Life & Work with Bryant Laursen of Chosewood Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bryant Laursen.

Hi Bryant , thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My wife, Katy Shotter (Ethel/Ethel Shotter) and I began doing live performances about 4 years ago in 2022. Katy and I met at the bar at Eclipse di Luna in Buckhead in 2018 and have been inseparable ever since! We’re now about to celebrate 6 years of being married, and looking forward to the best year of musical performances we’ve had up to this point. You can find us playing all over the city, from The Forth Members Club on Wednesdays, to Office Bar at the Epicurean every Thursday, to the Ritz Carlton Downtown every Friday.
As my wife and I started contemplating our lives during lockdown (as one does), we knew we wanted to play music together, but didn’t know how to do it! I’ve always played in bands as a saxophonist, and she had always done original music, singing and playing piano. Over time, we’ve been able to go through a list of ‘what works, and what doesn’t’, and from there, hone in on one specific product- a live band/DJ hybrid. We’ve been offering this product as a duo to our clients over the last 4 years, and it’s been amazing. We’ve been truly lucky to do what we love, and love what we do! Sure, at times its stressful being a husband-wife duo, performing, owning our own business, figuring out taxes, etc… but we can truly say that we wouldn’t change it for the world!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been a rocky road indeed! Owning a business always is. It’s so expensive, and so complex (tax forms, accounting, etc..) unless you have the start-up capital to make it all happen. During lockdown, we 100% did not have any start-up capital- we flew by the seat of our pants, spent every penny we had, and prayed that we would make it financially.

Since meeting my wife, I’ve always wanted to see her thrive- as an artist, and as a person. Knowing that she needed to fulfill her life goal and dreams of being the artist that people have always loved to listen to, I knew I needed to expand my skill set. We couldn’t afford studio time, a mixing engineer, mastering engineer, or management fees for Katy’s original music- so we decided to do it all ourselves. I bought an $11 course on Udemy.com to teach myself music production in Logic Pro X, and constantly was nagging Mavelle- one of Katy’s long time friends, and music industry legend here in Atlanta- about how to produce and record music for Katy. Learning how to produce, mix, master, etc… has not only allowed Katy to release her original music again, but has allowed us to function as a live band/dj hybrid for our weekly live performances by producing tracks to perform with. Acquiring these necessary skills while under the pressure of needing to pay the bills still….it’s been so hard!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
When people ask me what I do, I say “I’m a saxophonist”. However, in 2026, I think that means this: I play the saxophone, but also DJ, Rap, produce, mix, master, run live sound for ourselves and other bands, am the booking agent, am a manager, am the accountant, am the client liaison…. I mean, the list never ends. I think in this day in age, in order to succeed, you have to wear a walk-in closet full of hats- we all do! Every single small business owner and creative in Atlanta does!

I truly believe we have one of the most entertaining acts in Atlanta, and provide some of the highest quality live music in the city. We only hope that our listeners and audience members feel the same way- and I believe they do. Seeing an audience react with joy to the music we’re making on stage is one of the best feelings I could ever dream of feeling in this life.

In March of 2025 we released Katy’s first album in over 10 years, titled ‘1:11’ by Ethel Shotter.
Of course, my wife Katy goes by Ethel- and old soul singing her heart out and playing piano in a smoky bar while wearing a fur coat…..basically the persona of a Cruella de Ville character who is super friendly and loves dogs! My great grandmother was actually also named Ethel- she sang jazz in smoky bars, wore sequin dresses, and loved chatting up men. In this same spirit, I produced, mixed, and mastered the entire album, and Katy wrote every single song. This was one of the most rewarding things we’ve ever done, especially with me being able to realize my goal of trying to help my wife, at any cost, be the best version of her Ethel-fied self, as an artist, as a person, as a wife, friend, daughter to her parents, etc… but we are also so excited to bring you more original music in 2026!

What’s next?
Our plan for the future is very simple- to release as much amazing music as possible that people can enjoy. This is my main purpose for being here on this Earth.
We’ve got some amazing dance music that we’ll be releasing this summer- we can’t wait to see people dance and connect with more fans! Our goal is to be able to have enough fans from original music to even book a tour one day. We’re really dreaming like the sky is the limit!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ethelandtheshotters.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethelshotter/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/blaursen/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthelShotter
• Soundcloud: https://open.spotify.com/album/1aRF3fwrNHyiDHcTa7oGNW
• Other: https://music.apple.com/us/album/1-11/1798663301

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Q Loc Visuals