Speak Easy
LAURA MARLING
Words: Harriet Gibsone
Photography: Tom Oldham
In New York to talk second albums, surviving the city and surpassing shyness with Laura Marling, the UK’s most captivating starlet…
Hello my name’s Laura… and I’m here to entertain you.”
Having just finished an exhilaratingly intense rendition of new single ‘Devil’s Spoke’, Laura Marling stands unassumingly in the middle of the stage at New York’s Poisson Rouge, introducing herself like the reluctant ringleader, sending a sold-out crowd into hysterics with her politely-deadpan delivery. Her dry humour, discomfited banter and quintessentially English awkwardness might be in contrast with the self-assured inhabitants of the Big Apple, but there’s an incandescent charm and understated star quality to the 20-year-old that makes her utterly engaging wherever she is. And where she is right now is on the cusp of releasing a second album of emotive, bewitching and heart-conquering folk songs. “I’m a bit of an English wimp,” Laura smiles when we meet in her hotel the day before. “I could never live here,” she says, signalling out toward New York’s bolshie streets. “I had a thing of snow fall on me today. It just fell off on me in the wind. It was huge. I had to stop myself from having a little cry in the street. This is so much a city – but maybe it would do me some good. It’s a very intimidating place.” Her new album, ‘I Speak Because I Can’, arrived on our desks at the start of the year, and to our delight, we found that Laura’s vulnerable folk sound had elevated to a more lush, expansive and refined height. Accompanied by the Dylan-esque blues rush of new single ‘Devil’s Spoke’, with its video of desert fires, shadows and pokerfaced solemnity, we wondered, has Laura, her blonde hair now dark auburn, gone all austere on us?
“Don’t let the new hair fool you,” she laughs. “We thought it was quite funny, ‘Devil’s Spoke’, because you know; it’s so serious it’s almost taking the piss out of itself. I think the video is really funny.” So, looking back: soon after the-then 16-year-old Marling started garnering acclaim for her acoustic shows around London, she was held up as the leading light of a fully-fledged folk revival, with the likes of Noah And The Whale (whose frontman, and ex-beau, Charlie produced her debut), Mumford And Sons (whose frontman, and current beau, Marcus used to be in her band), Johnny Flynn, Peggy Sue and Alessi’s Ark following in the aftermath of her Mercury-nominated debut. Take, for example, the night at Royal Festival Hall she curated last year, where she was able to call on her now-very successful folk friends. However, when we broach the subject of her place at the forefront of a movement, she’s quick to sidestep the question. “That gig – I was asked to curate a night. What we all wanted to get across was that we all are like any other idiot walking down the street. Just that we are just glorified nobodies – do you know what I mean?” Ummm. Not really. “There’s really literally no good way of saying it. You know that it’s just really nice what we have going on. I thought you could stop people from saying there’s a scene. It’s such a horrible way to put it. There are plenty of people doing it, we’re just buddies. When things go wrong in society it’s because people lack family structure or some kind of social structure, and confidence. And I got all my confidence from the people I play music with. And that’s been very important to me and my career.” Why exactly were you so insecure when you were younger? “I was a teenager,” she smiles. “But I was quite shy. At school. I didn’t really go to lessons. I never saw anyone. I’d be in the music block. But then I’m never good at meeting new people. I work on the level that the first impression isn’t just the first impression and hopefully you’ll be able to get a second impression…” she trails off, “but when I started touring, I started touring with Marcus and to save money, pre- Mumford, we just toured and it was just me and him and a tour manager. I wouldn’t talk – and it took him bullying me, taking the piss out of me so much until I just had to say something. And then it became easier because I grew up,” she divulges, “And it was all because I was just 16 years old around people who I thought were cool and intimating. And there you have it. Just like every other 16-year-old.” Away from the nu-folk scene, Laura found herself crowbarred into a Kate Nash- Lily Allen-shaped-hole, or, most crassly, illustrated as a little girl who just sung about boys. But when The Fly first heard ‘I Speak Because I Can’, we were struck with how her gentle and buoyant coo had transformed into a deep, soulful sirensong, her lyrics uncomfortable, confrontational and riddled with religious ambiguity. Indeed, there’s a feeling that, with ‘I Speak…’, there’s a determination to dispel any preconceptions. “Well, I hope it will set a few things straight,” she says. “I did an interview the other day and we spoke about womanhood. And I said how I feel like a woman now and how this album feels like a transition into womanhood and all that cheesy bullshit that will put men off the album. But there is a lot about womanhood on the album and I wonder whether men will see it in the same way women do. But I know men can understand Joni Mitchell…” she continues, “and I can understand a Bob Dylan album…just…,” she awkwardly withdraws, as if assuming she’s said too much.
