Laura Smith began as a girl and her piano. Over the past year it has grown into a collaborative four-piece band of diverse, accomplished, and experienced musicians based out of North Vancouver and Victoria, BC. The current incarnation of the group includes Laura Smith, Andrew Braun, Jeff Riedlinger (Sam Bradley) and Johnny Andrews (Tegan and Sara, db Clifford, Holly McNarland). They boast years of live experience and numerous music-related pieces of paper between them.

Their debut album Sea of Stars (released in November '08) segues across a wide spectrum of genres - pop influenced by jazz, folk, and rock - creating a playful yet sophisticated sound most simply defined as Indie Pop.

Since returning from their CD release tour, they have made live CBC appearances in Vancouver and Victoria, played JunoFest, the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival in Whistler, NXNE 09 in Toronto, the MuchMusic Video Award artist lounge and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival for which they were nominated for a Galaxie Rising Star Award.

In live performance, the band turns up the volume and infuses their songs with an extra jolt of energy. While exuding an undeniable charm, Laura "has commanding stage presence, fabulous vocals and is a superb keyboardist" (Joe Montague Riveting Riffs).  Jeff (bass) and Johnny (drums) provide the rhythmic backbone, while Andrew (guitar/keys/vocals) provides layers of colour. The versatility and musicality of these players is apparent as they supplement their basic instrumentation with textures ranging from sing-along gang vocals, to walls of guitar feedback, to cabaret-style accordion, to space age synthesizers, to percussion breakdowns. They maintain a studious approach toward crafting new songs and are constantly tweaking and improving arrangements of older ones and have "created a masterpiece and a live show that’s both entertaining and memorable" (Ronatron live reviews).

In less than a year's time the band has undertaken three large-scale tours. Along the way they have had the privilege of sharing the stage with such notable acts as Nicole Atkins, Mother Mother, Tim Finn (of Crowded House), the 1900's, Said the Whale, Jon and Roy, Immaculate Machine, and The Liptonians. 

Sea of Stars has been distributed and played nationally by CBC, is in rotation at CKUA in Alberta and various college stations debuting number 10 on CFUV. Their first single "Can't Stop" has been in regular rotation on CBC Radio 3 and “Break” made Track of the Day.


“…one can only predict that Laura Smith has an incredible future ahead of her, not only on the Canadian music scene, but we should also be hearing more from her on the international stage as well." (Riveting Riffs – Vancouver Plaza Club Review)