Meet Lauren Ruth Ward

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Ruth Ward.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Lauren Ruth. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I started writing music when I was a teenager. Playing guitar and singing and writing was strictly a cathartic hobby for me. Some doors opened up when I started posting videos on YouTube. Those connections more or less led me to realize I needed to explore “being a musician.” After a couple trips to California, I quit my job of doing hair for  6 1/2  years and moved my life to LA in January of 2015.

Just me and my guitar and sometimes a drummer, I played about a show a week from April ’15 to November when I formed a band of a rotating cast of talented friends and released my first pieces of music, a five song folk EP. I continue to play a show one to two shows a week sometimes with a full band sometimes solo/duo. I also started co-writing for the first time with my lead guitarist Eduardo (my lyrics and melody, him on guitar).

At my second residency Dec of 2016, my partner LP gave me a wireless mic. I ran around the stage and even on top of the bar for my first time. That’s when I realized how I needed to present my message: with full emotion, hands-free, dancing. In Oct 2016, I started working my PR agent Mikel Corrente of Purple Bite PR. I started releasing material immediately and frequently. We signed to Paradigm booking April 2017.

Right after we finished our first album, Weekday Records signed us (in August of 2017). September 29, 2017, we sold out our album release show at the Bootleg Theatre and also met our manager Vickie Starr of Girlie Action. The team was now complete. To give my new team some time to work, the release of our debut album was pushed to Feb 9th, 2018. January of 2018 we had a successful Residency at the Echo/Echoplex which lead to us selling out the Troubadour on March 29, 2018.

I went on my first tour summer of 2018. We headline the El Rey December 6, 2018. I am now 30, and I am so thankful for this journey. I am learning about an industry I’ve always wanted to have a first-hand experience in. And most importantly, I am learning about myself and seeing the world clearer than I ever have. I feel I am right where I need to be.

Great, 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?
It’s been both smooth and rough. I am lucky bc my message is being received. There are so many of us who write from our life’s trajectory, and I feel my message is what people need right now. Not to discredited my hard work, but I see the element of luck very clearly. Luck is timing. My stories coincidentally walk hand in hand with some issues people are going through right now. Unfortunately, I’ve also been talked down to a lot mainly by men in the industry.

Most of them don’t realize the sexism in their speech (internalized sexism). Before moving to LA, I moved to NYC to “try out a manager” who’s intentions were to reform me into what he wanted but pretended that I was steering the ship. His attempt at manipulating me paired with his inappropriate comments about he and I being a couple both frightened and bummed me out to the point that I felt completely defeated and moved back to MD where I’d hibernate for a year.

I turned down some great opportunities that year of hibernation. It’s also a very scary thing to sign your art away (and so quickly). There are a million ways to do this “make money off our art thing” and taking the next step feels disingenuous and disruptive. But I do it. Being on a label is hard. Even on one like mine that lets me have creative control, you still have to take commerce in to consideration allllllllll the time, and that can suck the fun out of your mind.

We’d love to hear more about what you do.
I am a creator who feeds off encouragement, love and art. My partner’s talent and hard work are the most inspiring. I take pride in my team and my band. I am always checking in with myself to make sure my surroundings are positive for me and I them. Most times I am in a very fortunate state surrounded by people I can be myself around and that is when I am my best self.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Write your own lyrics. Mean what you say. Don’t be flaky. Check in with yourself daily to make sure you’re not getting distracted by the nonsense. Give yourself time to make big decisions EVEN IF someone is pressuring you to answer fast, honesty takes time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurenruthwardmusic.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenruthward/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurenruthwardmusic
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenruthward

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