All about Karen Lane
Once upon a time I was a small town girl growing up in Perth Western Australian (one of the most remote cities in the world) also one of the most beautiful, according to my Dad. Not many people make it to Perth on their Aussie tours, but it certainly is worth it, if mainly for the beaches, seafood and weather. Check out Cottesloe beach just one of W.A.’s gems.
So what am I doing in London if I am still waxing lyrical about Perth? Well it all started with two big hairbrushes and a best friend called Kylie (not that one!) and a burning ambition to be the next Agnes and Agnetha. Like most girls growing up in the 70’s I spent my Saturday afternoons belting out the best of ABBA in my parents’ living room. Once we’d plundered the ABBA collection and realised (aged 10) that squeaky clean was not so cool we moved on to KISS and Meatloaf for a bit of light relief!
Thanks to my older (and hipper) brothers and sisters my earlier musical influences did stretch to more redeeming relms including 70s legends, Suzie Quatro – OMG did I want to be her! “Sweet” – original glam rockers, Fleetwood Mac and The Bee Gees.
The youngest of four children I was desperate to play something, so I taught myself piano and by 7 years old was playing by ear. I started writing songs from about the time I was 15. During my teens my brother was a developing Indie rock star of local (and later National) acclaim with his retro grunge band The Stems. Whilst he spent hours honing his guitar skills in the basement, I spent most of my summers working on my tan on a lilo in the pool. Frustrated with my lack of musical commitment and taste he pleaded with me to stop writing smultzchy piano pop songs and “get some style” giving me a fantastic Motown Girl Group book for my birthday, which I probably only appreciated years later.
Wanting to be a singer was not the applauded ambition it is today. My parents were horrified to say the least. There were no “Pop Idols” or “Perth’s got talent” in those days so my parents told me to get a real job and a university degree to go with it. Slightly despondent, I put my singing ambitions temporarily on hold and got a degree in Speech Therapy. It was a four year slog but I learnt lots about the head and neck and all things anatomical, relating to the voice, so it helped in the long run with my teaching singing.
A few months after graduating uni and I had enough dosh to skip a seat on the Nullabor (not so) Express (3 days sitting upright across the desert on a train)
I left for Sydney to pursue my real ambitions.
Musical Beginnings – Sydney
My initial grounding and baptism of fire was as a backing singer in a 10 piece band called “The Hard Word” – a “Commitments” style soul band. Our gigs started at midnight in a venue called “Round Midnight” in seedy red light district Kings Cross. In my glam 90’s get up I usually had to stumble over a few rats, drunks and junkies to get to the gig, whilst being mistaken as a “lady of the night” – at last I had arrived.
To so to spare you the pain of so much detail, here’s a quick over view of what happened next and how I found my way as a singer.
I developed an interest in jazz and formed The Eclectics, a jazz “lounge” trio. Gigging regularly in Sydney and touring the North East coast of Australia . There’s nothing like learning on the job and touring was a fantastic opportunity to hone my skills as a jazz and soul singer and I was thrilled to be invited back home to Perth as featured vocalist at the York Jazz Festival in 1993. In 1994 I was lucky enough to support the UK jazz legend pianist composer Julian Joseph at Sydney’s premier jazz club The Basement.
There were various other bands along the way but the feminist in me got tired of being classified “Token chick singer” in those bands, so I was spurred on to take timeout to write enough material and form my own original band “Deluge”. Between 1993 and 1997 I developed as a songwriter and bandleader playing purely my own original songs in Sydney venues such as The Harbourside Brasserie and Kinselas. There was a thriving scene of acid jazz, funk and hiphop at this time in Sydney so it was great to be a part of it. I also wrote and produced music for the NIDA dance production “Appetite” featured at the 1994 Melbourne International Arts Festival. My second original jazz funk band called Substance, debuted (whilst sipping Baccardi cocktails) at the prestigious Bacardi Club during the Sydney International Arts Festival in1995 and featured at the International Women’s Day Festival in the Domain in 1998.
In 1996 fed up with the “manufactured” artists getting the industry support, I conceived the idea that became Bloomers an independent recording project for women singer songwriters. With my friend Lissa Barnum, we secured government funding, produced and recorded 17 women selected from around Australia. Some of the women had never has a chance to record before despite being great singer songwriters. It was a fantastic project that gave hope and exposure to the artists. The Bloomers compilation CD was released in August 1998 through Roadshow/Warners music . While all this was going on I recorded an independent album of original soul funk, jazz songs titled “Sheherazade 1001 nights” with producer Boris Gouonof. Visit my myspace alter ego to listen to the tracks.
In 1997, I relocated to Singapore and worked extensively singing sessions and performing in jazz clubs and hotels including the Raffles Hotel, Banyan Tree Resorts, Four Seasons and the Grand Hyatt. In 1998 I was approached by a UK management team, to produce original demos in London.
I’d always loved the music that was coming out of the London Acid Jazz scene, Brand New Heavies, Young Disciples etc so it was the perfect excuse to move to London and get on with making music in a big city. So ten years on there have been many highlights trips and gigs in exotic places I never thought I’d get to see. Berlin, Cape Town, Nice, Monte Carlo, Bucharest, Palermo, Portafino to name a few delightful places I have sung.
Since moving to London I have focused on singing Jazz and had the pleasure of playing with some of London’s finest musicians including Tom Cawley, Andy Hamill, Nic France, Robin Fincker, Julian Ferraretto, Dave Colton, Robin Aspland and more. I have recorded four albums “Once in a Lifetime” (2002), “Taste” – a bossa nova tribute (2004), “Can’t Help It” (2006) and “Beautiful Love” (2009) all of which have been really well received (see reviews). I’ve played at some great clubs Pizza Express Dean Street, Pizza on the Park, The Stables Theatre, and gigs Corsham Arts Festival, Southport International Jazz Festival and Soho Jazz Festival. Also had some great radio airplay on Michael Parkinson’s Radio 2 Sunday Supplement, BBC London and Jazz Fm. I host a jazz radio show on BBC Radio Kent (alternating with Trudy Kerr) what more could I ask for.
I continue to write songs, teach singing, lead a gospel choir and am currently studying jazz piano. Tom Cawley told me it takes about 10, 000 hours of practise to become accomplished, so if I practise 5 hours a day it will only take me 6 years!!!!
