Laura Kidd is a record producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist releasing music and podcast episodes as Penfriend, and formerly known as She Makes War. After releasing four full length albums between 2010 and 2018, She Makes War was formally disbanded in December 2019, and she launched new music project Penfriend in May 2020, with accompanying weekly podcast series ''Attention Engineer''. Her collaboration project with Rat (

Ned's Atomic Dustbin Ned's Atomic Dustbin are an English rock band formed in Stourbridge, West Midlands, in November 1987. The band took their name from an episode of radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show''. The band is unusual for using two bass-players in their ...

), Obey Robots, launched in December 2020.

Penfriend

Multi-disciplinary solo project Penfriend launched on 1 May 2020 with an invitation to join ''The Correspondent's Club'', Kidd's handmade member's club set up to provide an online space for music fans. In May 2021, Kidd released her first record as Penfriend. Exotic Monsters reached #24 in Official UK album chart and #5 in the independent chart.

''Attention Engineer'' podcast

Kidd's podcast series on creativity, grit and determination launched on 3 June 2020, featuring conversations with other artists, musical and otherwise. Described as "a lovely listen...As a musician herself, Kidd...talks with insight and warmth...but these are not the back-slapping all-slebs-together podcasts that we’ve become used to" (The Observer). Guests include

Tanya Donelly Tanya Donelly (born July 14, 1966) is an American Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter and guitarist based in New England who co-founded Throwing Muses with her step-sister Kristin Hersh. Donelly went on to co-form the alternative rock band ...

(Belly / The Breeders) and Mark Chadwick (Levellers), who appeared as guest vocalists on Kidd's third She Makes War album, "Direction Of Travel", plus Ayse Hassan ( Savages),

Frank Turner Francis Edward Turner (born 28 December 1981), is an English Punk rock, punk and Folk music, folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primar ...

Charlotte Hatherley Charlotte Franklin Hatherley (born 20 June 1979) is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist and soundtrack composer. She initially came to prominence as guitarist and backing vocalist for alternative rock band Ash. Since leaving Ash in 2006, sh ...

Bernard Butler Bernard Joseph Butler (born 1 May 1970) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the first guitarist with Suede, until his departure in 1994. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his ...

Corin Tucker Corin Lisa Tucker (born November 9, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney. Tucker is also a member of the alternative rock supergroup Filthy Friends, and previously recorded ...

Robin Ince Robin Ince (born 20 February 1969) is an English comedian, actor and writer, known for presenting the BBC radio show ''The Infinite Monkey Cage'' with physicist Brian Cox (physicist), Brian Cox, and his stand-up comedy career. Education After ...

Lou Barlow Louis Knox Barlow (born July 17, 1966) is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock mus ...

, Shingai and more.

She Makes War

Launched in 2009 with the release of EP "Three...Two...One", She Makes War was Kidd's first solo project. Her fourth album, ''Brace For Impact'', was released in October 2018 and secured a no. 15 UK Independent Albums Chart placement on 12 October 2018. She has released three previous albums ''Disarm'' (2010), ''Little Battles'' (2012) and ''Direction Of Travel'' (2016). The project finished with the release of ''And Peace'' in 2019, intimate re-recordings of eight tracks spanning all four albums. She Makes War's indie rock sound combined

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

riffs with orchestral soundscapes. John Robb described Kidd in 2011 as "a modern musical Boudica", and Will Butler wrote in 2015 that she possessed "The emotional resonance of Elliott Smith colliding with the barbed vigour of Sleater-Kinney" (Gigwise). In 2015, She Makes War released ''Disarm: 15'' an EP of "tender reworking of songs" from the first album. She Makes War's first two albums ''Disarm'' (2010) and ''Little Battles'' (2012), share stories from the personal to the political, dealing with matters of love, loss, birth, therapy, murder, abandonment, and hope. In 2016, She Makes War's third album ''Direction of Travel'' featured guest appearances from

and Mark Chadwick. Kidd played most of the instruments herself, with guests including

Clive Deamer Get the Blessing (previously known as the Blessing) are a jazz rock quartet based in Bristol, England. The band formed in 2000 when Jim Barr (bass guitar) and Clive Deamer (drums), who had played with Portishead, joined Jake McMurchie (saxopho ...

and Andy Sutor on drums, The McCarricks and Nicole Robson on strings, and Cajita on piano. The album was produced by Kidd and mixed by Dan Austin (

Doves Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

Pixies A pixie (also pisky, pixy, pixi, pizkie, and piskie in Cornwall and Devon, and pigsie or puggsy in the New Forest) is a mythical creature of British folklore. Pixies are considered to be particularly concentrated in the high moorland areas aro ...

's (

Breeders A breeder is a person who selectively breeds carefully selected mates, normally of the same breed to sexually reproduce offspring with specific, consistently replicable qualities and characteristics. This might be as a farmer, agriculturalist, ...

Throwing Muses Throwing Muses are an American alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Newport, Rhode Island, United States, that toured and recorded extensively until 1997, when its members began concentrating more on other projects. The group was originall ...

Belly Belly may refer to: Anatomy * The abdomen, the part of the body between the pelvis and the thorax; or the stomach ** A beer belly, an overhang of fat above the waist, presumed to be caused by regular beer drinking ** Belly dance * The fleshy, cen ...

), guest appearance on the song 'Paper Thin' was described as "the perfect augmentation to Laura’s beautiful lyrics". Tanya Donelly also features in the music video for the song. Kidd ended the She Makes War project in 2019, citing a desire to “keep putting out the most honest, thoughtful and brave music I have inside me long into the future”

Touring

As She Makes War, Kidd toured extensively in the UK and Europe both as a solo act and with a full band. She also supported

Suede Suede (pronounced ) is a type of leather with a fuzzy, napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, fabrics, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French , which literally means "gloves from Sweden". The term was fir ...

