Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly Durand.
Hi Molly, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was raised by my witty and pragmatic single mother, Mary Carroll. For my 13th birthday she gave me work permit as a gift along with an application filled out to work at the local nunnery. In hindsight, that job was dope! It was a silent retreat house for monks and spiritual people who don’t want to talk to anybody but God…who knew I’d later relate. I felt peaceful there and even enjoyed washing dishes and prepping food. A few years back, I went to a ten days silent meditation retreat and was a bit more triggered but ever seeking. My spiritual seeking began with music and has since continued all the way to current day experimentation with sound healing and teaching that technique to regulate the nervous system. Before the age of four, my home wasn’t safe at all and full of terror so my Mom moved us to the South suburbs of Chicago and later moved to the West suburbs. There I could be around my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. My mother was one of nine and I grew up with parties! Lots of parties filled with humor, games and entertainment. They told jokes to the crowd, great Aunts played piano and I’d sing. I loved singing to them and any crowd. I was ready for the stage by age five and dreamt of it every night. Truth is before we moved away from the violence, I would sing to distract myself and escape. Still do and also to celebrate and bring joy.
I had to go to a daycare and we lived in a modest townhouse surrounded by single family homes and mansions. In kindergarten and all the way till 5th grade our bus was made fun of being the poor bus. Our bus was the low income side of town and mostly minorities. We had fun though and the rich white kids were mean. Yes, I’m white but didn’t feel accepted by any white kids during that time…because I wasn’t. Nor does this mean I understand the minority experience but it does show the caste system and bullshit that goes on due to economic imbalance and racism. This is also important to me and hopefully any musician as most great musicians that have influenced us all have been African American and ripped off and had their work stolen and re-purposed. Some made a name but many we may never know were copied and pasted. At a young age, I had a fortuitous opportunity and joined a prestigious children’s choir that took me all over the world and allowed me to sing with Lady Smith Black Mumbazzo for Pope John Paul II, solo at Carnegie Hall, etc. I was lucky enough to do big orchestral works at Orchestra Hall in Chicago conducted by the late Sir Gorge Solti and Christoph Eschenbach. We did Mahler’s 8th Symphony of 1000 and that final movement is called the Ascension to Heaven.
At about 17, I sand next to a massive pipe organ and at the end of that glorious work each performance, I ascended for sure! I’d be singing my heart out with tears rolling down my grateful little face. The level of soul-lifting-awe-inspiring music left an imprint that I’ll forever want to recreate. However, as I took a talent scholarship and went to De Paul University Music School in Chicago, it was perhaps that “euphoric-seeking” that lead to my early alcoholism. I was studying as a vocal performance major and was able to learn as much as possible and play roles such as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeny Todd but I was usually drunk and thought a location change to New York would help. It worked for six months! I was able to keep my drinking somewhat manageable with studying in New York and learning new techniques from my favorite Director Phillip George. He taught us how to tell a story when we sing and connect. The allowed my voice to soar and I started to understand how to dive into a character and let the voice follow. I took a job as a stage manager at a theater on the upper west side and watched David martin direct each night then went home and read two plays a night. I was exhilarated and soaked up every second.
Eventually, it was alcohol I soaked up more than my studies and I made a drunk decision to move to LA. A place I’d never had interest in and like many in LA, I hit rock bottom fast and hard. After some arrests and a court order…I sobered up and gave up singing for a couple of years. I wanted to detach from the identity of being a “singer” and the ego that was attached to it. And so I dove into Second City. I had taken classes in Chicago with the great Michael Gellman and had grown up seeing Second City perform at my uncle’s fundraisers. To me, it was the only thing that mattered. To fully become a character and spontaneously riff off your partner and connect and celebrate that way was my mecca. Soon I was writing one woman shows and making mockumentary films while I worked as an intern at the theater and went to every show possible. I landed a touring gig with Second City doing sketch shows on a ship…which is hilarious in and of itself. I was about three years sober at the time and found the “booze cruise” challenging while sober. I missed my improv friends who liked me, my first boyfriend, my sober friends and my routine of absorbing sketch comedy and writing. I wasn’t quite cut out for the big sea….id take the gig now that I got more sobriety under my belt though!
