We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lauren Green a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

In between my own music and creative projects I teach woodworking workshops to different age groups. A meaningful project that comes to mind is when I instructed a woodworking class at a local high school here in Taos, New Mexico. We designed and crafted benches for the interiors and exteriors of the school because they were lacking seating to just hang out in between classes. A special way to teach hands on skills and give back.
Another favorite and inspiring project is a song I had licensed for The Citizenry. The song was used to share stories for a short video entitled “Women of Oaxaca” on making natural, locally sourced dyes. I was honored to have contributed music to such beautiful visuals demonstrating an incredible craft.

Lauren, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Lauren Helene Green and I am a multi-instrumentalist musician, artist, & woodworker from Texas currently living in Northern New Mexico. I am a shaper of music, wood, and various creative projects inspired by both Earthly and otherworldly landscapes. I write and record music in a project called Tan Cologne on Labrador Records (Sweden) and also release ambient instrumental music under my full name on Royal Oakie Records.
I have played music since I was very little and have been in a few bands and different projects in Austin, Marfa and Taos. After touring for some years, I ended up getting into woodworking. I had the desire to learn a new craft and have a different outlet in between writing, recording and touring, so I went back to school for Fine Woodworking in Northern New Mexico. Both woodworking and music have become my passions as well as means of living.
I am proud to be a woman in the creative world and am honored to find ways to use what I create to give back in different ways.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Ultimately, I love open information sources and sharing ideas and creative forces. I think it’s extremely important for where society is today. Having an imperfect human element attached to music, art, food, etc. is the driving factor in my inspiration, as well as the ability to create our own worlds and subcultures.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Hearing that something I have created has had an impact on someone or inspired them to think or feel beyond their everyday realm of existence.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurenhelenegreen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenhelenegreen
• Twitter: https://x.com/tan_cologne
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/@labradorrecords
• Soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/tancologne
• Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LRNGRNGOODS

  https://laurenhelenegreen.bandcamp.com/album/outer-highway-realms

  https://tan-cologne.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits

Personal photo by Roberto Johnson. All other photos by Marissa Macias, except live UK show photo by unknown.