Laura Clapp on Rising Up, Raising Girls, and Embracing Self-Discovery in Music

Musician Laura Clapp loves Connecticut, but like a lot of creatives, the Guilford native couldn’t wait to get out of her home state when she graduated from high school. 

The bright lights and starry appeal of city life called to her, pulling her halfway across the country. After initially setting out to study opera at DePaul University in Chicago, Laura headed back East to Berklee College of Music in Boston one year later, before transplanting to Nashville in 2001. It was a big leap of faith, as the only person Laura knew there was a Berklee alumni coordinator.

“In 2001, when I moved there, New York and LA were really expensive and Nashville was still really affordable,” Laura recalls of her first year in Music City. “I got 10 jobs and I waitressed.”

But about a year in, she got her first significant career break as a demo vocalist. 

“I sang on was a song called “Room to Breathe,” which is Reba McEntire’s title cut off that album,” says Laura. “That was kind of cool for my first one out of the gate.” 

Additional gigs followed, from performance slots at hip nightspots to a job as a song plugger for a music publisher. Inspired by the glamour and the hustle, Laura put out a ton of her own music, showcasing her insanely powerful vocal range and songwriting prowess. She made all the right industry connections, too.

So it was a little surprising to hear that she left in 2008, after just seven years and a lot of momentum.

“Because I moved out of Nashville right after I got married, it kind of made sense to have that next jump,” Laura explains. “I’d been there for seven years, which was a good chunk of time. I was sad because they call it a five-year town. You really have to put in the time in Nashville for people to trust you to work on their sessions and work on their songs. And so I’d put in the time and things were really starting to happen in some exciting ways. But personally, I felt it was time to move. So it didn’t feel like I was leaving anything behind.”

Laura knew the move would change her trajectory a bit. But what she wasn’t prepared for was how different her life would look once she had two young daughters in tow, and settled back into life in Guilford, Connecticut. For example: She scored a coveted spot as a backup singer for an internationally touring artist …  only to be told by said artist that becoming a mom would end her career. 

And while balancing her day job working for a sound company and her new life as a parent of two daughters (Ellie, 15, and Blake, 12) recording songs took longer. 

But all of that hard work, along with the unexpected journey of parenthood, fueled a fresh phase of self-discovery. Laura stopped worrying about genre or positioning. And when she untethered herself, the magic happened. Empowering anthems with searing rock n’ roll guitar solos and emotional vocal belt-outs poured out of her. Intimate, acoustic-guitar-driven storytelling fueled songs with nostalgic, nineties-country vibes.

After six years writing and recording music, and collaborating with talented friends, her forthcoming album, Chameleon, is set for release later this year via Bigger Beast Records.

The album’s first single, “Rise Up” drops June 5.

“It’s called Chameleon because when people ask me, what do I sound like? Who do I sound like? I never have a good answer,” says Laura. “So I just decided to stop fighting that and put out an album that sounds like a bunch of different things. There’s still a common thread through it, I think of just self-discovery and empowerment and listening to your inner voice.” 

We caught up with Laura to learn more about her epic personal and sonic journeys. 

The following transcript is an excerpt of our full interview with Laura, available on Rockmommy’s YouTube channel (below). 

Rockmommy (Marisa Torrieri Bloom): Hi Laura! Tell us a little bit about your origin story!

Laura Clapp: I am from Connecticut and I am now living in my same hometown in Connecticut. After I had kids, it was time to move back to the village with my village, but yeah, I moved around a lot though. I lived in Chicago, I lived in Boston, I lived in Nashville, I lived in Cleveland and then made my way back here in 2013.

Rockmommy: When did you really be like, I gotta get out of here? What was the event?

Laura Clapp: Like, high school: Girl, I could not get far enough away! I would have gone to California if I wasn’t quite as scared. That was a little too far for me. So I split the difference and ended up in Chicago for freshman year of college at DePaul. But yeah, I needed to get out of this town and see what there was out there.

Rockmommy: You performed a lot in high school. Did you get the music bug then, or was it before then?

Laura Clapp: It was actually before then. it was really fifth grade talent show … I played an original song. I don’t even know how I started writing an original song at 11, but I did. And I played it and people liked it, so I guess that’s when I kind of got bitten by the bug.

