I’m singing on Miles Hunt’s new song “Things Can Change”

I’m singing on Miles Hunt’s new song “Things Can Change”

Creativity Letterbox Music News Process

+ Listen to ”Things Can Change” here on Bandcamp.

+ Watch the “Things Can Change” video here.

In January 2022, one of my musical heroes invited me to contribute vocals to two of his new songs, and this video includes some glamorous behind the scenes shots of self-shooting some footage for his brand new music video.

Here’s to giving ourselves permission to do our own thing!


I was never invited to work in the music industry, so have had to find ways of overcoming my inner critic and giving myself permission to create my music, videos, podcast series and blog posts as an independent producer, songwriter and filmmaker.

“Sometimes people ask me what it’s like to work in the music industry, and, genuinely, that question baffles me. No-one ever asked me to come and work in the music industry, no-one hired me, or promoted my work, or paid me for my time. I don’t have any contact with the people who work there, I don’t know how it operates, really, and I’m pretty sure they’re unaware that I also work there, if indeed I do. It’s kind of like I just showed up at someone’s office, sat down at a desk and started doing stuff. No-one’s kicked me out yet, but I don’t get holiday and the boss always forgets to call me in for my annual review.

The great thing about all this, is that I get to make whatever I want – and so really it’s about giving yourself permission to make music, or paint, or draw, or whatever the thing is that you’re driven to create. I started writing songs seriously in 2005, and my main mission in life since then has been to increase the time per week that I’m able to make things. And for that, I don’t need anybody’s permission but my own. And nor do you.”


NEXT:

Subscribe to my channel for more videos xo

Listen to me and Miles Hunt on my podcast “Attention Engineer”:
Ep18: I interview Miles
Ep40: Miles interviews me


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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Ukulele or cavaquinho? Adventures in Portugal

Ukulele or cavaquinho? Adventures in Portugal

Creativity Letterbox Music News Process Productivity

I started playing the ukulele in 2008 after reading about George Harrison’s great love for the instrument, and have written many sad songs on it since. On a recent trip to Portugal I decided to find out about the precursor to the ukulele we know and love – the cavaquinho.

Come with me on an adventure to find a cavaquinho in Lisbon, and see what happens next!


NEXT:

+ Get my song “Seashaken” here
+ Get my album “Exotic Monsters” here

Huge thanks coolukulele.com for informing me about the ukulele’s history – read more here

And visit Cantinho da Regina if you’re ever in Sesimbra – she’s the best!

Subscribe to my channel for more videos xo


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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“Paper Thin” – live one take performance

“Paper Thin” – live one take performance

Creativity Letterbox Music News Process Productivity

On 23rd February 2022 I played an atmospheric acoustic online gig on my Luna Dolphin ukulele and Boss RC30 loop pedal.

This song was released on my third album under the name She Makes War, and was a duet with the wonderful Tanya Donelly (Belly / Throwing Muses / Breeders).

+ Watch the music video featuring Tanya here.
+ Watch the three-song highlights from this livestream here.

Subscribe to my channel for more videos xo


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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Reading this could have made me give up on my music career…

Reading this could have made me give up on my music career…

Creativity Letterbox Music News Process Productivity

If you battle your inner critic on a regular basis – this one’s for you. I received a standout email recently from a subscriber, and it was surprisingly freeing!

Receive free songs and stories immediately when you join my friendly list here.

[Hot tip: there’s an unsubscribe link on every one of my emails 🤣]

Subscribe to my channel for more videos xo


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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Can I be honest with you?

Can I be honest with you?

Creativity Letterbox Music News Process Productivity

I was delighted to be invited onto one of my favourite podcasts recently – The James McMahon Music Podcast. It was nerve-wracking being on the other side of questions for once, but James made me feel comfortable enough to share some pretty personal stuff.

In this video, I talk about how moving all the time and being bullied at school knocked my confidence, but trying and trying again to make music helped me grow. I also share the reason I stopped making my podcast “Attention Engineer” and why I changed my artist name from She Makes War to Penfriend. Plus, get a sneaky glimpse of my new studio room!

Subscribe to my channel for more videos xo


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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Why I’m leaving The Launchpad

Why I’m leaving The Launchpad

Creativity Letterbox Music News Process Productivity

Hands up if you find working from home with your loved ones a *little bit* tough! Two full years of sharing a wall with my darling husband has come to a grateful end – I’m leaving my beloved home studio The Launchpad for a bigger, quieter space.