On February 22 of this year, I’ll have 16 sober. That never could have happened without my creative expression with music and improv. When I came back to LA from tour, I found out we had lost my close cousin Robert. Robert was like a brother, a free-spirit, wild-soul, poet, and lover of life. I was asked to sing Ave Maria at the funeral. Three years prior I made a vow to God “Let me know when its time to sing again” and this was the beginning of me jumping back into my voice now sober. My cousin Robert was 27 when he died, freak accident and tragic all around. After his death, I had dreams of him with his tambourine and handing me the microphone. I took this as an invitation. I wrote and recorded my first album with Jerome Kurtenbach. Jerome taught me how to write music and JB Studios recorded 10-12 songs. Around that time, I was asked to teach voice lessons. I was reluctant but did it anyway and have been teaching ever since. I don’t advertise, just word of mouth and the right people flow to me. I teach what I was taught by the great Norma Newton, choir and Phillip George. I incorporate meditation and body relaxation. My job is to get the singer in the body and out of their head so the voice can come forward and show us where it wants to go.
Oddly enough as a singer, I don’t believe I produce sound, I get out of the way, out of the ego/mind and observe the voice that flows THROUGH me. If that makes sense. I don’t produce I allow. Sound and the voice is connected to God, source, spirit, the unknown. Its joy and its pain and its revival and its catharsis. Its the great medicine and universal language. Now I typically sing when asked. I went to Australia and recorded some original songs with a truly remarkable producer Joel Quatermain. I still write and record originals when inspired. My favorite producers in LA to record with have been: Keveen Baudouin, Adam Traub, David Drake & Shachar Boussani. My favorite musicians to play within LA are: Forrest Robinson, Kenny Klimak, Eric Good, Seth Sylvester, Andy Fischer Price, David Barsky, Michael Bacarella, and Adam Brooks. My favorite album that I’ve recorded is with my band Scarlet Sage, we did an EP that I adore. These people made music come alive for me and collaboration with great artists is the greatest experience on earth…for me. I used to play out as often as possible and miss the days of having a residency at The Piano Bar in Hollywood before it shut down. Now I get work as a session singer and create top-line for tracks, be the voice for melodies that are already written, the backing, the harmony, you name it, I’ll record it. Recently someone from the UK hit me up on Instagram and we are sending sessions back and forth collaborating some new sounds.
Actually, I’ve been busy with session work during the 2020 pandemic. I got a new mic and recording equipment and turned a closet into a vocal booth. I work a couple of jobs full time so these days, I get up at five and try and record as much as I can before work. It’s a hustle for sure but it’s also my soul’s expression. I manage properties and working in business management for other artists who have found a way to monetize their craft. I started my own company Welch Homes LLC where we will build Eco homes on remote parcels of land in nature. These are affordable homes around 720-900 sq ft. I bought land in Joshua Tree and that will be the first build. I want a place to go and empty out so I can record and play creatively and maybe if the first build goes well, I’ll be able to create that for others as well.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Not smooth at all. You have to love music and improv and performing enough to sacrifice all the ideas of security and stability…I am crazy enough to sacrifice it all…even at the tender age of 39 😉 I’m seeing more than ever I will never be able to stop creating. I currently have a full-time job and two other property management jobs in order to be able to record and write and shoot. I’m a character actor and session singer so age will never be a hindrance for me but rather an asset.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a singer, vocal coach and character actor.
How do you define success?
Creating a way to be able to have freedom of self-expression.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.mollydurandmusic.com
- Instagram: @mollydurand
- Facebook: Molly Durand Music
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/lOy3y4UVxq0
- Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/scarlet-sage/1457106248
Image Credits:
Mallory Morrison Photography, Scarlet Sage is my band and we created an amazing EP
