Interview Laura J Martin Interview May 6, 2011 With a pedal at her feet and a flute, mandolin, and various shakable, tappable percussive items taking it in turns at her hands, Laura J Martin loops up oriental-tinged melodies over which she unravels tales of faraway imaginings and adventures.

Merseyside born and bred, not that you’ll detect much Scouse when she sings, Laura combines almost unearthly vocals with these loopings, making for a sound at times hallucinatory or fairytale-like (not in any warbling Disney Princess way).

With a debut LP set for release later in the year, for now here’s her latest, pretty bewitching, video for ‘Inside Your Bones’, co-written with The Simonsound and due for release on Battered Ornaments/Finders Keepers this month:

Before performing as a singer you started out in hip hop surroundings with just your flute; how did what now makes up your sound develop?

I’ve never been a hip hop purist, but it was fun starting out playing with Kidkanevil, and a chance to tour with one of the most current UK hip hop acts. I get a buzz out of performing with a band but, when I started to write, going solo was the most practical way to produce things. This led to experimenting with the loop station and introducing different instruments. I’m limited in the instruments that I have or that I can (I hope) play well for now, so that dictates my sound a little. But who knows what direction I’ll take next.

Some of your songs have a story-like feel, can you tell us how you approach writing lyrics?

Crafting a narrative can be important, but I like to keep it real to an extent. I draw on personal experiences or characters that I meet, some I know well, others not so well, who have interesting stories behind them. Some songs, though they may seem like story, are actually based on fact. A series of circumstances can develop into something. Like the track ‘Fire Horse’ – I had an arson attack on my flat when I lived in Japan, and this led me on to discover the story of Yaoya Oshichi, a legendary arsonist, and then this became the basis for the song. More recently I’ve been doing research in fairground archives, since discovering my gypsy heritage!

Did living in Japan have any impact on your music in other ways?

I caught the oriental bug quite a while before going. And while I was there I was mostly only exposed to J-pop. I’m very partial to kung fu films, so the eastern tones are taken more from watching these, especially in Japan, late at night, right before I went to sleep.

With so much looping your songs become pretty complex, so where do you start composing something new?

It depends on the track and my mood. Sometimes I’ll write a beat first and build up more melodic and percussive layers as I go. But then with a track that’s more sentimental, I start off with the lyrics and craft something around them, trying to keep it simple so as not to drown out the vocal.

Can you tell us about how you’ve been collaborating with other artists?

Depending on the project, I might receive a beat or an instrumental track that I’d add flute or vocals to and the track would go back and forth via the wonderful internet, with ideas being added or erased. In the case of ‘Kiss Bye Goodnight’ that I did with Buck 65 [the b-side to 'Spy' - due out on Static Caravan at the end of June] I wrote the ‘meat’ and he added his lyrics and vocal in certain parts, in a sort of question and answer style. I’m heading to Wales in the near future to work on a collaborative LP or EP with Euros Childs, so I’m looking forward to seeing what we can come up with together.

http://www.myspace.com/lalajmartin

Photo by Kate Sutton / Interview by Kathryn Hall