Laura Loft Music

Laura Loft is a music creator, educator, singer-songwriter-performer and author, who also creates music wellbeing resources for children: Big Emotions: Mindful Music for Little People. She tells us about her work and plans, and the importance of valuing the arts and artists…

What do you do?

I wear many hats as an artist, working on songwriting commissions and music projects around the UK, but my main focus is as a music educator. I’m based in Exeter and work across Devon as an arts consultant, helping to set up creative projects in schools and organisations plus deliver music-making in primary schools and young people’s music projects. The music wellbeing resources include lesson activities and song commissions. Most recently, I’ve self-published a book, Big Emotions: Mindful Music for Little People – a creative music wellbeing resource for EYFS/KS1 3-7yr olds. This is accompanied by an audio book, instrumental soundtrack plus a schools activity pack, which includes five originally composed songs.

How did you get started?

I’ve been working as a musician and singer-songwriter for 14 years, and a music workshop leader and educator for eight years. I studied at Dartington College of Arts, where I gained a BA Hons in Music Performance and worked as a singer-songwriter in my early career. I then founded Lofts Music Shed and led music-making projects with young people, collaborating with many organisations in the South West including Plymouth Music Zone, DAISI, Exeter Phoenix and South West Music School. Recently my work has been focused on creating music wellbeing resources and delivering accompanying workshops in primary schools.

Who do you work with and why?

The bulk of my creative work I create by myself at home in my music cabin. It is there that I write my songs, record, create my online resources and write my books. I then take my educational work into primary schools, delivering creative arts projects, music-making whole class ensemble teaching, choir, plus my Big Emotions music package and interactive readings.

This year I have worked in partnership with Devon Music Education Hub (DMEH) who have funded a special project creating a live music tour of Big Emotions to deliver to local schools. I am also working alongside Jay Scott-Hamilton (Exeter-based musician - drums/percussion/trumpet) which I’m really looking forward to as so much of my work has been solitary, especially this year! We have played together for many years in my earlier band (The Laura Dugmore Band) and it helps to create new dynamics, textures and directions in work when you collaborate. We then hope to tour this to wider audiences including libraries and arts venues.

I am working in partnership with Intergenerational Music Making, who have teamed up with Care England to create Together With Music. This is a UK-wide initiative to connect care homes with schools and community groups through music. My role has been to create a home school pack using Big Emotions songs for their campaign.

My other song commissions have seen me collaborating with educational hubs to create songs and resources, including my Take Heart song last year for Diocese of Coventry.

What keeps you going when things get tough?

Creating motivates me; it’s the real tangible aspect of my crafting that drives me. Being in the arts is an extremely hard path to navigate, and you have to wear so many hats and hone your skills in resilience, adaptability and being flexible. However, when I feel like it’s tough I get back to basics and just create ‘4TheLove’ of it. (That was the name of my Associate Artist project with Exeter Phoenix, which was based around becoming a new mum, losing my way with my career and needing to create just for the love of it, without any expectations.)

Name one thing that would make your life easier as an artist or arts organiser.

It’s really useful and important to gather as much experience as possible within your field when working in the arts. I have played so many free gigs, events and worked on so many free or under-paid projects and was happy to do so as it helped me grow as an artist in my early career. But the assumption needs to change when organisations, companies or people wish to have some creative outcomes and their perception of artists is that they would like to do this work for them because it’s their love, passion and ‘hobby’.

If we can’t break down this perception then artists will always be the underdog begging for work, funding and to be validated. I don’t know that this could ever happen but a clearer path of building experience versus paid work would have been helpful when I was starting out. When you have gained experience and are earning a living it is important to remember you are not a volunteer, you are a trained professional who has invested in your skills for years and this deserves to be recognised. Joining useful unions and communities that support the arts has been really valuable for myself and finding my own confidence to pursue the arts career path.

Talk us through a favourite project or piece.

