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Greg Laswell

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Greg Laswell
Laswell in September 2008
Laswell in September 2008
Background information
Born (1974-04-26) April 26, 1974 (age 50)
Long Beach, California, U.S.
OriginSan Diego, California, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • acoustic guitar
  • piano
Years active1998–present
LabelsVanguard
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 2011; div. 2015)​
Websitewww.greglaswell.com

Greg Laswell (born April 26, 1974) is an American musician, recording engineer, and record producer from San Diego, California. He attended Valley Christian High School in Cerritos, California. He has released 7 studio albums: Good Movie in 2003, Through Toledo in 2006, Three Flights from Alto Nido in 2008, Take a Bow in 2010, Landline in 2012, I Was Going to be an Astronaut in 2014, Everyone Thinks I Dodged A Bullet in 2016, and Next Time in 2018, as well as several EPs and special singles. Many of his songs have been featured in films and television shows.

Career

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1998–2002: Shillglen

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Greg Laswell was born in Long Beach, California. He moved to San Diego in 1993 and graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University.[1] From 1998 through the early 2000s, Laswell was frontman for the San Diego-based band Shillglen. Members of the band included Chad Lansford (backing vocals and guitar), Justin Skeesuck (guitar), Michael de Neve (bass), Marcel de Neve (drums) and Matt Mintz (lead guitar).[2] The band released one album, titled Sometimes I Feel, in late 1999[3] and had some moderate success when the band was nominated for Best Alternative Album and Best Alternative Band at the San Diego Music Awards in 2000.[4] By mid-2001, Shillglen had over 400,000 downloads of their music through MP3.com. However, Shillglen quietly disbanded in October 2001 after Laswell suggested the band take a break. The band mutually agreed, but never regrouped.

2003–2006: Good Movie and Through Toledo

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Laswell released his first solo album Good Movie in 2003. It was self-funded and self-released on his own label All the Rest Records, and won the award for Best Local Recording by the San Diego Music Awards in 2004.[5] Following the album's success, Laswell signed to Vanguard Records, and then recorded and released his second studio album Through Toledo in July 2006. The album was written during Laswell's divorce from his wife; he stated: "It's basically a breakup album...but the biggest surprise has been when you resurface out of the dark little studio. On this tour, people have been coming up to me and telling me about what they've been going through. It has nothing to do with anything that I originally wrote about. So it's become a full circle, healing thing. I'm just lucky to be in the loop."[5]

2008–2009: How the Day Sounds, Three Flights from Alto Nido, and Covers

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In spring 2008, Laswell joined the European leg of the Hotel Cafe Tour, hosted by Tom McRae. He released an EP titled How the Day Sounds in March 2008, which preceded his third studio album Three Flights from Alto Nido, released in July. Several songs from the album, including "Comes and Goes (In Waves)", "How the Day Sounds" (which features Elijah Wood in the music video), "Sweet Dream", and "And Then You" have been featured in the television shows like Grey's Anatomy, True Blood, Castle, 90210, Army Wives and Dollhouse. "And Then You" was also used in the award-winning feature film Where We're Meant to Be. Laswell's single "Off I Go" was written specially for the season 5 finale of Grey's Anatomy. It was also featured on NBC's Parenthood. Laswell also contributed his cover of Cyndi Lauper's hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" to the soundtrack for both Confessions of a Shopaholic in early 2009; and to the soundtrack for My Sister's Keeper, also in 2009.

In September 2008, How the Day Sounds won the Best Music Video award at the San Diego Film Festival.[6]

In October 2009, Laswell released a new EP entitled Covers featuring five cover songs.

