Getting To Know: Laura Marling

Joni Mitchell once said, “At the point where the painting seems to not be going anywhere, I go and pick up the guitar.” By little coincidence, this notion also carries a strong resonance for an up-and-coming English songbird named Laura Marling.

“I didn’t want to be a singer,” Marling admits over the phone from her home in London. “Originally, I wanted to be a writer.” Despite growing up as the daughter of a musician, classic English novels like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights moved Marling towards the literary arts. Though she had dabbled a bit in songwriting, it wasn’t until a friend “accidentally” scored Marling a gig that her timeless, polished voice was afforded its due luster during her mid-teens. And with her roots firmly planted in the soil of ’60s folk, Marling’s writerly inklings have hardly gone to waste. Also a great admirer of Raymond Carver, her well-crafted, narrative lyrical effect is not far removed from that of a fine short story.

By 2008—only two years after her initial decision to pursue music—Marling’s debut, Alas, I Cannot Swim, had been shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize, an award given each year to the most outstanding album in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Highly literate and emotionally dexterous songs, including “Ghosts” and “My Manic and I,” lent Alas an air of being years ahead of its teenaged maker. Charlie Fink, lead singer of the folk outfit Noah and the Whale, produced the record. Marling inevitably made a good impression, and Fink enlisted the young siren to join his band on tour as a backup vocalist.

“I was in [Noah and the Whale] for a year, and it was lots of fun,” Marling says, for one jovial moment trading in her proper, mature demeanor and sounding more akin to a typical 19-year-old. “I saw them play in London, and we just picked up and went on tour for a year. It was a nice release to be in a band and go slightly out of the spotlight.”

Today, Marling is on the verge of following up with her second full-length, I Speak Because I Can. She has reclaimed her rightful glow on stage—front and center—even though conceptually, Marling insists that her new record is largely about leaving herself out of it and letting everything else in.

“I was 16 when I made the first album, and everyone who’s 16 is self-obsessed,” Marling contends. “When you get a bit older—and I’m not that much older—looking outward becomes more important, I think; understanding the world and understanding your place in it. I guess it’s kind of a therapeutic thing, trying to figure out what’s going on.”

The maturity of a move towards objectivity has served Marling well, and if Alas seemed years ahead, then Speak goes decades in each direction. Recorded on tape to “sound like what music is supposed to be about,” Marling elegantly unravels tales of longing, hardship and redemption. Her gorgeous voice hearkens back to Mitchell and the other foremothers of folk, but does not distract from Marling’s prodigal storytelling ability. This record reveals the Brontë sisters’ influence as more than just present; now it is palpable. On “Alpha Shallows,” Marling sings, “The grey in this city is too much to bear/And I believe we are meant to be seen and not understood.” On the bluegrass-tinged “Devil Spoke” she continues with, “Eye to eye, nose to nose/ripping off each other’s clothes in a most peculiar way.” As much as Marling is a singer—and she truly is a great one—she has managed to become quite a special writer as well.

Having just arrived home from a tour through India, Marling laments that her stringent touring schedule prevented the amount of sightseeing necessary to do such a journey justice, but cites a midnight encounter with a “nomad on a camel” as a notably interesting experience. When asked what her favorite destination has been so far, Marling perks up and points to a trip that occurred just a few weeks before, much closer to her homeland.

“A couple of weeks ago we did a tour of the Scottish Highlands, which are these islands off the west coast of Scotland,” she explains. “I’ve been to a lot of places now and I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things, but I’ve never seen something so beautiful. It was stunning, beautiful, mountainous farming land—very green.”

When asked if she ever wishes she could spend more time as a normal teenager, Marling’s remarkable maturity displays itself in a brand new light. Though she admits to relishing the occasional chance to catch up with friends and loved ones, Marling hardly dreads the rigorous nature of a life on tour. In fact, she insists that the experience can be quite the contrary. “It’s quite rare that it becomes overwhelming,” Marling says. “I like being in different places all the time, though I do miss my family. But then, I’ve got my touring family, and they’re great too.”

With the poise of a seasoned veteran and the same natural ability displayed by her own heroes, Laura Marling has stumbled into music as gracefully as can be, and it’s proving to be quite a happy accident, indeed. F