Lauren Sanderson

LAUREN SANDERSON

Words & Photos by CATHERINE POWELL

For Lauren Sanderson, every move is part of the long-term plan. Born in Indiana, Lauren grew up in two separate households all her life after her parents divorced when she was 2. Her Mom’s home was filled with music – ranging from country to rap, whereas her Dad’s house was a bit stricter, but Lauren credits her entrepreneurship to her father. She wrote poetry as a kid and to this day still has “piles of journals of emotions and feelings” from when she was 8 onwards.

As she grew into adolescence, Lauren accepted that she was a bit of an outcast and embraced it. “I taught myself that was like a rockstar, not weird,” she says. All throughout high school she was planning to go to college to become a therapist, but by her senior year she had built a solid following on YouTube for her motivational videos and opted to chase that fire instead. She traveled to Indiana’s neighboring states to meet people she was interacting with online and started to hone in on the community she was building.

Lauren signed up for a TED Talk in Indiana and gave a speech aimed at parents on how to understand and accept their kids. “The main thesis statement of the talk was, ‘You are you and that’s enough’,” she says. Following the talk, she started speaking at schools but quickly got burnt out on the rigidness of those engagements. It was then that she decided to start turning her speeches into songs to bring more life into them and get her point across in a more expressive way.

Since that revelation, Lauren has released two EPs independently: Center of Expression and Spaces.

After Spaces shot to the top of the iTunes charts without any marketing push, labels started calling and Lauren eventually settled on Epic Records because she “could tell they got the vision”. But even on her flight out to California to meet with them, Lauren wasn’t convinced she was going to leave with a deal. Even after the initial meeting it took a month of persuasion before Lauren finally agreed to sign. “I saw they were much different than the other labels I’d met with,” she says.

Following signing her record deal, Lauren made the move from Indiana to Los Angeles to hit the ground running on her next release. Her first single as a signed artist, “Written In The Stars”, was released in March and features PnB Rock. After recording all her previous releases in her bedroom, getting into the studio with established writers and producers was a new – but welcome – experience for Lauren. While living in Indiana, Lauren would get beats sent to her and write over them. Now, she gets to be involved with the entire process of creating her songs. She’s in writing sessions nearly every day and is able to be more creative than ever before with her songwriting process. “I think this is good to get to the next step. I need to be a part of the instruments and building the beats,” she says.

Now that she has a full team behind her, Lauren is still keen on keeping the DIY mentality that she’s had for her career since its inception. She may not be booking her own tours anymore, but she’s still heavily involved in every decision being made about her and her music. “I think it’s just a genuine part of me. I think I have such a distinct vision that the label will suggest things that I don’t think are organic enough for me, or authentic to me,” she says, “So I think what’s going to keep that [DIY vibe] is my ability to say ‘no’ to thing.”

Lauren is also heavily aware that taking shortcuts to instant success can come off as “selling out” in the long run, and she would rather take her time building herself as an artist so she can stay authentic to herself for her entire career. “I see such a long career ahead that nothing is short term for me,” she says, “So everything I do I’m thinking of the long way and the genuine connection.”

Looking forward at the immediate future, Lauren will be releasing her Epic Records debut in the form of an EP sometime this summer. She describes Center of Expression as a “heartbreak project”, and Spaces as the aftermath of that heartbreak. With her next release, Lauren has fully recovered and feels this collection of songs will be the most her she’s ever put out. “Every song comes from the heart. It’s just me,” she says.

For Lauren, the best part about signing a record deal is that she can now solely focus on the creative elements of her career. There are people around her who handle the booking and business side of things, which has left Lauren with an enormous amount of free time to work on new songs – which she’s fully been taking advantage of. “I can just be in the studio. I don’t have to be calling and emailing people,” she says, “I’ve never felt more stress free. It’s a crazy thing to just be entirely an artist.”