Laurie Shaw Interview

Here's the full audio now of that interview with Laurie Shaw - we had a few minutes of it on the show this week. We recorded it sitting outside at The Pavilion in Cork during the June heatwave, while Laurie was taking a break from rehearsing for an upcoming gig with his band.

Laurie is originally from The Wirral near Liverpool (as is quickly evident from his accent) but has lived in Kerry for almost 10 years. He started recording using his Dad's equipment at home and has amassed more than 30 albums to date. You can find a selection on these links - http://laurieshaw.wordpress.com/music/ and https://soundcloud.com/laurie-shaw. I'll post some examples down the page.

I first came across his name through Plugd Records in Cork last February, when they posted one of his soundcloud or youtube links. I believe you can buy some of his music in there too. Which is something you should do.

The first bunch of songs I heard had a distinct Garage Rock flavour (Laurie himself mentions Arctic Monkeys in the interview, as well as Grinderman), but his songs are tripping over memorable melodies, something not always guaranteed in Garage Rock. The more you listen, though, the more dispersed and intriguing the influences seem to get - bits of glam-era Bowie (try 'Handbag' below), also some soul stirrings with particularly beautiful falsetto vocals to the fore in places. That song 'Toucan' down the end even has a kind of wonderful warped Kinks vibe going on. The album I've been playing on the show lately is called Evil, which I first heard a couple of months ago; according to Laurie, he's recorded about three albums since that one!

To say he's prolific doesn't come close. And he's just 19. Plus FIFA Records have just hooked up with him for an upcoming August release. Great.

Apart from those impressive credentials, he's also an interesting character and the music good's too. We chatted about how (and even why) he started, what he had in mind for the recordings at that stage, his musical influences, playing live, some thoughts on the "concept" behind the Evil album, and other stuff.

Enjoy.

Interview w/ Laurie Shaw recorded June 18 2014 at The Pavilion in Cork by Theundergroundofhappiness on Mixcloud











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