“In This Boat” performed live on the Lightship95 music studio boat on the River Thames, November 2011.
This song appears on my 2012 album “Little Battles”, released under the name She Makes War.
At the end of 2011 I assembled a temporary band of superstars in their own right to showcase four songs from my upcoming second album “Little Battles”. We spent a whole day filming on the Lightship95 music studio inside a pink boat moored on the River Thames, and this is one of the songs we played.
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In 2019, I received an exciting email from Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff, asking if I’d be interested in writing some music with Rat from Ned’s Atomic Dustbin. Having first heard “Kill Your Television” on a mixtape in 1997, I was over the moon to discover that Rat had stumbled across my work on a YouTube binge – and a new collaboration was born.
Various roadblocks soon cropped up, meaning the journey between that first email and this exciting day has not been easy – but we made it.
In this new video I talk about the importance of keeping going, even when you want to quit (and oh, did I want to quit!), and how proud I am that we finished this record. I can’t wait for you to hear it!
🎶 Fewer than 30 copies of the Obey Robots 7″ vinyl “Let It Snow / Inside Out” remain – get yours here.
As I reach the end of the mixing process for my upcoming Obey Robots album, I compare the Flare Audio E-Prototype earphones with my trusty Shure SE21 and Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro.
As a bonus, I always enjoy an opportunity to mention my life’s dream of collaborating with Liam Howlett / The Prodigy. Liam, let’s talk!
“Minefields” performed live on the Lightship95 music studio boat on the River Thames, November 2011.
This song appears on my 2012 album “Little Battles”, released under the name She Makes War.
At the end of 2011 I assembled a temporary band of superstars in their own right to showcase four songs from my upcoming second album “Little Battles”. We spent a whole day filming on the Lightship95 music studio inside a pink boat moored on the River Thames, and this is one of the songs we played.
What a dream – three fierce solo artists and a brilliant drummer sharing a stage. I’m so glad we captured these memories.
“Paper Thin” performed live on ukulele, vocals, loop pedal and violin at Ort Cafe, Birmingham, 24th March 2015.
This song appears on my 2016 album “Direction Of Travel” released under the name She Makes War. The album version features the beautiful vocals of Tanya Donelly – watch the video here.
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.
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.
