Laura Harley

Another new calendar year is upon us and I want to wish each of you a year filled with joy and growth and love! Thank you for all your support of me and my music this past year. And thank you for spending time with me here on my blog.

This year I plan to release another album, play lots of shows, and reach a lot of new people with my music. I’m really excited about what’s to come. It will take a lot of hard work, dedication, and courage, but I think that most things that are meaningful and worthwhile in our lives do.

So, I wish you all the best with what you decide to pursue this year! And here are a few photos documenting my excitement about eating a donut. You may be asking yourself, “what in the world does that have to do with anything?” Good question. Well, when someone recently sent me these photos, I thought that the new year is a little bit like getting your favorite treat or an anticipated gift. We can choose how to approach it. We can choose to approach the year as a gift, as another chance to grow and enjoy life, as something we will seize and savor. So, I hope you approach your new year with excitement and hope and joy! Here are some silly photos to spur you on in that direction:

In my next post, I’ll be sharing a new video in which I take you on a tour of my home studio and give you a little sneak peek of one of the new songs for the next album.

Happy New Year! Go on and seize that year like it’s an old-fashioned, maple glazed donut!

So, the other day a friend of mine from MySpace and very lovely person, Justin, sent me an email on MySpace. He said he had a gift for me. So, I gave him my email address, and guess what arrived in my inbox? A beautiful instrumental version of my acoustic song “A Love So Deep” done with classical guitar! Isn’t that so cool? Here is the original song:

And here is Justin’s version:

I love it! It has such a sweetness and lightness to it, don’t you think? I just had to share it here. Thanks so much, Justin!

I mentioned last week that I’m taking voice lessons from my friend, Kerri. I’ve been practicing the exercises and applying the concepts to singing my songs, and I can tell such a difference! I just FEEL very different when I sing. Before, when I sang certain notes, I’d sometimes feel like I was running out of power or air to really hit a note with all the feeling and nuance that I want. But I’m finding now that I can regulate my air intake and use my muscles in different ways to do new things! This may not sound that interesting to you, but it is a BIG deal for me. It’s kind of like…..doing your job one way, and it’s fine and you are effective and even have success, but then one day a fairy princess comes along and is like, “Hey, why don’t you try changing these 2 little things?”, and then you change those 2 little things and find that they make you twice as effective and bring you excitement and hope about your job that you didn’t know was possible. Cool, huh?

But it’s really only as effective as I allow it to be by practicing and applying myself. It really is a lot like working out. My husband is training to be a UFC fighter (I’m serious), and I’ve been helping him with his workouts. He has been inspiring me because he pushes so hard and is so dedicated! He’s like, “Pain? Bah! Pain is just weakness leaving the body.” He’ll be doing these crazy weight lifting exercises and he’s exhausted and his muscles are just shaking from fatigue, but he’ll STILL keep going! It makes me wonder what’s possible with my voice if I apply that same dedication. So, I am feeling excited about exploring the possibilities! You’ll have to come to a show soon to see if you can hear the difference :).

I hope you are all having a nice holiday season! I’ve been in Minneapolis for the past couple of weeks and it has been a very snowy December. The snow makes for lots of shoveling and some dangerous driving conditions, but when you are inside where it is warm and safe, looking out at the snow falling, it is absolutely gorgeous! It is mesmerizing. I like the winter time because it seems to help us turn inward—we tend to stay home more and I think that leads to more reflection on our lives.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this last year and what I’ve learned. There have been a lot of challenges, but I am thankful because it has led to growth and learning. I’ve also been organizing like crazy. If you read this blog regularly, you know I’m kind of an organizing fanatic. The reason I like it is that it helps me feel like I am simplifying my life and cleaning out the clutter—both clutter in my physical space and clutter in my mental space. Giving things away and throwing things out feels very healthy in that way. And this time of year feels like the appropriate time to review, get clear on what I want more of, what I want less of, and what is most important.

