Karen Lane

b. 1970, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Encouraged to study music, Lane learned piano from the age of six and also played guitar. She heard pop music on radio and records and from a very early age had ambitions to become a singer. She sang in school shows and also in some teenage bands. Mainly, though, these years were spent studying for a Bachelor of Science degree and qualifying as a speech therapist. At 21 Lane moved to Sydney where she sang in clubs and pubs with a soul funk band and also with a jazz trio. She also began writing her own songs. Gradually, Lane developed her own style and found a following. Over the next few years her skills were enhanced and she wrote and produced music for the National Institute of Dramatic Art dance production Appetite, which was performed at 1994’s Melbourne International Arts Festival. In 1996, she founded Bloomers, a government-sponsored but independent project to record female singer-songwriters. The following year, she recorded a funk soul album, Sheherazade 1001 Nights, but then went to Singapore where she sang at prestigious clubs and hotels. In 1999 Lane moved to London where she worked on corporate projects, visiting Europe and Asia with her musicians. Among musicians with whom she has worked are pianists Robin Aspland and Phil Peskett, saxophonist Derek Nash, Andy Hamill, violinist Julian Ferraretto, drummer Nic France and in particular with guitarist Dave Colton, with whom Lane writes many of her arrangements. Three of Lane’s cousins are also musical and they too relocated to London where they formed the Fairer Sax. A stylish and elegant singer with a special flair for ballads, Lane is a highly professional performer with a very pleasing vocal sound.