Today we’d like to introduce you to Matt and Laurel Trost.
Hi Matt & Laurel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Thanks so much for having us! Matt’s and I story started as a love match on the popular dating app, Tinder. We met in 2014 and after a quick swipe right, we met a week later in person and sparks flew – romantically and musically. We fell in love with each other and bonded over our love of music almost immediately.
At the time, Matt was performing solo and I (Laurel) was working in an 80s cover band. Our current musical paths were up in the air, but after a night of karaoke together we knew we had something special. After only months of dating, we combined forces and decided to make our business and music relationship official just as we had our personal one.
And now almost 8 years later, we’re married, and living our dreams together as a professional acoustic duo. We play all over the midwest covering a variety of songs and artists, and inserting our original music where we can. We aren’t your typical acoustic duo. We cover songs all decades, from Montell Jordan to Sublime to Chris Stapleton, putting a twist on some of your favorites. From rock to pop to country to rap, we love it all, so we do it all. We don’t like to fit ourselves into a box or a label, so we don’t.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing is ever easy in this business, especially making a name for yourself. There are so many talented musicians in Minnesota that it took a while for us to feel like we fit in – to be honest, we’re still working on it. And as we said, we don’t like to be put into a box. We just wanted to be us.
At the start of our career, we’d work from 8am-4:30pm at day jobs, and then hit the road to work 6-9pm crosstown for a gig. We would do it night after night working 60-80 hour weeks. We hustled hard for five straight years. There were many times we wanted to give up, but we kept on keeping on with support from so many.
Our duo was growing and really gaining momentum by January 2020. After a change in my (Laurel’s) day job, we decided now might be the time to pursue music full-time. I took the leap first and hit the ground running putting everything I had into booking, practicing and more. Then March 2020 hit. And a full on global pandemic took hold. We would also be remiss if we didn’t share what was happening in our personal lives at the time. At the same time the country was shutting down, Matt and I were experiencing a pregnancy loss. We miscarried twins around the same week everything shut down and our lives tumbled upside down. Our career was up in the air, and personally, we were devastated. But we believe that everything happens for a reason and timing is everything. So we shifted. Over and over and over again (like we all have been doing).
The pandemic proved new challenges but it was also an incredible opportunity to expand our reach and really dig into who we were and want to be. We began livestreaming from our couch – beer in hand from one of the many venues who were shut down at the time – and just started singing. We promoted businesses who were closed and lifted each other when we honestly weren’t personally feeling lifted. But we showed up when we could. And because of that we reached over 10,000 people in one summer through live-streaming. Looking back now, we could’ve never done that without the pandemic. It has been very difficult performing during a pandemic but we’ve grown so much stronger. We’ve gotten to know each other more by spending a lot of time together (like all of us), and we’ve really tapped into creating a life of joy and balance. We dug into routines, and what feels right in our life. In may not look like yours, but it’s what we want. And finally after months of being unemployed due to Covid-19, we’re happy to say that we’re back in the game and working 5 nights a week singing live and doing what we love. So much so that Matt was able to leave his daytime job in August 2021. It’s been wild.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Well since we’re husband and wife, it’s quite fun on stage together and honestly, you never know what you may get. We tease each other, steal a kiss or a throw a little shade. We have fun, and try to create an inclusive vibe – like you’re on stage with us or we’re just hanging in your basement.
As for our music, we grew up kids of the 80s and 90s so we love to play anything from our youth. We love one-hit wonders or hidden tracks. We play anything and everything, and don’t put a limit on ourselves. We’re inspired by so many artists including Prince, P!nk, Alicia Keys, Janis Joplin, Yelawolf, Eminem and more. We play a variety of venues from wineries to dive bars all across the Midwest and love playing to a crowd big or small.
On top of performing songs you may not hear acoustically, Matt also has a superpower we bring to many shows – beatboxing. A percussionist from a young age, my husband can beatbox like no other, and incorporating that into our gigs has set us apart from the typical guitar + vocal vibe. We put a twist on your favorites and do so while having a heck of a good time.
We love being different and encouraging others to do the same in all parts of life. We believe our differences make us beautiful and promote that in our shows and in our life.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
With no risk, there is no reward. We’re huge advocates of following your dreams. If you want to quit, quit. If you want to change careers, change. If you want to move to Mexico and hang on the beach all day, send us an invite and we’ll play your pool party. It did take us 5 years to quit our day job, keep that in mind – so perhaps calculated risk-takers are more of what we are. But we truly believe that you have so much more to gain than lose when you take a leap of faith. Because you never know what’s around the next corner. When we met in 2014, we never thought we’d be professional musicians doing this for a living.
We couldn’t believe in ourselves without each other. And we certainly didn’t think we were going to find the love of our life when we logged into the online dating app that day. But we both took a risk; We put ourselves out there. And because of that we found love. And the music, well…the music is just an unbelievable, incredible bonus.
Contact Info:
- Email: mattandlaurelmusic@gmail.com
- Website: mattandlaurelmusic.com
- Instagram: @mattandlaurel
- Facebook: @mattandlaurel
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtPDmamEcaLqJAGE6qro_BA
Image Credits
Joe Dammel (Dammel Photographic Works)
