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"Sticks and Stones"

New music from

Lauren Stovall

I was house sitting back in 2019 for some friends who have a piano. I don't play the piano at all but sat down that day and pumped out three songs in about four hours. It was weird. 'Sticks and Stones' was one of those songs. 

It kept playing on a loop in my head, and I knew I wanted to turn it into something more poppy than my usual folky style. I had the idea of hiring a producer to turn it into just that. 

I started doing a little bit of research on different producers in the pop and electronica world, and I found Gabe Lehner (9 Theory) of LA. I love his style and have been a fan for a while. I got in touch with him, and he agreed to do the project with me. We went back and forth over email a few times, but it didn't take long before I felt he had captured exactly what I wanted. I love the ambient sounds he brought in as well as the dark, melodic vibe of the overall piece. 

I recorded all the lead and background vocals in the Boulder, Colorado, area at Eric Wiggs' studio, Vermillion Road Studio. 

It started as nothing more than an experiment and an art project. I have been sitting on the piece for a few years. I have now released 'Sticks and Stones' under my initials LAS, and it can be found on iTunes, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, and many other internet outlets. ~ Lauren Stovall

"'Nightingale' came to me all at once on the day after Putin invaded. I felt a sense of urgency to do something with it but I wasn't sure exactly what. The next day, a woman called Tatyana approached me at a show and told me that exactly four years before, on that very same day, she had come to hear me sing and immediately went to the hospital to give birth to her first child. Then, when she told me that she was Ukrainian, I felt like she was sent to be my compass, to guide me as to what to do with the song. She helped me understand the significance of the nightingale, "soloveiko," to the Ukrainian people, the hope it's song brings to their ears.

"I called the song a 'Bootleg For Peace' because I cut the track very quickly one afternoon in my home studio. Bridger Dunnagan mixed it the next day at Echo Mountain Recording Studio, and David Glasser mastered the track overnight so we could start sharing it and collecting donations to help Ukraine. I'm indebted to them for the time and effort they donated. We have already collected over $1000 in donations that have been matched by Barnhouse Kitchen, Tatyana's company. It's way more than I could ever have donated myself, and I'm so proud of my fans for getting behind this effort—100% of the proceeds are going to Guardians of Hope-Ukrainian Relief Project, an on-the-ground nonprofit bringing supplies back and forth across the Ukrainian border with Poland. All the information is at https://anyahinkle.bandcamp.com/ and thank you!" ~ Anya Hinkle

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