Greg Laswell

Greg Laswell (born April 26, 1974) is an American musician, recording engineer, and producer from San Diego, California. He has released seven studio albums: Good Movie in 2003, Through Toledo in 2006, Three Flights from Alto Nido in 2008, Take a Bow in 2010, Landline in 2012, I Was Going to be an Astronaut in 2014, and Everyone Thinks I Dodged A Bullet in 2016, as well as several EPs and special singles. Many of his songs have been featured in films and television shows.

Career

1998-2002: Shillglen

Greg Laswell was born in Long Beach, California. He moved to San Diego in 1993 and graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University. From 1998 through the early 2000s, Laswell was frontman for the San Diego-based band Shillglen. Members of the band included Chad Lansford (backing vocals and guitar), Justin Skeesuck (guitar), Michael de Neve (bass), Marcel de Neve (drums) and Matt Mintz (lead guitar). The band released one album, titled Sometimes I Feel, in late 1999 and had some moderate success when the band was nominated for Best Alternative Album and Best Alternative Band at the San Diego Music Awards in 2000. By mid-2001, Shillglen had over 400,000 downloads of their music through MP3.com. However, Shillglen quietly disbanded in October 2001 after Laswell suggested the band take a break. The band mutually agreed, but never regrouped.

2003-2006: Good Movie and Through Toledo

Laswell released his first solo album Good Movie in 2003. It was self-funded and self-released on his own label All the Rest Records, and won the award for Best Local Recording by the San Diego Music Awards in 2004. Following the album's success, Laswell signed to Vanguard Records, and then recorded and released his second studio album Through Toledo in July 2006. The album was written during Laswell's divorce from his wife; he stated: "It's basically a breakup album...but the biggest surprise has been when you resurface out of the dark little studio. On this tour, people have been coming up to me and telling me about what they've been going through. It has nothing to do with anything that I originally wrote about. So it's become a full circle, healing thing. I'm just lucky to be in the loop."

2008-2009: How the Day Sounds, Three Flights from Alto Nido, and Covers

In spring 2008, Laswell joined the European leg of the Hotel Cafe Tour, hosted by Tom McRae. He released an EP titled How the Day Sounds in March 2008, which preceded his third studio album Three Flights from Alto Nido, released in July. Several songs from the album, including "Comes and Goes (In Waves)", "How the Day Sounds" (which features Elijah Wood in the music video), "Sweet Dream", and "And Then You" have been featured in the television shows like Grey's Anatomy, True Blood, Castle, 90210, Army Wives and Dollhouse. Laswell's single "Off I Go" was written specially for the season 5 finale of Grey's Anatomy. It was also featured on NBC's Parenthood. Laswell also contributed his cover of Cyndi Lauper's hit "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" to the soundtrack for both Confessions of a Shopaholic in early 2009; and to the soundtrack for My Sister's Keeper, also in 2009.

In October 2009 Laswell released a new EP entitled Covers featuring five cover songs.

2010-2012: Take a Bow and Landline

Laswell released a new full album, "Take a Bow " on May 4, 2010. All 12 new tracks were recorded in a studio in a cabin outside Flagstaff, AZ. "Perhaps the biggest difference with this album", observes Greg Laswell of his new Take A Bow, "is that I'm not miserable." Laswell also chimes in on the album stating, "I could not be more excited about how it turned out. Greg Laswell also says that after his Solo Residency Tour wraps up, a full-band tour will commence in May, in support of this new release.

He has toured with several artists over the years, including Matt Costa, Sia, Tim O'Reagan of The Jayhawks and Amy Millan of Stars. Laswell has also scored several short films, including Longbranch: A Suburban Parable in 2001; Deacon's Mondays in 2006.

Laswell's fifth studio album, titled "Landline", was released on April 24, 2012.

2013-Present: I Was Going to be an Astronaut and Everyone Thinks I Dodged A Bullet

In 2014, Laswell released his sixth studio album, I was Going to be an Astronaut, which involved remakes of many of his more popular songs, as well as a cover of Sparklehorse's It's a Wonderful Life and a new song, December, which he had cut from a previous record.

In 2016, Laswell released Everyone Thinks I Dodged A Bullet, his seventh studio album. It was featured in NBC's The Blacklist during the credits of the last episode of season 3.

Personal life

In early 2010, Laswell and fellow artist Ingrid Michaelson were reported to be engaged. They were married on August 10, 2011, in Maine. On February 27, 2015, following a rough year both physically and emotionally for Michaelson, the couple announced they were mutually splitting. A joint statement released by Michaelson and Laswell reads: "After careful consideration, and with mutual respect, we have decided to separate. We ask for privacy as we navigate this time in our lives."

Discography

See: Greg Laswell discography

Song appearances in films and television shows

• "Sing, Theresa Says"
  • One Tree Hill, January 2007
  • Cold Case, October 2007
• "High and Low"
  • Without a Trace, October 2006
  • Smallville, January 2007
• "Come Undone"
  • Veronika Decides to Die promotional trailer, May 2009
  • Friday Night Lights commercial, September 2009

• "Comes and Goes (In Waves)"
  • True Blood, October 2008
  • Grey's Anatomy, October 2008
  • Taking Chance promotional trailer, January 2009
• "How the Day Sounds"
  • Army Wives, July 2007
  • 90210, September 2008
  • The Final Destination, August 2009

Sisters, December 2015

• "And Then You"
  • Grey's Anatomy, September 2008. Episodes 1&2 Dream a little dream of me.
  • Arrow, April 2014. Season 2 Episode 20
• "Days Go On"
  • Grey's Anatomy, October 2008
• "Sweet Dreams"
  • Dollhouse, March 2009
  • Parenthood, April 2011

• "Goodbye"
  • The Hills, May 2010
  • Grey's Anatomy, October 2010
• "Take a Bow"
  • Parenthood, September 2010
  • Friends with Benefits, July 2011
• "Let It Ride"
  • Life Unexpected, October 2010
• "Come Clean"
  • Wentworth, July 2014

• "Dodged a Bullet"
  • The Blacklist, May 2016

• "What a Day"
  • Danika, December 2006
  • Numb3rs, May 2007
  • Canterbury's Law, March 2008
  • Grey's Anatomy, April 2008
  • CSI: Miami, October 2009
  • Beauty & the Beast (2012 TV series), January 2014
• "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun"
  • The Hills, 2007
  • Damages, 2008
  • Confessions of a Shopaholic, February 2009
  • My Sister's Keeper, June 2009
  • Glee, November 2011
  • The Carrie Diaries, January 2013
  • Suburgatory, March 2013
• "Off I Go"
  • Grey's Anatomy, May 2009
  • House M.D.
  • NCIS, September 2010
  • One Tree Hill, October 2010
  • Parenthood, February 2011
• "Your Ghost"
  • Ghost Whisperer, September 2006
  • Grey's Anatomy, October 2009
  • Dollhouse, December 2009
  • Verbotene Liebe, 2010
• "This Woman's Work"
  • Three Rivers, November 2009
  • The Vampire Diaries, October 2011
• "In Spite of Me"
  • Grey's Anatomy, November 2009

Awards and nominations

San Diego Music Awards