INTERVIEW WITH SINGER/SONGWRITER AMBER NORGAARD

Amber Talks About The Musician’s Life

By Judy Jennings

Copyright © 2015

Photo Courtesy of Nancy Herndon

Amber Norgaard is in a state of creative immersion these days.  She is working on her upcoming album “Possibility”, due out in August, and has just come from a recording session at Saint Cecelia Studios when we sit down to talk. 

Amber begins with a confession.  “I’m not very grounded after I’ve been playing music, and I’m sort of up here,” she says, stretching one arm up towards the sky to demonstrate, then she proceeds to answer my questions thoughtfully for the next hour, digging out her words slowly and from somewhere deep, like she is pulling root vegetables up from the ground.

Here are a few of her comments about living the musician’s life:

When you first started out, how did you imagine the life of a musician?  Has it turned out that way?

"Did I think my life would be like this?  I don’t know if I had a real vision, honestly.  I just wanted to make music and make a living, and now I have more of a vision of it being a healing art.  I didn’t really put it together back then, I was sort of morphing into that.

I was thinking that my goal was to make a living at music.  Then a few years ago, I figured out I was making a living, but it wasn’t very comfortable.  That’s when I decided I needed to change my vision. 

I think I’d gone into the starving artist idea for a while.  In the past few years I’ve shifted that to envision a different way of going about things.  Eleven years ago I felt I had to fit into a certain genre and sector, and maybe even the starving artist mindset.  But none of that’s true.

What I’m finding out is that if I integrate my whole self into what I do, it works.  The universe provides then.  I think trying to fit in makes it a lot harder.  I’m much more comfortable now with what I do; I have a niche with songwriting for organizations, and I’m also finding a fan base that appreciates my music.  Now I’m more focused on what would best represent the message I’m trying to get across.

I’m understanding now that I treat my music like art, and I’m trying to treat my life like art, all of it, and have expression that is joyful and mindful, as opposed to just easy.

In the world we live in now, we create so much with our thoughts and our words.  I really believe that the word is a powerful, powerful thing.  That’s why I do music, that’s why I sing, and that’s why I’m careful about the messages I put out.  I think there’s more to this thing that we do here than we see and understand."

For more info. visit http://www.ambernorgaard.com/index.php

Amber's song "Raise Me Up" was written for a film about the Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary near Tubac.  The horses are unexpectedly appreciative when Amber plays for them inside their corral.  

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwJ1jWa73MQ