Laura Balance is a bass player, vocalist, and record label owner best known as a founding member of the band Superchunk and co-founder of Merge Records. In this oral history Ballance discusses her childhood, the development of her interest in music, and the creation and history of Superchunk and Merge. Ballance describes her family’s supernatural interests and the impact of a traumatic home invasion in Little Rock, Arkansas, in which her mother was raped when Ballance was eight years old. She reflects on the impact of gender and motherhood on her career as a musician and business owner. The interview also covers how living in the South affected the development of her musical career, and the challenge of being a musician with hyperacusis. The interview concludes with Ballance reflecting on her proudest moments.