Interview with Singer-Songwriter Lauren Mettler

Lauren Mettler - Photo by Adine Schoonmaker


            When listening to Lauren Mettler's album "A Handful of Soil" you can almost imagine that it was a record made 50 years ago. It has the distinct, quietly poetic sound of Pete Seeger, Fairport Convention or Kate Wolff, exuding an almost timeless quality. Lauren's voice is reminiscent of the sounds you might hear pouring out of a 1960's village Cafe, a rich mix of folk and blues that is lyrically strong to its core.



AHC: What has this journey, this life in music, so far, been like for you, the highs and the lows, and what life lessons do you feel you've picked up along the way?

Lauren: What has this life in music been like… That’s a big question! Music started for me as a social thing. I made my closest friends in high school trading songs and critiquing back and forth. It was a means of communicating. Many of these friends and I tried out a few band combinations before I landed in an early version of my brother, Joseph’s band, Rabbit in the Rye. This was challenging, as we were a six-piece band. There were personality clashes, and lack of practice, questions of commitment, etc. Most notably, though, I had a body of work that I wanted to play, and it was competing for the spotlight in Joe’s group. I broke off in order to work on my own projects. Since then, I have experienced some hurdles in getting my own career underway, the most significant of those being challenges with my health. My most recent accomplishment, the double-release of my first two albums, has been three years in the making. It has been frustrating at times, mostly because I have had people waiting on pre-orders of the albums. Ultimately, though, it has been a very rewarding process, otherwise I never would have made it to production. I think that most importantly, I have learned that you cannot rush the creative process, and that you have to be patient with yourself. More generally, music has taught me to encapsulate my experiences as stories, to process my experiences emotionally as lessons, and to collaborate: to listen, to critique, and to allow others to do the same for me.


AHC: What first drew you to music and what was your early musical environment like growing up? Were there pivotal songs for you then that just floored you the moment you heard them?

Lauren: Music chose me, not the other way around. I was lucky to be raised by two musicians, so I was pretty immersed from day one. My mom was a solo singer-songwriter, going by the stage name Diana Lynn and my dad was a lead guitarist in a Blues rock band called Bag ‘A’ Bones. There were definitely songs that were pivotal and foundational to my musical and personal journey. I wouldn’t say I was really “floored” by any music in particular. I think as a child, I appreciated music more on a visceral level, without much conscious awareness of the craft. “Wayfaring Stranger,” an old folk tune, was pretty formative and also “The City of New Orleans,” by Steve Goodman. 


AHC: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote?

Lauren: The first song that I ever “wrote” was kind of strange, actually. I was eight or nine years old, and it was a very short, haunting song about death. I remember it vividly, though I never really wrote it down. It, perhaps, had some Tom Petty influence. At age eleven, the first song I remember actually recording in written form is one I called “Eagles Wings and Moonbeams.” It was about a boy in my class who I had a crush on. Do those count? It’s funny to go back that far, because I started early. I guess the first song that I would consider a serious milestone in my repertoire would be when I was sixteen and wrote a song called “Snapshot,” about the last Russian Tsar and his family, inspired by history class.


AHC: Who are some of your musical inspirations? Which musicians have you learned the most from?

Lauren: Another big one! My early influences include Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Tracy Chapman. Some Rolling Stones. My mom sang a lot of jazz standards and listened to some classic jazz Greats, like Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James. My dad’s band played blues-rock, so I would say I have heavy influences from there. I listened to a lot of 90’s pop music as a kid, including the Hanson brothers (who taught me how to harmonize), Paula Cole, Sheryl Crow, TLC, and Alanis Morissette. I have some world music influence from years of having only one viewer-paid channel on our dish called “World Link.” It was a non-profit organization that tried to discover musical talents in underexposed parts of the world. In my teen years, all I listened to was musical theatre. In college, a lot of Bob Dylan. Through friends I’ve met, and other musicians I’ve played with, I, now too, listen to a lot of oldies. I love any folk music. I especially love old folk music, and how it differs from culture to culture. Some modern artists I listen to and admire are Devon Sproule, Sarah Jarosz, Abigail Williams, Ray LaMontagne and Fleet Foxes.