Aided by Ethan Johns (Kings Of Leon, Rufus Wainwright, Ryan Adams) on production duties, the endearing subtleties of the first album have been replaced by rumbling Celtic drums (‘Rambling Man’), gripping Italian inspired trills (‘Alpha Shallows’) and Arabian sitars on the album’s title track, Johns paving the way for Laura’s venture into a grander, fully realised soundscape. “He sat back when the chaps and me were playing the album and he just picked up instruments and added to it,” she explains. “It’s really old school but it works. It felt a lot like we were musicians rather than people faking it. It kind of felt like that when we were making the first album, duping our way into the musician’s role. I’ve been a big fan of him for a long time. I was very nervous about meeting him because I can be very shy and weird when I get nervous,” she gestures to herself as if we are in the midst of one of her ‘weird’ moments, “and I thought if I was too strange he wouldn’t work with me. But he was even weirder than I was. He’s such a normal guy and so English. I never imagined him to be like that.” Despite working with trusted friend Charlie Fink on her debut, she had no qualms about putting her songs into unfamiliar hands for the new album. “Funnily enough, I had more control over this one. Charlie was amazing, but he is very much an artist in himself so it was his project,” she says. “And, although I love everything from the first album, it didn’t truly feel like mine apart from the songs. And because Ethan sat back and I was playing with musicians I’d been playing with for years it felt a lot more like my album – and my songs, in the way I wanted them to be presented, which is quite nice and a good stepping stone for the next album if it gets easier and easier or if I get more confidence to do what I feel in my gut – rather than just nodding along and doing what other people do.”
The next album? Already? Yep – Laura plans to release her third later this year. “Yeah – I’m crazy like that,” she says, sarcastically. “I had a lot of time between the first one. ‘I Speak Because I Can’ was the last song I wrote on the album and it was a natural break for the next
Battles
Tom Oldham shoots Battles for June's issue of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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Black Lips
Tom Oldham shoots Black Lips for June's cover feature. www.tomoldham.com
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Cage The Elephant
Tom Oldham snaps Cage The Elephant for our March issue. www.tomoldham.com
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Cerebral Ballzy
Tom Oldham shoots Cerebral Ballzy for the August issue of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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Friendly Fires
Tom Oldham shoots Friendly Fires for the June cover of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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Grouplove
Grouplove play for FlyTV In The Courtyard sessions. www.tomoldham.com
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James Blake
Dubstep superstar James Blake stands still for the January issue. Pics by www.tomoldham.com
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Noah And The Whale
Shots of Noah And The Whale for March's issue of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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The Antlers
Tom Oldham shoots The Antlers for the Nov/Dec issue of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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The Horrors
Tom Oldham shoots The Horrors for the July cover of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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Warm Brains
Tom Oldham shoots Warm Brains for the August issue of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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Washed Out
Tom Oldham shoots Washed out for the August issue of The Fly. www.tomoldham.com
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The History Of Apple Pie
The History Of Apple Pie shot for our January OTW issue. www.tomoldham.com
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Django Django
Coverstars Django Django pose for our January OTW issue. www.tomoldham.com
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Lucy Rose
Coverstar Lucy Rose poses for our January OTW issue. www.tomoldham.com
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‘I Speak Because I Can’ is released on Virgin on March 22nd.
Laura Marling is set to perform a super intimate Fly Presents show at London’s Camden Barfly on March 23rd. Tickets for this special show will go on sale on Thursday 4th March, but if you miss out, you can win a pair by entering the competition at www.the-fly.co.uk. Good luck!
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