Lauren Ruth Ward
Lauren Ruth Ward is an artist on a mission. With the songs like the epic new VERO Music Label EP, Mindseye, she has established herself as a new-generation rock star.
Armed with a voice that is, by turns, soulfully gritty and gently expressive, Ward brings her deeply personal songs to life in live performances that have a bold, otherworldly quality. She charges through guitar-fuelled rockers like the viral smash “Messiah” with an explosive ferocity akin to Janis Joplin, while weaving poetic and acoustic confessionals like “Suburban Ego” with the fragile intimacy of a Laurel Canyon-era folk storyteller – all while imbuing each song with a unique and incomparable quality that can only be Lauren Ruth Ward. The secret sauce of her music is an astute understanding of rock music history, and her ability to sculpt it into a fresh and innovative new sound.
She grew up in Baltimore and began performing as a hobby when she was 13 years old. After graduating from high school, she began working as a hairstylist. With time, however, it became clear that she needed to make music the focus of her life. It was around that same time that Ward also began to embrace her queerness. In 2015, she quit her job, broke up with her fiancé, and she moved to Los Angeles.
Along the way, Ward built a strong reputation as fiery live performer, headlining shows that were lauded by critics and fans alike for their freewheeling passion and intensity. It’s that space where her music has always come to vivid, transcendent life.
“The beautiful part of making music is the way people connect with the songs,” Ward says, explaining that the chemistry between her and her audience is different every time she steps onstage.
“I don’t always know where we’re going when a show begins, but it is always cathartic and beautiful.”
The crowning achievement of the deeply emotional, passionate music that fills the Mindseye EP is a high-concept visual component to match the title-song’s lyrical complexity. Directed by Dri Sommer and Nicol Biesek, the video for “Mindseye” features actor Sarah Catherine Hook, famed for her work on the hit Netflix series First Kill. Hook plays a woman haunted by “the Hot Corpse,” aka Ward as a past lover.
As Lauren Ruth Ward releases Mindseye, she is planning to spend a considerable amount of time onstage. She has recently completed sold-out tour of the U.S., and she will hit the road for an extensive European tour during the first quarter of 2023.