Interview with Laura Sullivan
Laura Sullivan is an award-winning pianist, composer, arranger, and recording artist based in California. Her original compositions have been heard on CBS, NBC, and Fox, as well as Emmy award-winning documentaries. Laura won a GRAMMY® award in 2014 for her album Love’s River and was nominated again in 2021 for her Pieces of Forever recording.
Laura is a newer member of the ArrangeMe community and has been publishing her sheet music with us since September 2022.
ArrangeMe: Do you consider yourself primarily a performer, or a composer and arranger first? How does one guide the other?
Laura Sullivan: You know, I consider myself mostly a recording artist and then also a composer, and arranger. In these days with the digital service providers, it's providing so much outreach through Spotify and Apple Music and so forth. It's really nice to just have the opportunity to record at home. I have a family and so, you know, it's really nice to just be able to do that and then also share my sheet music through ArrangeMe! It's really fun when people reach out to me and they say, 'I wanna play the song that you wrote or that you arranged, that's a cover song.' And so that's inspiring and that's really when I want to share the sheet music. So a lot of times actually, I just will write it out, kind of scribble it down on a piece of lined paper kinda in an old fashioned way. Or I just don't even do that, I just kind of play it, just how I would sort of improvise it. And then later when people say, 'Oh, I wanna play this,’ then I need to go in and actually figure out what I played and then get it down in notation.
Pianist, composer, and arranger Laura Sullivan chatted with ArrangeMe from her home in northern California.
AM: How did you get started arranging? What does your arranging process look like?
LS: Well, it's kind of like an improvisation on the song is how I start. You being a musician, you know we all kind of have our own ways of playing. And so I just sort of use the chord charts a lot and I just kind of improvise, like ‘If I was just gonna play it for fun, how would I play this?’ And then I'll try a couple different ways and just whatever kind of sounds good. And sometimes I'll record a little bit of a certain style of playing and then I'll listen to it and if that sounds good, I'll continue in that way.
AM: What is your most popular song/arrangement?
LS: I have two that are really super popular. One is my arrangement of Pachelbel's “Canon,” and another one is my arrangement of “You Are The Reason” by Calum Scott. I was kind of surprised because when I recorded it, I just thought it was a really beautiful song. And I'm just so pleased that so many people want to play this song. I think it's kind of popular for weddings.
AM: What is your favorite arrangement?
LS: I really enjoy the arrangement that I made just recently, actually of “A Thousand Years,” which is the song from the movie Twilight. It was sung by Christina Perri, and it's such a beautiful song, such a romantic song. I think a lot of people connect with it with their heart and I really had fun creating that arrangement. I sort of started out in a certain way with some high patterns in the right hand and then, and transitioned to some different styles throughout the song, and it was really fun. And it's actually become pretty popular on Spotify, which is cool to see.
Laura’s popular arrangement of “You Are The Reason” by Calum Scott
Performed by Laura Sullivan
Sheet music available here
Laura’s arrangement of “A Thousand Reasons” from Twilight.
Performed by Laura Sullivan
Sheet music available here
AM: What kind of music do you enjoy listening to?
LS: You know, I listen to a really wide range of genres and part of it is because I want to create some covers that people enjoy. And so I find myself listening to a lot of pop songs. And I have a 15 year old daughter, and so she exposes me to some really interesting music. And so I enjoy that. I enjoy learning from her. I love classical guitar. I mean, of all of the kind of relaxation types of music, guitar somehow just really speaks to me. I love cello music and I love folk music. It's sort of like, you know, different times of the day, different moods I'm in, I wanna hear different things. And of course I love piano music. I like to keep up with what a lot of my friends are doing who are pianists and yeah, we listen to music a lot here!
AM: Tell us about your latest (and GRAMMY-nominated!) album, Pieces of Forever. What musical lessons did you bring to or take from the project?
LS: Well, Pieces of Forever is dedicated to my parents who have now passed on. My parents were amateur musicians, my mom played classical piano and my dad played country guitar and harmonica. So in their honor, I combined those two genres and created Pieces of Forever. So we had myself on piano, we had the classical instruments of cello and violin, and then we had some country instruments also: banjo and guitar, pedal steel guitar, and harmonica. And it was really fun and a little bit challenging to combine those genres and to create some new music, including that instrumentation. But I really enjoyed it and I really love how it turned out. I'm very proud of it. I think my parents would be proud of it too.
