“Brace For Impact” – (2018)

From 2009-2019 I made music under the name She Makes War, releasing 4 and a bit solo albums and playing nearly 600 shows.

“Brace For Impact” was the final full-length She Makes War album, released on 5th October 2018. Funded through Pledge Music and the generosity of music fans, it reached #15 in the Independent Album Chart and narrowly missed out on a top 100 placing in the Official Albums Chart. It was all very exciting for this indie artist!

As I said at the time, “I’ve never wanted to wait around for the old guard to validate and endorse me – my whole career has been about making the art I want to and finding a way to get it to people.” “I’m here to share my stories and show my audience I hear and see them too. It’s human nature, to want to know you’re not alone.”

Stream the album in full below, pick up your copy on CD or “dogface” splatter vinyl and subscribe to my channel for more videos xo

Share this:

Correspondent’s Club 008 – 24/8/22

by Laura Kidd Letterbox Music News Perks TCC

The eighth edition of The Correspondent’s Club quarterly music and zine bundle was created in August 2022. I reworked three songs from “Exotic Monsters” for a collection provisionally titled “from The Upside Down”.

The only way to get access to future Correspondent’s Club releases is to become a member – browse member perks here.

Track listing:

1. Dispensable Body
2. Loving Echoes
3. Long Shadows

Preview track: “Loving Echoes”

“Seashaken” by the sea

by Laura Kidd Creativity Letterbox Releases

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.

“Seashaken” appears on my album “Exotic Monsters”.

Join my mailing list for free songs and stories, subscribe here for future videos and get involved from the start of Penfriend album #2 by joining The Correspondent’s Club.

Have a lovely day! xo

Share this:

Correspondent’s Club 007 – 25/4/22

by Laura Kidd Letterbox Music News Perks TCC

The seventh edition of The Correspondent’s Club quarterly music and zine bundle was created in March 2022.

The only way to get access to future Correspondent’s Club releases is to become a member – browse member perks here.

Track listing:

1. Penfriend Two Deep Dive (44 minute new album demo talkthrough)

Live from The Launchpad 02/22
2. Shields And Daggers
3. Dear Heart
4. The Best
5. Paper Thin
6. Seashaken
7. Delete
8. Scared To Capsize

Preview track: Penfriend Two Deep Dive (taster)

Correspondent’s Club 005 + 006 – 21/12/21

by Laura Kidd Letterbox Music News Perks TCC

The fifth and sixth editions of The Correspondent’s Club quarterly music and zine bundle were released together in December 2021, comprising two zines and one CD.

The only way to get access to future Correspondent’s Club releases is to become a member – browse member perks here.

Track listing:

1. This Is The Sound (Battery Thinkers cover) – read more here
2. The Argonauts
3. My Battery Is Low And It’s Getting Dark (instrumental)
4. BASSFACE (instrumental)
5. Hotel Song
6. Seashaken with a little cold

Preview track: “This Is The Sound (Battery Thinkers cover)

Correspondent’s Club 004 – 4/8/21

by Laura Kidd Letterbox Music News Perks TCC

The fourth edition of The Correspondent’s Club quarterly music and zine bundle, created in July 2021.

An exclusive “Exotic Monsters” album commentary, made just for you x

The only way to get access to future Correspondent’s Club releases is to become a member – browse member perks here.

Track listing:

1. Intro
2. Exotic Monsters
3. Seventeen
4. I Used To Know Everything
5. Dispensable Body
6. Seashaken
7. Loving Echoes
8. I’ll Start A Fire
9. Cancel Your Hopes
10. Long Shadows
11. Out Of The Blue
12. Black Car
13. Thank you xo

Preview track: “Black Car (commentary)”

I’ll Start A Fire (18/5/21)

by Laura Kidd Creativity Homepage Feature Letterbox Music News Releases Singles

Release date: 18th May 2021
Label: My Big Sister Recordings

GET THE SONG

+ Click to download pay what you want/can from Bandcamp.
+ Get three album tracks immediately when you pre-order my new album “Exotic Monsters” with a download
+ Join The Correspondent’s Club and get all Penfriend singles as part of membership
+ Type “penfriend I’ll start a fire” into your digital music platform of choice.

ABOUT THE SONG

“I’ll Start A Fire” is a song about causing a ruckus even while everything is going wrong, cutting bad connections and ignoring all the noise in order to be free and express ourselves honestly. Taking whatever personal power we still have and making something with it, stopping ourselves from stopping ourselves.

As soon as I’ve decided I’ve got all the songs lined up for an album, I can rely on one or two cheeky musical ideas to come along and demand my attention.

