Laura Marling: the Master Interview | Under the Radar
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LAURA MARLING 1 October 2007. A 17-year-old singer readies herself for a show at London's Soho Revue Bar. After the sound check, the venue manager asks to see her identification and then refuses her permission to play, as she is under age to perform in licensed premises. Undeterred, the singer takes to the street and entertains the audience outside the venue. It is an act of good faith and integrity. Conversations with her conscience are a recurring theme in Laura Marling's work. In the current musical climate, songwriting rests more firmlyin female hands than at any other time in British pop. The nation's women writers are now topping the charts and selling records in their millions. But despite Marling's considerable talent her commercial profile remains relatively low. Her music seems more fittingto the era of the late Sixties and early Seventies when the work of Janis Ian, Carole King, Laura Nyro, BuffySainte-Marie, Melanie, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon in America was complemented by Sandy Denny and Joan Armatrading in the UK. Indeed, Laura herself expresses the wish that she was 'in a time where people could make money out of making music: before asserting, 'I could never change my songwriting in order to sell more records: The sole female singer-songwriter is still a rarity. There is a focus today on the kind of collaboration that has propelled Adele, Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Florence Welch, Leona Lewis, Emeli Sande and, as we have seen, Lily Allen, into the mainstream. The producer and songwriting teams that dominated Tin Pan Alley before the explosion of Lennon and McCartney have been reinvented or replaced by the staggering popularity of television talent com- petitions and schools of songwriting apprenticeship. The modern emphasis is on the technical ability of the voice and the presence of the star. Marling's music doesn't fitthat pattern. She is a writer troubled by the pursuit of 'art for art's sake: genuinely questioning why she writes and endures the subsequent and inevitable demands of touring and promotion. It is an irony that her four albums challenge the proliferation of manufactured music because of the economics of her natural artistry. Marling regards songwriting as a self-indulgent and obsessive pursuit. She rarely writes during contented periods of her life, and like Cat Stevens in the Seventies, she is on a road of self-discovery. Laura was a regular churchgoer until the age of twelve, before exploring the possibilities of Buddhism. She is not religious, but is definitely on a quest to consolidate faith. Biblical and mythological imagery can be found liberally scattered across her song sheet: in communion, the fall of man, fate, angels, sin, Paracelsus' Undine, Judgement Day, God and the 'Devil's Resting Place: In 2009 she toured her music in churches, in 2011 in cathedrals. These are not glamorous venues for a performer, but that is in part Marling's intention. She continues, as she began, to see performance as a shared experience with the audience. A humble basement, The Bosun's Locker in west London, was the catalyst for Marling's emergence into the musical mainstream. Once again the King's Road ley line that had brought together Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols and Pet Shop Boys seemed to play its part. The venue had launched the careers of Mumford And Sons, Johnny Flynn and Marling's first band, Noah And The Whale. Laura describes a monthly event there as an all-inclusive gathering of like-minded musicians and audience. Instrumentalists and players would freely lend their ideas to one another. Where music had previously been a form of escapism, the opportunity to be with kindred spirits offered the young songwriter a valuable support network. In 2009, she hosted Laura Marling & Friends at the Royal Festival Hall. For a 19-year-old songwriter, it was an incredible achievement. As guests performed, and in between her own contributions, she reclined with musicians on a ragged sofa up stage. It was a democratic gesture of openness, gratitude and bewilderment at her meteoric rise to success. Marling's desire to build connections between performer and audience led to her 2011 live art installation, Experiments in Awkwardness. This was built around a simple idea of taking two complete strangers into a room together to hear her perform a song live. It deliberately challenged the perceived boundaries of performance by direct interaction. The historian of the English imagination, Peter Ackroyd, observed: 'The theme of exile and travel, whether mental or physical, is a constant feature of Englishwomen's writing:This theme lies at the heart of Marlin g's work. Her music seems to yearn for a spiritual