At the age of nineteen, phenomenally talented UK folk singer LAURA MARLING seems to have it all figured out. ALASDAIR DUNCAN recently caught up with her to chat about her forthcoming album, her friendship with Mumford & Sons, and her fresh outlook on music.

ALASDAIR DUNCAN: You did your first trip to Australia two years ago – how did you find the experience at the time?

LAURA MARLING: It was me and my drummer Marcus and we were there for four days, so we were kind of delirious with jetlag, and everyone was really nice to us and we had a great time, but it was all a bit of a blur.

AD: Will you be bringing your band with you this time?

LM: I’m bringing a couple of members of my band, and we’re playing with a band called Boy & Bear, who are supporting us, we’ll be using some of their musicians – we couldn’t find a bass player or a banjo player, so they’re very kindly lending us theirs.

AD: Can you tell me a bit about how your forthcoming album I Speak Because I Can is going?

LM: It’s done – we finished that about a month ago.

AD: Given that you’ve been touring with a band for two years, are the arrangements of the new songs more band-focussed?

LM: When I write it doesn’t. This time around, it was a lot of fun because I went into the studio with four musicians I’d been playing with for nearly two years – that was two members of Mumford & Sons, another guy called Pete Roe and a guy called Tom Fiddle. I was thinking a lot about band arrangements, and they’re all very good at it so they arranged their own parts, then we recorded it all live. It definitely has more of a band feel, this album, which makes playing live with a band much easier, because they’ve written the parts themselves. It feels a lot more natural for them to be playing what they’re playing

AD: Mumford & Sons have become so big in their own right now, I’m wondering, do you feel a little protective of them, or jealous that now you have to share them with the world?

LM: We always used to play together over here, and we all knew that Mumford & Sons were something pretty special from the moment they started playing together, so we all knew something big was coming. I am a little bit sad now that they don’t have time to play with me anymore now that they’re doing things internationally. Watching their success is just brilliant. They’re very good live, and they’re coming out two weeks after I go, which is terrible!

AD: I’d really like to know a little about your songwriting process – do you need to be in a certain place, like at home, to do it, or can you write songs on the fly?

LM: It kind of feels like it’s not really up to me. I could never sit down and say I’m going to write a song – songs come whenever they want, which can be tricky. When I’m on tour, I always find that I write when I’m at an extreme of emotion, whether I’m incredibly low or incredibly high. I find that touring can be conducive to writing good songs.

AD: Do you keep a notebook, or carry a recorder?

LM: I carry a little notebook, and write down things that catch my attention, but I don’t really write lyrics or record songs until they need to be done. I think that might be a bit of laziness on my part – I tend to keep them in my head for a while.

AD: Will you be playing any new songs on your next trip around Australia?

LM: I will, for sure, although from a punter’s perspective, when  I go to a gig and a band only play new songs from an album that hasn’t yet been released, I find that a bit frustrating. I’m very conscious of playing the old songs as well, because otherwise people might get a bit bored!

AD: Do people ever tell you that a song of yours has changed their life or helped them through a difficult period?

LM: I get a few people saying that songs have helped them through a difficult time, which is really nice. I went back and listened to the first album for the first time in a while when I’d just finished the second album, and one, I thought it was like listening to a younger version of myself, like listening to my little sister or something, and two, I thought it was quite pessimistic. It made me quite amazed that somebody might say that I’d helped them through something.

AD: Your first album sounds to me like it’s meant to be experienced from beginning to end, rather than in small chunks – were you thinking that when you wrote it?

LM: I was – I’m glad you said that. I like my albums to be complete, concise pieces of work. My dad used to run a studio in the late ‘70s when albums were important, and I understand that they’re not as important now and people aren’t buying albums as much as they used to, but when I buy an album or listen to an album by someone I really like, I think about how much work they’ve put into it, how much work has gone into making it beautiful, and the best it can be as a piece of work, including the artwork.

AD: Have you finalised the art for the new one, or is it a work in progress?

LM: It’s a work in progress, but the artwork is turning out to be something I would never have had for my first album. It’s interesting thinking about my change in opinion or approach from the first album to the second one – I’ve become a bit less uptight since the first album. Hopefully that means I haven’t become complacent.

AD: What do you mean when you say you’ve changed your opinion or attitude?

 LM: When I was doing the first album, I was young – I mean, I’m still young – but I was very conscious of wanting everything to be just how it felt in my gut, and that meant every aspect of the music, from how it was produced on down, and that made life difficult and often unpleasant for the people I was working with. Since then, I’ve come to the realisation that there’s a line between artistic license and being an asshole, and there’ s no good that can come of being too controlling if it means compromising on goodness. I think I’ve had that in my mind for this album, and we’ll just see how it turns out.

LAURA MARLING plays The Zoo on Wednesday Jan 20, supported by Boy & Bear, unfortunately the show as sold out. www.lauramarling.com

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