The life of a new song, something to dance to, plus a 20-page zine Q&A with photos and studio recording notes.
The only way to get access to future Correspondent’s Club releases is to become a member – browse member perks here.
Track listing:
1. Life Of The Party (rehearsal)
2. Pearlescent Brilliant Sporty Blue (posh demo)
3. Life Of The Party (posh demo)
4. Life Of The Party (phone performance)
What: Join me for a weather-themed mix of Penfriend/She Makes War songs, with at least one shiny new one (probably two)!
When?: Wednesday 29th November 2023, 8pm GMT
Where: Here (tap to set a reminder)
Remember to subscribe if you’d like to join the live chat on the night xo
Hope to see you there!
Love,
Laura xxx
* PS for the kind people who always ask how they can pay to attend, there are several ways of supporting me: joining The Correspondent’s Club, buying some music/merch from my shop and/or sending me a contribution via Paypal.
Thank you for visiting!
Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here.
My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers!
Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available)
Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here.
If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website).
Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still 
During last month’s online gig I said I was going to play live more regularly – so I’m playing a completely different set of songs (including a BRAND new one – written yesterday!) next Wednesday 25th October at 8pm.
I’m calling it “Comfort Songs for Dark Days”. As the rain lashes down from a wintry sky here in Nottingham and the world news gets more sad and more scary, it feels like a good idea to keep coming together.
So, I hope you’ll join me for an hour of sad songs to make you feel better, beaming live from the cosy nook of my brand new attic studio The Launchpad*.
Entry is FREE*, the gig starts at 8pm UK time and you can set a reminder for yourself here.
After last month’s silly troll I’ve restricted commenting to subscribers only, so here’s a link to subscribe to my channel while you’re there – it all helps spread the word to other music lovers too. Thank you!
Love,
Laura xoxo
* PS for the kind people who always ask how they can pay to attend, there are several ways of supporting me: joining The Correspondent’s Club, buying some music/merch from my shop and/or sending me a contribution via Paypal.
Thank you for visiting! Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here. My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers! Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available) Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here. If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website). Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still
This is the last video in this little series, and this is your last chance to grab two FREE / pay what you can live albums before they disappear in a puff of glitter tomorrow night.
I wrote this song about feeling on the outside of things, confused by how light years apart people can think and act when given the same information.
“Far away, looking back from this constellation
Castaway, adrift on my own space station”
The world is at turns huge and strange, violent and terrifying, wonderful and unimaginably awe inspiring. The fact that I can beam my music from my space station to yours blows me away – thank you for being here.
This recording of “Dispensable Body” is part of my new live album “In The Many Moons”
And the song also appears on my other new live album “Encore”!
Pay what you want, from £0 to infinity, for either or both. Thank you.
BIG LOVE TO YOU
Laura xxx
“Dispensable Body” appears on my debut Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters”
Thank you for visiting! Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here. My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers! Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available) Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here. If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website). Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still
When I listen closely to the lyrics I wrote more than a decade ago, my heart aches for that younger woman.
“Others love, I stay rooted to the ground
Losing, never found
Olympian, show me how to feel again
Save me, my Apollo”
In “Olympian” (from my debut album “Disarm”) I was experimenting with using myths and legends to tell a story, but what came out was my own melancholy and frustration at my situation. The idea that someone could come along and save me was very appealing in those darker days, but of course, in the end, that person was me.
PAY WHAT YOU WANT / CAN for this recording of “Olympian” as part of my new live album “In The Many Moons”.
It also appears on my other new live album “Encore”!
Type zero to infinity in the box at checkout, you’re very welcome to have this music as a gift from me to you.
Thank you!
Love,
Laura xxx
“Olympian” appears on my debut She Makes War album “Disarm”.
Thank you for visiting! Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here. My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers! Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available) Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here. If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website). Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still
Delete: the song that started out as a joke about using a loop pedal, and turned into a high point of almost every live set I performed from mid 2011- my last in-person show in late 2019.
I always enjoyed surprising people in the audience by appearing next to them wielding a megaphone, singing “don’t stop the clocks, don’t mention the time, eyes front and we’ll all be fine”. Hands up if you ever witnessed this in person!