2010–2012: Take a Bow and Landline

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Laswell released a new full album, "Take a Bow"[7] on May 4, 2010. All 12 new tracks were recorded in a studio in a cabin outside Flagstaff, Arizona. "Perhaps the biggest difference with this album", observes Greg Laswell of his new Take A Bow, "is that I'm not miserable."[8] Laswell chimes in on the album stating, "I could not be more excited about how it turned out.[9] Greg Laswell adds that after his Solo Residency Tour wraps up, a full-band tour will commence in May, in support of this new release.[9]

He has toured with several artists over the years, including Matt Costa, Sia, Tim O'Reagan of The Jayhawks, and Amy Millan of Stars. Laswell scored several short films, including Longbranch: A Suburban Parable in 2001; Deacon's Mondays in 2006.

Laswell's fifth studio album, titled "Landline", was released on April 24, 2012.[10]

2013–2017: I Was Going to be an Astronaut and Everyone Thinks I Dodged A Bullet

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In 2014, Laswell released his sixth studio album, I was Going to be an Astronaut, which involved remakes of many of his more popular songs, as well as a cover of Sparklehorse's It's a Wonderful Life and a new song, December, which he had cut from a previous record.

In 2016, Laswell released Everyone Thinks I Dodged A Bullet, his seventh studio album. It was featured in NBC's The Blacklist during the credits of the last episode of season 3.

2018–present: Next Time and Covers II

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In February 2018, Laswell released his latest song called "What Do I Know?" on his YouTube page.[11]

In August 2018, Laswell released "Royal Empress", the second single from his new studio album. In September 2018, he released his full eighth studio album, Next Time.

In September 2019, Laswell released his second album of cover songs, Covers II. The album featured covers of obscure songs by PJ Harvey and The Psychedelic Furs, as well as "Lucky Man" by The Verve.[12]

Personal life

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In early 2010, Laswell and fellow artist Ingrid Michaelson were engaged. They were married on August 10, 2011, in Maine. On February 27, 2015, following a rough year both physically and emotionally for Michaelson, the couple announced they were mutually splitting. A joint statement released by Michaelson and Laswell reads: "After careful consideration, and with mutual respect, we have decided to separate. We ask for privacy as we navigate this time in our lives."[13]

Discography

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Greg Laswell has released 9 studio albums, 3 extended plays and 10 iTunes music singles.

Song appearances in films and television shows

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From Through Toledo
From Three Flights from Alto Nido
From Take a Bow
From Everyone Think's I Dodged a Bullet
From Covers 2
Non-album tracks

Awards and nominations

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San Diego Music Awards

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Year Nominee / work Award Result
2000 Shillglen Best Alternative Band Nominated
Sometimes I Feel Best Alternative Album Nominated
2004 Good Movie Best Local Recording Won
2006 Greg Laswell Best Alternative Artist Nominated
2007 Through Toledo Album of the Year Nominated
"Sing, Theresa Says" Song of the Year Won
2008 Greg Laswell Artist of the Year Nominated

References

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  1. ^ "Bands and Performers: Greg Laswell". San Diego Reader. Retrieved September 4, 2011.
  2. ^ "Billboard – Biography – Shillglen". Billboard. Archived from the original on January 29, 2009.
  3. ^ "Indie-Music.com – Shillglen~Sometimes I Feel".
  4. ^ "Encyclocentral.com – Greg Laswell Famous Singer Writer And Producer".
  5. ^ a b Laswell does a nice balancing act | The San Diego-Union Tribune
  6. ^ View source for List of San Diego International Film Festival award winners
  7. ^ Greg Laswell Twitter
  8. ^ Greg Laswell on Justin.tv Archived February 15, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ a b "blogs.myspace.com/greglaswell". Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
  10. ^ "Vanguard Records Blog". Retrieved June 26, 2012.
  11. ^ "What do I Know? (Official Lyric Video)". YouTube.
  12. ^ "Greg Laswell Aims for the Obscure with 'Covers II' (ALBUM REVIEW)". September 12, 2019.
  13. ^ "Ingrid Michaelson and Husband Separate". MSN. February 27, 2015. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015. Retrieved February 28, 2015.
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