Bradford’s Laura Groves has renamed herself under the moniker of the rarest of flowers. Possessing a haunting voice and flawless musicianship, she’s no shrinking violet, describing her music as “textured, emotive, eclectic, personal, delicate.”
Groves says, “When I record, it’s generally just me playing lots of things with varying degrees of success and skill.” For live shows she recreates her layered sound with the help of multi-instrumentalist Sadie Anderson, who turns her hand to anything from violin to glockenspiel. Crowd reaction has been good; Laura beguiled Emmy the Great’s audience when she joined her on tour last year.
From her appearance on Jeremy Warmsley and Fay Buzzard’s Welcome To Our TV Show, it’s clear that Laura’s forte is the piano, which she began playing when she was just seven. After giving up for a few years Laura says she turned her hand to composition simply to avoid “toiling for hours and getting frustrated when I couldn’t learn other people’s songs”.
The turbulence of relationships that provides much of the inspiration for Groves’ lyrics. Does Anyone Love Me Now? tumbles and darts through poetic thoughts of fleeting eyes meeting in windowpanes. Groves says of her writing process, “I don’t like to try too hard to force myself to write lyric. I like letting things just come out of my subconscious from the melody.”
Listen: Doubtful Comforts – it’s as if Blue Roses have conjured up what a bed would sound like, adding an extra blanket of loveliness just to be safe.
Words: Mary Machin
Doubtful Comforts was released on March 2nd, and will be followed by an album in late April and plenty of touring action, see listings for more details.