I grew up in Plainview, Long Island, New York, and started playing piano at the age of 4 yrs old. I immediately had a love for music, and was star struck by Julie Andrews when I saw her in Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music. Maria – a Rebel nun, but a lover of all things Divine. She had a child-like spirit, always had a song in her heart and wanted to sing, play her guitar and be out in the sunshine enjoying the mountains, the trees and all of nature’s beauty! A teacher of music- patient with children! She was endlessly creative, thrifty and could sew entire wardrobes out of any material that was just hangin’ around. I wanted to be all that! Today, I find that I’ve reached my success, because I have attained those very things! (minus the sister-hood). By the world’s standards this may not seem successful, but to me the joy and sense of fulfillment I have experienced with my music, my recordings, my piano students, and my love for God, life and nature is beyond measure! I’ve been asked for years to share my songs with others. Now it’s time to do just that. I feel that it will be one of the missions accomplished in my life, once my musical works are finally published and available for all to hear.
Being a piano player, singer and lover of classical music, I couldn't help but fall in love with some of the English Progressive bands when they were at their peaks during my high school years. My early musical influences were bands such as ELP, YES, Kansas, The Dixie Dregs, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd. Elton John amazed me with his piano skills, as well as did Billy Joel’s, along with his amazing storytelling lyrics. In the 80’s, Bruce Hornsby became one of my very favorite piano players, and Enya swept me away with her ambient voice and instrumentation. In the 90’s bands like Dave Matthews Band, Tool, Radiohead, No doubt, and progressive bands like Spocks Beard and Transatlantic rocked my world. The female artists of the 90’s came to the forefront and I started covering artists like Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin and Sarah Machlachlan, in my gigs. All through these eras of music, one thing remained – my love for Movie Soundtracks. I love music that paints pictures and creates atmosphere. Soundtrack composers such as John Williams, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and John Barry, have my greatest admiration as some of the finest composers in our modern day and age!
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Laura Casale / Blog
MUSIC IS DONE!
The album is done and awaiting artwork! I've been working on this album project since 2003 here in my own home studio, in my free time, while still trying to maintain my piano teaching business. I have worked with some of the finest musicians who have added their tracks, as we have worked across the internet together, through file swapping. OH, what an age we live in! I've learned many things about the recording process over the past 10 years. Sometimes this was very hard and at times VERY exciting, as I learned how to meld tracks and orchestrate sounds to paint soundscapes I heard in my head. I've been able to climb some pretty high mountains of new technology, as it's been thrown in my path, with no other choice, but to go for it. When equipment failed, software failed....computer crashes, etc..it had left me with no choice but to take on the new challenge, a new learning curve, but I never gave up! I have learned patience and persistence among many other things. Just finding the right guitar player was one of the hugest challenges throughout the years. I think I auditioned about 8 to 10 of them. Finally, I was introduced to one of the finest guitar players in Nashville, by a life long friend of mine. Paul Brannon plays all electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin and some bass tracks on my album. He was an absolute pleasure to work with. I have 2 different drummers playing on this album, Van Hunsberger and Frank Basile. My son, Daniel also plays bass on some tracks. Life took me on different journeys throughout this time that I was working on all this, and I had some much needed breaks, however I always returned to my first love of music. I thought for many years, if I could just get this done and then have a professional mixing engineer mix it. Well, I was wrong, and even tried at one point to take my songs to an establised studio. I was not happy with the results, after spending too much money by the hour. I then realized that I was the one who was going to have to mix these songs for the final production. I will be offering this album for digital download only, until such time I have the finances to produce hard copy CD's. I'm excited to work with Ed Unitsky who will be doing the artwork! I'm thankful to God for giving me this gift, and looking forward to seeing it to its final fruition. I hope it will be a blessing to the listeners. Thanks to one and all for your encouragement and support.
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Influences
Being a piano player, singer and lover of classical music, I couldn't help but fall in love with some of the English Progressive bands when they were at their peaks during my high school years. My early musical influences were bands such as ELP, YES, Kansas, The Dixie Dregs, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd. Elton John amazed me with his piano skills, as well as did Billy Joel’s, along with his amazing storytelling lyrics. In the 80’s, Bruce Hornsby became one of my very favorite piano players, and Enya swept me away with her ambient voice and instrumentation. In the 90’s bands like Dave Matthews Band, Tool, Radiohead,Jeremy Enigk of Sunny Day Real Estate,No doubt, and progressive bands like Spocks Beard and Transatlantic rocked my world. The female artists of the 90’s came to the forefront and I started covering artists like Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin and Sarah Machlachlan, in my gigs. All through these eras of music, one thing remained – my love for Movie Soundtracks. I love music that paints pictures and creates atmosphere. Soundtrack composers such as John Williams, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and John Barry, have my greatest admiration as some of the finest composers in our modern day and age!
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My background
I grew up in Plainview, Long Island, New York, and started playing piano at the age of 4 yrs old. I immediately had a love for music, and was star struck by Julie Andrews when I saw her in Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music. Maria – a Rebel nun, but a lover of all things Divine. She had a child-like spirit, always had a song in her heart and wanted to sing, play her guitar and be out in the sunshine enjoying the mountains, the trees and all of nature’s beauty! A teacher of music- patient with children! She was endlessly creative, thrifty and could sew entire wardrobes out of any material that was just hangin’ around. I wanted to be all that! Today, I find that I’ve reached my success, because I have attained those very things! (minus the sister-hood). By the world’s standards this may not seem successful, but to me the joy and sense of fulfillment I have experienced with my music, my recordings, my piano students, and my love for God, life and nature is beyond measure! I’ve been asked for years to share my songs with others. Now it’s time to do just that. I feel that it will be one of the missions accomplished in my life, once my musical works are finally published and available for all to hear.
Being a piano player, singer and lover of classical music, I couldn't help but fall in love with some of the English Progressive bands when they were at their peaks during my high school years. My early musical influences were bands such as ELP, YES, Kansas, The Dixie Dregs, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd. Elton John amazed me with his piano skills, as well as did Billy Joel’s, along with his amazing storytelling lyrics. In the 80’s, Bruce Hornsby became one of my very favorite piano players, and Enya swept me away with her ambient voice and instrumentation. In the 90’s bands like Dave Matthews Band, Tool, Radiohead, No doubt, and progressive bands like Spocks Beard and Transatlantic rocked my world. The female artists of the 90’s came to the forefront and I started covering artists like Tori Amos, Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin and Sarah Machlachlan, in my gigs. All through these eras of music, one thing remained – my love for Movie Soundtracks. I love music that paints pictures and creates atmosphere. Soundtrack composers such as John Williams, James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and John Barry, have my greatest admiration as some of the finest composers in our modern day and age!
Reply