Courtney LaPlante
LaPlante performing with Spiritbox in 2022
Born	(1989-02-26) February 26, 1989
Occupations	Singer songwriter
Years active	2007–present
Spouse	Michael Stringer ​ (m. 2016)​
Musical career
Origin	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Metalcore progressive metal djent alternative metal
Labels	Pale Chord Rise Century Media Artery
Member of	Spiritbox
Formerly of	Iwrestledabearonce

Courtney Stringer^{[nb 1]} (née LaPlante, born February 26, 1989) is a singer and songwriter best known as the lead vocalist of the Canadian heavy metal band Spiritbox. LaPlante began singing in bands as a teenager, but first gained success as the lead singer of the now-defunct metalcore band Iwrestledabearonce. As the successor of the band's original vocalist, LaPlante recorded and performed with the band from 2012 until 2015. She left the group months after the release of her second album with the group, Hail Mary (2015).

In 2016, LaPlante married longtime bandmate Mike Stringer; they have played together in each of LaPlante's bands. Desiring to have their own creative identity following their experience in Iwrestledabearonce, the pair formed their own jointly-founded band, Spiritbox, in 2017. They have released one studio album, Eternal Blue (2021).

Early life and career beginnings

Courtney LaPlante was born on February 26, 1989.^[2] She grew up with her parents as the eldest of six children,^[3] among them a younger brother and fellow musician, Jackson.^[4] Her father was a college basketball coach, and her mother was a teacher.^[5] Growing up as part of the Catholic Church while living in the Deep South of Alabama, her family was considered unusual.^[6] This led to her switching over to the Methodist Church, where she enjoyed singing rock-oriented music as opposed to what she was accustomed to in the Catholic Church.^[6] She first attended the Methodist Church around the age of 14 with her then-boyfriend, and realized that she "really liked people clapping and her performing" rather than the core of the religion, though she remains "fascinated by all religion or spirituality".^[6]

At the age of 15, following her parents' divorce, LaPlante relocated with her mother to Victoria, British Columbia, nearly 2,800 miles northwest of her Alabama home.^[3] Before fame, LaPlante had regular employments as a barista, a payroll clerk and a receptionist.^[7]

LaPlante's musical career began at the age of 18, when she and Jackson formed the metal band Unicron.^[8] The group started by playing music inspired by Rage Against the Machine which resulted in a sound similar to their spinoff Audioslave,^[9] but gradually gravitated toward progressive metalcore,^[4] influenced by the likes of Protest the Hero and Between the Buried and Me.^[9] It was during a show that Unicron shared with fellow Victoria-based metal band Fall in Archaea that LaPlante met their guitarist, Mike Stringer. The LaPlante siblings were impressed with Stringer's ability; after the demise of Fall of Archaea, the two recruited Stringer to play for Unicron.^[4] LaPlante and Stringer eventually formed a romantic relationship, and they became engaged around 2012. They originally planned to be married shortly thereafter, but the plan was put off for some time after LaPlante joined Iwrestledabearonce, and Stringer eventually followed her into the band. After the two left the band in 2015, they would be married in 2016.^[10] For wedding presents, the couple asked for funding for their musical endeavors,^[10] which would later become Spiritbox.^[11][12]

Musical career

Iwrestledabearonce (2012–2015)

Main article: Iwrestledabearonce

LaPlante performing with Iwrestledabearonce in 2013

Steven Bradley, guitarist of the Louisiana-based metalcore band Iwrestledabearonce, announced in 2012 that the band's vocalist Krysta Cameron was pregnant, and thus abruptly departing from the band. The group was in Dallas, Texas for a show on the 2012 Warped Tour.^[13] A Warped Tour representative suggested LaPlante,^[9] and they reached out to her to ask for her to replace Cameron. LaPlante quickly flew from Canada to perform the next day.^[13][9] Although she was a fan of the band and the announcement had addressed her as the band's "friend", she and the band had never met or even spoken to each other prior to Cameron's departure, though several of the band's peers had shown her work in Unicron to them, likening it to Iwrestledabearonce.^[9] She would go on to play with the band for the rest of the tour, and joined the band officially later that year.^[9]

Sometime after LaPlante's first album with the band, Late for Nothing (2013), Stringer joined his partner in the band.^[7] Stringer played in place of previous guitarist John Ganey during the production of Hail Mary (2015),^[14] though Ganey's formal departure was never announced. In 2015, with two weeks of tour left, the couple decided to quit the band after completing their touring commitment.^[7] LaPlante and Stringer were no longer comfortable being the "replacement people" for the original members before them, and also desired to pursue a new creative direction.^[15] No announcement by Iwrestledabearonce was ever made on the couple's departure,^[16] and the band has remained inactive since.

Musical style

LaPlante's goal for her band, Spiritbox, is to have a fluid, variable sound.^[22][10] She has cited Tesseract,^[10] Deftones,^[23] Kate Bush,^[23] Tool,^[22] and Amy Lee as influences;^[24] though Meshuggah is her leading example in heavy metal as a whole.^[25] She has also expressed admiration for Gojira,^[26] Björk,^[25] Beyoncé,^[25] and FKA Twigs.^[19]

LaPlante's first experience with the death growl came from listening to Cannibal Corpse at the age of five, which developed into a marked interest in harsh vocals during her early adolescence while listening to nu metal. At the age of eighteen, LaPlante laid down her screamed vocals for the first time on a breakdown of a song written by her brother.^[27] She said that it is necessary to push the boundaries of the metalcore genre by bringing modernity and diversity of vocal styles to stay relevant.^[19] Her vocal phrasing based on her musical expression, primarily rooted in contemporary R&B, would become a distinctive feature; she credits Doja Cat, H.E.R., SZA, and the Weeknd as influences to her clean singing.^[28] LaPlante's singing has received acclaim from music critics. Metal Injection's Max Morin hailed her as "one of the best vocalists in the modern metal scene",^[29] and Sam Coare of Kerrang! lauded the "skill, depth and ferocity" of LaPlante's ability to transition between growls and singing.^[3]

Discography

References