Indie folk artist Mindy Gledhill will perform at the Maintenance Shop on March 5.

Gledhill realized that she wanted to sing when she was 13 years old. At this time, she was living with her family in Spain. When she was 16, they moved back to Utah.

“I tried out for the choir, the Chamber Choir School. I tried out for school musicals, and I just could never get into anything,” Gledhill said. “I got a job making smoothies so that I could pay for voice lessons so that I could get better at singing.”

When she got to college, Mindy tried out for numerous other clubs and schools to progress her singing career. Eventually it paid off.

“It took me probably about five years of trying out and not getting anything until I finally got into the School of Music in college. That same year that I got in I got a record contract,” Gledhill said.

Mindy released her first album, “The Sum of all Grace,” with Lumen records. This is her only album to be released through a label.

“I watched how the record company operated, and I thought I could do this myself and I could probably be more efficient,” Gledhill said.

For her show here at the M-Shop, Mindy will be playing a mix of songs from her September release, “Pocket Full of Poetry,” as well as the previous album, “Anchor.”

Gledhill toured in Japan, but this will be her first appearance in the state of Iowa.

Mindy’s show at the M-Shop will not be a solo appearance; her band will accompany her onstage.

Mindy had work featured in a variety of places outside her actual musical career, including TV shows “20/20” and “Bones” as well as a Super Bowl commercial for AAA and a Fruit of the Loom commercial which aired during the 2012 Olympics.

“Those were all commissioned songs [Fruit of the Loom, AAA]. A lot of these big companies want original music,” Gledhill said.

Even though her songs for the commercials were commissioned, the songs featured in “Bones” and “20/20” were both from an album.

Gledhill did guest vocals for DJ Kaskade on his song “Eyes,” which led to a Grammy nomination. She was also featured in the music video for the track.

“It was super cool to work with Kaskade because it’s music that’s different from mine, but my voice still works well with EDM (electronic dance music),” Gledhill said. “Future collaborations, I can’t say anything official, but I would say there’s a good chance of that happening.”

Mindy has some big projects underway for this year and at least some huge goals left to achieve.

“I definitely want to be touring more. That’s the big goal right now,” Gledhill said. “I’m going to get an old tour bus and renovate it and document the process of resurrecting a cool old tour bus.”