Interview: She Makes War

This interview was originally published in Issue 19, September 1st 2011. Introduction and content by Tiffany Daniels.

Laura Kidd is inspirational. That much is clear after only ten minutes of internet browsing. She and her project She Makes War dominate social networking sites, music blogs and Google, thanks in no small part to 2010’s debut Disarm.

Originally self-released, this summer the album’s reissue has rightfully caught the attention of every music journalist within a hundred mile radius of its lucrative glow.

But chilling Grrrl lo-fi isn’t all Ms Kidd has up her sleeves. She’s also a self-confessed film nerd, and adorns her fans with music videos and handmade merchandise at every available opportunity. All of this, and she is but one woman.

To celebrate her successes and discuss her as-of-yet untitled sophomore, DrunkenWerewolf’s Tiffany Daniels took the opportunity to talk to Laura this August.

Were you recording today?

Yeah, it’s going well!

How far are you into the second album?

We’ve recorded all the music and most of the vocals, but I’ve still got a few more [...] of the words to [write]. I’m going to finish off [...] all the recorded bits next week and then get straight into mixing things.

You’ve just re-released Disarm. Are you planning on releasing this album soon after?

I think my plan’s [...] to put it out in January.

What made you decide to re-release Disarm?

I put it out very DIY last year in September. Then I wanted to re-release it to coincide with entering the Mercury Prize, and also to get it into shops and get people talking about it again. [...]I think it’s good to push things again, it gives [Disarm] more of an airing really. People are discovering Disarm every week with online stuff and obviously with me playing shows [...] as well. It’s for them really, to say this is still current and important, so have a listen!

Do you find that you’re quite aware of what’s going on in the music industry, if you’re re-releasing it to coincide with the Mercury nominations?

Not at all, no! I’m not interested in what the music industry thinks of my music, other than I think it’s good to get a little more exposure to DIY and independent bands.

I think that there’s a lot of – well, there’s certain areas of the music industry that are a little bit sown up, and off limits to people like me, but I don’t think there’s any reason not to try to break into it. [...] If you don’t have a bit of the machine behind you it can be very difficult to be taken seriously, and on the same level as some of the artists that you hear about in the Introducing lists and what have you. But the great thing is that the people who are finding out about me online don’t care about that stuff anyway. They don’t care that I wasn’t on that list, however they find me they’re quite happy. If they like the music, they like the music, and they treat me the same way.

Do you think that you’re most accessible through the internet? Is that how you gain most of your fan base?

I think it’s a mixture of online stuff and playing gigs, and people recommending me.

What’s lovely about being on Twitter [is that] it means that people get to know me more as a person, so it’s more of a rounded view of me, not just [about my character] through [my] music, which I’m quite happy to be involved in because I’m very geeky! I do use Twitter personally as well; I was using it way before I had an album to put out. I think that people like that. They can see a bit more about me and they get a bit more hooked in. I don’t mean that in a marketing way – I’m not doing it to hook people in – but that’s how Twitter works.

It’s good too because they’ll then recommend me to their friends. I have a policy of always replying to people who write to me online, however long that might take and how late at night I have to go to bed! That means that people know I really do care about [my fan base] and I respect that they take the time to write to me and recommend the album. So yeah, I’m accessible that way. I think it’s very important.

Quite a few musicians have used Pledge, but you took that a step further last year when you released the Disarm videos in succession. Did you see yourself doing that when you wrote the music? Does the visual aspect of the release immediately tie into the music?

It does, it definitely does and that’s the reason that I didn’t release the album immediately. I recorded it in 2009 – it was all mixed and mastered by January or February. I put out a couple of singles not really because that’s how “the music industry” does things, [but because] I wanted to have some time to make videos. It takes time! When you’re concentrating on music, and I obviously have to work to pay the bills, I just don’t have time to say, “Right! I’m spending a month making music videos all at once!” [I waited] until September so there were five videos ready: “Let This Be”, “Scared to Capsize”, “I Am” and “Olympian” after that, and then “Slow Puncture”.

It’s quite confusing in my brain, because I think in musical parts and I write all the parts thinking about what [will go together] in layers. That’s why it’s great going to the studio – to get it all out of my head! But I also think in pictures, so with this new album I’m thinking of all the songs when they’re in their musical format, and I see what the video would be in an ideal world. Then I scale that back a bit to find what’s affordable and do-able. I’ve got a really extravagant idea but I’m sure it’s going to cost as much as Pirates of the Caribbean! I don’t have anywhere near that much money to spend on it.

I basically have stories to tell; it’ll come out through music and it’ll come out in visuals.

What song is that extravagant film for?

It’s for a song called “In This Boat”.

What’s the idea?

Basically being on a massive boat in the middle of the ocean with loads of stuff going on, on the deck. The deck would have to be really big as well; I want to have roller skating going on and all sorts of business. I’ll do a version of it that probably isn’t on a massive boat.

