Lauren
After her last album in 2006, Lauren Hoffman traveled high and low for the inspiration for the songs on her forthcoming release, Interplanetary Traveler. “This album,” she explains, “is about searching, and finding something to appreciate in simple or unexpected places. It’s also about being an outsider”—a perspective Lauren became familiar with whilst wandering about and writing songs for nine months in far off places like India, Europe and Australia. “I was exploring a different side of myself; embracing innocence and naivety, in contrast to the world-weariness I had worn since adolescence.” The songs on Lauren’s previous three releases—Megiddo (1997), From The Blue House (2000) and Choreography (2006)—ranged from sardonic to melancholic, but were rarely as sweet, reverent, or hopeful as this profound and lovely new set.
Upon her return home from her travels, Hoffman was at a crossroads: she celebrated her thirtieth birthday and could see a well-known path ahead of her, one that included settling down, going back to school or something else sensible, such as having kids and growing old. “But I felt like I had one more big adventure in me,” she says. “So I let go of the lease on my apartment, gave away the majority of my possessions, and went in search of a place to live and record my new songs.”
Trusting her intuition, she went to Israel to work with musician and producer, Assaf Ayalon, whom she had met only once before. The two formed a quick bond, and it was the rich and fruitful musical union that Lauren needed to complete her vision for Interplanetary Traveler. “I was excited to have a collaborator who totally got the essence of the songs, but could bring an entirely different palette of sounds and influences to the arrangements.” They began to demo the songs and plan the album, assuming that Lauren would stay and the two would build a band in Israel to tour in support of the album.
“But during pre-production, I found out that I was pregnant,” she says. “My world changed. I took a break from working on the album to go home to Virginia, get through the first-trimester morning sickness and to re-envision my future… how would I be a mom and a singer/songwriter at the same time?” One thing she did know was that the album was worth completing and, three months later, she returned to work with Assaf Ayalon in his small private studio in Israel on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Most of the recordings started out with a live acoustic take with Ayalon and Hoffman playing in a room together. “We wanted the album to have a live, intimate feel. Then we would bring in local musicians to flesh out our ideas.” After six weeks of arranging and recording the songs, Lauren returned home from her “big adventure” to prepare to become a mother. As it happened, creating Interplanetary Traveler was just the vehicle that guided her way to the biggest adventure yet. “Which has been by far the best thing that has ever happened to me,” she says, “and a thousand times more fulfilling and meaningful than I could ever have expected.”
Creating life has infused a new and optimistic energy into the well-crafted, emotionally intense sound that Hoffman is best known for. Eastern musical influences mesh well with Lauren’s easy and impactful voice, which carries her melodies effortlessly from one song to the next. Focusing on the human experience, Lauren writes songs about love, loss and a worldview that pays equal attention to the beauty that is revealed by the sun without losing focus on the shadows that such beauty creates. But what makes Lauren Hoffman special is not that she has traveled around the world. Or that she’s been to places that many Americans will never see. It’s the wisdom, care and talent to share her life-changing journeys in her music, thus allowing everyone who hears those songs to feel as if they went along for the ride, too.
For further information please contact
Asha Goodman or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000,
asha.goodman@sacksco.com, carla@sacksco.com.
