She Makes War shouldn’t need much introduction to long-term Last Year’s Girl readers: gloom-pop goddess, multi-instrumentalist and musician Laura Kidd has snuck onto many a mix tape around these parts, to say nothing of onto a bill back in my occasional gig promotion days. Laura’s third album – the lush, ambitious Direction of Travel – got a PledgeMusic-only release a couple of months back, but before she gears up to properly release and tour it there is the small matter of her first one-woman show at the Fringe to get through.
A mixture of spoken word and music, Shit Girlfriend is “part rock gig, part two-way therapy session”. The show features advice and anecdotes about trying to find love while building a sustainable creative career. If you’ve ever read Laura’s blog you’ll know that the lady has a way with words – and, best of all, the show is donation entry, so there’s no reason not to give it a shot.
Laura’s first show is TONIGHT: you can find her at Fingers Piano Bar at 4pm every day except Mondays until the 21st. We managed a quick email interview as she traveled, during which I forgot to ask about her jaw-droppingly brilliant cover of Alanis Morissette’s “Wake Up” recorded for The 405’s recent Jagged Little Pill tribute compilation – so make it up to yourself by hitting “play” below while having a read.
For those reading this who don’t know She Makes War: who are you and what do you do?
I’m a solo artist based in Bristol, performing grungey pop songs usually solo on electric guitar, ukulele, vocals, megaphone and loop pedal. I make music, I tour and I blog.
So, your second year at the Fringe! What is it that attracts you to Edinburgh in August?
It’s technically my third – I came up and did some gigs around the Fringe in 2012 – but it’s my second year being involved with an actual Fringe show and my first year doing my very own show. I first visited the Fringe in 2011 for some work and was bowled over by the breadth of performances. It seemed like a place you could push yourself to try out something new, and I was inspired by punk folk singer Chris T-T’s show that year (he set AA Milne poems to music – it was gorgeous). It planted a seed in my brain that just never stopped growing. One day I would do my own Edinburgh Fringe run, dammit! And so here I am.
The new show is part-music, part-spoken word, which I’m quite excited about. How did the idea for the show come about and what can we expect from it?
Since I started performing as She Makes War I’ve become more and more comfortable sharing stories with my audiences between songs. I’m always interested in shaking up the standard gig format so it seemed like a natural progression to create a narrative structure for this oversharing, and I came up with the name of the show last summer when I was part of a music and comedy show called I Blame Britpop.
I write melancholy, honest songs and am a pretty chirpy person because of that catharsis, so I find that juxtaposition amusing and sometimes think about the person who writes those dark lyrics as a character with a storm cloud over her head, who will never really find happiness in life. I’m hopeful that I will, while being conscious that I’ve made a lot of bizarre romantic decisions over the years, so I thought sharing some of those stories while poking fun at myself and contrasting that lightheartedness with some of my saddest songs would be an interesting mix. My show references Stewart Lee, Mark Chadwick and Albert Einstein so eclectic could be the word for it!
Your new album, Direction of Travel, was released to crowd-funders only – but then got a limited online release just ahead of your Edinburgh trip. Why did you decide to put it out digitally like that, and do you have plans as yet for a wider release?
If the new album hadn’t been crowdfunded it’s quite likely that no-one would have heard it yet – but as it was, I felt that Pledgers deserved to hear it as soon as it was finished – which was in March. I did a quick 4 day only release to thank my mailing list, Twitter and Facebook friends last week because I want people who have supported me to hear the new songs, but I’m not ready to release it “properly” yet.
I’m exploring various ways of doing a bigger release for this album because it’s my best yet and I’d love it to make an impact on the world, but however it comes out, independently or not, I want to have some time to make a proper release plan, create music videos and other special things. The visual side of things is very important to me, I like inviting people in to my own little world. So I’m happy to wait a while and play around with that stuff before I start letting the world at large hear the new tracks. I think bands can get too seduced by the immediacy of digital releases, I prefer to take my time and make things more meaningful.
With Direction of Travel being your second crowdfunded release, and with the Fringe show being free/donation, I feel as though you’ve always been willing to embrace alternative methods of paying for music. Was this your intention?
Absolutely. It’s difficult balancing my belief that culture should be available to everyone with no restrictions with the need to make money to live on, but I try to maintain a mix of the two. I just hope that people understand that when shows are free/donation, that doesn’t mean someone else is paying the performer’s costs. I wanted to do a Fringe show to grow as a performer, to try something new, exciting and scary but it’s a big financial commitment and I’m crossing fingers my audiences will be generous.
You announced this week that you now have a live booking agent! Do you anticipate that this will change your approach to playing live at all, particularly considering your well-known DIY ethos?
I would never work with someone who didn’t respect what I’ve built so far, so I think having an agent who is happy to build on that with me can only improve things and mean I can visit my fans around the country more often. I’ve been doing this completely alone for five years so it’s very exciting to know there’s finally someone out there who has my back.
I know you have a few other plans while you’re in Scotland: what can you tell me about those?
I have two gigs booked so far, and others may crop up along the way, one is this Saturday in Edinburgh at Studio 24 and next Friday 14th August at The Blue Chair in Glasgow. www.shemakeswar.com/gigs has more info on these.
Is there anything else on during the festivals that you’d particularly like to recommend?
I’ll be trying to get to all three of Chris Thorpe’s shows – Confirmation, Am I Dead Yet? and Human Resources – he’s always brilliant and shakes my brain up in the best ways. I’ll be seeing Stewart Lee of course – my admiration for him features strongly in my own show – plus Bridget Christie, Katherine Ryan and Daniel Kitson. The Edwards and Fraser show Beyond Harlem Nocturne looks fabulous too. Aside from those I’ll be keeping an eye out for interesting free stuff to go and see. I’m excited!
She Makes War’s Shit Girlfriend: 7th-21st August (not 10th, 17th) at Fingers Piano Bar. More info on Facebook.
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