Contact Email: [email protected]
The Latter is an acoustic duo attempting to carve a place for itself in the Phoenix music scene- one fan at a time. Their sound is an amalgamation of two very distinct songwriting voices finding a harmony with one another. Their collaboration is evolving on a day-to-day basis, as they refine their talents as singular songwriters and learn to accent one another's strengths as a twosome. The cornerstone of their appeal is their intimacy with their audience and with one another, displaying a willingness to surrender a portion of themselves with every song they perform. There are no boundaries established between the two and their fans, striving to pen guileless material devoid of the common contrivances of pop music.
Lauren Zalevsky began her career as an acoustic solo artist, performing at local coffee shops in late 2004. With an unadulterated, unstructured, and extremely authentic style and structure to each song, she began to gather the support of local onlookers and musicians. Her sincerity and determination was able to generate a weekly performance along with its weekly fans at a busy Starbucks. She began collaborating with various artists, growing as an individual musically, and learning to play off of others.
Shane Hunt similarly began his career on the coffee shop circuit of Lake Havasu City in the late nineties. Taking up a resident position as the Saturday night performer at Havasu's Java Rush, Shane played a 3 hour set every week for nearly a year, often times playing entirely different material each performance. Based on his rigorous performance schedule, Shane established himself as one of Havasu's premiere performers before relocating to Phoenix in 2004. He has released three albums of solo material to date: 2000's Silhouette Room, 2001's Transcendence and 2004's An Awkward Silence Between Friends.
Shane met Lauren while performing with Would-Be Savior at a Brew-Sippin’ Wednesday in the Big Fish Pub in Tempe, and was immediately drawn to her straightforward songwriting and unique delivery. He approached her with the idea of forming a group, and managed to coerce her into taking him on as a partner. Adding guitarist Sean Benton and percussion god Dustin Cleary to the mix Lauren formed the band Lauren Z in 2005, playing a whirlwind string of shows in their first two months as group. In February of 06 Sean left the group to pursue another project while circumstances caused Dustin to leave the band shortly thereafter. Shane and Lauren continued on as a duo, writing a wealth of new material to suit their style change. They have been seen—with and without accompanying band mates—at venues throughout Glendale, Phoenix, and Tempe; notable venues being Alice Cooper's Town, The Fiddler's Dream, Mama Java's, The Brickhouse, The Paper Heart Gallery, Modified Arts, The Loft, The Clubhouse, the Paisley Violin, the (now defunct) Sub-Culture Cafe & the Real Bar.
In 2007 Lauren and Shane decided to change the name of the group from Lauren Z to The Latter , indicative of the partnership established between the two songwriters. They recorded and released their first full-band EP, entitled The Hindsight EP, in May of that year and have been performing valley-wide in support of that album since. Their goal is to form their own niche and fan base in the Arizona music scene, and then on to the rest of the world.
Recently, The Latter began performing various shows for the Fender instrument company, and is currently planning to make a second trip into the studio to record an as-yet untitled full-length acoustic album.
Recordings produced by Shane Hunt/ copyright Faded Silhouette Music 2006
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