Check Out Laura Mustard’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Mustard. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Ok, so I begged my mom for piano lessons when I was 6 after reading the Goosebumps book, Piano Lessons Can Be Murder. Totally normal reaction to a ghost story about a piano, right? But it sparked this drive to play music. I started playing percussion in the school band at 10 and I still jump on percussion or set from time to time today. In high school, I discovered you could write pop songs on piano and it seemed like this big realization that the piano wasn’t strictly a classical instrument (thank you Gavin DeGraw and Alicia Keys). I fell in love with putting my thoughts to a melody and creating something new that helped me understand myself better. I really started singing out of necessity cause I realized as a teenager in Connecticut if I didn’t sing the songs, I wrote then no one else would. From there, I started playing every open mic and song contest I could find in college. After college, I played in two bands in Western Massachusetts. I played keyboard in a jam band called Stillbridge and drums in a classic rock band called SilverTone5. Then I visited Nashville on a vacation and immediately fell in love with the songwriting community here. I moved to Nashville soon after and I have been writing songs and releasing my own music as an independent artist ever since. I’ve had my first “cut” as a songwriter, put out two EPs, got to create music videos for my last EP, and started learning how to play the banjo since I’ve been in Nashville. I’ve definitely been busy! Now I’m gearing up to release my first full album this summer called Typewriter! I’m wicked excited to be sharing new music! 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
“Nobody’s road is ever even”… to quote one of my own songs, haha. It’s definitely a challenge. As a musician, and especially as an independent artist, you have to get used to hearing “no” a lot and realize that art is subjective. I’m learning not to take it personally and to just keep taking more swings instead. 

I think one of my biggest struggles is just time. I work full time and also have medical conditions that I manage so there’s always a lot on my plate. I work as a speech pathologist and I’m so grateful to have such a meaningful “day job” where I get to help children communicate, but it’s a full-time job…and music is also a full-time job. So… when do I sleep, right? Haha! But I try to approach it from a place of play and fun, rather than “not enough”. Like I’ve done podcast interviews in my work scrubs in an empty therapy treatment room at the end of the day. I’ve written songs on lunch breaks and in between speech therapy sessions. I’ve driven straight from work to the studio. I’ve taken work home to do on my laptop in between sending music emails while watching old episodes of ER (my comfort show, everyone has one, right?!). I just fit it in where I can and try to take walks and play music at home cause it’s important to make activities that recharge me priorities too. There’s no such thing as a “perfect work/life balance”. We’re all just making it up as we go along. 

My medical adventures also create their own unique struggles too. In 2020, like two weeks before I was about to release my first single for the Treehouse project, I had a urinary blockage that resulted in 3 operations over the next month that re-routed my urinary tract. I now have a permanent suprapubic catheter that I will always use. I remember I had an operation on the 10th and my single came out on the 12th. I did a live stream on the release night but my abdomen was still sore from bladder surgery, so it was hard to sing. And then the night before my third surgery, I heard my song on the radio for the first time ever (which was “Nobody’s Road”…see it all ties together! haha). But that whole year of 2020 was such a strange mix of highs and lows with all these lifelong dreams happening (like releasing my first music video, hearing my music on the radio, getting featured in a print magazine for the first time, etc.,) while I was having operations and watching my body change in such a huge way. There’s physical pain of healing after surgery, but there is an emotional experience to watching your body change when you really don’t want it to. It gives this realization of impermanence and a lack of control over your own body, which can be hard when you’re confronted with that vulnerability. I have a song called “Show and Tell” on my new album that plays with these themes more too. I know this is different than the typical “musician’s struggle,” but I try to share my story whenever I can to give more representation to people with urinary and bowel differences. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So, I’m an independent artist and a songwriter in Nashville. I write my own music and I guess I’m known for writing more “positivity jams”. “Nobody’s Road” is a positivity jam, for instance. And I released a single in March called “The Type” that makes me feel better about the constant comparison on social media. My last EP (called Treehouse) had songs that focused on vulnerability and shame. Not “positive” topics in general, but I like diving into those deeper topics that help me understand myself. Don’t get me wrong, I can write a love song too! But lately, I’ve been more interested in telling other stories besides love stories. 

And in 2020 with all the medical adventures I described in the last question, I started talking in interviews and posting on social media about my medical issues more openly. I think that sets me apart a bit. Personally, it feels good to not have to be hiding that part of my life, and I am proud to be a voice speaking up on and giving representation to these conditions. I was born with a cluster of birth defects called VATER syndrome (feel free to Google it!) and I also have a latex allergy. As a kid, I felt like I was the only one in the world with these issues and if I had found an interview of an artist talking about a latex allergy or a feeding pump or catheter, it would have meant a lot. So, I try to bring it up when I can. And urinary and digestive issues can have such stigma and shame around them because using the bathroom is a weird/taboo topic in our culture. So, I am trying to break that stigma by talking about it. And those themes of body positivity and self-acceptance naturally work their way into my music. “Hide and Seek” in another song on my upcoming Typewriter album that talks about my medical adventures too. 

On a lighter note, I play and write on piano and banjo, which sets me apart a little bit from the sea of guitar players in Nashville, haha! 

What makes you happy?

What a cool question! The first thing that popped into my head is that my dog makes me really happy. Dogs in general make me happy. But my dog Stella is an especially good girl who is snoring on the couch next to me right now. I think dogs make me happy because they are just these sweet beings of unconditional love and happiness, yet each with their own little personality. 

Singing makes me happy. Like if I haven’t done it in a while and then I go back to it, it’s always this feeling of “Oh yeah! This feels amazing and THIS is why I moved to Nashville. To have more opportunities to do THIS every day.” Writing a new song makes me happy because it’s exciting to create something new out of nothing. To tie your thoughts around melodies and have this thing outside of yourself that you can now listen to and even put out into the world… this little idea is now on a radio station or a playlist or a TikTok video or whatever… just stepping back and staring at that process just makes me so grateful that I get to make music every time I think about it. 

Walt Whitman’s poetry makes me happy. His “Song of Myself” and “I Sing the Body Electric” really helped me accept my body for what it is, with all of its imperfections. With a birth defect or chronic illness, it can feel like you’re always fighting your body to make it do something it just wasn’t built to do, but Walt Whitman’s overwhelming positivity and celebration for the body just as it is was really life-changing for me…and makes me really happy. 

I like this game! I could go on and list more… my family, my partner, my friends, nature, hiking, Mary Oliver’s poetry about nature and dogs, typewriters, books, black tea, meditation, hats, dog videos on the internet… there’s lots to be happy about. 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.lauramustard.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/lauramustard
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lauramustardmusic
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/mustardlaura
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/lauramustardmusic
• Other: www.tiktok.com/@lauramustardmusic

Image Credits
Nicole Photos
Matt Hoots