I’d like to delete myself
Don’t like to repeat myself, no
Pay what you want for the live album here and pick up your copy of “Encore” too (I recorded the whole thing again the next day just in case…)
“Delete” appears on my second She Makes War album “Little Battles” *and* my 2019 reworkings collection “And Peace” and this version of the song was recorded live during my first online gig of 2023!
“Delete” was performed live on vocals, Boss RC30 loop pedal and Trash Talk telephone mic, recorded through the Boss Gigcaster 8.
Thank you for visiting! Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here. My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers! Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available) Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here. If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website). Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still
…or did I?!!
Sometimes things go “wrong” at a gig…but it usually just makes things more interesting. Here’s an “extended” version of “Exotic Monsters” from my recent livestream which hopefully proves the point (and shows one way to handle it)!
Pay what you want for the live album here and pick up your copy of “Encore” too (I recorded the whole thing again the next day just in case…) “Exotic Monsters” appears on my debut Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and this version of the song was recorded live during my first online gig of 2023!
Thank you for visiting! Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here. My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers! Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available) Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here. If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website). Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still
Remember the time I wrote a song about my own imagined death? Here’s “Black Car” from last week’s livestream.
Today I released the whole gig as a live album, available as a limited digital release for the next 10 days only on Bandcamp.
I also released a second live album called “Encore”, recorded the next day “just in case”… Brains are strange – the first gig was good!
Both albums are available on a pay what you want/can basis so, while your contributions are greatly appreciated, feel free to pick up a present from me xo
Keep your loved ones close
Even on calm waters waves will rise
As my heart explodes
Loving echoes dancing in my eyes
Keep your loved ones close
Keep your loved ones close
Keep your loved ones close
Thank you for visiting! Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here. My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers! Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available) Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here. If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website). Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still
It’s been a while…I moved city, painted some furniture bright pink and have been auditioning local Post Offices for the lofty honour of handling packages of music and merch for generous music supporters.
I’m delighted that the PO closest to me has easy parking, lots of space inside for piling up bags and boxes and, most importantly, a super friendly and positive man running the place.
His joyful hello perked me right up yesterday when I dropped off several bags of CDs and zine bundles for my Correspondent’s Club members – a friendly welcome and a smile makes such a difference, doesn’t it!
Speaking of which, this is your friendly invitation to beam into my new home next Wednesday 27th September for my first online gig of 2023. What with releasing an album, moving house and LIFE OH LIFE the months have slipped by, so I’m delighted to be getting back to these regular performances.
I’ll be playing songs from my Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” as well as from my She Makes War back catalogue.
Entry is FREE*, the gig starts at 8pm UK time and you can set a reminder for yourself here.
Subscribe to my channel while you’re there – it all helps spread the word to other music lovers.
* For the kind people who always ask how they can pay to attend, there are several ways of supporting me: joining The Correspondent’s Club, buying some music/merch from my shop and/or sending me a contribution via Paypal.
Hope to see you next Wednesday!
Laura xoxo
Thank you for visiting! Tap to get your FREE 12-track album + 31-page PDF zine of stories, photographs and artwork here. My new Penfriend album “House Of Stories” is available NOW on super limited vinyl, CDs and KiT hybrid digital albums, with accompanying tees, hoodies and books. Music fans got it to #2 in the Official UK Independent Album Chart in April 2025. Bonkers! Join The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon to receive quarterly bundles of art and members-only music plus extra perks + immediate access to my entire digital archive (digital and analogue memberships available) Listen to my first Penfriend album “Exotic Monsters” and browse my back catalogue here. If you make things too – or want to know more about the creative process – I’m sharing thoughtful weekly essays here on my experiments in art, music and life on Substack (and I won’t be at all offended if you prefer to read my stuff there rather than on this absolutely gorgeous website). Chat with me on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
See you soon xo
PS yes, my songs are available everywhere else you listen to music online.
Just search for Penfriend, She Makes War and Obey Robots.
You could even subscribe here to send a message to the algorithm overlords that Penfriend rocks!
Better still
One never-before-shared demo, some buried treasure plus a 24 page zine-letter with photos.
The only way to get access to future Correspondent’s Club releases is to become a member – browse member perks here.
Track listing:
1. Lady Music For Ladies
2. Olympian Livestream 10/6/23
3. I’ll Start A Fire 9/9/20
4. Exotic Monsters a capella 26/1/21