So, in between writing songs and getting them ready for recording, I’ve been organizing and getting to projects around the house that I’ve been too busy all year to even think about. And as the snow piles up outside, my bags of trash and stuff to give away are piling up inside! And soon they will be out of here and I will be feeling lighter. Already feeling more clear!

I know many of us are celebrating Christmas this week, and so I want to wish you a wonderful holiday!

One of my fave Christmas traditions is to watch the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” with the incomparable Jimmy Stewart and the truly beautiful Donna Reed (she reminds me of my mom!). I L-O-V-E that movie!! Every year it totally gets me. This year I was home the evening it was played on network TV. I was busy paying bills and doing other work, but was determined to keep it on and at least see part of it. By the end, I had put down my laptop, moved physically closer to the TV (like 2 feet away), and was gazing lovingly into the TV with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes. It just totally draws you in!!! Just TRY to resist it! It is just so well done—the acting is superb, the script is lovely, and the message about appreciating life, love, and the difference we can each make is powerful. It is a great example of what this time of year can do—help us reflect, grow spiritually, and develop a mind set of being of service to others all year round.

Merry and meaningful Christmas to you!

When I write songs, I tend to just write the best song I can with no regard to whether or not the parts I’m writing are within my vocal range. So, as I’ve mentioned before, I often have to work out my voice and expand my range in order to be able to perform my own songs. Luckily for me, I have a dear friend who also happens to be a voice teacher and classically trained opera singer. Yep, that’s right. How cool is that? Her name is Kerri and when I told her how lots of my new songs have me singing all over the scale and how I can hit the notes but want to have even more power behind them, she was like “I can totally help you with that.” And I was like, “Really? Cuz that would make my life infinitely better.” And she was all, “Come over.”

Kerri is such a great teacher! I’ve already noticed a difference in my vocal abilities. Plus, her voice is so beautiful! She doesn’t perform a whole lot right now, so I haven’t been able to have the pleasure of hearing her very much. But, when she does a scale or a new exercise for me and then says, “OK, now it’s your turn”, I often have to take a moment to freak out about how beautiful her voice is. Then she’ll be like, “Thanks, dude, but that was just a scale” and I’m all “Yeah, but it was awesome!” Gosh, when I see her perform for real for the first time, I’ll probably faint or croak or something out of appreciation and pride for her.

Kerri is super much fun to hang out with anyway, but when we talk about vocal stuff, it is really extra special to me. We talk about being a vocalist—-how the voice is a delicate and mysterious instrument, how one often uses intangible visual images and sensations in one’s mind and body to get the right sound out there, and how being a singer is truly like being an athlete. I am going to a lesson with her right now and I am so psyched to keep learning!

Here is a video documenting my day off in Santa Monica recently. It was windy that day, so the sound quality at the beginning is kind of rough (sorry). But, Teddy asked me such funny questions about sharks and such, that we decided to keep it all in. Hope you enjoy!

I’ve been working on writing guitar and bass parts for my new piano-based songs and I am having the BEST time with it! I’ll be in my studio working for HOURS and will have no idea how much time has passed. I pretty much always enjoy writing, but something is different this time. I feel like all my years of songwriting, working with music software, playing guitar and bass, and working solo and with bands are all coming together. I am really excited about the way the songs are coming alive and it feels like I am in a flow. It doesn’t feel effortless exactly, because I am really working on it, but there is an ease and an enjoyment to it. I absolutely can’t wait until these songs are ready to share with you!!

And the writing is at this point where the songs are taking on their own life—sometimes they even surprise me, and the direction I thought one was going in actually changes. Like I just wrote this anthemic sort of ballad which I thought would have sort of a soft feeling, but then I found myself grabbing my electric guitar and turning up the distortion, and now the song is becoming SO full of energy and edge! It gives me such joy!

In fact, it even makes me happier than eating this chocolate-dipped madeleine cake (pictured below).

And if you know me and how very much I enjoy chocolate-y treats, you know that that is VERY happy indeed.