In September 2021 I was burned out and feeling super sad – so I decided I had to do something completely different. A one-off surf lesson led to my first outdoor swim…and in October 2022 I found myself in Marseille!
Clevedon Marine Lake Cromhall Quarry (Gloucestershire) Dosthill Quarry (Tamworth) Lake 32 (Cotswold Water Park, Wiltshire) Praia da Rainha, Cascais, Portugal (I also swam in Estoril…more on that in a future video)
Vivienne Rickman runs regular wild swimming experiences in Snowdonia – I highly recommend!
In Marseille I swam at:
Calanque de Podestat Calanque de Sormiou Plage du Prado
And I stayed at L’Appartement in Sormiou which is where I met my gorgeous guard dog friend Oknit.
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
I’ve never understood why artists shy away from setting up an email list. Musicians, photographers, visual artists, writers – if you’re serious about sharing your work online, it’s WAY more effective to set up a website and an email list than posting on social media.
If I hadn’t set up my mailing list in 2009 and invited people onto it regularly ever since, I simply wouldn’t have a full-time job making my own music. It’s that life-changing.
Seth Werkheiser and I met online a while ago, and I immediately knew we were on the same page with this stuff. His HEAVY METAL EMAIL is always useful and fun to read, so I invited him to nerd out / share exasperated facial expressions about email marketing with me.
Enjoy – and please ask any questions in the comments section. I’d be very happy to go deeper into how I do things in future videos so let me know what you’d like to see xo
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
My new album is OUT NOW – so I thought it was time for a chat about what happens in the weeks after a big success at work, plus what’s next for this channel and for my music-making.
NEXT
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Obey Robots is a creative collaboration between myself – Laura Kidd (Penfriend / She Makes War) – and Rat (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin).
Our album “One In A Thousand” was released on 24th February 2023 and went into the Official UK Albums Chart at #14 and the Official Independent Chart at #1 the following week.
This is fan power in action: we shared the album through emails, videos and social media. No press, no pluggers, no manager, label or agent.
Thank you for being part of this very exciting time!
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
“Albert Camus believed that the individual could change society. Kafka believed that society was too strong for that.
The problem is, Kafka never listened to Obey Robots.”
This is the absolute pinnacle of album releasing for me – Jimmy Watkins is a poet. I’ve never felt my work so well understood as when he runs along shouting into the camera, bursting with love and enthusiasm.
“Vocals shoot overhead like fighter jets – it’s like the Red Arrows turning up to your birthday party!”
“This is music rich in the confidence of their own skill…it’s fearless…it’s great for running to!”
“It’s kind of like having a rainbow in your spare bedroom.”
“This album really feels like optimism in the face of oblivion.”
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Watch me and Rat learn about the chart success of our collaborative album “One In A Thousand” – a HUGE win for independent artists and independently-minded music fans everywhere!
THANK YOU SO MUCH xxx
NEXT
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Rat and I talked to the very lovely Diamond Dave from TotalRock about how the pandemic affected the emotional core of our album “One In A Thousand”, as well as how we recorded it, I talk about why I’m SO super DIY and Dave quizzes us on our touring plans…
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
“Elephant” by Obey Robots features on our album “One In A Thousand”, out 24th February 2023 and available here.
Someone said the thumbnail of this video makes me look like I’m in an episode of Doctor Who, and I am here for that.
VIDEO CREDITS Directed, shot and edited by Laura Kidd. Filmed in the corner of Rat’s messy attic in the Midlands and in the middle of Laura’s messy home studio in Bristol. Luna tried to get on camera, but it wasn’t the right time. Can you spot her in this one though?
SONG CREDITS Produced by Laura Kidd in The Launchpad, Bristol. Mixed by Chris Sheldon at Red Cedar, London, mastered by Katie Tavini at Weird Jungle, Brighton. All music by Laura Kidd and Rat. Guitars by Rat. All lyrics, arrangements, vocals, bass and synths by Laura. Drums by Max Saidi.
