(Album cover property of Matt Beard Photography & courtesy of Venone PR)
By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com
It is a pleasure to welcome Laura Michelle to Jake’s Take!
A few weeks ago, the Los Angeles singer-songwriter released her debut studio album: Novel With No End. The music video for her lead single off the album, “Chuck Norris,” features the iconic actor and the Kung-Fu martial artist has gained over 11 million views on YouTube. Also, Ms. Michelle has grown an enormous social media following that includes over 168,350 Facebook fans, 125,425 Twitter followers, 33,400 Instagram followers and over 20,900 YouTube subscribers.
On September 1, Ms. Michelle will perform a full-length concert at LA’s El Rey Theatre with special guests Drake Bell and Peter & The Lion.
Before she took the El Rey Theatre stage, Laura stopped by the blog for A Conversation. In this edition, Laura opened up about the Novel With No End’s recording process, revealed which music megastar inspired her to enter the music industry, and which artists and producers she wants to collaborate with in the future.
Jacob Elyachar: When did you get interested in music? How did that passion evolve into the desire to have a career in music?
Laura Michelle: I discovered my passion for music when I was young. My brother is six years older than me, and my dad was always away traveling. My mom made sure that we remained active. We had all of these after school activities, and when I was a baby, my mom would always turn on music, and we would always be listening to her music. By 18 months, I would be pointing at which tape that I wanted to hear. I wanted to make music my career when I was in eighth grade. Britney Spears made her debut, and she was so young that I thought, “Wow! You can do this (music) as a career?” It had not dawned on me until I heard “…Baby One More Time.”
JE: Recently, you released your debut album: “Novel with No End.” Could you please describe the songwriting process you used to create this album?
LM: Every song is always different. For instance, my co-writer, Jim McGorman, first wrote the hook without any lyrics and then, we would start the writing process from there. Other times, we have begun with a topic, and then we would write the melody. We used those two methods when it came to recording the album. I also found songwriting inspiration through stuff that ticked me off or if someone did not treat me well.
JE: What are some of the challenges that you faced recording the album? How did you overcome them?
LM: Jim and I recorded the album in a short amount of time. We recorded 18 songs in 13 days! While it was challenging, we did a lot of pre-production, and we went into the studio ahead of time to work on the song arrangements. The pre-production process helped us out tremendously because we were able to breeze through the tracking of the instrumentation. The song, “Novel with No End,” is about losing my dad and the feelings that I never actually expressed. I was genuinely worried about recording that song because I had these expectations and I did not want to let myself down. When we were getting ready to record the song, I had to get upset, and I started crying. I am not a big crier, and I did not want to cry in front of people, so we had a closed session that day and it was just the people who had to be there. There were always little challenges, but we persevered and made a record that I am very proud of.
JE: Let’s talk about your upcoming September 1st concert at the El Rey Theatre. What can your fans expect from the show?
LM: My fans can expect a fun night. Both Drake Bell and Peter & The Lion will be performing as well as opening acts. I am going to have a string ensemble join me on stage, plus we will have a grand piano on the stage. It is going to be a fun show because it is not just a concert, it is also my album release party! I will be doing a meet and greet, and I hope to meet every single one of my fans. It is going to be a very high-energy show, and I hope that they walk away from the show thinking: “Wow! I had a great time tonight.”
JE: Who are your dream collaborators (singers, songwriters, and producers)?
LM: I would love to work with Max Martin. While he has done fantastic work recently, I grew up listening to *NSYNC and Britney Spears and Max Martin wrote a bulk of their early hits and I always dreamed of working with him. Plus, I would love for *NSYNC to get back together and do a song with them. I would also like to collaborate with Donny Osmond! When I was a kid, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat was my all-time favorite musical, and it was the very first DVD that my mom bought me. It would be a dream come true to perform the song, “Close Every Door,” with him.
JE: If you had the chance to meet with aspiring singer-songwriters who want to pursue a career in the recording industry, what advice would you share with them?
LM: I would have to tell them that you have to have an absolute love of music to pursue this career. You also have to have perseverance if you want to be in the music industry. Often I hear, “So and so are an overnight success,” but I counter that “yes, they are an overnight success, but they have been working the past ten years on breaking out.” There are going to be times where you want to give up, but keep going! Something is bound to happen if you persevere.
For more information about Laura’s music, visit her website!
You can also interact with Laura on her social media channels. Make sure you follow her on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, & YouTube channels.
