Hello there! How are you?
With only one week to go til my new music project launches, it’s action stations at The Launch Pad. This week I have mostly been focusing on completing the new, all-singing all-dancing website, setting up new social media pages and testing my general life theory that if I spend my time in positive ways, positive things will happen.
There’s still a lot to do, but it’s all coming together quite nicely.
It wouldn’t be a real deadline without me spending a few panicked moments wondering if perhaps I should have started these long days at the computer quite a lot earlier in the year, but as someone who has made a lifestyle out of biting off way more than she can chew and has pretty much always managed to get stuff out on time(ish) regardless, my default response is to breathe deeply and just keep going.
(Or, you know, we could all pretend that websites appear from nowhere as if by magic, songs fly down from the sky fully formed and all this “independent musician” stuff is just a ruse and my “team” is sorting it all out for me.)
Here’s a photo of “the team”. Lazy bunch.
As I’ve been saying in recent posts: in this time of global crisis I am, more than ever, SO grateful to have this launch to focus my energies on. I’ve spent my life feeling lucky that, aged 12, I was so sure of my future that I wrote a letter to my penpal Alastair Fields (Derbyshire) telling him that I was going to be a songwriter when I grew up. I had written zero songs at the time and had only just started learning to play my Uncle’s far-too-big-for-me acoustic guitar, but whether to prove I wasn’t a liar or to follow my chosen path of destiny, here I am, writing songs for a living completely thanks to you.
There have been some very interesting articles published in recent weeks about the state of the music business – this one in particular by Ben Beaumont Thomas really hits the nail on the head for me. Every time I see another sad table of pitifully small numbers telling me just how little my skills are valued by certain areas of industry I thank my lucky stars than SOMEHOW, I have found my way into the lives of people who understand the relationship between music maker and music listener, and value what I do enough to help support the continuation of that.
And so, with just seven days to go before I send you an invitation to join me in my future music making adventures, I have three things to ask of you.
1. Please could you subscribe to my new YouTube page? Just hit the red “subscribe” button PLUS click the bell to receive notifications of new videos. Yes, there will be videos!
2. If you enjoy using these sites, please could you follow me on Twitter and Instagram? I’ll be switching the handles over to my new name (YAY) when the time is right and it would be lovely to see you over there.
3. Please could you give yourself a big old pat on the back for getting through this bonkers time so far, in whatever form that is taking? It’s HARD in so many ways, and my heart truly aches for everyone suffering right now. If you’re a key worker, THANK YOU. If you’re alone in isolation, I see you. If you’re scared for the future, I hear you. And if, like me, you’re spending some of your time feeling guilty for being relatively ok, I get that too.
Thank you x
I wore a black cloth face mask to my local Post Office for the first time on Wednesday. It felt serious, and I felt weird. It was nothing to do with worrying about what I looked like – I’m pretty casual about that at the best of times – I think it was because it felt like levelling up, a stark, visual acceptance of the grave reality of the situation that we’re in. I worry about my local area; people are social distancing to some extent, but there’s always someone who’ll “just nip past” you in a very annoying way.
Tim came out with me for some exercise, also masked, and we attracted all sorts of stares. Having never worn a face covering of any kind, I couldn’t help but think of the brutal masks worn in the second series of The Handmaid’s Tale. Anyway, while we were waiting outside the Post Office, at an appropriate distance from the person in front of us, a woman further back smirked and brazenly held up her phone to take a photo of us. It was maddening.
When I called over to say, fairly loudly, that I’d seen her do it, asked her why and suggested it was rather rude of her she pretended not to hear me and then pretended to take a phone call. “I see you’re pretending to talk to someone on the phone now”, I said, amazed that a grownup couldn’t just meet my eyes and say a simple “sorry”, and she hung up the “call” and continued awkwardly standing in the same place, her eyes darting in every direction but my own.
Thank you for not being this person, thank you for keeping yourself and your loved ones safe, and thank you to the people who email each week to let me know how they are and reassure me that I don’t need to feel bad about releasing new music into the world when everything’s upside down.
I truly love to hear from you. Please comment on this blog post or you can email me and I’ll always do my best to write back (though right now finishing the website comes first!).
I’m excited to share new things with you next week.
Sending love
Laura xxxx
Yep, the fringe situation is fully out of control.
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One week‽ I cannot wait!
YAY me too! *makes things, makes more things*
Very much looking forward to your new music and everything that goes with it.
But the burning question is this: Does Penpal Alastair know you succeeded in your ambition?!
Good luck with everything!
Know what Paul, I only recently found his full name written in an old diary, so hadn’t had the option of looking him up to see how he’s getting on in life. Now I’m a bit scared!! 😀
Only one week to go! That is genuinely exciting!
In amongst all the wonderful live “homecasts” by musical friends and favourite artists that I have to look forward to, one of the most exciting things I’ve seen today has been the official Star Wars free backdrops release for video conferencing. I don’t do any of that, but the thought of being able to stand on Tattooine to do so made me much happier than it should.
Such is lockdown life haha.
Looking forward to the “all systems go” message
OH MY GOODNESS WHAT?! Do you have a link? This could be *very* useful……
I am so looking forward to your launch!
Here in NJ, USA it is required by law now to wear a face covering when entering any establishment that is open due to being deemed “essential”. I expect that this will be the norm for quite some time. And yes, it does feel weird to be wearing one and to see everyone else wearing some sort of face covering – dust mask, surgical mask, cloth mask, scarf..
I’m really glad they’ve brought that law in…I wish they’d be stronger about the guidelines here so it became the norm for as long as it’s helpful! That woman aggravated me because she was clearly deriding our careful decision to wear masks and honestly it took me right back to being bullied at school for the way I spoke, dressed, lived my life…and all from about 3 metres away! The sad teenager who lives inside me finally got a chance to respond to her aggressors in that moment, and that felt good even though she didn’t have the gumption to respond.
So I did a (fairly lengthy even for me) response to your blog post last week mainly around the linked article on streaming and for so me reason it never got posted. I think I took so long I got distracted by work and forgot. Probably for the best that I didn’t bore anyone else including your good self, Laura.
Anyway to summarise: –
I can’t wait until Friday for the big reveal
Your ‘team’ look like they’ve been furloughed,
There’s nothing wrong with a good fringe – nor a Santa style bushy beard!!
See ya in 2 days (in a “COVID-19 only over the internet 150 miles apart” kind of a way).