The Levellers The Levellers were a political movement active during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its popul ...

British Sea Power Command of the sea (also called control of the sea or sea control) is a naval military concept regarding the strength of a particular navy to a specific naval area it controls. A navy has command of the sea when it is so strong that its rivals ...

Ginger Wildheart Ginger Wildheart (born David Leslie Walls; 17 December 1964 in South Shields, England), sometimes known simply as Ginger, is an English rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career as a guitarist in The Quireboys, bu ...

Tune-Yards Tune-Yards (stylized as tUnE-yArDs) is the American, Oakland, California–based music project of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner. Garbus's music draws from an eclectic variety of sources and utilizes elements such as loop pedals, ukulele, voca ...

Gruff Rhys Gruffudd Maredudd Bowen Rhys (; born 18 July 1970) is a Welsh musician, composer, producer, filmmaker and author. He performs solo and with several bands, including Super Furry Animals, which obtained mainstream success in the 1990s. He formed ...

The Magic Numbers The Magic Numbers are an English pop rock band consisting of two brother-and-sister pairs, from Hanwell in west London. The group was formed in 2002, releasing their debut album titled ''The Magic Numbers'' on 13 June 2005. Their follow-up alb ...

Duke Special Duke Special (born Peter Wilson; 4 January 1971) is a songwriter and performer based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A piano-based songwriter with a romantic style and a warm, distinctly accented voice, he was previously known for his distinctiv ...

Midge Ure James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...

New Model Army The New Model Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Th ...

Glen Matlock Glen Matlock (born 27 August 1956) is an English musician, best known for being the bass guitarist in the original line-up of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is credited as a songwriter on 10 of the 12 songs on the Sex Pistols' only alb ...

and

Earl Slick Earl Slick (born Frank Madeloni in Brooklyn, New York, October 1, 1952) is a guitarist best known for his collaborations with David Bowie, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Robert Smith. He has also worked with other artists including John Waite, Tim ...

Nadine Shah Nadine Petra Katarina Shah (born 16 January 1986) is a British singer, songwriter and musician. Background Shah was born in Whitburn, South Tyneside, to an English mother from South Shields of part Norwegian ancestry and a Pakistani father. S ...

, Erica Nockalls and

Miles Hunt Miles Stephen Hunt (born 29 July 1966) is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He fronts the alternative rock band The Wonder Stuff. Early life His father was a union official for the TGWU. In the 1970s, his father was based at Derby, an ...

, Chris Helme,

Drugstore A pharmacy (also called "drugstore" in American English or "community pharmacy" or "chemist" in Commonwealth English, or rarely, apothecary) is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacis ...

and

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. Kidd has also toured, providing bass and vocals, for artists including Tricky,

Viv Albertine Viviane Katrina Louise Albertine (born 1 December 1954) is an Australian-born British musician, singer, songwriter and writer. She is best known as the guitarist for the punk band the Slits from 1977 until 1982, with whom she recorded two studio ...

Lil' Chris Christopher James Hardman (26 August 1990 – 23 March 2015), known by the stage name Lil' Chris, was a British singer-songwriter, actor, and television personality from Lowestoft, England. He came to prominence in 2006 after appearing on the ...

, The Penelopes,

The Young Punx The Young Punx are an English electronic dance music group whose eclectic and energetic style encompasses French house, breakbeat and drum and bass, mashed up with elements as diverse as 1980s pop music, pop, rock music, rock, disco and jazz. ...

and

Alex Parks Alexandra Rebecca Parks (born 26 July 1984) is an English singer-songwriter. Parks was entered into the BBC Television programme, ''Fame Academy'' by her father. It was a show that she went on to win. Soon after winning ''Fame Academy'', she r ...

Other projects

In 2015, Kidd wrote and performed one-woman show ''Shit Girlfriend'' at

Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, combining humorous spoken word and melancholy music performance, sharing tales of real life on the road and Kidd's ill-fated attempts at finding love along the way. Her show was described by '' The List'' as 'a charming hour of biographical storytelling and music…perfectly executed acoustic gems'

Discography

Albums

;Obey Robots * ''One In A Thousand'', 2023 (#14 Official UK Chart) ;Penfriend * ''Exotic Monsters'', 2021 (#24 Official UK Chart) ;She Makes War * ''Disarm'', 2010 * ''Little Battles'', 2012 * ''Direction of Travel'', 2016 * ''Brace for Impact'', 2018 * ''And Peace'', 2019

EPs

* ''Three...Two...One..'', 2009 * ''Disarm: The Live EP'', 2010 * ''The Butterflies Audiovisual EP'', 2013 * ''Disarm: 15 EP'', 2015

Singles

;She Makes War *"Let This Be", 2010 *"I Am", 2010 *"In This Boat", 2012 *"Minefields", 2012 *"Never Was", 2013 *"Drown Me Out", 2016 *"Paper Thin", 2016 *"Cold Shoulder", 2016 *"Stargazing", 2016 *"I Want My Country Back", 2017 *"Do You Really Want To Hurt Me", 2018 *"Devastate Me", 2018 *"Undone \ London Bites", 2018 ;Penfriend *"Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine", 2020 *”The Only Way Out Is Through”, 2020 *”Exotic Monsters”, 2021 *”Cancel Your Hopes”, 2021 *”Black Car”, 2021 ;Obey Robots *"Let It Snow", 2020

References

External links

Penfriend HQ

She Makes War
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kidd, Laura British indie rock musicians English pop musicians English house musicians English women songwriters English record producers Musicians from London Musicians from Bristol