Laura Mustard - Nobody's Road

“This EP wants you to make friends with yourself,” Laura Mustard explains. Her sophomore EP project, Treehouse, is an upbeat collection of six songs that each approach self acceptance from a different angle, ranging from the joyful feeling of laughing at yourself to the confronting process of staring your shame in the face in the middle of the night.

Laura is a pop/folk independent artist based in Nashville, TN. Born and raised in Connecticut, Laura spent her childhood navigating doctor’s offices and medical routines at home as a result of some birth defects and exciting food allergies. These challenges lead to Laura’s habit of making up stories in her head as a type of escape, which later turned to songwriting in high school. Laura’s unique medical history also led to a search for self acceptance, an embrace of vulnerability, and a fierce belief in body positivity. These themes turn up frequently on Treehouse.

Starting off with pure escapism on the title track, “Treehouse,” Laura’s lyrics get more cheeky when making fun of her own terrible dating history on “Eager.” Then, she explores shame on “She Must Go” by turning her shame into a physical person who shows up in her worst moments of self-doubt. Mustard offers up a track on vulnerability and rejection with “Teach Me How To Lie,” but then follows it with the blissful feeling of acceptance from a partner during an early morning snuggle-sesh on “Spin.” Finally, she rounds off the Treehouse EP with an introspective look at self-acceptance on “Nobody’s Road” by telling parts of her own story within the unifying line, “Nobody’s road is ever even.”

Treehouse was recorded over several months at producer Ben Bishop’s home studio in East Nashville, TN. The piano, bass and drums were recorded together through live takes at Graham Wak’s Home Studio in East Nashville so that Laura could make Waks’ Baby Grand piano sing. Laura explains, ”we made sure to have a great time with the production and recording of this EP! There's a tin can phone, glockenspiel, hand claps, a "ba dum-tss" with a drum and cymbal, gang vocals, spooky cello sounds, and a wicked ethereal bridge. All the quirks on this album were so much fun! And, I loved having all the auxiliary musicians come into the studio. Also, recording the banjo part for "Spin" during a tornado warning was pretty exciting, and appropriate, given the name of the song.”

Laura sums up her new EP project by saying, “Treehouse is 24 minutes of positivity-infused pop-folk with fun production that will make you feel better about yourself.” It will be available everywhere on September 18, 2020.