Will you film those videos after you’ve finished the album, like you did with Disarm?

Yeah I think that’s very important, the music has to be the strongest element. I think that [the parts] are equally as important in terms of my output, but they also have to stand alone. So obviously the music videos can stand alone because they have music attached to [them], but I don’t want the music to be compromised in anyway because I was phaffing around making videos when I should have been concentrating!

As soon as [the album is] done I’m hopefully going to be [doing] the videos. I’ve got a few people I want to collaborate with on video too, rather than me having to do all of it. I love doing them, but for time’s sake and for shaking it up a little bit, there are some really great people who I’ve met who I’d love to work with. There’s a nice little community that’s grown up around this project in the last few years and that’s also why I’ve got a few guests on the album. They’re all people I know, and I love them and I want them to come and be themselves on my album!

You only recorded Disarm with Myles Clarke. Did you consciously decide to have guests on this album? Or did you unconsciously record Disarm alone?

It was all conscious. At the start of the She Makes War project there were other people involved, and there were so many false starts with recording things that I got sick of it, and decided to go solo. I think before I went solo – I guess that was in 2005 – I was kind of working up to having enough confidence to know that what I was doing was what I should be doing. The first incarnation of She Makes War was a band, and the music was quite different. It wasn’t vastly different because I was still writing it, but it’s definitely moved on and it’s a lot more sophisticated now and how I want things to sound. I’m very clear about that.

I was working with some people who wanted to stick their oar in a little bit too much, basically, and didn’t understand where I was coming from. It was very much the decision to go, “Right, I’m recording with this person.” The reason I chose Myles was because he agreed not to change what I was doing. He fully supported my position; I explained the sound I was going for, he totally got it, and we co-produced but he didn’t make any over-reaching production decisions – that was all me.  What’s so cool about him is that he likes what I’m doing, and he just wants to be involved and knows how to make the sounds I want. He knows what I like now, so doing the second album is a breeze. He knows how I want my guitar to sound, it’s easy and fun. He’s never going, “You should do it like this,” because he knows it’s none of his business. In as nice a way as possible, it’s my project!

This time there are guests doing little bits, but the vast majority of it is me. Myles is doing a little bit more drum programming because I don’t have time to do it as fully as I did on the last album. Then I’ve got Chris TT playing piano because I can’t play the piano really – I’m really bad at it! He’s a brilliant pianist and I just wanted to have him there; he’s a lovely guy and I love his stuff, and he likes my stuff. He came and played and he’s singing a bit on one of the songs as well. Then I have a violin player called Milly McGregor – we were in a band together for a little bit. She came along and I said, “I want this to sound like Milly played the violin, don’t even worry about what I want it to sound like.” I mean, I play the violin, but I’d rather someone came along and did it for themselves – I don’t need to prove I’m a violin player to anyone, you know? That was really cool! I’ve got a few more guest vocalists coming along: Dana Jade, Annie Gardiner from The Hysterical Injury… and a few other secret people, until they send me their files I’m not telling anyone in case they don’t do it!  It’s very exciting. As soon as I’ve got all the bits I’ll be able to tell you who it is!

So although you have all these people contributing to the album, essentially She Makes War will always be a solo project?

She Makes War will always be a solo project, but I’m not saying I won’t play the songs with a band. That would be different. I want to be in a position where I can basically pay people – even if it’s a token amount of money – to come and play my songs. What I don’t want to do is get people along [that] want to change stuff. At this point I don’t really want to collaborate musically with people because my vision is very clear. As much as I respect other people’s music this is not their project! I want it to sound like it sounds. I’d love to get people along to play some shows with me [though], and there will be things like that happening next year for sure.

Your lives shows will be quite different from your current set up then? I think I’ve only ever seen you play by yourself.

Yeah I play all my shows alone. I’ve not played with anyone at all so far with She Makes War. I’m going to be doing some stuff with some singers at some point, and we’ll see about the band.

Do you find it’s difficult to relay your music onstage when it’s just you? I know you use loops and pedals…

I’m not trying to make the songs sound like they do on the record when I play them live, that’s a conscious decision. I find it a lot more interesting when I go to shows and I see an artist playing the songs slightly differently from the record. I don’t mean so differently that you’re going, “Just sing the tune will you!” I’ve had that before, when you’re just like, “Lou Reed, can you just sing the tune?” He’s great but he just changes the tune all the time, I don’t like it! It’s definitely a conscious decision – everything I do really, I’ve thought about. I’m trying to do them differently live and make them interesting.

The reason I started looping is because I didn’t want to just stand there with a guitar and sing the songs. I wanted it to be interesting and I wanted people to wonder what I was doing. I wanted there to be more vocals on there because there’s a lot of vocals on my recordings. It’s very much a version of the song, and it’ll always be different every time because it’s live.

I do want to start adding even more kooky things into my solo show. It also obviously makes sense because it’s cheap and easy for me to do things that way. This is a DIY project; no one’s paying for it apart from myself.