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Lawrence Rothman

Lawrence Rothman (born June 19, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. Their most recent album The Plow That Broke the Plains was released in 2024.

Biography

Early life

Rothman was born and raised in a middle class area of St. Louis, Missouri. Rothman was raised in a Jewish and Catholic family. From a young age, Rothman identified as gender-fluid, wearing makeup and presenting in an androgynous style. Rothman was homeschooled until second grade and was bullied after entering the public school system.

From the age of 13, Rothman formed a number of punk, alternative rock and hip-hop bands and toured throughout the United States. During this period, Rothman was physically assaulted by three off-duty National Guardsmen after performing a club in Texas. Without the help of their parents, they relocated to Chicago when they were 17 years old. Rothman came into contact with musicians and artists while living with a relative, who assisted them in accepting their non-binary identity. From 2002 to 2011, Rothman fronted the punk rock band Living Things under the name Lillian Berlin.

2013–2014: Early singles

After moving to Los Angeles, Rothman began writing music under their own name and signed to Mamaroma, the independent label founded by renowned director Floria Sigismondi, known for her music videos for David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, and Fiona Apple and for TV work including The Handmaid's Tale and American Gods. In June 2013, Rothman released their debut single, "Montauk Fling", with an accompanying video directed by Sigismondi. This marked the start of a long-term creative collaboration between the two – Sigismondi has since directed all of Rothman's music videos to date. Throughout 2013, Rothman released subsequent singles on Mamaroma: “#1 All Time Low”, “Kevin”, and “Fatal Attraction”. These saw a largely positive response from press outlets including The Huffington Post, The Guardian, and Stereogum.

2015–2017: The Book of Law

In 2014, Rothman signed to Downtown Records and began work on their debut album, The Book of Law, with producer Justin Raisen. Rothman created a list of dream collaborators, including Duff McKagan from Guns N' Roses, Kim Gordon, Angel Olsen, and Nick Zinner from the Yeah Yeahs, whom Raisen brought into their studio. The two used Rothman's journals as the basis for the lyrics and emotional mood of the record. In an interview with the FADER, Rothman stated that the recording process was fraught and dramatic, with “drug ODs [from others in the camp], fist fights, jail, police getting called on [Raisen] by record companies, threatening to cut a guy's neck off on Thanksgiving".

2021: Good Morning, America and Not a Son

In October 2020, Rothman announced sophomore album Good Morning, America and spoken word counterpart album Not a Son. The first single was Decent Man a duet with Grammy award winning singer songwriter Lucinda Williams. The song a politically charged statement on 2020 America was Written and Produced By Lawrence Rothman. Good Morning America was released on July 16, 2021. Guest included Lucinda Williams, Amanda Shires, Katie Pruitt, Marissa Nadler, Caroline Rose, Mary Lattimore, Pino Palladino, and Girlpool. On Oct 10, 2021 Not A Son Rothman's spoken word poetry album was released featuring members of Thundercats band harpist Mary Lattimore and guitarist Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Production career

Along with Rothman's music career they produced and mixed albums by Amanda Shires Take It Like A Man, Highwomen Highway Unicorn from Lady Gaga Born This Way 10th Anniversary, Margo Price, Girlpool, Jason Isbell The Sound Emporium EP, Bartees Strange, Kim Gordon, Marissa Nadler For My Crimes additional production on Angel Olsen My Woman as well as acting with their first role in Drake Doremus' Endings, Beginnings, premiering at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Rothman's song "Wolves Still Cry" was featured in season 2 Episode 1 of Netflix original series 13 Reasons Why that song along with "Die Daily" were featured in Endings, Beginnings and "H" in Lucifer season 1 finale episode. In November 2019 it was announced that Rothman produced and wrote the soundtrack for DreamWorks Pictures The Turning. The soundtrack out on Rothman's record label KRO featured artist such as Courtney Love, Mitski, Soccer Mommy, Kim Gordon, Warpaint, and Finn Wolfhard. Rothman wrote and produced the first single performed by Courtney Love, "Mother". Their own track "SkinDeepSkyHighHeartWide" featured Pale Waves and their track "Judas Kiss' featured MUNA. Along with writing the films 9 other soundtrack songs. Rothman authored a book Postmortem Bliss, which was turned into a short film for Tuner Classics in 2006.

KRO Records

In 2019, Rothman launched their own record label, KRO Records, with Justin Raisen, Yves Rothman. KRO’s first release included two tracks from River Phoenix's band, Aleka's Attic, along with a single from Rain Phoenix featuring Michael Stipe. This was followed by a Double A-Side Single, "Poison" by Marissa Nadler feat. John Cale of The Velvet Underground. Other releases in 2019 included Kills Birds’ self-titled debut LP, Buzzy Lee’s (Sasha Spielberg) EP, “Close Encounters of Our Own Kind”, and a single titled “Mother” by Courtney Love. In 2020, KRO Records released Steven Spielberg produced "The Turning" soundtrack under exclusive license to Sony Music Entertainment. The film's soundtrack features tracks from Mitski, Kali Uchis, Soccer Mommy, Cherry Glazerr, Finn Wolfhard & Courtney Love. Rothman was the film's music supervisor and producer of the soundtrack.

Composing and scoring

In 2010, Rothman scored The Runaways, a biopic film on the Joan Jett fronted female rock band The Runaways, starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. In 2017, Rothman scored the News Emmy nominated New York Times Great Performers 2017 series short films starring Nicole Kidman, Timothy Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Jake Gyllenhaal and more. In 2018, Rothman scored a short film on the life of occult filmmaker Kenneth Anger for Gucci and Systems Magazine. Additionally, Rothman has scored short films for Levis, Prada, Bvlgari, BMW, MAC Cosmetics and Alexander McQueen.