In this video I discuss Joseph Campbell’s concept of a “Bliss Station” (via Austin Kleon) to help YOU get the creative time and space you deserve, plus I explain what led to this decision and give you a sneak peek of my new room…

Subscribe to my channel for more videos xo


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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Is it worth all this? 2022 plans + watch hours reveal

Is it worth all this? 2022 plans + watch hours reveal

Creativity Letterbox Process Productivity

I share my music plans for 2022 – Obey Robots, She Makes War *and* Penfriend, oh my! – raise the question of live gigs plus discuss why on earth this 40-year old musician is spending so much time making YouTube videos……and how you can help!

❤️ Only 10 left!get your Correspondent’s Club bundle here (choose AMAZING ALLY for the physical package or FRIENDLY FACE for digital)

Subscribe to my channel for more videos – thank you!


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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7 down? Recording bass guitar for my new album at home – Captain’s Vlog 02

7 down? Recording bass guitar for my new album at home – Captain’s Vlog 02

Creativity Letterbox Process Productivity

This month, I’m making an album with Rat from Ned’s Atomic Dustbin under the name OBEY ROBOTS and sharing the process in my Captain’s Vlog ⚓

I have 19 days to record all my parts in The Launchpad before we go into the studio to finish the album. The clock is ticking!

In this episode: I share never-before heard song snippets, plus my essential equipment for recording bass at home. See how I write, record and edit parts and try to overcome the mental roadblocks that are an inevitable part of the creative process.

This is the first time I’ve ever shown behind the scenes of how I write!

Subscribe to my channel for more videos, and get your copy of the first OBEY ROBOTS single here.


Links to the equipment I recommend in this video*:

🎶 Focusrite Scarlett (2 inputs)
🎶 Focusrite Clarett
🎶 Headphones – Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro
🎶 Tech21 Sansamp Bass DI

And a book:
📘 Eat That Frog

Learn anything with Skillshare!
+ Get 40% off a yearly membership
+ Get a FREE month trial

* these affiliate links don’t cost you a penny extra, but help me earn fees and make more music and videos *


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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How I record cover songs – “This Is The Sound”

How I record cover songs – “This Is The Sound”

Creativity Letterbox Process

In my twenties, I spent a few years running a covers band called Co-Star. Great name, right? Good work, Gareth the guitarist.

I booked the shows, played bass and sang. It was an education in many things – how far away Aberdeen actually is in a van from London, how to file a CCJ when the agent doesn’t pay, how to dodge drunk wedding guests – but mostly in how songs are put together.

The first track in the latest Correspondent’s Club CD/download bundle is a cover of “This Is The Sound” by Battery Thinkers.

When Richard approached me to make my version of his band’s track I was delighted at the idea. It’s rare that a musician actively asks someone else to have a go at redoing their work – in my experience, we’re not the most humble bunch! – not to mention the invitation came via my Bespoke Sponsorships page, and a generous contribution to the Penfriend project.

Here are both versions of the song side by side.

“This Is The Sound” – Penfriend



“This Is The Sound” – Battery Thinkers


I think a good song should still be immersive and affecting when you strip everything away apart from the main vocal line and a simple instrumental accompaniment. But when you add in the other building blocks – drums, bass, melody lines on guitar or synths or something else – you’re creating a world within the song, an alternate reality the listener can step inside for a few minutes. An escape.

I love “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” by Kylie Minogue, and I bet I’d still enjoy it if she sang it along to an acoustic guitar. It’s a good song. But when you add the hypnotic beats and subtle synth lines, you reside in a different universe for 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

Go back and listen to just how many bursts of different sounds support the vocals in that song…it’s a complex, but deceptively simple arrangement – and for once, I’ll accept the choice to fade out at the end (I’m not usually a fan).

[I’ve just realised my pop references are 21 years old – oh my. ANYWAY -]

I’ve only recorded a handful of covers over the years, so re-arranging “This Is The Sound” was a fun but slightly daunting challenge. When I listened to the original song, it sounded just right. I listened, I really enjoyed it, and I couldn’t think why there would need to be a cover of this song in the world. That *was* the sound.

However, I needed to honour Richard’s request, and so I set to work on picking out the key parts that I felt were integral to the world of the song, without seeking to recreate what was already there. You might have noticed that covers are often faster or slower than the original, perhaps a sad version of a happy song or vice versa. Creating contrast in speed or tone is the most straightforward way of creating space between the original and the cover, and I decided to go for “slow and weird”.

As I wrote to Richard in a status update email: “Your song is so great as it is that the only option was to GO WEIRD.”

