Lopez Blogs

Oh Laura perfectly captured my personal emotions during the gloomy month of January with their beautiful ruminations on all things love, life and longing. Their debut album (brilliantly titled A Song In My Head, A Demon In My Bed) is an exquisite journey through lost love, damaged relationships and painful emotions. It’s Aimee Mann, Bjork, Tori Amos and Indigo Girls all baked on high and covered in a bittersweet frosting. Debut single, Release Me, is almost painful to listen to so stark are the emotions laid within, with Frida’s vocals positively shivering with hurt and desperation over a melancholy piano background. It’s mesmerising and intruiging and I can’t listen to it without getting goosebumps all over my body. The rest of the album is equally triumphant in this respect. Mournful Call To Arms and accusatory It Ain’t Enough are well told tales of relationship woes that highlight the woeful inadequacies and seemingly shallow observations that Kate Nash and the new ilk spit out. Not all songs are of a slow tempo ~ tracks like Black and Blue and Fine Line pep along with the guitar driving the tune forward and clever lyrics like “we were perfect lovers, you were Bobby I was Pam, but Bobby found another, so he told me second hand”. All the work contained within the album is astonishingly adept at telling different stories, perspectives, emotions and feelings - however, a moment of stunning beauty and clarity appears in the immaculate Raining In New York. On first listen the minimal percussion juxtapositioned with her haunting voice made me literally sit up until she reaches the poetic chorus, strings gently build up and you are awash in a world where devastating pain has never sounded so lovely. I knew instantly this was a work of art that would soundtrack aspects of my life for years to come and I had to know more about the band. Luckily, those lovely people who make up the group were more than willing to oblige a chat and natter about all things Oh Laura...

1. Welcome Oh Laura! I'll start with the most obvious question - your music seems to have this haunting, ethereal quality that showed up a lot in Julee Cruse's soundtrack to Twin Peaks. Did Laura Palmer inspire your name?


Very much so. We were watching Twin Peaks when we wrote and recorded most of the songs that are on the album. Perhaps most obvioulsly songs like Black And Blue and Thunderbird Motel.

2. Success seemed to come very quickly in Sweden with the single Release Me. Were you prepared for how quickly everything took off?


We were not the least bit prepared for that actually. Still, it was good fun. It happened in a few weeks time and most of it was online through our website and mySpace so we have yet to be chased through the streets of Stockholm. All in due time…

3. England seems to be warming to your charms. What have your experiences over here been like so far?


We love the UK. Real friendly people, aparently with good taste in music. We’ve been doing a few radio shows and one or two club gigs. More to cone this spring.
So will there be any chance of seeing you at the festivals in England this summer? V Festival or Glastonbury seem ideally suited to you...

We’d be absolutely thrilled to play some festivals and we probably will too. Since we’re swedish we already own top class camping gear so we should be alright as far as mud and rain goes.
And you were on the lovely Dermot O'Leary's radio show in early January singing a Paul Young cover. How did that come about?)
You’d have to ask our manager. To us it all seems very cloak and dagger. I guess it helped a bit that Dermot’s girlfriend is from Norway. And perhaps that he likes us.

4. It seems the media is always keen to label new bands as the new "whoever" - your sound is quite hard to pigeon hole though. How would you describe your music to people who have never heard it before?


It’s about Frida’s voice, the lyrics and the melodies. But as for the actual sound you’d have to make up your own mind. Is this a trick-question?

5. Crikey! Not at all. I think i summed up my feelings in the review of the record. To me, there seems to be two slightly obtuse influences on your music - Swedish group Abba, and sibling duo The Carpenters. This might seem quite bizarre, but both groups were well known for creating these bitter sweet heartbreaking songs that were accompanied by beautiful melodies and vocals and there is a lot of that on the album. Agree or not?


Sustained. We actually didn’t listen to either ABBA nor The Carpenters while making the album, but the comparison works fine just the same.

6. My favourite song at the moment on the album is Raining in New York. It's incredibly beautiful. And sad. How do you get through the song without crying?!


Sometimes we don’t. And thanks.

7. What sort of music are you listening to right now?


Cherry Ghost, Kate Bush, Lucina Williams. Frida’s really intona swedisch singer from the 30’s called Sara Leander. It changes all the time I guess. ”The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” was on the other day. As was some old Acid Jazz record called ”Mother Earth” I think. Weird thing that, Acid Jazz.

8. One of the other 13 Acts to Watch in 08 is Isabel Guzman, who i believe you know quite well! What's the story there?


It’s a real short one actually. She’s married to Jocke, our guitarist. She’s making a kind of electronic pop and you really should check her out. Our bet is that she’ll be the next big thing to come out of Sweden.

9. If i were planning a trip to Sweden where would be the best places you could take me?


Stockholm, obviously, but you’d have to see the northern parts. No man can claim to know beauty before he’s been there.

10. Finally, what's next for you guys? What's coming up in the coming months?
And thanks so much for your time!
A pleasure mate! We’ll contine our promo work in the UK and there’s a swedish tour coming up in late march. We recently shot a video for ”Release Me” so that should start to seep out soon.

And with the thought of Oh Laura seeping out, I'll leave it there. Check out the album. It's truly beautiful and inspiring. Essential links below!

Essential Link: Oh Laura website
Essential Link: Oh Laura myspace
Essential Link: Purchase A Song In My Head... from CDON
Essential Listening: Oh Laura - Come Back and Stay (Paul Young Cover)
Essential Listening: It's raining in new york (Below)