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

Todd, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents were very intentional about supporting their kids in pursuing our dreams. They pitched in what they could to help me with college tuition, and gave me full control over where I applied to school. I knew that I wanted to go to Berklee College of Music, so it was the only school that I applied to. With a little help from my parents, a small student loan and a decent scholarship, I was able to attend the music school best-suited to my particular goals. The friendships, skills and connections that I built at Berklee are the foundation of my career as a musician.
I have witnessed so many people throughout my life become overwhelmed with doubt. The source of this doubt often seems to be coming from parents who weren’t encouraging enough. Parents need to be the voice of encouragement for their kids. It’s as simple as that. I have enough self doubt that I have had to work through, simply due to living in this world. I can’t imagine how I would function as an artist if my parents hadn’t been so encouraging.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have been a pianist and composer for my entire life. My first professional goal coming out of college was to make all of my work music-related. This goal was fairly quick to accomplish, using music teaching and performance gigs as my primary income sources. Through the years, the gigs have improved in quality and pay (touring with Jimmie Herrod, performing residencies at clubs in Boston, Shanghai, Beijing, Portland, etc) and the teaching has become more focused. I currently teach at Portland State University and have my own composition collective outside of the college. I currently have a monthly residency at Portland’s premier jazz club, The 1905. My teaching and composing are almost fully integrated in that I lead students in immersive composition experiences that I participate in as well. In this way, teaching and facilitating only strengthen my practice as a composer, and I have a strong community that I can lean on for support in my performances.

As a composer and teacher, I most value unimpeded flow of creativity. This manifests musically by allowing melody, harmony and groove to exist as they arise. My music is intuitive and accessible to non-musicians, as I am always trying to just listen to what wants to come out. The curating and editing that I do is child-like in that I allow the song components to come to fruition on their own and then I play with them like blocks or a game of “make-believe”.

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

I wish that I knew that my inherent worth as a human and artist was never in question. I think that I shied away from opportunities because I was afraid of my own inner critic and its negative messaging. For example, grants, songwriting contests, festival performance opportunities, etc, always involve an application process of some sort. I have had a late start in really embracing these opportunities simply because I was afraid that if I failed at receiving these things it would mean that I wasn’t worthy. This is of course nonesense.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to continue to explore this world through music, creativity, teaching, sharing and listening for as long as I live. My goal is to trust this process and embrace the gift of being alive more and more each day. I want this energy of encouragement to come through in my music making and my teaching.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/integermusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/toddmarston
• Other: https://toddmarston.bandcamp.com

Image Credits

photos by Norm Eder