Recognize Mary Lambert's voice? Of course you do. See: her collaboration with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis on "Same Love."
Lambert followed up the "Same Love" success with her independent release, "Keeps Me Warm." The track helped her land a coveted record deal with Capitol Records. After signing, Lambert says her record label wanted her to create LGBTQ-focused pop music, making her "the gay Taylor Swift."
Eventually, Lambert began to start feeling all the pressure that comes with a big record deal. "You know that they're putting a million dollars behind one song, and it's your song. And if that song doesn't go to the Top 10, then that song failed," Lambert says.
She realized the expectations put on her by working for such a big label were different from her own expectations for herself. It wasn't until she found herself burnt out that she finally decided to put herself and her own happiness first.
"I had done all this growth and healing and processing, and here I was on a plane, living my dream, wishing I was dead," Lambert recalls.
She began to re-evaluate what truly made her happy and got to work on her next album, which wasn't received well by her label and ultimately led to them parting ways.
Lambert was devastated, but took matters into her own hands. She decided to be her own manager and used Kickstarter to raise money to fund her album. To her surprise, she raised three times her goal and was able to release her second album, Bold.
Most recently, Lambert just released a book of poetry, Shame Is An Ocean I Swim Across, and is working on her next album.
"I've won," Lambert says with a smile. "I get to do whatever I want now, I feel really free."
