The third edition of The Correspondent’s Club quarterly music and zine bundle, created in March 2021.
The only way to get access to future Correspondent’s Club releases is to become a member – browse member perks here.
Track listing:
1. Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine (demo 240320)
2. Exotic Monsters (demo 190220)
3. TOWOIT Chorus (280218)
4. TOWOIT (demo 290719)
5. Cancel Your Hopes (clean)
Preview track: “TOWOIT (demo 290719)”
Release date: 2nd April 2021
Label: My Big Sister Recordings
GET THE SONG
+ Get the song on pay what you want / can download from Bandcamp now
+ Pre-order limited edition pink 7″ vinyl / CD singles
ABOUT THE SONG
The second song from Obey Robots, my collaboration project with Rat (Ned’s Atomic Dustbin), “Inside Out” started off as a shimmering acoustic guitar idea that Rat demoed and saved in a folder he called “Maybe send to Laura”. I’m very glad he did send it to me! After sharing the punchy riffs of “Let It Snow” with you at the end of 2020, we wanted to conjure a different mood, so I encouraged Rat to layer up the guitars while I went off to write the melody, lyrics and cello parts.
This song is about dealing with the new groundhog-day-normal many of us have been experiencing for the past year: the highs, mediums and lows of a life made much smaller by circumstance. Ravelling and unravelling at different speeds to those around us, perhaps: trying to feel a semblance of forward motion; trying to remember what the point is. Deciding to keep hoping.
With musicians having to wait for in-person work to be possible again, it felt like the right time to get back in touch with my A-Level Music pal David Lale, who has played for the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the past 8 years. I always knew he’d go far!
David played the parts beautifully, of course, and added some extra touches in the instrumental to take it to new heights. It was a lovely opportunity to work together for the first time since we arranged Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)” for a school concert back in the day. Thank you, David.
Fun fact: the original working title of this song was “Spider_Capo”. Rat, ever the fan of using different tunings but lacking the will to actually tune his guitars alternately, clearly needed to get a new toy. A novice attempt at using the spider capo (a piece of equipment strongly resembling a torture device) resulted in the basic melodic chords being written for the song that would become “Inside Out”.
CREDITS
Written by Pring / Kidd. Produced by Laura Kidd. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Guitar performed and recorded by Rat. Cello arrangement by Laura Kidd. Cello performed and recorded by David Lale.
Image by bamenny from PixabayLYRICS
Lifelines are melting away
Handing off to the people we pay
Shy to communicate
Counting days til we can get more interesting
I’m replacing fear with doubt
But I’m still turning inside out
And you can show up every day
But I’m still turning inside, inside out
Nightmares and reveries
All my dreams now deliver to sea
Trust in my memories
Counting weeks til we can get more interesting
I’m replacing fear with doubt
But I’m still turning inside out
And you can show up every day
But I’m still turning inside, inside out
I’m replacing fear with doubt
But I’m still turning inside out
And you can show up every day
But I’m still turning inside, inside out
I’ve been letting the good side down
But I’m still turning inside out
And you can show up every day
But I’m still turning inside, inside out
Thanks for visiting my website!
New to my musical world?
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Have a lovely day xo
To my great delight and excitement, this song is featured as “The Weather” on “Cecil in The Big City”, Episode 208 of the Welcome To Night Vale podcast, 15th May 2022. A huge honour!
GET THE SONG
+ Tap to download pay what you want/can from Bandcamp
+ Get it on vinyl/CD/download as part of my latest album “Exotic Monsters”
+ Join The Correspondent’s Club and get all Penfriend singles as part of membership
Release date: 26th March 2021
Label: My Big Sister Recordings
ABOUT THE SONG
“Black Car” is a song about love and death, guilt and gratitude, taking time to figure out what’s most important, feeling desperately sad and isolated and grieving the loss of so many. Dealing with anger and frustration at the UK government for making so many missteps. Trying to keep on keeping on, while finding it hard to see a way out of this, however many “roadmaps” are announced. Accepting – and feeling – our feelings.