centre and a safe home of her own making. Thank you naivetyfor failing me again, she whimpers in 'Saved These Words: In conversation, Laura is honest and revealing, her analysis of her writing state of mind quite profound. She questions, 'Is songwriting my saviour or is it my downfall?' Her writing is a knowing entry into a psychological darkness. As a result, philosophical control is integral to her make-up in a battle between logic and art. She asks in 'Master Hunter: you want a woman who will call your name? Her reply is blunt; with a subtle nod of appreciation to Bob Dylan: it ain't me, Babe I No, no, no. Laura Marling at Glastonburv,201 1 by Jill Furmanovsky 'Don't Ask Me Why' is made up of strands of self- confession to those of us who are lost and low. Marling writes with inbuilt defences, and although not impenetrable, they are reluctantly acknowledged: looking for answers in unsavoury places. Her writing is mostly shrouded in metaphor or addressed to third persons, as songs capture the transition from innocence to knowing, from childhood to the uncertainties of adulthood.In 'Where Can I Go?' she ruminates, Truth about desire they say is a need to breathe foranother day; in 'I Was An Eagle' she defiantlyasserts, I will not be a victim of romance. 'The Beast' conjures an unknown presence. It is one of her most adventurous and uncomfortable compositions.Marling delivers the vocal in half-speech, a Hampshire echo of Lou Reed's Long Island deadpan. The narration is surrounded by a sense of darkness delivered by overdriven guitars. The author wrestles with inner demons and allows her character, the Beast, shifting roles within her third album, A Creature I Don't Know. At times, the Beast is the creator, but it also becomes others, and moves with unknown and undefinedforce. Strength and love crusade against weakness and hate. Marling's firstalbum, Alas I Cannot Swim, explored similar themes. Marling characterized her writing as 'optimistic realism: with a cleansing running melody of water.A second release demonstrated a new, confidentinner strength and honesty: I speak because I can to anyone I trust enough to listen. Marling's creativity takes much from the role of women in literature. Calling Sophia goddess of power. the line draws on an ancient belief that Sophia was the female counterpart of God. Marling is drawn by the concepts of gender worship. She was enthralled by the books of Canadian and Anglican priest Robertson Davies and particularly his philosophical novel The Rebel Angels. Reading inspires Marling's thoughts. The beast was a creature I don't know was assimilated from a Jehanne Wake novel, Sisters of Fortune, into an unused lyric and later a piece of prose.' Salinas' developed from reading an introduction to John Steinbeck's Glastonbury tale, The Acts Of King Arthur And His Noble Knights, in which the American author's widow revealed her sycophantic reverence for him. Marling was appalled. Her exploration of women is not a political stance, but a fascination with gender differences. 'What He Wrote' was provoked by reading Second World War letters published in a newspaper. A woman's correspond ence exposed a soldier's wife deserted and left 'rigid with anger' as the call to arms took her husband away. Stolen, unspoken desire resonated with the shy songwriter. Poetry also offers a source of stimulation: 'This Be The Verse' by Philip Larkin informed Marling's 'Tap At My Window' ... Mother, I blame you with every inch of the being you gave . .. Father . .. how can you watch as I push her away? In the spring of 2013 she composed 'Under The Greenwood Tree; an adaptation of Shakespeare's poem, for an RSC production of As You Like It. Laura Beatrice Marling was born 1 February 1990 in Eversley, Hampshire. She was educated at Leighton Park Quaker School on a music scholarship, but failed in Eng-lish, both at GCSE and A Level. Her attention had been diverted by a recording deal offered by Virgin Records. As a child she had aspirations to be a children's writer, but found the discipline of continuous prose beyondl her capability. At sixteen, the family's 'Little One' moved to Kew. Six years later, in December 2012, she left London to rent an apartment in the Silverlake quarter of Los Angeles. The young Marling was taught guitar by her father, and he passed on to her his passion for Joni Mitchell. She grew up listening to her parents' eclectic record collection, where James Taylor, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Steely Dan stood alongside modern writers like Nina Nastasia, Diane Cluck and Bonnie Prince Billy. Her appreciation of live performance came from Ryan Adams, and the first CDs she bought were Lenny Kravitz- Greatest Hits and Joni Mitchell's Court And Spark. Marling may have assimilated a good deal from the past, but she invents the present with immense originality.