We recently connected with Maura Dunst and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Maura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I recently took a big risk and quit my day job in order to be home with my baby. I didn’t want working in an office to interfere with my breastfeeding journey, so…I quit! It was terrifying and exciting and opened up a lot more time for me to devote to not only being a mom but also being a musician. I’m a solo parent, so working full-time, parenting an infant, and being an actively gigging musician was entirely too much for me to do all at once. Now, I am solo parenting and being a musician, and it’s still too much at once — ha — but the balance is better. I’m no longer rushing home from work, spending 30 hurried minutes with my baby, and then spinning around and heading out the door for rehearsal/soundcheck. Giving up my income and benefits was super scary but I’m trying to focus on intangible value in my life: being with my son and pursuing music are both incredibly valuable ways to spend my time, they just aren’t salaried. But I am trying to shift my understanding of productivity and value in a more Mary Oliver-ian way. I want to enjoy my “one wild and precious life.” Turning down awesome gigs and (barely…) pumping milk in a dusty office at work while my freezer stash dwindled to nothing at home, all so that I could be physically present in an office for work that could be done remotely, suddenly felt like I was being robbed of the two most important things in my life in order to meet anachronistic employment standards that don’t work for modern families and are based on generalized HR policies that don’t take individual needs into account. So, I took a risk and quit. It’s hard, and I’m not sure how long it will last, but it’s also one of the most rewarding periods of my life so far, with a level of fulfillment that I haven’t previously known. If only we had more infrastructure for nursing moms and musicians so that this could be sustainable for more people, for longer!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve been a musician my whole life, but always as a hobby until recently. I played violin in orchestra from elementary school onwards, and excelled; I was concertmaster through middle school, then made the upperclassmen orchestra my freshman year, and was concertmaster again for most of high school. I taught myself how to play guitar from my parents’ old Beatles songbooks, which had the guitar chords and the shape of each chord above the staff. I dabbled a bit in songwriting and singing and played in a folksy duo in high school, then an indie band in college, then music kind of dropped out of my life for the second half of my twenties and the first half of my thirties. I got back into it a few years ago and found a love of singing, writing, and playing violin all over again. I started playing in a trio with friends, doing mostly covers, and then started writing songs that I gingerly presented to the group. They got a very positive response, so I kept writing and playing and never looked back! Now I’m in the Foxgloves, an all-female Americana/bluegrass band, and I’ve written a lot of the songs we perform. I also released a solo album under my name, and I hop in with a lot of local bands, mostly on fiddle but occasionally on mandolin. I’m working on improving my bluegrass fiddle game and my improv/jam chops. I also started a women’s/non-binary acoustic jam called Collectiva that meets once a month. I’m determined to see more women excel at instruments, soloing, and improvisation! It’s a passion of mine. I’m tired of being the only lady at the jam, and even more tired of being passed over for solos because everyone assumes I’m just there to sing. Babe, I’m going to sing, AND I’m going to shred. And I want other women to be empowered to do the same, if that is a dream of theirs as well.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Provide stipends/support to artists and creatives if they can prove they devote a certain amount of time to their craft. I heard once about a program in France where if you can show the government that you play a certain number of gigs per year or do a certain number of art exhibits or whatever, you get some help with your living expenses. I can’t remember the details, but what a concept!! To value the work for its inherent contributions to society as a whole rather than for its gross income line on a tax return. Wouldn’t that be incredible for the arts in the US?
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I want to see more women in the industry in areas where they are currently underrepresented (which is most of them!). Songwriters. Sound techs. Band managers. Drummers. Lead guitarists. Bass players. Recording engineers. We have a pipeline and representation issue at play that keeps a lot of those doors firmly closed. I would love to see bookers pay attention to the gender balance on their lineups. The number of all-male (or nearly all-male) bluegrass gig and festival lineups I see is astonishing. It happens so much! And the reverse never happens, or not to my knowledge. The Foxgloves only just played their first all-female bill a week or two ago, after 4.5 years of being a band. How many of our male peers can say the same? Probably none, I’m guessing. I don’t think it’s happening on purpose, but also, this kind of change only comes from within, so the greatest impact will happen when those doing the booking start keeping it in mind. There is also, of course, a shortage of women playing soloing instruments, but some of these things are all so tied up in each other that it’s hard to separate the chicken from the egg. The Instagram account @bookmorewomen is doing important work in showing the disparity in gender on festival lineups. It’s worth keeping in mind!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mauradunst.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mauraplaysmusic/
Image Credits
Headshot: Madalyn Rowell Live photo: Brandon Lenzmeier