Personal History:
Laura Marie was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She started writing poetry in grade school and grew up listening to the Police, the Pretenders, Fleetwood Mack, her sister's Rush and Ramone's albums and her aunt's collection of Beatles and Elton John records. She hated the stage from an early age, refusing to perform in her angel costume at her pre-school Christmas play (an incident her family never lets her forget) but, loved to sing and write poetry. For many years she would only be seen by her immediate family in exclusive kitchen concerts and back yard productions with her sisters complete with blankets on the clothesline for staging. She eventually graduated to lip-synching songs in the back of her family's station wagon for a limited number of drive by performances. But, it wasn't until the 7th grade that she insisted on voice lessons with a wonderful man who raised prize winning hairless cats and was once on the David Letterman show for having the worlds ugliest dog. She was asked to join a band but no one had the proper equipment and no one could agree what type of music they should perform. Since she didn't want to sing Menudo covers, she decided to join the church choir and that is how she expressed herself musically until graduating high school.
After high school, Laura Marie attended the University of Texas at Austin with the hopes of becoming a marine biologist. She proceeded to have a nervous breakdown (for various personal reasons) and, to cope, rode the bus and wrote lyrics instead of attending class. She eventually dropped out but started a number of musical projects with friends in both San Antonio and Austin. The first notable group was called Island of Lost Toys (or some such nonsense) consisting mainly of her and friends Ricardo and Rick. Yes, Rick and Ricardo. Yes, I love Lucy, hahaha, whatever. Anyway, Laura still hated the stage but she grew her hair long enough to hide her face so, she got along and they played regularly at San Antonio's most beloved historic venue, Taco Land, and received rave reviews.
It was during this time that Laura married her boyfriend, Pete, and Ricardo, the glue that held the Toys together, moved away. (Don't read anything into that. He left for reasons that had nothing to do with me getting married.) Laura then decided to return to school full time to study music and enrolled at San Antonio College where she met composer Alice Gomez. Alice was composer in residence of the San Antonio Symphony and a fantastic mentor who encouraged Laura to continue on to the nearest university and finish her degree. Laura then applied for and received a scholarship to St. Mary's University (her husband's alma mater) where she earned a bachelor's degree in music education concentrating in composition under the direction of her beloved professors Dr. Bro. Michael Sullivan and Dr. Douglas Boyer. She also began working with an engineer at Emerald Studios for an in studio project that never got off the ground (sigh). When that ended (badly), she put together a group of musicians to form the band Sofa Kingdom (JP Leal, Jason Barbosa and Reza Kaleel). They recorded their only album at Rhapsody Street Studios in 1999 with the producer now known as Mack Damon. It freakin' rocked. Shorty after, however, Barbosa left the band and was replaced by Rudy Diaz. The band then continued under the name Things Between (mostly because Sofa Kingdom said quickly and with "I am" or "You are" in front of it was rather vulgar). Band members, for the most part, got along well but, you know, eventually got on each others nerves and the band split while recording the CD that would eventually be called "Undone". Get it? It works on a couple of levels.
At this time, Laura Marie, now a mom, swore off of being in a band for-EVAH! "No more drama!", she said. But, returned to the studio to record some songs with Mack Damon that they were hoping to pitch to other artists. And, as happens, once you swear off drama it decides you are it's long lost love and follows you around like a puppy. So, Laura, in and out of depression and confusion, threw herself entirely into her new solo project, and produced the docu-drama that is the CD "Drawn". She was proud of her work but her life was a mess. Suffering from depression, post-partum and other forms, she struggled as a solo artist trying to find her voice, her place and her sanity. Her family and friends saw her through and inspired the music in her latest CD "Last of the Ones". She loves this CD and she is very grateful for the people who inspired it.
Laura Marie currently lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, kids and labrador retriever but plays around Texas and is planning to tour various parts of the US and abroad. She runs, writes, sings and loves and is currently working on projects with a number of artists. She is also pretty much gluten free. And, that pretty much sums it up for now.
