Laura Harley

Yesterday my friend Kirsten and I had our girls’ group, which uses Baha’i-inspired character development curriculum to help young people ages 11-14 to learn to be of service to the world, articulate their thoughts and feelings, and make choices based on moral reasoning. Yesterday we talked about the idea of trust—trust in others, trust in God, trust in one’s self. Our activity for the day was baking cookies to give away to friends and neighbors. In the process we had to work together and “trust” that the cookies would turn out well based on our hard work and team spirit. And, boy, did they ever turn out—-yummm! I took a couple photos and they were so cute, I had to share them here.

Here are the girls looking all excited and mischievous and ready to dig into the cookie dough:

While we were waiting for our cookies to bake, our mixing and cleaning gradually turned into a spontaneous little dance party. We danced to Madonna, Rick Astley, and several other songs. And here are the girls dancing to the dance remix of my song, “To The Sea” (to listen to the song and have your own dance party, go to my MySpace page and click on the remix in the player):

I’ve also been having lots of solo dance parties lately. You know, when you come home and no one else is home and you just need to “dance it out”—maybe you are frustrated about something, or excited, or just feel sassy. A couple of my faves to dance to lately are Roisin Murphy’s “Let Me Know” and VHS or Beta’s “Burn It All Down”. Thanks to Ali for introducing me to those songs :).

Here is a little video in which I talk about what it takes to work as an independent artist. I also take you with me around L.A. as I do some promo work…

I’m back in Minneapolis now and am feeling…tiny. You know how when you stand in front of the ocean you feel small and insignificant?

I feel like that lately. I think it is because there have been several challenges in life in the past month that I feel either helpless to change or like it is almost too big of a struggle to change. When things like that happen, it reminds me just how dependent I am on the love and bounties of God. I think it is healthy and important to keep this in mind, not just at difficult times, but all the time, with every breath. When things are going ok in life, it is easy to forget how connected we are to our Creator and what are purpose in life is. But challenges bring all of this to the forefront of our minds.

And as I write this, I feel grateful for those challenges, because they remind me of this. The plane ride from L.A. to Minneapolis is filled with dramatic views out the window. First you fly over the ocean for a few moments before heading back to land and across the country, then you fly over huge and imposing mountain ranges, and then over huge expanses of snowy fields. It made me think a lot about how big this world is and how awesome it is that we have a Creator who constantly loves us, protects us, and gives us challenges that make us grow closer to Him.

I’ve been writing a whole lot lately. Not every song I write makes the “cut”, but I have about ten songs now that I feel are really strong and worthy of recording. The writing process is one whole process, and then getting the songs ready for recording and production is another process. What usually happens is, I write the basic songs using piano and my voice (or else guitar and my voice). Then, once I have a basic song structure I am happy with, I start writing other parts for the songs, such as bass lines and lead guitar parts. When I was in a band, I split these duties with the other dudes in the band—each person would usually write their own part. But being a solo artist means there’s that much more to do! But it is actually really fun. Speaking of being in a band, here is a little photo of my old band, Sliver. It is blurry, because it’s not a good version of it, but it’s all I have right now (photo by Daniel Corrigan):

I just took an evening walk, and when I saw Christmas trees in people’s windows, I thought about how the process of adding parts to my songs is a lot like decorating a Christmas tree.

Finding the lights and ornaments is a lot like choosing the sounds and notes that will complement each other the most to make a beautiful song. And you know how sometimes you decorate one part of the tree and think it looks perfect, but then when you stand back and take in the whole tree view, you realize it is unbalanced and you need to change it? It’s very similar to writing parts for a song: beauty is really only significant in the context of the whole song. The parts need to fit together and tell a story, and they need to lead into each other in ways that will capture the listener. So, there is a lot of writing, sitting back and listening, writing some more, taking a break, and coming back to it.

I am super excited to get to the point where I can share these songs with you all! There’s still a significant amount of work to be done, but it is thrilling to have them taking shape. I feel like a new and unique sound is forming with these songs….

It is video time again! Here is a little clip that gives you a glimpse inside my life. It’s me arriving here in Cali for the beginning of an acoustic tour.

One of the things I struggle with as an independent artist is having to do my own promotion of my music. I don’t mind the work or the time it takes to do it, but I am bothered by having to talk about myself and post reviews and such. You wouldn’t know it from this blog, but I am totally not one to talk about myself much. In fact, if you meet me, you’ll find that I’ll be asking YOU lots of questions and trying to say as little as possible about me. And my role models are people who are humble and self-effacing in a lot of ways. So, basically it is outside of my comfort zone to do self-promotion, or even to write on this blog.