I started with the drum machine parts, then added sounds from my OP-1 synth played through the Strymon Nightsky reverb pedal (which I was just starting to get the hang of…still am, if I’m honest…), vocals and synth bass.

As I was making a slower and therefore longer version, I was keen to make sure stuff kept happening throughout – and the shift in energy and tone at the end via the energetic bassline just came to me in a flash as I was sitting at my computer, wondering how to make the song sound more weird. Mission accomplished, I think!

Over to Richard now, to let you know more about Battery Thinkers. Please check them out on Soundcloud!

“Battery Thinkers is a duo that emerged from Hull University in the late 90’s.  I met Chris at regular music gatherings of students on the last year of my maths course, calling ourselves The Mobius Band.  The two of us kept meeting up after University when we discovered we had each started writing our own songs and Chris was keen to try out some recording software he had recently acquired.  Our influences were Teenage Fanclub, R.E.M. and Blur, our band name coming from a Blur lyric and we are both massive fans of Underworld.  Battery Thinkers is something we do as a hobby just for fun, it’s never been something we have seriously pursued.

Our first ‘album’, ‘Dreaming in a Northern Town’, 2005, was recorded using a knackered kick drum found in the loft of Chris’ house when he moved in(!), improvised bass guitar for some songs as we didn’t have one & when I did buy one second hand it wouldn’t tune properly – and a mic stand that regularly had a leg fall off of it.  We discovered at the end of that process that we had recorded most tracks incorrectly and the overall sound is a bit muffled on those songs as a result.  So the song I chose for Laura to cover, ‘This is the Sound’ was from this album, as a surprise for Chris – he was really emotional about it when it arrived.

We have improved very slowly over the years in terms of standard of equipment and knowledge of recording, Chris has been the one making advances in the production knowledge whilst I generally sit on the other side of the room and make helpful comments.  We recorded another 2 albums, ‘Three Thousand Thoughts’ in 2007 and ‘To the Rescue’ in 2011, after which progress stalled with the distance between the two of us greater due to my move to London and Chris being regularly busy in York with two kids. 

Getting anything finished nowadays is a massive task and our imminent (maybe) next album has been years in the making.  We stripped some songs intended for the album to form an EP ‘Square Pictures’ in 2015 just to get some songs finished.  The new album, provisionally titled ‘All Things After Sunrise’ will have between 10 and 12 songs, depending on our sanity.  We also have songs written for the next one after this, which we intend to be a road trip album. 

In December 2019 we fulfilled a long time ambition to play a Battery Thinkers gig, at my friends 40th birthday party at Band On The Wall in Manchester, bringing in 4 friends to help us.  After only 2 or 3 full band rehearsals we managed to get together 9 songs from our history, including This is the Sound and we went down well on the night.  We did have plans to continue rehearsing in 2020 until of course they decided to hold a global pandemic event, so we are still waiting to meet up again.”


+ Get your copy of the latest Correspondent’s Club bundle in physical or digital form here (10 copies left!).

+ Get back issues of zines and CDs here (last few!)

+ Request your own cover version, sponsor a Penfriend song or music video, or have your own song written and recorded via my Bespoke Sponsorships page.

+ Listen to Battery Thinkers on Soundcloud.

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HONEST (messy!) studio tour + recording an album in 19 days. Captain’s Vlog 01

HONEST (messy!) studio tour + recording an album in 19 days. Captain’s Vlog 01

Creativity Letterbox Process Productivity

I’m recording an album! In 2019, my friend Miles Hunt from The Wonder Stuff put me in touch with Rat from Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and our collaboration project OBEY ROBOTS was born.

This month I’m recording bass, synths and vocals for our album in my home studio The Launchpad, so what better time to invite you behind the scenes of how I produce records?

In this episode: an honest (messy) studio tour, a chat with Rat and two book recommendations for creative encouragement.


Subscribe to my channel for more videos, and get your copy of the first OBEY ROBOTS single here.

You can also listen to podcast chats between me and Rat, me and Miles and Miles and me!

The books I recommend in this video are:

📘 Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
📘 Guerilla Home Recording by Karl Coryat

* these affiliate links don’t cost you a penny extra, but help me earn fees *


THANK YOU for visiting my website! I’m Laura Kidd, a music producer, songwriter and podcaster based in Bristol, UK. It’s great to meet you.

Get your copy of my new album “Exotic Monsters” right here.

+ Get two free songs immediately when you sign up for thoughtful letters about art and music.

+ Join my Correspondent’s Club for exclusive member perks, and to power the making of new music, videos and podcast episodes.

+ Browse episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” here and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTubeTwitterInstagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo



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