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I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
Wednesday 15th February. Rat’s monster riff is unmistakable – but I can’t understand how it’s coming out of the kitchen stereo. I walk back inside the house, my puppy Luna bouncing along behind me.
She’s always like this when we get home: keen to get out into the garden after a few hours without humans, but keener to let us know she loves us very much. This dog wags with her entire body.
“Tim!” I shout back at my husband, who has a strange look on his face. He doesn’t get to hear my “holy sh*t what’s happening?!!!” voice very often, so it takes him a minute to join me by the sink, staring incredulously at the words on the DAB radio.
BBC Radio 6 Music
Now playing: Porcupine by Obey Robots
Leaving the radio on for the dogs while we went out to watch “Spinal Tap” at the Bristol Slapstick Festival has paid off. Gideon Coe is playing “Porcupine”!!!
Thursday 23rd February. An exciting email. Steve Lamacq’s producer is writing to see if they can play “Super Connected” on his show tomorrow. Um, sure!!! I ask how on earth they came across the track, and she replies that Steve found it, she doesn’t know how.
I know how.
This shouldn’t be happening – and I don’t mean that in a surprised, self-deprecating, I can’t believe this is happening to me sort of way.
I DIDN’T SEND ANYONE THE SONGS TO PLAY ON THE RADIO.
This is happening because of YOU. People talk – and it appears there are still some very passionate music lovers working in the higher echelons of radio, interested in checking out the things people like you are talking about.
In the days after sharing the news of these radio plays, I hear from the two people responsible. People who decided to write into 6 Music and tell them about our songs. Fans of my work who just wanted to do something to help.
This entire album campaign has played out purely through these emails, videos on my YouTube channel and posts on social media. No pay-to-play, no pay-to-get-played. Just word of mouth from independently-minded music fans. That’s people power!
Over the 14 years I’ve been sharing my music online, I’ve been shown time and time again by loyal music lovers that there is space – and enthusiasm – for the things I make. Yet, every time I’m about to share a new album I can never quite believe it’s going to go well.
I would never release a single note of music I didn’t believe in, but we’re all experiencing hard times at the moment and we have to be realistic about what’s sustainable and what’s respectful.
Manufacturing physical products costs a lot of money, and no-one wants to live surrounded by boxes of their unsold vinyl, t-shirts and pick tins – but I don’t expect everyone to be able to buy things.
You’ll always be able to access the things I make in low or no-cost ways, but this whole cottage industry relies on there being enough people in a position to contribute.
So far it’s working…so thank you again!
Your support for this new record has been overwhelming, and I’m so grateful. Releasing new music in this fashion is complicated, and exhausting, but it’s been brilliant to be able to invite Rat along as a guest on my tiny record label this time around. The last time he released a new album it was on a major label – but he said this is just as exciting, and he’s really enjoyed being more hands-on with this project and getting to talk directly to you.
Over to Rat for his thoughts on sharing new music with you:
“How do I feel about the album coming out?
Surreal… a definition by the Cambridge dictionary – strange; not seeming real; like a dream: sums up how I’ve felt all week. The fear is real. it’s been nearly 30 years since I’ve released any new music and this is the first time I’ve ever released music that wasn’t with the Ned’s.There is also an overwhelming happiness that we’ve done it… we really have done this!!!
“Let’s make an album” is seeing the tip of Everest above the clouds… what lies beneath to get there is a colossal task in itself, a journey for which I will be forever grateful to Laura for.
Some folks have said they’ve never seen me this happy in a long time, and they are right in saying that.”
I’m proud and very thankful to be a fully fan-funded artist, so if you’d like to stay involved and continue to support the making of new music, writing and videos:
❤️ Get immediate access to my entire digital archive (close to 200 tracks!) plus additional ongoing Member Perks by joining The Correspondent’s Club on Patreon!
