By: Meghan Mahaffey
Fordham’s creative atmosphere is one very near and dear to my heart. I am always blown away by the talent that is brought to the table anytime I attend a performing arts event on campus. Therefore, I was very honored when a Fordham alum band, Mountain Laurel, invited me to attend their concert on July 29, 2023, at Bowery Ballroom. The band has performed outside the Fordham scene in the past, but Bowery Ballroom was a show for the books. As I usually do before each concert I attend, I spent the days leading up to the Mountain Laurel show learning their discography and picking out my favorites. I quickly became obsessed with “Smile In Your Eyes,” and the performance of the track live was no letdown.
When speaking with vocalist and rhythm guitarist Andrew Pierson, he revealed the heartfelt motivations behind writing the song. The artist expressed a sense of overwhelming anxiety that he felt during the COVID-19 lockdown– sentiments that I’m sure many of us can relate to. Pierson strolled around Central Park, noticing the faces covered with masks of a community he had been isolated from for months. He mentioned seeing a woman smile at him with a mask on and “took a lot of comfort in it.” Her smile was not visible, but it was undeniably present in her eyes, thus inspiring “Smile In Your Eyes.” On the track, the band paints COVID-19 as “a storm that we couldn’t see [that] rode in and pushed our lives inside,” but they “couldn’t help thinking that things would be alright” because of moments like the one that Pierson experienced in Central Park. Mountain Laurel’s imagery here gives their music a heartbeat clearly felt at the Bowery Ballroom show.
In speaking to Pierson about their show, we got into the band’s humble beginnings on Fordham’s campus. In the spring of 2013, he was a sophomore at Fordham when he got the opportunity to join his friend’s new band. Originally named Seabass and The Fellas, the band served as a revolving door of talent as students graduated and new students joined along. The seven-year-old Fordham band began seeking larger opportunities, and on March 9, 2020, the group played their largest show at the time at The Red Lion in Greenwich Village. Pierson explained the euphoria the band felt that just a few days later was brought to a halt by the pandemic outbreak. While the shutdown made music production difficult, Mountain Laurel worked virtually and released their first original song entitled “The Weather” in October 2020. Mountain Laurel eagerly returned to the stage when it became safe, selling out ballrooms left and right. Pierson expressed the band’s love for performing and connecting people through a passion for music. As Fordham alumni themselves, the band appreciates seeing other Fordham alumni fill their shows out of appreciation for live music. The bond that unites Fordham students does not end at graduation. Fordham alumni lining the walls of Bowery Ballroom is a testament to the undying support of fellow Fordham students.
The shift from being a college band to a more established one was a slow burn for Mountain Laurel. Pierson put it as they were “accumulating experience and all the sudden they were in Bowery Ballroom performing.” Their humble beginnings laid the foundation of their band, as they united behind a common goal of “writing songs that people see themselves in.” Pierson explained his jaded attitude towards the music industry as a whole, but his love for the art of music is intense, encouraging him to continue creating. Each of the core band members, Andrew Pierson, Emma Salandra, Rob Salandra, and Will Corona, bring their specific music tastes and opinions to the table– diversifying their unique Mountain Laurel sound. They all unite under the hope of making people feel seen in their music, as well as bringing music enthusiasts together at their shows. Pierson says that production starts with a “simple acoustic, and each person brings it to the band, and it becomes us.” The “amalgamation of [their] influences” is conducive to a unified production.
Mountain Laurel plans to take a break from shows to focus on production as they begin to work on developing an album. The Fordham alum band continues to enjoy their time as longtime friends, contributing to their success. I encourage everyone to listen to their music to prepare for future endeavors. Watching Mountain Laurel’s connection on stage that began at Fordham was very inspiring and telling of the community that has been fostered on campus throughout the years.
