While many Deerfield students are part of Deerfield’s vocal ensemble or student-led singing groups like the Rhapso-D’s and Mellow-D’s, Lauren Mitchell ’23 has taken her singing career further than most artists her age. Between Mitchell’s junior and senior year, she took a gap year during which she wrote and recorded her own Extended Play (EP), titled “The End of my Beginning,” which she released on September 16, 2022. She was aware that taking a gap year during the middle of high school was unusual, but she knew that it was her time to go out and pursue her passion for music. Mitchell’s EP is composed of five original songs based on the theme of growing up. In her EP, she tells her own coming-of-age story and her experiences transitioning from childhood to adulthood. “The End of my Beginning…captured who I am and…my journey as a person, at Deerfield, and in all walks of life as an artist and as a songwriter, and the end of my beginning just felt like such a powerful statement,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell was born into a musical family and has loved music her whole life. During an interview with the Scroll, Mitchell said that her biggest role model was her dad, as he helped her harness her creative spirits and always supported her singing career. Mitchell is also very close to her mom, who she said would sing her lullabies as a child. As a child, Mitchell constantly sang and worked to evolve her artistry. She believes the title of her EP and its main track, “The End of my Beginning,” encapsulates the feeling of her evolution as an artist.
“I was feeling the idea of moving on and starting a new chapter in my life and finishing this chapter of childhood,” Mitchell said, “and also musically it felt very much like a statement of … evolving as an artist … [and] that I am changing … [and] taking people on that journey with me.”
When asked about her songwriting process, Mitchell said she would often jot down different ideas or lines that she thought she may want to incorporate into her music. Sometimes she just lets her emotions flow. Together with her co-writer Joseph Itaya, she developed a technique different from the typical song-writing framework that allowed her to truly connect with her emotions in the brainstorming process.
“There is this thing that my co-writer and I created called Alpha channeling. It’s very much like a spiritual mode of songwriting,” said Mitchell. “So [I] pretty much close [my] eyes, and rather than think[ing] about songwriting as if I have to create something, [I] just sit in silence and let the ideas flow. Then I eventually form the structure later.”
“The End of my Beginning” was the first song Mitchell and her co-writer wrote. This song sparked the inspiration for and became the central theme of her EP. Mitchell’s first song not only holds a special place in Mitchell’s heart but also in the hearts of many of her listeners, such as Avery Izzo ’24. Izzo shared, “my favorite song was definitely ‘The End of my Beginning.’ I think a lot of people can relate to it. I find her music relatable as a fellow young girl. Sometimes you really feel the pressure of figuring out who you are and where you’re going. Lauren addresses this struggle in a reminiscent way that makes you want to escape into her music.”
Many, like Izzo, are proud of Mitchell’s dedication to her piece. Izzo was able to feel and hear all of the time and energy Mitchell poured into her album, and she hopes that others can appreciate the piece as well. “I felt so incredibly proud listening to it for the first time,” Izzo commented. “It was surreal to be able to look up her account on Spotify and see the verification tab. I know she’s put a lot into the album. You can tell by the way she talks about it she really loves what she’s doing. It means everything to her and I hope the Deerfield community can continue to support her in her passions. I know she would do the same for others.”
Director of Music Thomas Bergeron feels that Mitchell’s EP is beautiful, catchy, and thoughtful. He hopes that by giving her more opportunities to learn about the nuts and bolts of music production, she will be able to produce more pieces. For Mitchell’s first EP, she worked with a producer who co-wrote her songs with her. While this is common for artists, Bergeron hopes to inspire her to take on some of those roles herself.
“I really want to empower her to have the musical skills to create, produce, and write all of the parts to her own music,” said Bergeron. “She has a musical background so she already knows music theory. She’s familiar with the keyboard, so she has everything she needs in music fundamentals. By taking the Advanced Composition class [at Deerfield], she’s really shown an interest in going deeper into what makes music special and how to do all of the things herself.”
In the Deerfield Orchestra’s Homegrown Concert, which takes place on Friday, May 5th, 2023, Mitchel will perform a song in collaboration with the Deerfield Orchestra. She will either pick a song from her recent EP or write a new song and compose the backtrack to be played in accompaniment by the orchestra. Bergeron hopes that this process will allow her to grow as a writer and help when producing her next EP or song. Bergeron shared, “Lauren [will have] to make some decisions about what she wants the orchestra to do and then learn how to write it out, in musical notation for them to read and perform. I’m really excited for her to learn about that process, [as] it will … bring her deeper into her own music.”
When asked about what people inspired by Mitchell can do to pursue their own songwriting dreams, Mitchell had a wise and touching piece of advice: “find what you like and let the process take you … . Don’t think too hard about it, and just let words flow, let emotions flow. Just share how you’re feeling.”