AHC: What do you think makes for a good song, as you're writing and composing, is there a sudden moment when you know you've found the right mix, that perfect angle of light, so to speak?

Lauren: To me, a good song is one that is relatable. Firstly, the content must be coherent and secondly, relevant. I experience many “aha!” moments in writing any given song. Each realization is unique to the song itself. Some songs will come like lightning flashes, and some, however, will take years to get past certain stumbling blocks and finally find what it is that particular song was missing.


AHC: How has your music evolved since you first began playing?

Lauren: My music has evolved since I was young into a finer craft. I am more aware of how to build a song, how to create a song structure, and how to lyricize my ideas. I have become a multi-instrumentalist over the past five years (since age 22), after starting on the guitar at age 9. I have found that writing on different instruments has made me think of music in different ways. Each instrument has its own sort of “voice.” I will only write certain types of songs on the ukulele, or on the banjo. Each one summons different emotional timbres from me.


AHC: Do you consider music to be a type of healing art, the perfect vehicle through which to translate a feeling, a state of rupture, hope lost and regained? Does the writing and creating of the song save you in the kinds of ways that it saves us, the listener?

Lauren: Music is one of the ultimate Healing Arts, absolutely. I think a song that reaches people on a fundamental level must have moved the artist in a profound way.


AHC: What are your fondest musical memories? In your house? In your neighborhood or town? On-tour, on-the-road?

Lauren: Some of my fondest memories playing music at home are my early performances with my mom. She would feature me harmonizing with her in some songs, and I cherish those as my first performances. I also look back very fondly on my writing sessions with Ellen Fagan, my earliest and longest-standing writing collaborator. She and I shared a lot through music and continue to, to this day. I will always be very fond of a performance that Ellen, my brothers, Joseph and Isaac, Stephanie Joyce, and Adrian Enscoe put together as the band, Ragamuffin, at the Barge Canal Coffee House. It was organized fairly haphazardly, but energetically, was a really magical performance. And finally, I will never forget the crowd that rallied around me for my kickstarter fundraiser festival. It was a moving experience to have so many talented friends come together and play music on a stage we built on my parents’ property, in support of my first recording project.


AHC: What would be your dream gig, if you were asked to go on tour and open up for one of your musical heroes or heroines? 

Lauren: My dream gig would be to open for Bob Dylan. Of anyone, it is his songwriting I admire the most.


AHC: Do you have any words of advice for other musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are just starting out and trying to find their voice and their way in this world?

Lauren: My advice is just to stay true to yourself. I think it’s important to maintain your own voice and craft, despite any pressures telling you what is or is not marketable. The important thing is the integrity of the message, and the purity of the creation. Make sure that your audience receives it just as you intend it. If you write and play from the heart, then you are assuredly providing something that can reach someone else’s.


AHC: Do you have any new projects in the works you'd like to tell people about?

Lauren: My first two albums were just released this October 15th. One, “Patchwork,” was recorded in studio with full instrumentation. "Patchwork" brought together many peoples' efforts, friends, local musicians, and took a considerable amount of time and attention from all who contributed, so like a patchwork quilt, was assembled with different shades, colors, and influences over the years it has been in progress. The other, “A Handful of Soil,” was recorded solo, at home, and is a raw, journalistic showcase of my more recent songwriting. I recorded “A Handful of Soil” in my own childhood bedroom, which I converted for a few months, into a studio. It was tracked entirely by myself. This one, in production, is more bare-bones and raw. There is more of a focus on the lyrics, with only basic instrumentation, but the songs are more elaborate in content and mature in musical composition. In contrast to "Patchwork," "Handful of Soil" was created more organically and quickly, much like scooping up a handful of earth, rich and ready to be sown. Either or both can be streamed and purchased at laurenmettler.bandcamp.com.



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