biog : she makes war

"Imagine appealingly grainy angst-pop à la Blood Red Shoes shot through in leftfield with the conceptual imagination of someone like Melissa Auf der Maur, and you’ll get somewhere close to She Makes War." - Wears The Trousers

"a multi-instrumentalist with such an enchanting voice..." - Nemone, 6 Music

She Makes War is the solo project of Laura Kidd - multi-instrumentalist vocal chameleon (past collaborators include The Young Punx, Redroche, Michael Gray, Koolwah and Super Mal), filmmaker and video director, photographer, blogger, sometime session musician (previously for I Blame Coco, Tricky, Alex Parks and Lil' Chris) and strident purveyor of grungey dystopian gloom-pop.

Debut album "Disarm" was co-produced by Kidd and Myles Clarke (Belakiss, Sparkadia, Sneaker Pimps) and self released in September 2010, preceded by two singles - "Let This Be" and "I Am". The album was accompanied by four quirky handmade music videos directed/executive produced and edited by Kidd, starring a host of characters from zombie clowns to sleepy lions to intrepid penguins.

With personalised album packages turning up in towns and cities across the world, She Makes War promoted "Disarm" with a photo exhibition at art show Send Me A Postcard, Darling and a slew of London gigs including a coveted slot at Ladyfest 10 in November. She ended the year with a series of living room shows and slots at buzzy venues around the country on her "Winter War Megabus Tour", bringing the full force of SMW's one woman Telecaster-ukulele-vocal-looping extravaganza to small and large rooms alike. "Scared To Capsize" was also featured on BBC 6 Music.

For Christmas SMW produced a cover of The Waitress' classic "Christmas Wrapping" - a duet with Oxford musician I Hate Mornings - and made a video to accompany the track , raising nearly £700 for homeless charity Crisis.

So far in 2011 She Makes War has sung backing vocals in Carina Round's band, supported punk legend Viv Albertine and pop luminary Midge Ure plus heady folk rockers Tom Williams and the Boat, US all-girl outfit Sick of Sarah and Oxford's finest Little Fish, talked on Andrew Dubber's "Outside The Box" panel at Unconvention (alongside Tom Robinson and Steve Lawson), won Soundcloud's Backstage Pass Cloud 9 award with high praise from 6 Music's Nemone and started recording album #2. She is set to appear on Albertine's forthcoming debut album, contributing backing vocals, ukulele and percussion to a number of tracks, plus SMW single "I Am" is set to feature in Coded Pictures' feature film Junk Hearts , starring Eddie Marsan and slated for release in 2011.

She Makes War's regular vBlog series continues alongside work on more music videos to accompany "Disarm", and her eyes are firmly set on more travel, more shows and more opportunities to collaborate with fans.

Recently dubbed a member of The Tweet Elite by the BBC in an interview placing Kidd alongside rockstar writer Neil Gaiman and described by Wears The Trousers as an artist with "the conceptual imagination of someone like Melissa Auf der Maur" , She Makes War is making waves. But hey, she has been known to dress up as a unicorn .

Debut album "Disarm" was released on 1st September 2010.
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