“That this single release marks the first anniversary of the first UK lockdown is an accident, but sometimes things just fall into place like that when we focus on what’s important to us. Throughout this loneliest of years, I’ve tried to keep connected to humanity through making and releasing new music, podcast episodes and my weekly emails, doing what I can to create pinpoints of light in dark times. With all the gratitude in the world, I have to remind myself it’s still ok to feel wounded by what’s been going on and to feel scared about what’s to come. We will all be changed by this experience, and at the root of everything is the love we have for others.”
I don’t know what other bands “Black Car” sounds like, or have any clever phrases lined up to entreat you to click “play”. This is an honest, melancholy song about a universal experience that will be discussed in the history books of the future, guitars and synths centred around a heady electronic heartbeat, with a reverent Kurt Vonnegut reference (“loving echoes”) in the middle.
Keep your loved ones close x
CREDITS
Written, produced, performed and recorded by Laura Kidd at The Launchpad, Bristol. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Artwork by Alex Tillbrook, concept by Laura Kidd.
LYRICS
Remember the summer when everyone stayed at home?
Ships in a bottle, stacked up with our lives on hold
If we could really see the warnings that were written before
If we could really feel
Our hearts would smash all over the floor
Hear me now, I can feel the thunder
March me out with the fallen number
Will there be – is there a black car waiting for me?
Keep your loved ones close
This is surviving, but we’re having a god damn year
Tired of climbing, but the universe left us here
And on my worst of days
I want to keep wanting to be kind
But everywhere I see machines are taking over our minds
Hear me now, I can feel the thunder
March me out with the fallen number
Will there be – is there a black car waiting for me?
Keep your loved ones close
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 loves ones close
Keep your loved ones close
Hear me now, I can feel the thunder
March me out with the fallen number
Will there be – is there a black car waiting?
Hear me now, I can feel the thunder
March me out with the fallen number
Will there be –
Is there a black car waiting for me?
Keep your loved ones close
Thanks for visiting my website!
New to my musical world?
+ Get two free songs music immediately by joining my mailing list.
+ I send a thoughtful email every week – join The Correspondent’s Club to receive it alongside other member perks.
+ I upload a new video every week to my YouTube channel on music, mindful productivity and adventure.
+ My creativity podcast “Attention Engineer” now has 50 episodes – visit this page to listen on your favourite platform.
+ You can also follow me around the web on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Have a lovely day xo
Watch the music video and get the song.
This bonus musical mini episode of “Attention Engineer” is also available on your favourite podcast platform.
THANK YOU for visiting my website!
+ Get FREE music immediately by joining my mailing list.
+ I send a thoughtful weekly email every week – join The Correspondent’s Club on a free or paid tier to receive it.
+ New episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer”are released every Wednesday – visit this page to find out more and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.
+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Have a lovely day xo
Watch the pop video and get the song.
This bonus musical mini episode of “Attention Engineer” is also available on your favourite podcast platform.
THANK YOU for visiting my website!
+ Get FREE music immediately by joining my mailing list.
+ I send a thoughtful weekly email every week – join The Correspondent’s Club on a free or paid tier to receive it.
+ New episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer”are released every Wednesday – visit this page to find out more and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.
+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Have a lovely day xo
Last Friday’s Correspondent’s Club livestream turned out so nicely I’m sharing the posh recordings with you for one week only!
I played seven songs and had a nice chat with the Correspondents, and you can grab the whole thing right now on a pay what you want/can basis.
*If you’re a paying Correspondent, DO NOT FEEL ANY PRESSURE TO PAY! If money is tight, DO NOT FEEL ANY PRESSURE TO PAY! All contributions are much appreciated, but PWYW is always my genuine gift to you 🙂 XOXO
Track listing:
1. Hello
2. Seventeen
3. I’ll Start A Fire
4. Changes in The Launchpad
5. Seashaken
6. Livestream love and a bit about the new album
7. Out Of The Blue
8. Nice rambly Q&A about all sorts
9. Black Car
10. Dispensable Body
11. An interesting experiment
12. The Only Way Out Is Through
13. Thank you and LUV
THANK YOU for visiting my website!