“I’ll Start A Fire” was the first of two songs I wrote in September 2020 that jostled for a space on the record (the second was “Black Car”), and I’m so glad they did.

Giving yourself permission to be you can be one of the hardest things, and has really been a process for me, but it’s brought great joy and fulfilment to my life in recent years. I highly recommend giving it a try.

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

I stole a car in a dream
And now I’m feeling paranoid
Well I spent so long ignoring my instincts
Now I’m searching to destroy

I’ll start a fire while the world burns
I’ll start a fire, I’ll start a fire

So I sink these heavy words in a diary
And take them all to heart
Gonna build myself a fortress of vanity
And then I’ll fall apart

I’ll start a fire while the world burns
I’ll cut connections while the planet turns
I’ll start a fire cos it seems we’re elbow deep
In cheap banalities
I’ll start a fire, I’ll start a fire

I’ll start a fire while the world burns
I’ll cut connections while the planet turns
I’ll start a fire cos it seems we’re elbow deep
In cheap banalities
I’ll start a fire, I’ll start a fire

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.

+ 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 YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo

Share this:

Seventeen (23/4/21)

by Laura Kidd Creativity Homepage Feature Letterbox Music News Releases Singles

Release date: 23rd April 2021
Label: My Big Sister Recordings

GET THE SONG

+ Click to download pay what you want/can from Bandcamp.
+ Get three album tracks immediately when you pre-order my new album “Exotic Monsters” with a download
+ Join The Correspondent’s Club and get all Penfriend singles as part of membership
+ Type “penfriend seventeen” into your digital music platform of choice.

“Cavernous as its darkly-elliptical tale unfolds, “Seventeen” careens with compassion” – The Autumn Roses

“An enormous pop-rock anthem with a heart-throttlingly poignant story [by] Penfriend aka singer/songwriter/producer/genius example of how to do independent musicianship right, Laura Kidd” – Loud Women (single of the week)

ABOUT THE SONG

Seventeen. Is there a more complicated age? Not quite yet an adult, but impatient to be treated like one; navigating an avalanche of new experiences and urgent emotions, dismissed by the grownups as “teenage angst” or “just a phase”. An exhausting quest to negotiate a new space for ourselves, juggling the interests of parents, teachers and friends while not knowing to question their motives.

This song is an excavation, a letting go, an act of self-forgiveness.

Traumatic events from the past can feel just as fresh, years later, the ghosts of our former selves creeping up to tap us on the shoulder with icy fingers.

Sometimes we need to package up our memories with tidy words to dispel the haunting.

Sometimes we just need to stop blaming ourselves.

Sometimes writing songs is like painstakingly sculpting sounds from thin air; other times they arrive in a whoosh, fighting to be heard. “Seventeen” appeared on a summer Saturday evening, falling out of me in jagged swathes.

Facing up to our ghosts isn’t a pleasant experience, but this song helped me over a major stumbling block from my past, bringing me a fresh perspective and new freedom.

CREDITS

Written, produced, performed and recorded by Laura Kidd at The Launchpad, Bristol. Drums by Max Saidi. Piano arranged by Laura Kidd, performed and recorded by Catherine Anne Davies. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Artwork by Alex Tillbrook, concept by Laura Kidd.

LYRICS

Happy birthday, time to say goodbye
Such a big girl, keep all this inside
Dial back those dreams
Wishing impossible things
Bursting your seams
It hurts when we grow

Tell me what you wanted
I was seventeen
Tell me I deserved it
Because I was seventeen

Toxic teens on mixtape afternoons
Photostatic memories of you
Fold paper planes
Pull them apart when it rains
Smash windowpanes
Stretching our wings alone

Tell me what you wanted
I was seventeen
Tell me I deserved it
I was seventeen
Tell me it was all my fault
I was seventeen
Tell me you remember

Tell me what you wanted
I was seventeen
Tell me I deserved it
I was seventeen
Give me a good reason
I was seventeen
Tell me you’re so sorry
I was seventeen

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.

+ I make a podcast called “Attention Engineer”, where I speak to fellow artists about creativity, grit and determination. Visit this page to find out more.

+ You can also follow me around the web, on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Have a lovely day xo

Share this:

Correspondent’s Club 003 – 21/4/21

by Laura Kidd Letterbox Music News Perks TCC

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)”

Obey Robots – “Inside Out” (2/4/20)

by Laura Kidd Homepage Feature Letterbox Releases Singles

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 Pixabay

LYRICS

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?

+ 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

Share this: