Having toured across Europe, plenty of exciting collaborations and of course not forgetting the release of her debut album, Sample The Sky, London based artist Laura Misch has had such a productive few months. With her UK tour commencing last night in Glasgow, we caught up with the lady herself ahead of her show in our very own region as she head’s to The Glasshouse in Gateshead on 6th December 2023.
How are you enjoying the tail end of 2023?
It's been incredible but also very intense due to all of the travelling. I've been on the road for two weeks. I'm currently in Stockholm. We're gonna play the last two shows of Stockholm tomorrow in Oslo on Thursday. And then I come home.
How are you enjoy those travels?
We've been all over the place Spain, Germany, Italy and so on and it's been amazing to play the music live. I also really appreciate the way that the songs are evolving as well.
Congratulations on the brand new debut album, Sample The Sky. What did you want it to say about who you are as an artist?
I think I wanted to have many different ingredients, a bit like a meal that you really care about. So I think that I wanted it to have a mixture of emotive and luscious melodies. And I wanted it to have rhythms and textual production that was very organic, and that sampled nature. I also had more dancey rhythms, and more laid back rhythms.
Importantly though the main overarching vision that I wanted it to have stories and lyrics, which were a reflection of my thinking of the last couple of years.because it's a kind of accumulative body of work.
It's similar to touring where you're seeing the same thing over and over. So it's kind of having lyricism, which feels meaningful, and that can evolve as time. So yeah, I hope that it kind of encompasses all of that.
So I hope that it encompasses the journey up until now. There are also the collaborators that are involved in the record.
Talking about evolving was there any track that you thought actually, this has evolved bigger than I ever imagined?
I think all of the tracks went through quite a kind of evolution, I think something like Widening Circles, its evolution was something from quite a complex synthesis production to something very stripped back. In the end, it just ended up being just top guitar and voice and time effects. I think that was the biggest evolution in a way like stripping back to create something new.
This record also has a lot of collaboration behind it as well. So when you are deciding who to collaborate with, what kind of qualities were you looking for in the other in the other person?
I think ultimately, there has to be something about their work, which resonates and excites you or inspires you and have a lot of respect for. Its important as well that those feelings are mutual.
The best collaborations occur when you're just kind of excited to meet in the middle. You have all the questions in your mind like ‘what can I bring in? what can this other person bring them with them to create?’. But ultimately its all just about kindness, and openness. Everyone who worked on the album, I had a deep friendship with as well, so that made the experience of connecting all that creativity all the more worth while.
So once you get home from Stockholm, you've got a few days rest, and then you begin the UK leg of the tour. What are you looking forward to the most, as you have pretty much a full line up?
I'm really looking forward to the UK shows. I do love the UK, you may not get the best food or history, but it's where I grew up. And it's like a homecoming in a way.
I’ve lived in places like Newcastle and I've travelled around the UK quite a lot. I'm just curious, because the thing is, I've never played in Southampton before. I've only played once or twice in Glasgow.
Also I will be playing at The Glasshouse in Gateshead for the first time, so that will be great to perform there. Obviously I am happy to see the audience too. The whole experience is just exciting.
Backtracking slightly, prior to the album you also had the Playground and Lonely City EP’s too. How did you find that transition from EP to album?
In a way, they were never quite full bodies of work in the sense that I always felt like an album was a statement of something, which is more of a world. The EPs felt more like Windows, if that makes any sense.
The album isn't that much longer than the EPs but it is just the amount of time I spent on it was much more extensive. There was more of a distillation whereas the other two EPs were more l made really quickly within a couple of months, and then also self released.
With this album, I signed to One Little Independent, a label, which helps me put out this album, and I guess, we did it. We did it over a long period of time, with music videos and visuals, and I was really able to build a world around each of the song, which I hope it conveys. It was more about creating the kind of symbolism and messaging that I was trying to evoke and just found naturally. I guess it was a more complete world that was built around fans of Sample The Sky that I had the opportunity to do unlike the previous projects.
Also it's just a lot more collaborative. The earlier projects, was more kind of like me producing in my bedroom on much more therapeutic projects. Where I see this album was more about connecting to a whole community of creators and collaborating. Going back to touring, I used to do a one woman show. And now I've been touring with a band so it's really been about the collective in a way and I think that is what I've been most grateful for , especially in these times, and amazing to share everything with people.
Sometimes we've talked about music having colour so if you could describe your latest record, what kind of colour do you think it represents?
I mean, the obvious one is blue because it's the colour of the sky. But I think it's quite a warm record, although it's got lots of icy textures. I think ultimately, the sentiment is one of care and love. There’s so much reference to kind of finding ways to love and care, both for ourselves and for each other and for the nonhuman world. So I think it's a warmth maybe like the colour of the sunrise or dusk. Like giving you gold in a warm way, not in a big headed way.
At what point did you start to feel comfortable within your skin where you started to realise, ‘okay, it's really happening, the dreams I had within music are starting to happen’?
Oh, I think that's an interesting question, isn't it? I think the dream always evolves. I think there's been many points. For example my first gig. I think it was a community initiative.
I remember the organisers reached out to me and l were like, ‘do you want to do this gig in a park somewhere?’. Live shows are defiantly where I feel the most connected to because it's really an energy exchange which can only be experienced if your present in.
I think making music is an incredibly exciting thing and comes with it own wild opportunities within it. And you have all this kind of wild moments within it. The real wow moments are when you get to play shows. I played some of the best shows of my life in the last three week, in places such as Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Amsterdam, and then we played in Copenhagen.
Last weekend loads more, but those are the highlight ones where you have hundreds of people in the room just completely connecting with the music. It is one of the best experiences you can have because you just feel like, you're completely immersed in it. It’s just such a privilege to be able to make space for people to enjoy music.
So when you are going on the road and meeting and meeting those fans face to face at one of your shows what does that feel like for you as an artist?
It is incredible. I think I've had a really good shows but at the same time there have been others which have been not as easy. You can never 100% predict if a show will go smoothly or whether you will receive a hostile or even colder reception until you actually get there.
When I've travelled nine hour. I think it just feels very primal and alive, especially in a digital age where we spend so much time on our phones and disconnected from each other. I think it just feels like being alive when you can be free to share your music.
I know, you are a good advocate of the mighty saxophone. So if your saxophone could talk to you, and give you some humble bit of either wisdom or things it's proud about what do you think it would say to you?
That's a great question. I think it would first say clean me but also it would say remember to breathe.
Breathe not just when you're playing to perform or practice, but breathing and meditation outside of the times that were when we were meeting.
Fantastic. Well, it's been an absolute pleasure. And I will hopefully see you at the Glasshouse in Gateshead.
On behalf of everyone here at DARKUS we wish Laura all the very best. The brand new album, Sample The Sky is available on all major platforms and even better if you are based in the North East you can see this multi-talented lady performing live tomorrow night (6th December 2023) at The Glasshouse in Gateshead.
To stay connected to Laura Misch and find out more about her incredible journey so far visit www.lauramisch.co.uk
Article By Thushara S. Chandrasiri