Background
Shelley Ann Harland was born in about 1979 and grew up in Caterham, Surrey.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Shelley Harland
Edit ProfileEducation
In 1997 Harland finished her secondary education and started working as a beauty therapist.
Career
In 1997 she started her music career in New York and performed mononymously as Harland. By 2006 she was based in Australia and released material as Shelley Harland. While growing up, she did not receive any musical training.
However, she developed a love and a taste for music and would make up songs with a keyboard she had at home.
The couple moved to New York where initially Harland worked as a private investigator while Wright performed in his band, Stretch Princess. She later recalled " was on tour and one day I just picked up his guitar and just started playing lieutenant
lieutenant was an immediate and natural thing. I started to play and now I can"t imagine not doing lieutenant
lieutenant"s like breathing – music – it"s who I american
lieutenant was fate". Harland started to write songs with an acoustic guitar and a four-track record sampler. She collaborated with Andrew Wright, James" brother, a programmer and producer.
In 1999 Harland and Andrew formed Phoelar and issued an album of the same name, which was recorded in Sydney with Andrew producing.
Its music style was orientated towards electronic and trip-hop sounds. Justin Elswick of Review Digest found that Phoelar was "more experimental and somewhat darker" than Harland"s later work. He noted that ""Lovers Greed" is a fantastic track that captures the creamy and urban vibe of a Quarterflash or The Motels song".
All the tracks were co-written by Harland and Andrew.
In 2003, Harland released her first two albums under the mononym Harland but after that used her full name. By 2006 Shelley and James Wright had moved to Sydney.
She released her fourth album Red Leaf in 2009. lieutenant featured predominantly acoustic and popular sounds, in contrast with her previous electronic works.
Four singles were lifted from it: "Wonder", "Friday", "Stranger" and "In the Dark." Harland recorded her fifth album, The Girl Who Cried Wolf, after launching a fundraising campaign.
"New Things" was released as a single. In 2013, her song "In the Dark" (from the Red Leaf album) was chosen for the advertising campaign for the new Omega Ladymatic Watch, featuring actress Nicole Kidman. Harland also performed at the launch event Louisiana nuit enchantée, which took place at the Stadpalais Liechtenstein in Vienna.
Since the start of her career, Harland has collaborated with many artists from the world of electronic music, such as Delerium, Ferry Corsten, Pole Folder, Loverush United Kingdom!, Headstrong, Morgan Page, Junkie Extra Large and Guru/Jazzmatazz.
She toured with Delerium, The Fray and Elvis Costello.
