L.A. native Laura Shumate was raised on listening parties in her family’s home, tripping on the likes of John Cage, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Miriam Makeba (“and more”), as well as the improvisational piano work of her father, himself influenced by Alice Coltrane and the meditative states of her music. Laura’s high school-art teacher mother filled in the gaps with trips to the newly opened MOCA in Downtown LA, while regular visits to Rene’s on Melrose and Tower on Sunset saw the total depletion of her weekly allowance, all of this plotting the storyline for her life today.

By college, Laura ran off to San Francisco, became a KUSF DJ, discovered Japanese noise and electronic oscillations, joined a band, went to raves, opened for Sebadoh and fell in love with Stephen Malkmus (unreciprocated). The second half of the ‘90s brought her back to LA and thumbing through the warehouse stacks at her Marketing day job at Rhino Records (label), behind a soundtrack to LA’s late ‘90s California Gold and the UK’s popular sundrenched guitars.

Los Angeles’ Sketchbook blew her mind in the aughts. She spent time at the early days of Low End Theory, successfully only having to use the women’s restroom there once or twice. A sound artist herself, she makes broken sequences under the name Laurita.