have and has inspired me to make some more cinematic styled songs.
It was surreal being there in a high-end studio writing and singing songs for film placements. I will never forget it and will always be appreciative of that experience.
Happy: Looking ahead, what are your plans for the future, both in terms of new music and your overall career trajectory?
Caleb: Music is our home and our journey. Our plan is to have our music provide enough of an income to be my full-time time job. I am open to the different avenues that I can be in, whether it be producing and writing for artists or performing/ producing my own music.
I honestly love music in all of its avenues. I’d love to do more work with film and television. I’d love to work with other musicians and collaborate, as well as do my own solo projects. Music will always be a part of my life in one way or another.
How it completely unfolds I’m not yet sure. But we’re open to different possibilities and always doing our best/ learning new skills in the meantime. Our other goal is to provide opportunities for other inspiring artists in some way as well.
There are a lot of gifted people out there that have songs and a passion that could use some help along the way. We’ve even been considering doing a free single production per year for different artists to help them boost their platform, as well as providing media content and marketing for that release.
The music industry can be rough and we are so thankful for the amazing opportunities that I’ve had over the years.
Neither of us comes from financial wealth, but we’ve had people lend out their hand to us before and we know what an impact that can have. I’d love to be able to continue doing that for others.
Happy: What makes you happy?
Caleb: My family, my faith, my community, making music and good food. Being content with the little things in life, and of course Disneyland.
Watch the video for Growing Pains:
Check out more Lord & Land here.
