In the winter of 2009 I spent 17 days making my debut album “Disarm” in a small Hackney music studio. When I released the album in 2010 I created a DVD to go with it, and I’ve tightened up the “Making The Album” film for YouTube with a special never-before-shared intro:
Back to 2008 again for episode 2 of my ancient vlog, featuring:
– my great big pre-gig nerves – a guitar amp transported to my gig in a plastic bag on a bus (glamorous *and* professional) – snippets of “Getting Nowhere” and “ghostsandshadows” live – and my first EVER radio interview (conducted during my office job lunch break!!) where I talk about being an extra in “Extras” (singing with David Bowie!)
I started vlogging in 2008 – way before Casey Neistat! – but made two big mistakes:
1) calling it a vblog instead of a vlog, because I was being nitpicky about how if it was a “video blog” it should be a vblog not a vlog. Um, ok Past Laura, cool pedantry – but imagine if you’d tagged it with the word EVERYONE ELSE WAS USING…perhaps people might have watched!
2) not being consistent. I did make a decent amount of episodes, but then stopped because I was busy with other things. If I hadn’t stopped, who knows what it would have developed into. I’m especially annoyed with myself for listening to my ex-boyfriend who asked me “is this a music project or are you making a reality TV show?” I’m glad I used that as a catalyst for making my debut album, but it’s not all or nothing (and it was never a reality TV show).
ANYWAY, I’m delighted to be doing the YouTube thing now, and it’s fun to go back and appreciate some of the good things I made. It’s way too easy to write off our past endeavours as rubbish because we are better at doing those things now (and might still, often, wonder if we’re any good). I’m glad I saved these snippets and I hope you enjoy these trips down memory lane with me.
This is a serious blast from the past, and I don’t even remember filming it, but I’m glad I did!
In 2008 I lived alone in a studio flat in Peckham (then I got my amazing dog Mister Benji and never lived alone again!), and was working hard to pull together songs for my debut album.
I recorded “Disarm” in winter 2009, so this is a very early performance of “A-Hole”, which is still one of my favourite songs from that album.
“Disarm” was released under the name She Makes War in September 2010. I made four and a bit albums under that name, putting music out from 2009-2019 before launching Penfriend in 2020.
Who better to tackle for my sad song challenge than The National?
This is the second in a regular segment called “Take a sad song and make it sadder” – comment with your suggestions for sad songs I can tackle next! xo
Another previously unseen video from my sprawling archive, this live and loopy performance of “Olympian” was recorded in my first dedicated home studio space in South London in 2012. My friend painted the walls my favourite colour for me, but I forgot to push all the clutter *behind* the camera. Oops.
The loop pedal used in this video is the Boss RC20XL. I love the RC30 too. They’re all great, really. “Olympian” appears on my debut album “Disarm”, released under the name She Makes War.
In June 2010, three months before the release of my debut She Makes War album “Disarm”, I was invited onto The Painter’s Radio Show for a chat and to play some songs.
I was pretty terrified, having never done such a thing before in my solo guise, but looking back across the years I think the hint of outward nerves are pretty sweet, really.
The songs in this video are “Let This Be” and “Slow Puncture”, both from my debut album “Disarm”, released under the name She Makes War. Scroll down for the DIY pop videos I made for each song!
I spent one of the hottest afternoons known to humanity trying to get one decent sound out of my Moog Grandmother. You’ll never guess what happened next…
Join me – a complete Moog newbie – as I experiment with creating sounds on this incredible machine…with mixed results. And remember – there are no failed experiments!
Eagle-eared viewers might recognise “Long Shadows”. which appears on my album “Exotic Monsters”.
On 29th June 2022 I beamed an online gig from my home studio The Launchpad into the homes of lovely music fans all around the world, celebrating one year of my album “Exotic Monsters”.
I was a bit late to the party listening to The Smile, despite being a HUGE Radiohead fan, so I only heard their glorious debut album “A Light For Attracting Attention” a couple of weeks ago. “Free In The Knowledge” leapt out at my ears and I just had to film this one-take performance.
This is the first in a regular segment called “Take a sad song and make it sadder” – comment with your suggestions for sad songs I can tackle next! xo
In April 2022 I spent a week in the Setubal area of Portugal, travelling up to my beloved Lisbon for several day trips. One breakfast time, after reading about the cavaquinho, an ancestor of the ukulele, I decided to go on a musical treasure hunt to find an instrument to play my song “Seashaken” on – by the sea.
