L.A. Mitchell - Featured Artist - Sept 2007

Jazz/Soul
www.myspace.com/laurenmitchellandthenativaband
www.laurenmitchell.co.nz
Contact: Daimon Schwalger (Manager)

Hot on the heels of Hollie Smith comes Christchurch's own soul diva, L.A. Mitchell. Fresh from her ChCh Arts Festival showcase we feature her recent album release - Debut.

In a time when New Zealand is abundant with great female vocalists, a new name is set to emerge that will make you sit up, take notice and give thanks to whatever it is that blesses Aotearoa with creative talent. That name belongs to Lauren Anne Mitchell and 2007 sees the release of her first album Debut, a beautiful showcase of her undeniable talents in producing a distinctly New Zealand flavour of soul.

With Debut, Mitchell has uncorked a sparkling collection of seductive soul and jazz that reveals her undeniable talent as both a singer-songwriter and musician. Her songs come from a place of honesty, laced with emotion as they narrate her progression as a woman and a musician.!!!

"Nothing is impossible if you take time to work things out for yourself. The idea that there's only one way to achieve things is appalling to me," says Lauren Mitchell, capturing her life-long desire to march to the beat of her own drum, matched by a sense of sparkling self-belief. "Even at eight years old I simply couldn't be told what to do in piano lessons," says Mitchell.

"My music teacher would give me songs to learn at home but I just couldn't connect with them so I'd take what she had given me to practice and re-write them into my own original songs. Before long I had ditched the piano lessons. "Rather than being the end, it was actually the beginning of my passion for music. I would sit there playing for hours coming up with my own original songs. Purely playing, no lyrics. But as soon as I played a tune it was gone for good, as I couldn't remember it to play it again. I didn't know how to 'write' music so my mum tried all these different ways of notating it, which was good for me because I learnt that I could create music and do things for myself in my own way."!!!

Based in Christchurch, Mitchell was born in the fertile wine region of Marlborough ! has firmly established herself in the Garden City's entertainment scene, working with local talent including Flip Grater, Trillion, Matt Barus, Solaa, Harry Harrison and The Dukes, playing support for INXS, Gomez and the MTV 'Kick Start' New Zealand Finals. She co-wrote and performed on New Zealand's Rare Shot Blues Debut album, and three of her tracks were playlisted on Kiwi FM. An earlier song 'Better Than It Seems' was voted into the Top 50 Suggested Artist list for the VH1 International Song of the Year competition in 2006. Two local music compilations now include Mitchell's music; one a New Zealand Music Month release in collaboration with the Christchurch Press and CPIT Jazz School and the other the Reason for Being album through Underground Coffee.

Mitchell counts influences as diverse as Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, Jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald and indie princess Bjork: "Her voice!" says Mitchell. "Totally free, uninhibited and passionate. It blew away all sense of the impossible and gave me a sense of what was possible with the human voice."

Mitchell studied contemporary music in 2000 before attending Christchurch Polytechnic's School of Jazz from 2002 to 2004, releasing an EP in her
final year. Recently, she has begun collaborating with jazz / funk guitar virtuoso Oakley Grenell and slected tracks are being remixed by internationally renowned producers Hamish Clark (Breaks Co-Op) and The Nomad.

Signs of her emerging talent came with the pseudo-release of an EP in 2004, which had industry notables knocking on her door for more. Radio New Zealand's Liz Barry said: "Lauren is a fantastic vocalist, very impressive. Style, panache and attitude". Marbeck's offered to distribute the EP nationally. "I declined the offer because I didn't think the production was good enough," recalls Mitchell. "It was part of my course requirements at Jazz School so I only had four hours in the studio to produce it, so it was never released, although my mum managed to sell 150 copies to friends, family and random people.

"What I came to realise was that I didn't write songs to be commercially viable for the EP; it was me singing about what I had to say and really opening up to myself. I realised that I had to write songs truthfully. It was helpful to know that the music industry liked what I had to say."!!!

That moment revealed to Mitchell the strength of her inner voice, her own truth and sense of honesty. She had been writing music from childhood and lyrics
from her mid-teens, yet at Jazz School, perhaps a time when she would've been most galvanised to explore her creativity, she stopped writing.

"I was so busy learning how to be a musician that I simply forgot to just be one," she says. "My judgements became my own worst enemy and I questioned my artistic integrity. What I have realised was that by not writing, I had cut off my best tool to cope with my struggles as both a person and an artist. I love the idea of surrendering my thoughts and emotions to a song to find
clarity, and I have found that by writing all the time I can alleviate my creative doubt and keep a positive focus."

And so now the time has come for Lauren Mitchell to release her first album, Debut. Debut is an album of empowering and uplifting soul, resplendent with honesty and justice. Gentle melodies carry a sense of earnest honesty, forthright attitude and dreamy sensibilities, spearheaded by Mitchell's entreat to find ourselves within "sweet, sweet music". Mitchell has self-produced Debut and it was mixed by Fresh Audio's Daimon Schwalger (The Nomad).

Debut will be released by Honesty Box Records on August 13, 2007 and distributed by Rhythmethod. The first single, Just a Girl From a Small Town, is released on July 16, 2007

Track Listing
It's music to
Blessed be
Be free
Indifferent
Never wear white if you're a dirty person
Just a girl from a small town
Circles
Maybe tomorrow we'll play
It's the same
You're on your own now

Management Contact: Daimon Schwalger, Fresh Audio 021 776 382 / fresh_audio@xtra.co.nz / www.freshaudio.co.nz
Publicist contact: Phil Reed, Message Traders Publicity 04 385 3111 / 021 433 432 / phil@messagetraders.co.nz

www.laurenmitchell.co.nz