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

Alright, Jade thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

From the earliest age I can remember, I wanted to be on a stage performing. I was the happiest as a child when I was doing something with the performing arts. As I moved into my teen years, it was still a driving passion, but the older I grew, the more I doubted that I could do something in the arts as a living. By the time I was ready to go to college, I had a few key people in my life convince me that I was not as talented as I thought, and it was enough to discourage me from taking the risk of studying music or theater. But something good came out of this season of letting go of a dream. First of all, I went through college without finding my identity in music. I had to figure out who I was and what my value was as a person without being known as an artist. I think this was really crucial for me- my entire identity did not need to come from a job, skill, passion, or specific career. Only then was I able to have a good relationship with my dream. I could pursue it, but didn’t need to be defined by it. It reminds me of letting a seed die and be buried and then come to life again. I am what most people would consider on the older side of joining a new band and pursuing music, but it feels like perfect timing for me personally. I spent a valuable season of my life serving my husband’s dream (he pursued medical school late in life), and I found out that I was valuable as a person without having to accomplish something specific. I was content with who I was, and serving those around me, so now being able to pursue music as more of the forefront of my life, it feels like icing the cake, not the whole cake.

Jade, 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 am a singer in a new band called The Band Table. We are a Christian band with a sound that is part folk-pop-rock and honestly we have the best time ever. The Band Table released our debut album on February 2, 2024, and we are currently on our first tour. We’ve been traveling to some wonderful cities, and are loving making live music together, and I think we bring joy wherever we go. I am signed as both an artist and songwriter with People&Songs, and love being a part of this community of fellow artists. I’m also in the process of finishing up my album as an individual artist as well, and my first single as Jade Lundgren is scheduled to be out on all platforms in May 2024. Though I love traveling, I am very rooted in my hometown as a Pastor at my local church outside of Pittsburgh PA. I received my M.A. from Wheaton College in Spiritual Formation and Ministry, and I love reading and studying the Bible, praying with people, and getting to support those in my faith community.
And though I have less time now to work on it, I dabble in design, particularly interior design. I have used instagram to share home design inspiration, as well as my music, and would love to encourage others to live a life of depth, love, and creativity.
I married my college football-player-crush, who lovingly supports all of my passions, and we have three incredible daughters.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

A book that has been very formative for me on my creative journey is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I highly recommend going through the book, which is more of a course than a typical book. I have talked to many creatives through the years who have also shared the way this book impacted their creative lives. I definitely wish I would have read it as early in my life as possible. Another resource that I highly recommend every creative person utilize is that of journaling. Daily. Every-single-day, yes. Journaling is an incredible way to pay attention to life and what you are learning. It’s where I find much inspiration because it’s where I take the time to be in touch with God, the world, and myself. I cannot recommend the discipline and joy of journaling highly enough!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I have had to unlearn the idea that to move forward is always the best way forward. Let me do my best to explain. I think we want growth to always feel and be linear– like, I’ve progressed, gotten better, moved ahead in life. But sometimes, down is the way up, and moving up is not always the best direction. I promise this is not an Alice in Wonderland moment. I’ll give an example. In my 20’s, I grew pretty sick (didn’t learn for a while that I had celiac disease), and I was in a stage of life that felt pretty low: I was mostly unable to work due to being constantly sick, I was having babies so my days felt like a long line of diaper changing and feedings, and my husband was in medical school, which meant we were quite broke and awfully tired. This season of difficulty was actually producing a lot of fruit in me. I was growing in character, learning humility, hard work, and that I could grow by serving those around me and pursuing love. This season was “backward” perhaps in the world’s eyes, but “forward” as could possibly be in me growing as a human. Sometimes, getting “low”–growing in patience, humility, the ability to serve, is actually the way up. It’s okay to have whole seasons of life where you “give up your dreams” to love those around you, to take time to grow in character development, and face difficulty head on without trying to speed that season up. Sit in it, process through it, pray your whole way, write about it, reflect deeply– these are all actually growing you as an artist and human being. These seasons of life will teach you invaluable lessons like compassion, kindness, and gratitude. We don’t want to be artists who simply write about a beautiful life, we want to BECOME a beautiful soul.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: jadelundgren
• Other: https://bio.to/thebandtable https://open.spotify.com/album/62OoBQMstSvzuGJwKIlaNT?si=E9bRa5zUS7SotPTBDKwtsw

Image Credits
William Read, Spencer Teo