But, the fact is that I need to do some of this in order to get my music out there, and so I take the good with the bad and just do it. And I always try to do it in a way that is tasteful and feels in line with my values. So, it is with mixed feelings that I share this lovely passage written by Patrick Grace, director of Elk River Arts Alliance, on his blog:

“These days there are plenty of bad role models for young women to emulate. Laura Harley is the opposite of that. She is a trained life coach, works with young people on a daily basis helping them find a path through what can be a quagmire of mixed messages from the media and their peers. Her songs reflect her own search for meaning and a path in life…”

I’m not trying to “toot my own horn” as they say, but this really touched my heart and I felt moved to share it. On this blog I’m striving to share more about who I am as an artist and why I do what I do. And so this passage feels appropriate to share because it talks about several things that are important to me in my work (both professional work and volunteer work): helping people search for meaning, helping people overcome negativity and fears, and striving to practice in my own life what I talk about in my music, coaching work, and volunteer work. So, thanks so much, Patrick!

I’ve been working on a song for the past few says that just keeps eluding my grasp. I’ve actually done a few drafts of it—-I’ve now changed the vocal melodies and the lyrics 2 times. I was feeling totally stuck for a while today and suddenly found my inner dialogue careening down from “this is a tough song” to “i am an awful songwriter and i may as well just give up”. Ah, such a lovely inner dialogue. So I was feeling low and I’ve learned over the years that when I feel that way, I need to just take a break and let things percolate for a while. Then when I come back to the song, there is more there to explore again. After a few hours I worked on it again and then I had the beginnings of a breakthrough! I think it is finally starting to come together. It still needs work, but it is on it’s way. And then, wouldn’t you know, I felt unbelievably happy and like all was right with the world.

I think many artists feel this way and ride this emotional roller coaster of creativity. It is funny how much my emotions hinge on my creative experience. At least I’m always learning more about the creative process, so that when I am feeling down I can remind myself that the world isn’t falling apart, I just need to take a break. Maybe that’s the danger of getting lost inside your work—-you can inhabit a song so fully that it becomes your world. Perspective is definitely important.

Speaking of perspective, yesterday I went on a little outing. I needed to get away from my apartment, so I took a little day trip to Long Beach. I worked in a coffee shop for a while (where I had tea and an almond croissant) and then walked around the city and the waterfront a bit. Here are a couple photos.

I’m about to go on another trip, too, but I won’t tell you where just yet. You’ll have to come back to see the photos. I’m pretty excited, it’s somewhere I’ve never been before but have always wanted to go, and as long as I am out here, I figure I should take advantage of it and mix work with some exploring. It is actually very helpful for my songwriting.

I’ve been exploring the neighborhood where I live when I’m here in L.A. Yesterday I worked on music in the apartment all day and did some other work, too. It was one of those days where you don’t know where all the hours went and all of a sudden you realize it’s night and you’ve been working for hours and hours! I reworked a new song, practiced piano, made lots of calls, sent lots of emails, and some other things, too.

By the end of the day, I just had to get out of the apartment, so I took a walk around the neighborhood and brought my camera with me so I could take you with me!

Here is me being all excited to be in a warm climate (my other home is snowy Minneapolis) and standing under a palm tree:

Here is a photo of one of the guitar shops at which I enjoy window shopping (I’m not sure what’s up with the strange mannequin):

And here is a lovely little flower shop that I find very charming because of its 1950s style sign. I love this font and it fills me with images of Doris Day. When I was a little girl, my sister and I were VERY into Doris Day movies and I’ve always been enchanted with the style of that decade.

And finally, here is a shop that I had to show you. It is a baby clothing store for “Rocker moms, not soccer moms”.

This neighborhood is home to a lot of rockers and when you go to the coffee shop, it feels like you are at an indie rock concert. I am amused by this shop but also a little disturbed by it. This photo didn’t turn out that well, but check out the fashions for toddlers (they are basically teeny replicas of the latest layered indie rock looks):

Now, I do find it very cute and heartwarming when parents buy kids clothes that are a little bit fashionable—its kind of like they are buying their kids clothes that they themselves would feel comfortable wearing. But isn’t this taking it a little far? How should I feel when little kids trump me in the fashion department? More importantly, shouldn’t little kids get to wear comfy, fuzzy outfits, and not get sucked into the whole fashion victim thing too early in life? As you can see, this shop created quite a little thought storm in my mind. You be the judge.