Serena

Purchase In Your Doorway (The New Album) HERE
Songs from In Your Doorway ALSO Available on ITunes HERE
For Immediate Release
SERENA LAUREN ROCKS INDIE MUSIC WORLD, STANDING IN YOUR DOORWAY WITH RAW, HEARTFELT HONESTY AND EMOTION
L.A. Based Singer/Songwriter’s First Full Length CD Follows Her Critically Acclaimed EP’s Not So Simple, Which Received Airplay On KLAX’s “The Next Big Thing Program” At UC Berkeley, And The Waking Up EP
Lauren Performs Regularly At L.A. Hotspots The Viper Room And Room 5 Lounge, Where She’s Hosting Her Record Release Party on Saturday, November 12
While struggling through various relationship and family issues during her high school days in the late 90s, Serena Lauren turned to the radio for comfort—and only found one song, Everclear’s “Wonderful Again,” that had any kind of emotional, cathartic impact. Taking matters into her own hands, vowing to dig beneath the surface of the average three minute pop song, the Sacramento-bred, L.A. based singer-songwriter has been on a mission these past four years to communicate raw, honest emotions with listeners of her own generation and beyond.
Following up her critically acclaimed EP’s Not So Simple (2002) and The Waking Up EP (2003), Serena is excited about the independent release of In Your Doorway, her long-awaited first full length album project. Produced by Brian Irwin, best known for his work with Ty Stone (recently signed to Kid Rock’s Top Dog label) and Astra Heights (signed to Universal), the collection features ten original tracks sung in English, plus Spanish versions of two key tracks, the driving opening cut “Pile of Teardrops” (“Mis Lagrimas”) and “Walk Away” (“Dejarlo”).
A regular on the L.A. club scene for the past year, Serena has played numerous shows at Room 5 Lounge on La Brea and Beverly as well as The Viper Room on Sunset Strip. Her album release party for In Your Doorway at Room 5 Lounge at 9 p.m. on Saturday, November 12 will be her first Los Angeles gig performed with a full band.
Aside from paying homage to her half-Mexican heritage on her mother’s side, Serena’s inclusion of two Spanish tracks reflects the deep influence of Latin artists such as Shakira and Maná, whose music inspired Serena to write her first songs just weeks before starting college at Stanford University.
“Although I was grateful to finally have a chance to record my songs,” she says, “I was somewhat at the mercy of the producers I worked with on those EP’s and felt like what I was going for wasn’t really communicated. As soon as I started working with Brian, I could tell things were on the right track. I pretty much focused on nothing else until we had finished recording the songs for In Your Doorway. A lot of the songs address the angst of feeling truly on my own for the first time after moving to L.A., the beginning and end of a relationship, and responding to the fact that, right before I moved down from up North, I found out my parents were getting divorced. I guess I was dealing with a lot of emotions.”
Among the most riveting tracks on the album are “Pile of Teardrops,” an energetic prayer of lament in which the very spiritual Serena echoes the Psalmists of old who wondered whether God had forsaken them. “I Did It Again” finds Lauren in an intense mode of critical self-examination for chasing the wrong relationship, while the plaintive title track reveals her deepest and most raw vulnerabilities. “Get Out of My Head” is a hopeful song about ultimately meeting her perfect love.
Growing up in Sacramento, Serena began taking classical piano lessons at age nine but quickly found herself tapping into what has evolved into her trademark rebellious musical spirit. “I didn’t want to pay attention to the rules or time signatures, I just wanted to play the notes how I enjoyed playing them,” she says. While inspired early on by her father’s love of classic rock—Tom Petty and Eric Clapton were her favorites—Serena’s biggest influences during these formative years were perfectly in synch with a more independent mindset: from Garbage, Hole, Nirvana and Bush to Frente, Elastica, La Oreja De Van Gogh and Bjork.
More recent influences are melodic, alternative bands like Coldplay, Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, Something Corporate, The All-American Rejects, Switchfoot, The Cure and The New Radicals. Serena was equally passionate about music and acting in high school, but while the acting bug drifted away, her love for making and singing music never has.
“I know what it’s like when a passion goes away, but music has always been there, and I have always trusted that there’s a reason for that,” she says.
From your doorway to hers, Serena Lauren stands In Your Doorway with an invitation to a journey that no lover of soulful, heartfelt singing and songwriting will want to miss.
Jonathan Widran, Music Connection
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