Lara Schuler

Performance and recording artist Lara Schuler hails from New Canaan, Connecticut and Emerald Isle, North Carolina where she learned how to play guitar, clarinet and drums by age twelve. Classically trained in voice and guitar, she began writing songs while studying theatre at SUNY Purchase.

After leaving college, Schuler settled in Manhattan, started performing and eventually moved to Boston to further her voice and guitar studies. During her time in Boston, she built an audience with the bar and coffeehouse scene, performing regularly at The Kendall Cafe, The Tam O’Shanter and Passim’s.

Lara Schuler’s first recording, Amanda’s Floor (1997), co-produced with Ed Lyons and distributed through On Your Face Records, was backed by a jazz band, blending offbeat love songs and stories of city life. During a radio interview for Amanda’s Floor, a WERS disc jockey coined Schuler’s music as “progressive acoustic” – a sound encompassing the sensitivity of Suzanne Vega along with the edge of Elvis Costello.

Soon after Amanda’s Floor hit the shelves, Schuler moved to Los Angeles and co-produced Digging For Olives (with Jimmy Hunter at Cazador Studios) – a bold change from her previous recording – showcasing her ability to strip songs down to acoustic and voice and still boast an impressive ability to create edgy, purposeful music. The album conveys her angst about her new city, complicated relationships and the sudden death of her mother.

Though simultaneously exploring work in the film industry in Los Angeles, Schuler has always stolen time to write new songs. Her latest effort NUMB (2007) combines the strengths of her first two recordings: creative instrumentation sprinkled with the raw passion of solo acoustic. As NUMB unfolds, evident is the maturity and versatility of this songwriter who easily combines jazz, country and punk.

Schuler rejected the restrictions of studio time and recorded wholly at her home studio using Cubase Software on an Apple G4 laptop. Co-produced with Rebecca A. Battle, Schuler donned the hats of engineer and mixer in addition to recording all original acoustic and electric guitars, drums and vocals.

The stuff I write seems to be a little country of late – a departure from what I actually listen to on a daily basis.

Lara Schuler’s work is featured on www.myspace.com/laraschuler. She also writes a weekly blog (www.lifeinlaland.blogspot.com) to wrangle her musings on music and life.