Clair Marlo

Clair Marlo, birthname: Clara Veseliza, based in Sherman Oaks, CALIFORNIA, is a Croatian-American songwriter, record producer, and composer. She has produced such artists as Harry Chapin (posthumously), Kilauea, Grant Geissman, and had her music in films such as The Firm and The Swimming Pool. She has also had music on major American television networks including CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox.
She has made several solo albums under her own name, and albums under the names Tairona, House of Light, Primal Instinct, Vox Mundi, and Liquid Amber. A graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, she has been named one of the top two female record producers in the United States. Her Sheffield Lab recording Let it Go has been named one of the Top 50 All-Time Greatest Recordings to own by POP Magazine in Germany.
She is also known under the names Clara Veseliza, Despejar Panadero (as composer), Tairona (as recording artist). She is married to Alexander Collin "Ace" Baker, and together they run a small music production company in Sherman Oaks California called "Invisible Hand Productions".
Biography for critically acclaimed composer and recording artist Clair Marlo, music has been an inspiring journey leading from her roots in the Istrian Coast of Croatia to the magnetic world of film and television.
In the area where Clair grew up, mandolins, bouzoukis, zournas, and other unusual ethnic instruments were common. Though ultimately drawn in more formal directions, Clair has maintained a continuing affinity for unique musical traditions; folk choirs, tribal drums, chants and other cultural forms are often utilized in Clair's recordings and compositions.
Learning to read musical notation at six years old, Clair's first introduction to music was in her singing. Writing music soon became her passion, though, and she found herself consumed. By the time Clair was twelve, she was writing songs for her school productions. At sixteen, she got her first song published by MCA Music and got her first songwriter's advance. Her voice began to be the instrument through which she found herself expressing her musical ideas.
Before getting her degree in music from the prestigious Berklee School of Music, Clair first attended the Queens College - Aaron Copland School of Music at the young age of 16 studying classical composition. While learning composition and arranging, Clair also got into the Record Production Program at Berklee. She found herself a second obsession - producing records. Her first record as producer was a regional success with her own band, Lucky Southern. She was 18 years old.
After college, Clair toured and did arrangements for her touring band. The atmosphere was fun but Clair found herself yearning to get back into the studio, so to L.A. she went.
Moving to Los Angeles, Clair did arrangements for records, radio promos and jingles, working with great session players and learning the ropes. Soon after, she began producing records for others, becoming known as one of the Top 2 Female Producers in the US. It was around the same time that Clair got noticed by well-known audiophile label, Sheffield Lab Records and she was offered a deal as recording artist. That later also translated into her role as record producer for such artists as Pat Coil, Michael Ruff, and others
Clair's recording and producing career led to international tours, with fan bases in much of Europe and Asia. Drawing on her now broad musical background, Clair began incorporating the different styles of music into her work, coming out with albums under different group names and with different styles.
Continuing her work with record labels like Higher Octave, Virgin Records, Sonic Images, Earthtone, Sony, Telarc, Wildcat-MCA, and others, Clair also recorded under the names Primal Instinct, Tairona, Liquid Amber, Vox Mundi and Veselica . Achieving commercial success with each genre gave her the room to stretch out and explore new techniques. Her latest success Aria2 with Paul Schwartz, has her writing and singing in both Croatian and English to one of Paul's melodies. The piece Sviraj - Lullaby, was a single and the album went to #5 Billboard Classical Pop.
Clair became more interested in composing while writing and producing music that would be used in various television shows such as Young and the Restless, Melrose Place, Baywatch Nights , and commercials like Lever 2000, Reeboks, Ikea, Chuck E Cheese, and Permit Sportswear.
She got her first break as weekly composer for the Japanese daily drama "Aishisuginakute Yokatta" with success in the release of the soundtrack in Europe and Asia. That led to Clair's contributions of compositions for the popular feature films like The Swimming Pool (2003), The Firm, Thinner, Mother's Boys, Habitat and Hysteria, along with promos for Dateline, Ally McBeal, Dawson's Creek, Friends, NBA Basketball, and similar projects.
It was a natural transition into scoring that led Clair to co-compose, with composer 'Alexander "Ace" Baker', the score to movies such as Pursuit of Happiness, Valerie Flake, Tycus, Mach 2, Intrepid, My Magic Dog and others for director John Putch.
More recently, she has focused on her film and television work, with two independent film projects in the works.
An exciting development has been composing the music for her new CD release, Veselica .
As technology expands our ability to translate creative visions to new mediums, Clair thrives on the new challenges.


Official Website: http://www.clairmarlo.com/

MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/clairmarlo