Aruna

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Get your copy of Running Red Lights at iTunes!
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Hi there, I'm Aruna, and this is my Myspace page. Welcome to it. So this is the part where y'all get to know a little bit about me, lets see, what can I say?
I grew up in Jersey, yes I'm an East Coast chick and always will be no matter where I plant myself, I started playing piano practically when I was in the womb, and wrote my first song when I was 9 (it was called 'Florescent Colors' and if any bootleg recordings of it ever surface I will track down those responsible and make them pay!).
Then I went to high school and felt like a complete freak, being one of those artsy creative types that are always so well accepted by the beer-swilling football-playing frat-boy wannabes and their cheerleading cohorts, so I sought solace in death metal, amongst other things which I will refrain from mentioning, not the least of which was my own musical studies, which by then, had progressed into 7 hours a day of piano practice, lots of Chopin and Charlie Parker solos.
Eventually I got myself into the infamous Berklee College of Music and dual majored in Music Synthesis and Film Scoring, taking a 2 year break in between my sophomore and junior year to move to Miami, play in a thrash metal band called Cynic and make a living entertaining drunk hipsters and college kids in dueling piano bars.
After graduating, I decided to move to LA cuz its warm here and theres no cigarette smoke allowed anywhere and people are healthy and nice and there are lots of vegan friendly restaurants. So I started performing around LA, a lot, writing too. I finished my first full length album in April of 2003 and spent a good 2 years thereafter promoting it.
Not long after that I got very lucky, landing my first cowritten song on one of the top selling albums of the year, Disney's Hannah Montana Soundtrack. Ever since then I've largely shifted my gears towards writing and now pretty much all I do is write, sometimes alone but mostly with other songwriters, working on more songs to pitch to other hit artists (you can hear some of the most recent at www.myspace.com/arunasongs). I'm also spending a lot of time lately writing and recording with DJ/producers from all over the globe in the trance, house and down-tempo genres, globally referred to as electronic dance music (visit www.myspace.com/arunabeats to check out my latest collaborations). I also occasionally shop, shower, work out, cook, read, drink wine and green tea, hang out and gab about life with cool people that are important to me, and curl up in bed with my beautiful cat Miss Missy. I'm looking forward to writing and recording another artist album at some point in the not-too-distant future but am kinda riding the wave at the moment while things are exploding in these other two areas.
I'm always looking for new insights about life, myself and others, I'd like to inspire other people to do the same, I also enjoy hearing that people like my music, it means a great deal to me since I put so much of my heart into it, it feels like getting gotten, if that makes any sense.
Here are some other things I've done, meant to impress any potential music industry-types that might be perusing my page.
* My song "I Got Nerve" which I cowrote with 2 other writers, got recorded by Disney's uber-pop star Hannah Montana. It was released on the Hannah Montana Soundtrack in October 2006 and debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard Top 200, selling more than 2,000,000 copies in just two months. "I Got Nerve" debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at Number 67.
* My song Break You Open won First Prize in the Pop Category of the 2004 USA Songwriting Competition stepping past over 30,000 other entries. The song debuted at No. 48 on the R&R CHR/Pop chart, and peaked at No. 44.
* My song Saving Grace was featured in the MTV reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, and I was concurrently selected as a featured artist at MTVs website, www.mtv.com. Saving Grace & my music video for The Other Side are also included on MTVs Laguna Beach: The Complete First Season DVD.
* My song Walk On Water was featured on Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Girl as well as in the motion picture Eulogy starring Ray Romano, Kelly Preston, and Debra Winger. It was also included in the films soundtrack album along with music from Paula Cole, Rod Stewart, Jackson Browne and others (Film released nationwide by Lions Gate Films)
* My album Running Red Lights was ranked No. 7 in Music Connection magazines Top 25 Albums of The Year
*I was recently a featured performer/contestant in NBC’s music reality competition “Star Tomorrow”.
Thanks for visiting my MySpace page. Feel free to add me as a friend or mssg me and let me know what you think of my music or me or ask me any questions or share any good jokes or vegan recipes. Oh yea, and dont forget to play with my pet hedgehog Pookie, he gets lonely hangin out here all day. Click on more below to feed him a nice juicy strawberry. Enjoy your lives.