Rockmommy: So what happened in college?

Laura Clapp: I started at DePaul University in Chicago my freshman year of college. I was studying opera and had this grand idea that I was going to study opera and get this great classical, you know, bedrock and foundation and then gig all over Chicago. Well, fun fact, when you’re 18 years old, you can’t gig because you can’t get into any of the bars. So I had nowhere to play and I wasn’t loving it. I loved the people. I love the city, but I just didn’t love it. So I transferred to Berklee in Boston for my sophomore year of college. And that’s where I ended up finishing.

Rockmommy: So then you somehow you ended up, went to Nashville, a very specific Music City. What drove you there? Like why not LA or Manhattan? 

Laura Clapp: I didn’t want to starve to death, to be perfectly honest. In 2001, when I moved there, New York and LA were really, expensive and Nashville was still really affordable. So I had gone down there for a trip with Berklee ,..  they do a spring trip … and I fell in love with it because the vibe was so cool, the people were so cool and then I was like, ‘I could do this,’ you know?

I moved there knowing exactly one person, the alumni coordinator at Berklee. And that was it. And I got 10 jobs and I waitressed. then I got my first demo gig a year in to be in there and started getting some other stuff from there. And it was really fun.

Rockmommy: So what was that like, demoing? Or doing a demo gig?

Laura Clapp: For demo gigs or demo sessions, they send you a track that you have to learn, usually, as the vocalist. As the instrumentalist, you show up and you have charts and you just play song after song after song. But as a vocalist, you’re usually given a little bit more time to process and internalize. And so, yeah, so I would show up and sing it and record it. And then that song would be used to shop the song to other artists.

So the first demo I sang on was a song called “Room to Breathe,” which is Reba McEntire’s title cut off that album. So I sang that song and then it was played for Reba and she was like, “I’m gonna cut it.” So that was kind of cool for my first one out of the gate.

Rockmommy: That’s nice! Because of you, she could feel the emotion and wanted to capture that for herself. Like that is so cool. Did you have an interest in anything that lean country originally? I feel like you have to at least appreciate country when you go to Nashville, right? Because it’s part of just the industry to make money.

Laura Clapp: You really need to appreciate songwriting and as a craft. And that was what was so compelling and interesting to me because co-writing was something I’d never done before and that it thrives on co-writing that city. and it just gives you a whole new appreciation for the just entire process. 

Rockmommy: How did your career expand into song plugging?

Laura Clapp: So I got a job working at this place called Paramount Music Group, which is a horrible place. It was essentially a place where people could send in their songs, loose term, of lyric sheets and have them recorded by musicians, Nashville musicians. And then we would have, we would shop those songs. We’d have a song plugger go into the publishing houses and play those for the song placement people and managers. and see if they wanted to do them.

Well, there were some songs that would come into Paramount Music Group that were actually great. And so I was the plugger for them for a bit. But on Music Row, it was so trippy. I was what, 24 years old, 25, going into these major publishing groups and major labels, sitting in an office across the table from this exec and being like, “what are you looking for? Here, I have that song, I have this song.” And just knowing which one to pull and had this like … MP3 player that I brought that I just set up and played the songs. They say ‘yes,’ ‘no, pass,’ ‘hold,’ whatever and it was really cool.

Rockmommy: That instinct, how has that served you in your own work? I love your album Leaving Nashvegas. 

Laura Clapp: I write from life experience. I’m not one of those people who can do that very well when I’m watching somebody else and write their story. Although I have had some songs and this album that’s coming out, Chameleon, has a lot of that where I’ve taken from others. But Leaving Nashvegas was a very personal album and it was just written from my stories from moving to Nashville till when I left.

Rockmommy: When I left Brooklyn and decided to get married and have children, there was a moment where part of me was like, ‘I have given up on being a big star in this day.’  Was there anything like that in you? 

