We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Cai a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Laura, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I’ve worked almost exclusively as a musician for most of my adult life. I am now earning a full-time living as a freelancer, but it took some time to be able to be fully self-sufficient.

As I look back on my journey, there are a few major steps I would lay out if I were to give advice to my younger self:

1. Take care of your mental health.

I had a lot of unresolved issues from childhood that I never really had an opportunity to work out until I got into therapy as an adult. I also have clinical depression and struggle with anxiety, and getting on the proper medication was HUGE in being able to get through my day to day. It will always be something I will have to manage, but getting a handle on it and maintaining it over the years has made a huge difference.

2. Take risks.

Change terrifies me, but the most formative times of my life have been when something happened that forced me out of my comfort zone and made me seek out new opportunities in order to survive, which ultimately led me to a place of thriving. I need to remind myself even now that even if things are uncomfortable for a time, there will be something glorious waiting on the other side.

3. Believe in yourself!

I know it sounds cliché, but this also goes hand in hand with the last point. I think as artists we all struggle with imposter syndrome to some degree. I have days where I feel like I’m my most badass self, and other days where I’m wondering why I ever decided to go down this route in the first place. Those times of self doubt can be crippling, and at their worst they have kept me from pursuing and trying new things! I try to remember those moments throughout my career where I’ve felt my best, or music I’ve put out that I’m proud of. I remind myself that doing music is a part of who I am, and I move forward.

4. Know who is in your corner.

I am excessively hard on myself. I’m actually currently working on this in therapy right now. But I know I can reach out to people I love and who I know care about me—my family, my partner, a few close friends—to give me a reality check when I need one. Also, just having support in general is important, but I think especially as creatives our work can be so personal. It’s important to have people around you to build you up.

Laura, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I think I’ve always known I was meant to do music professionally. It’s been such an innate part of my life for as long as I can remember. My mom put me in Kindermusik as a child, and at my teachers’ recommendation I started piano lessons at age 3. I went on to study piano privately for 14 years, cello for eight years, and voice for five years. I am self-taught on acoustic guitar and bass, and I grew up performing in choir, band, and orchestra. Growing up, I also played the lead and sang in the chorus in several musical theatre productions at school and in my community. Before my senior year of high school, I was accepted to Interlochen Arts Camp, which led to my graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy.

As an adult, I’ve worked professionally in a variety of musical settings. I hosted an open mic at a coffee shop. I led worship at a mega church for a several years where I was responsible for scheduling players, running rehearsals, and arranging music. I’ve performed at huge conferences with thousands of people in attendance. I’ve worked as a session player and arranger for a number of different projects as a cellist, keyboardist, and vocalist. I’ve worked with Grammy nominated producer, Oh, Hush! and have been featured on commercials for CBS and Walmart. I served as an opening act and auxiliary instrument band member for YouTube artist Alex G’s (now Alex Blue) Share Your Story tour in 2015. In recent years, I’ve been freelancing as an all request piano player for piano bars and private events in the Chicagoland area.

I’m currently in transition. I plan to continue gigging but I’m hoping to develop my skills more extensively in audio engineering. I’ve worn so many different hats over the years and have enjoyed most of my experiences, but I believe that being in the studio mixing and producing is where my true passion lies.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Sometimes I get a little envious of the younger generation. I’m a millennial, so I would say I grew up as the Internet did. The resources I had available to me as a kid were mostly things that were immediately around me. Now there are so many websites, online classes, YouTube tutorials, TikTok videos and the like where you can discover all sorts of new things. You can find lessons online to learn new instruments. You can find pages dedicated to teaching audio engineering and production. I’m grateful to have those resources available to me now, but sometimes I wish I could have discovered those things when I was much younger. It would give me more time and more of an advantage in an already heavily saturated industry.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think often times there are people who are not artists or creatives that see what we do for a living and assume that because we get to do what we love it means that we don’t work hard or that what we do isn’t worth what we get paid. It’s important for people to understand that those of us who are truly good at what we do have been studying and honing our craft for most of our lives. When I was a kid, I was at lessons multiple times a week. Many of my weekends were spent at competitions or recitals. As I got older, I was going to auditions and master classes and even left home before I finished high school to attend a performing arts boarding school. Yes, doing music is fun and it is a privilege to be able to pursue my passion for a living, but it has also come with many, many years of practice, hard work, and sacrifice. I have dedicated most of my life to get to where I am now, and that’s not to be taken lightly.

On a slightly different note, my neurological wiring especially as it relates to music deeply affects the way I see the world. I have perfect pitch, which has for the most part been a benefit throughout my life but it definitely has its drawbacks. For example, using the transpose button on an electric keyboard is very confusing for me, and when I was in high school I had a choir teacher who would make us sing our a cappella pieces a half step up or down from the written key which made it very challenging for me to perform them without doing some major mental gymnastics. I also have synesthesia, more specifically grapheme-color (where one associates letters and numbers with colors) and chromesthesia (hearing tones and key signatures in colors). I actually didn’t know the name of this sensory phenomenon until I was seventeen.

I don’t often share this information with people openly, but they are important parts of myself that really have played a huge role in my journey as a creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lauracai.com
• Instagram: @thelauracai (https://www.instagram.com/thelauracai/)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelauracai
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/lauraevelyncai
• Other: TikTok: @thelauracai (https://www.tiktok.com/@thelauracai)

Image Credits
Gary Watson, Sam Parquette