My favourite project is definitely Big Emotions: Mindful Music for Little People. This is such a special project as it started from an extensive period of bad health with CFS/ME/Fibromyalgia after I had my son. We spent a lot of time together at home in bed or resting so we turned to creative storytelling and wrote the concept for this story together. The characters are based on my son and my cat (who has been a therapeutic cat). It was a slow burner project and took a long time to finish. I doubted whether I should even pursue it but with encouragement and support I self-published last year just before lockdown#1.

I worked with Help Musicians UK who mentored me and also gave funding for my health needs and musical equipment; I then worked with Nia Gould, a brilliant illustrator based in Exeter who bought the characters to life. I printed with Ashley House (local eco printers) and then worked on all the self-publishing and marketing myself. It was a long process with a huge learning curve but I am so proud that with a year of being published I have made good sales, developed more products including flash cards, mindful colouring and a Big Emotions songbook, and delivered a UK-wide pilot. I’m so excited to have funding from DMEH to develop the live show of this book and tour. The most rewarding aspect is the feedback that the book has actually helped children’s wellbeing. In order for children to regulate their emotions they need to first recognise them and that’s exactly what this book does.

What does the next year look like for you?

I’ve just started working on the Big Emotions Live Tour, rehearsing via Zoom with Jay Scott- Hamilton. This will initially tour six schools in Exeter and then will be offered to more schools, libraries and arts venues.

My next ambitious project is a new book, Big Compassion. I’ve written most of it already and the resource that accompanies it but I know there’s a lot more work to go. This is aimed at KS2 so will complete my collection of music wellbeing resources to offer for the whole of primary school ages.

What’s been the best moment for you or your group in the last year?

The moment my book proof arrived from the printers was such a joyful moment. Also, working in collaboration with Trinity Primary School to receive funding from Community Champions for the World Book Day pilot event launching the Big Emotions book was a brilliant moment. It was great to see the book come to life, with large cut-out characters for an interactive performance where I live narrated to the soundtrack and film. I loved seeing the children get involved with the workshops and engaged with the story.

In what ways are you helping to put Exeter on the cultural map, nationally or internationally?

Nationally I am promoting myself as a creator and author of my book and resources plus offering tours. There will also be a film of the live tour which can of course reach anywhere in the world via the online streams. I am also working with partners who aren’t just based in Exeter and hoping this continues to grow.

What have you been doing during lockdown?

Lockdown has been a challenging time in one way or another. In the first lockdown I lost 50% of my teaching work plus we had just invested a lot of money into the new Big Emotions business venture. I also had home-schooling duties and managing a health condition so time wasn’t my friend as my husband was working full time from home as well. However, with my work, it was a very interesting time; I adapted quickly, became highly productive and creative. I funnelled my anxiety and fear into creative projects and the demand was higher for this online. It forced me to develop my business at a faster pace than I wanted or even could keep up with, because it was a very clear opportunity to adapt, which we had to if we were to get an income. I had a lot more people reach out to me online and made some brilliant and useful connections. I also focused on developing my music wellbeing resources business, so I developed a free music pilot for recovery terms (Sep-Dec 2020). Plus I worked on three online music lessons a week for the school where I work, which are now available on my website.

Lockdown 3 is seeing the fruition of those earlier connections and I have more collaborative projects with Big Emotions lined up. It’s still pretty challenging to try and make an income in this unstable climate but I have found there is a lot of opportunities to be had for adapting creatively.

What if...?

Lockdown has taught me a bit more about the powers of connections and working in collaborations so I feel making connections in and beyond the city would be useful for my development of my practice.

How do we find out more?

Website: www.lauraloftmusic.com 
Email: lauraloftmusic@outlook.com
Instagram: lauraloftmusic
YouTube: Laura Loft
Twitter: @lauraloftmusic
Facebook: Laura Loft Music
Soundcloud: Laura Loft
Bandcamp: Laura Loft