+ Get FREE music immediately by joining my mailing list.
+ I send a thoughtful weekly email every week – join The Correspondent’s Club on a free or paid tier to receive it.
+ New episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer”are released every Wednesday – visit this page to find out more and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.
+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Have a lovely day xo
Release date: 5th March 2021
Label: My Big Sister Recordings
GET THE SONG
+ Click to download pay what you want/can from Bandcamp.
+ Get “Cancel Your Hopes” plus two more songs when you pre-order my new album “Exotic Monsters”
+ Join The Correspondent’s Club and get all Penfriend singles as part of membership
+ Type “penfriend cancel your hopes” into your digital music platform of choice.
ABOUT THE SONG
The song that took 15 years to write…sort of.
“Cancel Your Hopes” is about doing everything you were told was right and then realising the world’s going to end despite your best efforts. Left stranded by those who were once the grownups, our mission is to keep trying to appreciate the incredible fact of simply existing in this beautiful world, while attempting to navigate the toxic parts of technology, live a meaningful life of use to others, love deeply and learn to accept love, leaving as little negative trace on the planet as possible while doing so.
In June 2019 I spent several hours enjoying Radiohead’s “Minidiscs [Hacked]” – a collection of demos and live recordings released on Bandcamp after they were somehow stolen. The experience was very moving – intimate, almost too fly-on-the-wall nosey – and a handy reminder that even the greatest bands on the planet have to work to create their art.
I started to feel guilty for listening to someone else’s ideas archive when I had my own gathering dust in the corner of my studio. I started working through my own minidisc collection, listening through to snippets of ideas from my early days of writing, and was excited to come across a riff and chords idea from 2005 which became “Cancel Your Hopes”. I used the chorus melody from the original recording, wordless apart from the phrase “fucking beautiful”, which I also kept because it created such a key moment of intensity in that melodic line. I rarely swear in song, but sometimes there is no other option.
The same week, I’d finished having my mind blown apart by Barbara Kingsolver’s beautiful, devastating novel “Flight Behaviour”. While reading I’d scribbled copious notes: scraps of words and phrases that resonated with me from the book plus thoughts, feelings and phrases of my own sparked by her writing.
The music and words soon collided with a joyous bang.
When I was at school I remember teachers and the newspapers saying we were going to have to deal with the effects of global warming in 15 years time…then everything seemed to go quiet. It’s an understatement to say there is work to do, but I want to believe in a future for this messy, complicated, potentially wonderful species.
CREDITS
Written, produced, performed and recorded by Laura Kidd at The Launchpad, Bristol. Drums by Max Saidi. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Artwork by Alex Tillbrook, concept by Laura Kidd.
LYRICS
Cancel your hopes, dear
Do you remember when this was all fields?
Boys in the boardroom backslapping their deals
There’s a hole in our bucket, dear Liza – a hole
Walk the high wire with no mind for the crash
Are we in denial or do we crave collapse?
Can’t look strangers in the eye
Is that cos we are terrified?
Cos you know that we said forever
And you see that there’s nothing left
So let’s stand til we all fall over
Take my hand cos it’s so fucking beautiful
Cancel your hopes, please
The planet’s on fire while we’re stroking our screens
Buy better headphones to muffle their screams
There’s a hole in our bucket
And everyone knows
Walk the high wire with no mind for the crash
Are we in denial or do we crave collapse?
Won’t look strangers in the eye
Is that cos we are dead inside?
Cos you know that we said forever
And you see that there’s nothing left
So let’s stand til we all fall over
Take my hand cos it’s so fucking beautiful
Now I see that we’re going under
But I know that there’s nothing else
So as long as we stand together
Take my hand cos you’re so fucking beautiful
Thanks for visiting my website!