Laura Clapp: Yeah, I think because I moved out of Nashville right after I got married, it kind of made sense to have that next jump. I’d been there for seven years, which was a good chunk of time. I was sad because they call it a five-year town. You really have to put in the time in Nashville for people to trust you to work on their sessions and work on their songs. And so I’d put in the time and things were really starting to happen in some exciting ways. But personally, I felt it was time to move. So it didn’t feel like I was leaving anything behind. I do miss that city desperately though. And so anytime I get a chance to go back for work, I’m like, ‘yes, I’ll be there. Sign me up.’ 

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Rockmommy: So what happened then? Like you, I know you obviously you work for Shure. What about your own art? Was it put on the back burner when you moved back to Connecticut? Did it look different when you became a parent?

Laura Clapp: In 2011, yep. It looked different because before Shure, I worked for TC Helicon, which is a vocal effects processor company, and TC Electronic. I got hired by them in, I guess, 2006, 2007. And so I was there and kind of establishing that portion of my career before I had kids. And I also toured as a background singer during that time, and I got that background singing gig because of what I was doing with TC Helicon.

So that part of my identity changed … because artist I was I was told once I had kids I was done. 

Rockmommy: My gosh, wait, wait, they would basically that you because you couldn’t be available to tour all the time and then you wouldn’t get these opportunities again?

Laura Clapp: Even worse, they believe that the mom should stay home. Full stop.

Rockmommy: Wow. Wow. Full stop. How did you respond to something like that? 

Laura Clapp: It was very shocking. And I guess, though, at that point, because I was touring in Australia and Japan and like some pretty faraway places… I was ready to also again, make that change and be home to be a mom. But it was just this kind of like major paradigm shift and loss of identity a little bit to be like, ‘you want to be a mom? Well, now you can’t do this.’ And it worked itself out though, because I couldn’t really do my career and be a background singer and be a mom. 

Rockmommy: Now you have a new record coming out and we’re so excited about it. Tell us, tell us more.

Laura Clapp: It’s called Chameleon because when people ask me, what do I sound like? Who do I sound like? I never have a good answer, Marisa. So I just decided to stop fighting that and put out an album that sounds like a bunch of different things. So the songs, there’s 10 songs on the album and it’s taken six years to create and get out. That’s a whole other story for another episode. And the songs are everywhere from straight ahead rock to country to a very singer-songwriter-ish kind of arrangement. So it’s all over the place, but still there’s a common thread through it, I think, I hope, of just self-discovery and empowerment and listening to your inner voice.

Rockmommy: So, you’ve got the vocal chops. Is there any genre that you were surprised that you’re like, you know what, I need to do more of this? Is there anything that you did that was like a little bit or maybe radically different?

Laura Clapp: Well, I think as I’ve gotten older, anytime I get a chance to do like straight ahead rock, like Zeppelin kind of rock, that is my jam. Like I love to just scream. So like scream with purpose and pitch. So that’s been something to kind of discover and learn about myself. I can be really quiet and delicate, but I love to just let it out. So that’s been fun.

Rockmommy: That’s great. What’s first single that’s dropping? I know it’s soon. Probably by the time we to this.

Laura Clapp: Soon! It’s called “Rise Up.” And it’s all about just listening to that inner voice, like I said, and standing up and not backing down and becoming that phoenix rising from the ash.

Rockmommy: I love it. What’s your favorite, your kid’s favorite song of yours? I know you have two girls.

Laura Clapp: I think my youngest likes my song “First Shade of Winter,” which is on an EP that I did in 2012. I don’t know what Ellie likes. She’s, you know, she’s 15, so she’s like, ‘whatever mom.’ But they sing along.

Rockmommy: I’m like, I wonder if her daughter’s like, singing this with her, like in the shower, when they’re getting ready for middle school.

Laura Clapp: No, no, no. Mom is lame. Mom is a dork. And they’re like, ‘you’re still doing that. OK.’ But no, I’m just kidding. They’re very supportive. But I think it’s probably cringy as hell for them sometimes.

Rockmommy: What advice do you have for the other rock and roll moms out there? The country moms? The opera moms?

Laura Clapp: Don’t ever stop. You’re gonna feel like it’s selfish to keep doing it or you don’t have enough time or you’re tired. Just don’t stop. Just do something to keep that flame going. just, yeah, just let yourself have that.

Interview by Marisa Torrieri Bloom, editor and founder of Rockmommy.