Laura Marling Makes Fans Hook Up, Hopes to Work With Jack White

Posted on Nov 4th 2011 4:00PM by Theo Spielberg
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Laura Marling is a commanding presence. On stage, though shy, she effortlessly reduced an audience of 2,000 people at New York's Webster Hall to a silent hush. In between songs, she avoided onstage banter by claiming she is no good at that sort of small talk and instead would state a series of facts, the first of which was the name of the guitar she was currently playing: Mildred. The following day the 21-year-old singer-songwriter sat down with Spinner to talk about her ongoing social experiments, her obsession with records from 1969 and her critically acclaimed eclectic third album 'A Creature I Do Not Know.'

Yesterday you conducted what you call one of your "experiments in awkwardness." What exactly are those?

Well, originally we started doing it for the U.K. festivals because I find the concept of festivals really bizarre. It's meant to be like a community feel but they're always so massive that it never feels like that. So we found little spaces in festivals and told people I was going to be there but didn't tell them why. So the first 20 people to stand up, we'd pair them off with strangers. The idea was that they'd be led into a room and not be told anything about what they were doing there. It would hopefully make them feel a certain way, maybe awkward or maybe they'd get on. Then I would walk in and play a song without saying anything. I eventually started saying, "This is just to see how you feel about being taken out of a crowd" because people were like, "I just don't know what I'm doing here." So I'd play a song and I'd leave. Then afterwards we'd get people to write down what they thought and what they felt.

Are you going to compile them?

Yeah it's so weird. We're going to publish it like an experiment.

What's the best reaction you've ever gotten during one of those?

Well, two people hooked up.

While you were playing the song?

No, [laughs] but afterwards. That was good. That was kind of a nice reaction to it. Some people really didn't like it. Nobody was mean, but some were like, "I just thought that was really weird. I didn't really get it." Which is fair enough. It is really weird.

Watch Laura Marling's 'Sophia' Video

You mentioned that you'd recorded all of 'A Creature I Don't Know' on one particular guitar named Mildred. Have you found that different guitars punctuate your life?

Yeah, they do! That's funny, that's a very observant thing to ask. Yeah, because they resonate differently. I mean I have love affairs with guitars, basically. The first guitar I ever owned was a really boxy jazz guitar. It broke; somebody broke it at a gig. Somebody knocked it over. I'm so terrible with expensive things. I break laptops instantly, I lose phones, but I don't care about that. But guitars really get to me.

Your new album seems a lot darker and heavier in tone than your previous ones.

There's not so much solo stuff on this record. I still like to play solo but it didn't feel appropriate for some reason. It felt like this one needed some blood and guts in it. And I'm more confident musically now. My band, they're so good. They all do their own individual things, which makes what they bring into it quite unique.

Did you have any new influences going into this?

Yeah, I had. When I finished touring 'I Speak Because I Can,' I moved into a flat with an old friend who has an amazing Macintosh pre-amp and Tannoy speakers and I just went mad on vinyl. All my money now goes to vinyl. I found this one record by a guy called Jim Sullivan and this label Light in the Attic Records who put out these forgotten gems. Most of the stuff they put out happens to be from 1969 so I got obsessed with records made in 1969. Quite random stuff like Nancy and Lee and Steppenwolf.

Speaking of Nancy and Lee, you've done a lot of collaborations yourself. Do you have any dream collaborations you want to do?

I don't know because I've been lucky that the people I've collaborated with I've known, so it felt quite natural. So it's hard to think about people I'd like to play with but I guess as a way of escaping what I do, I'd quite like to do something with someone like Jack White and really rock out.

You're such an integral part of the English folk revival. Do you see yourself as being in any type of conversation with the American folk scene?

I think I owe a lot to a few; that kind of anti-folk scene, which is a terrible, terrible name for it. Like Diane Cluck and Jeffrey Lewis and that kind of thing. It's very quirky. I was never really involved in that, I was just sort of an admirer of it. When I started playing I was really inspired by them. It wasn't a "fuck you" attitude, it was just like a "we like playing music and we're going to do it any way we can and the likelihood is we're not going to make any money." Which is unfortunately the likelihood for everybody.

Did you know that Ryan Adams said scrapped most of his record after hearing yours? How do you feel about that?

Yeah, I heard that! [Laughs] It's amazing. I mean it's hilarious. I bought 'Heartbreaker,' no actually, I tell a lie -- my older sister brought 'Heartbreaker' home when I was 10. Our whole family went mad for it.

You followed up your second album with your third pretty quickly, and you played a new song last night. Do you have any plans yet for a fourth album?

There's an EP that I'd like to do that's probably a bit more separate from what is associated with Laura Marling. But that'll probably be more a hobby type thing. That new song is probably a part of that.

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