Sharlene has been playing music since she was old enough to sit still in a chair. Piano was her introduction to instruments but her professional training is violin. As a means to rebel against the conformity of classical music, she started playing guitar and writing lyrics about love and betrayal. Sharlene met Ruth in college and played lead guitar and keys alongside Ruth in all-girl band 5FOX4. Shortly before the formation of SEXCoffee in 2007, Sharlene had switched to bass guitar as a fill-in after the original bass player pursued a different project. She’s been filling in on bass ever since.
Sharlene and Ruth cowrite all of SEXCoffee’s music and Sharlene provides backing vocals to a majority of the songs. This musical relationship has been their core since 2003, allowing them to also play acoustically as a duo.
Sharlene lives in Providence RI and is heavily involved in the local music scene. Besides SEXCoffee, Sharlene is also currently playing bass and singing backups for pop rock band The Dust Ruffles. Previous projects include Pistol Shot Gypsy, Malyssa and the Liberators, and Steve Donovan and the IRS.
Sharlene plays Modulus and Traben 5 string basses. Her rig is a TC electronics RH450 with two RS210’s vertically stacked. Effects used are TC Electronic Flackback Delay and Electroharmonix Bass Big muff.