Laura Sullivan won her first GRAMMY in 2014 for her album Love’s River.
AM: How has winning a GRAMMY impacted your career artistically as a performer and also as a composer and arranger?
LS: I don't really think I would be doing anything differently if I had not won. So I don't really think it's changed me. You know, I think I'm doing exactly what I want to do and I think I would be doing that either way. I mean, maybe it has brought me more opportunities in some way, but ... well I think anyone can do what I'm doing, actually. So I think it hasn't really changed me at all.
AM: How has being on Spotify brought you success? Do you see similar interaction/streaming numbers with other services like Apple Music?
LS: Well, I am super grateful for Spotify. I have been able to connect with a lot of people there, and also Apple Music and Pandora. I have a lot of listeners on Pandora and I'm super, super grateful for all the DSPs. I mean, really it's just an amazing time to be a musician and to be able to reach so many people digitally. And I don't honestly know how it happens sometimes, and I just am so happy that people find me and find my music. I think some of it is from playlists and some of it is I think maybe from outreach on social media a little bit.
AM: As a newer member of the ArrangeMe community, what is your favorite thing about the platform, what do you find most valuable?
LS: I'm so happy to be part of ArrangeMe. You know, for a long time I was really wondering, ‘How do I publish my cover songs and sheet music because I don't know how to do that legally.’ And so it was really a gift to learn about ArrangeMe and to be able to share my covers because I have had many people ask for them. I was just kind of sending out these sad emails, like, ‘I'm so sorry, I don't have it.’ And so now I'm so happy that I can share it. And then also exploring ArrangeMe and seeing all of the wonderful, talented people and what they are sharing there. All of these different arrangements of songs. It's really fun to see just the diversity in the creativity!
“It was really a gift to learn about ArrangeMe and to be able to share my covers because I have had many people ask for them.”
AM: Now that you are able to offer your sheet music to a wider audience, how are you promoting it? Do you use social media or emails to your fans? A special sheet music section on your website pointing fans/customers to your charts at Sheet Music Direct or Sheet Music Plus?
LS: Yes. All of those ways that you mentioned. I have a section on my website where it's directing people to my cover songs on Sheet Music Direct. And then also have included some links on YouTube to the sheet music from the songs that are on ArrangeMe. And then I do have some emails that are set up to go out to my fans announcing the sheet music availability. And I know that they will be excited because I do have a lot of listeners that are also pianists!
AM: As both a composer of original music and an arranger of covers/copyrighted songs, where do you find inspiration for each discipline and do you enjoy one any more than the other?
LS: I enjoy both disciplines. And it's nice to kind of have a break from each sometimes. So sometimes I'll really get into composing new music, and then after a while it's sort of like I want to use a different part of my brain and sometimes it’s really easy to just take a song that I like. I like to do songs I like. I think everyone does, you know? To create sheet music and to cover a song that is one of my favorites. It's a joy because the music is so great. So it's kind of refreshing the brain to do one and then to do the other.
AM: What do you find most rewarding about composing and arranging music? Most challenging?
LS: Well, kind of like what I said earlier, just getting into the music … recording music and then when it sounds really pretty good, think, ‘Oh wow, this is just such a joy.’ It's almost hard to describe. I think anyone who creates anything, if we feel proud of it and it is something that we feel is gonna fulfill other people when they hear it or when they see it, you know, there's something really magical about that.
And the challenge, well, I think the challenge for me is sort of keeping up with ways to promote it, because things are changing so quickly and all the time in the music industry. I feel like I just finally caught up with Instagram and now TikTok and, you know, and there's gonna be AI and there's just all of these new things all the time. And so I try to get my daughter to help me because she's just a whiz at all of these things!
Laura Sullivan and her dog, Troup, at home in California.
AM: At this point in your career, what is your 100-foot wave? What are you chasing?
LS: I just love what I'm doing and I think I just want to continue to learn to do it better and to do it more and to reach more people. I feel like I am really living my dream and I'm so appreciative that I can, and that there are platforms like ArrangeMe that help get my music out there. I just wanna keep going and keep doing what I'm doing!
“I feel like I am really living my dream and I’m so appreciative that I can and that there are platforms like ArrangeMe that help get my music out there.”