New to my musical world?
+ Get two free songs music immediately by joining my mailing list.
+ I send a thoughtful email every week – join The Correspondent’s Club on a free or paid tier to receive it.
+ New episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” are released every Wednesday – visit this page to find out more and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.
+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Have a lovely day xo
For everyone who’s been asking me whether I’m going to be touring in 2021 – here are my thoughts on the matter.
We’re all missing live concerts, artists are floundering and the live music industry is running on hope fumes, but I believe there’s an ethical decision to make here on a personal level. We are part of something much bigger than ourselves, and we have to do what we can to protect every member of our community.
Please watch the video and let me know where your head’s at on all this. Respectful discussion is always very welcome in the comments.
Thanks for visiting my website!
New to my musical world?
+ Get two free songs music immediately by joining my mailing list.
+ I send a thoughtful email every week – join The Correspondent’s Club on a free or paid tier to receive it.
+ New episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer” are released every Wednesday – visit this page to find out more and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.
+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Have a lovely day xo
Most songwriters dream of one day having their song in a film soundtrack, and I’m fizzing with delight that “Dear Heart” appears in 21st century rom-com Modern Persuasion, directed by Alex Appel and Jonathan Lisecki.
Rent and stream the film online via YouTube, Google Play or Amazon Video.
Starring Alicia Witt, Bebe Neuwirth, Shane McRae, Liza Lapira and Daniela Pineda and released by Samuel Goldwyn Films, this is the real deal, and is available to stream in the UK as of earlier this week.
“Dear Heart” was released as part of my 2018 album “Brace For Impact”, and I am now making this song available on a pay what you want/can basis on Bandcamp.
CLICK HERE for your copy, and you can stream/buy the whole album here on limited edition vinyl, CD or digital download.
Another version of “Dear Heart” appears on my 2019 song collection “And Peace”, created to mark the end of the She Makes War project after ten years of releasing albums and touring.
About the song: when I’m writing music, I keep lists of my ideas – potential song names or concepts. One day while travelling I recorded a voice memo into my phone, saying “write a song to my own heart, apologising for what I’ve done”. And so I did! I loved the idea that the phrase “dear heart” could sound like I was addressing a person, while the whole time I’m actually talking to an essential body part – it’s really down to the listener to make their own meaning from my words. It was a particularly enjoyable song to perform live, because I got to show my gratitude to the audience at the end with the final lyrics, “thank you”. Thank YOU.
About the film: “Modern Persuasion” is a modern telling of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion.” Wren Cosgrove is a happy, single, and self-confessed workaholic who, after rising to the top of the corporate ladder, finds herself coming home every night to her cat. When her firm is hired by Owen Jasper, “the man who got away,” long-lost feelings are stirred, giving Wren a second chance at true love.
Click here for more and scroll down for the lyrics.
“Dear Heart” by Laura Kidd
Vena cava, cardiac, hollow vein
Powering my dreams with sweet sustain
Delicate muscle you’re not built to hate
Your quiet biology I appreciate
Dear heart I was wrong for all the things I put you through
Greasy fingermarks stain
You’ve been neglected, been abused
But I will always treasure you
Atrioventricular be true
Should’ve never let the world break you
One day you’ll slow down and so will I
At least I have time to apologise
Dear heart I was wrong for all the things I put you through
Greasy fingermarks stain
You’ve been neglected, been abused
But I will always treasure you
Dear heart I was wrong for all the things I put you through
Greasy fingermarks stain
You’ve been neglected, been abused
But I will always treasure you
For as long as I get to
Til my finger are turning blue
I will always care for you
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 FREE music immediately by joining The Correspondent’s Club (free and paid tiers available).
+ I send a thoughtful weekly email every week – choose the Freewheeler tier or upwards to receive it.
+ New episodes of my music podcast “Attention Engineer”are released every Wednesday – visit this page to find out more and subscribe via your favourite podcast platform.
+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
Have a lovely day xo
