‘There are a lot of different ways to accomplish your goals – most of the time you’re blocking yourself because of your own personal fear, but if you move past that barrier and push it aside it’s amazing what you can find’. When Mandy Harvey started to lose her hearing in her teens she thought that her dream of becoming a choir director was over. ‘I wrapped myself in one dream and when it failed it devastated me, but there’s more to a person’ she tells me. ‘If you stop and give up that’s a personal choice’. Mandy overcame the loss of her hearing and is now an accomplished jazz singer who has recorded three acclaimed albums, toured throughout the US, and is about to publish her first book. She sat down with bespoken to discuss her incredible career; a story of challenges, successes, and an all-pervasive love of music that has helped her to defeat the greatest of adversity. 

            Mandy has a connective tissue disease which targets her nerves, causing the gradual loss of her hearing and also impacting her vision. ‘When I was a senior in high school I had a lot of surgeries, but I didn’t really notice the condition until after puberty’ she tells me. Mandy’s initial ambition was to become a choir director, and she had no desire to sing publicly. ‘I left the music programme at Colorado State University in spring 2007 and didn’t sing for a year and a half, until my father played a song with me on guitar’. Mandy realised that the loss of her hearing didn’t prevent her from singing, and she began to see a vocal coach who encouraged her to start performing publicly. ‘I sang at a Thursday night open mic session at a place called Jay’s Bistro, which went so well that it turned into a residency; now I’m touring and making albums’. Mandy has achieved this despite never wanting to perform live when she was younger.

            A combination of technology and instinct helps Mandy to perform. ‘I use visual tuners to find middle C, and then I modulate to my starting note by half-steps’. Mandy also has perfect pitch, which combined with muscle memory allows her to sing in any pitch without having to hear a reference note first. ‘I don’t wear shoes when I perform either, so I can feel the drums through the floor and the bass in my chest’. The structure of any given song is laid out carefully ahead of each performance, and I ask Mandy whether this limits the improvisation which is characteristic of jazz. ‘Not really, we just lay out solos in measures and I count throughout so I know when to come back in – I can sometimes miss intervals but the band loops around. I can start late or in the wrong key, but that doesn’t happen much anymore as we’ve gotten better’. The possibility of mistakes adds to the bond between Mandy and her audiences, and she tells me that ‘the audience connects to the mistakes even more because it’s real’.

            I then ask Mandy about the experience of recording her first 3 albums, and whether there are any challenges or advantages in the studio that she doesn’t have on stage. ‘It’s not too different really, everybody plays at the same time with glass between us so we still have a visual connection – we just play through the song and keep the second-take’. Mandy and her band have recorded in a number of studios throughout Colorado and Virginia, and she says that ‘we have to be picky about the studio that we record in’. When I ask what qualities she looks for in a producer, she tells me that ‘I look for someone who is willing to be flexible – I don’t want them to mess with too much, I just want it to sound live with the microphones set in the right places for a clear sound’. Spontaneity is the main thing for Mandy. ‘We recently recorded 13 songs in a 5 hour session, including set-up. We just go in like we’re performing a regular set’. Mandy’s music is underpinned by the strong bond she has with her band. ‘I go in with great people, and I have trust in my fellow musicians – they keep me together’.

            We go on to discuss whether there are any technologies or surgeries which could prevent the further deterioration of Mandy’s hearing. ‘I have a friend who’s working on developing a different form of hearing aid’ she tells me. ‘I’m happy to try new things, but I’m not aiming to get a cochlear implant or anything like that – it’s taken a long time to understand tone and pitch accurately, and I’m afraid of having 5 years of not being able to sing, relying on the sound coming into my head versus what I know it should sound like in my mind’. I’m reminded of Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, who wears false fingertips after losing his natural ones in an industrial accident and has resisted the possibility of corrective surgery due to having adapted to playing with plastic fingertips. ‘I’m not opposed to the idea’ Mandy tells me, ‘but I’ve learned to cope without an implant. When I can’t figure it out anymore I’ll find a new way’.

            Mandy has faced adversity in her life, but has met it with courage and an unwavering determination to always move forwards. ‘I’m about to tour the West Coast, I’ll shortly be recording my fourth album, and I’ve just handed in the manuscript for a book about my experiences’ she tells me. All of this has been achieved despite the impact of hearing loss and Mandy never wanting to sing in public. By combining a small amount of technology with a lot of instinct Mandy has been able to overcome the connective tissue disease which has been with her since her teens, forging a successful career and connecting with audiences throughout the US. She will shortly be the subject of a BBC documentary, and hopes to tour Europe soon. Mandy’s story is one of courage, creativity, and a desire to never allow illness or disability to impose limits on her potential. ‘Losing my hearing was my fear, but I overcame it – so what’s the worst that can happen?’

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