We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lacy Saunders. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lacy below.

Hi Lacy, thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents instilled a work ethic in me, as well as the understanding that personal freedom is pretty proportionate to the degree of personal responsibility for one’s self and time. Dad is a farmer who slowly took over his fathers farming & cattle operation, and at 65 y/o, he’s still busy 7 days/week with all the work required by that type of operation. Mom was a creative/artist at heart with a passion for writing, photography, and music, and she finally finished her BA in her mid-/late-30s.
Dad always taught me that I could take risks and try things I was excited about, but that having a steady income took a certain weight off one’s mind & shoulders – so even as a full-time creative now, I maintain relationships with a couple of local establishments where I can pick up part-time “regular” work when/as needed, and I never stop working on my hard and soft skill sets.

Lacy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a full-time musician and metalsmith.

I got into music from hearing my mother & her three sisters singing harmonies together all the time when I was young. Harmony just resonated with me from the very beginning. From there I learned to play piano and guitar by ear. Everything I do is by ear – I have little to no ability to read notation (sheet music). When I want to learn to do something, I pick up an instrument, a tool, a melody and turn it over & over until I’ve made a big ol mess AND it starts working. Repeated failure and re-engagement really is the way to success – don’t let anyone tell you any different.

I’ve been a professional musician since I was 22 (so for the last 20 years), and for the last five have been gigging solo, as a duo, or with one of several bands in the Oklahoma City area. Professional as in it pays my bills. Doing so in this area means that you get good at doing several different projects/bands/kinds of music, and you take whatever gig you get offered until you can take only the gigs you *want* – so you diversify. I like to make music and sing a lot more than I like to talk about doing any of this – it just makes sense. Someone (Laurie Anderson? Elvis Costello?) once said that “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” So true – just go make or listen to music. There’s no one in the world who doesn’t intuitively respond to rhythm and vibration, whether harmonious or dissonant.

I got into metalsmithing three years ago. I’ve always loved silver and turquoise jewelry, and I’ve picked up a few signature pieces for myself over the years, but anytime I’m interested in/curious about something, I always think, “I could do that myself.” So I did a little online research and discovered that there was an Intro to Metalsmithing class being offered very near me, and I signed up immediately. (Check out Cheyenne Sky Studio in Oklahoma City, owned & operated by Chickasaw artisan Taylor Martin – phenomenal instructor and metalsmith herself.) I was totally absorbed in the craft from the very beginning and have spent the last three years improving my basic skills, honing others, experimenting, buying tools, and selling pieces. I don’t think I’ll ever look back. My two favorite things about being able to do this are 1) being able to give very cool handmade pieces to family & friends as gifts, and 2) being able to make what I want for myself (and expand my skillset in the process).

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 was offered a full-ride scholarship to a local university during my senior year of high school. I *loved* to draw then, and I thought I wanted to illustrate graphic novels. (This was in the late 90’s.) I did three semesters there, at which point a very influential, practical, and successful family member of mine told me early on that art would not pay my bills. I got that stuck in my head – probably in my DNA, to be honest – and I began living my life like they were right. I switched my major twice, once to computer programming (I am not built for OOP and numbers analysis), and again to communication (I’m also not built to repeat BS ideas in varying ways on paper for 5 pages). Eventually I quit school altogether & just went to work doing anything I could find to do to pay the bills….until I couldn’t any longer. I had a keyboard at home, and I bought an AKG condenser microphone and a Tascam DP-01 eight-track digital recorder. I wrote dumb, angsty, probably adolescent songs and stacked and stacked and STACKED vocal harmonies so thick you could cut em with a knife (LOL). Just messing around with this little rig at home made me SO HAPPY. I lived for this and for being outside. And whatever you do in life, you’re going to attract people who do (and want to do) the same thing/s….and that’s exactly what happened.

I was put here to make music and other things, and you can only squash your desires for so long. Well…the truth is that they were only partly right: it won’t pay your bills, but also, it *will*. Not many (creative?) ventures will pay your bills unless you’re GOOD at it, and there’s a market for it. Luckily, without tooting my own horn too much, both eventually came to be the case – I got good at what I do (through *continual* repetition, diversification, and result analysis), and *more* of the market here reached out for me to participate in it. (It’s very possible that the market for *your* particular art/skill/ability/product comes into existence or becomes *bigger* the *better* you get at what you do. A french fry for your brain, there.)

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being in flowstate. Hands-down. When I’m doing what I’m here to do, every cell and molecule in my being is perfectly aligned and I’m not thinking about anything else. I’m *in. the. moment*. And all the positives in the rest of my life come from tapping into that on a regular basis. Or so I believe.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://lacysaunders.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/Changemonger (@Changemonger)
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/Changemonger (LMS Silver = metalsmithing; Lacy Saunders – Changemonger Music = musician page)
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@lacychangemongersaunders572

Image Credits

Mary Ellis – Mary Ellis Photography, Jason Robison – 1Up Creative