Singer Connor McLaren is eager to share songs of ‘Innocence’

"Innocence," the debut album by Indiana singer-songwriter Connor McLaren, will arrive on April 21. (Photo provided by the Noise Company)

With an assist from established indie rock musician Ben Kweller, Indiana singer-songwriter Connor McLaren is connecting with bigger crowds as the release date for his debut album approaches.

McLaren made the album—titled “Innocence” and scheduled for release on April 21—for Kweller’s label, the Noise Company.

Last month, McLaren appeared as a supporting act for Kweller, known for 2000 hit song “Wasted & Ready,” and fellow Noise Company signee Fishbone at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

McLaren said playing his songs for an audience of 900 people made for an emotional night. “I wrote a lot of those songs in my dorm bedroom,” said McLaren, a Westfield High School graduate who studied math at Appalachian State University and Indiana University before deciding to pursue music on a full-time basis.

Although it’s nice to play to a packed house, McLaren said he hasn’t retired from busking outside other people’s shows.

That’s how he marketed himself in multiple cities last summer. McLaren said one of his favorite nights of his informal “Get Off My Lawn” tour happened after the band Guster headlined a Rock the Ruins show at Holliday Park.

“We had 30 or 40 people listening in a circle,” McLaren said. “Finally we were told, ‘All right, put the guitars away. You guys have to go home. We need to go home.’”

McLaren will promote the release of “Innocence” in more structured settings, including an April 20 show at Bloomington’s Atrium venue and an April 21 show in Cleveland where he will serve as the supporting act for Bob Schneider.

His first Indianapolis show following the album’s release is set for April 29 at Fountain Square’s Hi-Fi Annex, where McLaren will share a bill with Bloomington-based jam band Dizgo.

Attendees will hear new single “The Rose,” a stark ballad McLaren said was written in the wake of a difficult breakup.

Psychedelic folk tune “Lemonberry” was inspired by “the girl you wish you had one more date to show her what could’ve been,” McLaren said. “The girl that was so special but got away just as you were getting comfortable.”

“Cliche,” an uninhibited rock song that’s racked up more than 400,000 streams at YouTube, finds McLaren ending a relationship with the statement, “It ain’t you, it’s me.” As the song’s title indicates, it’s not a new sentiment.

Fans of “Seinfeld” will recall George Costanza’s insistence that he invented the “It’s not you, it’s me” breakup technique.

Although 21-year-old McLaren was born in 2001, a ’90s pop culture reference such as “Seinfeld” isn’t that much of a stretch.

Oasis is his favorite band, dating to a fourth-grade talent show performance of “Wonderwall.”

Kweller refers to McLaren as “the American Liam Gallagher,” and “Innocence” songs “Candy Rain,” “Just My Mind” and “Victim of Your Crime” radiate a Britpop sound associated with Oasis singer Gallagher and his songwriter brother, Noel Gallagher.

“My generation has this big admiration for the ’60s and the ’90s, because of the momentum and how alive things were,” McLaren said. “We’re definitely searching for that.”

For his part, McLaren makes sure that people at his shows know the stories behind his songs.

“Since I started taking this seriously, I’ve felt like my best chance of making it work is if I can tell stories between songs,” he said. “All of these songs have interesting backstories. To tell those stories is fun, because I kind of get to relive it again.”