‘Ready to Be Found’ is described as deeply personal, so what was the moment you actually decided to stop writing songs just for yourself and commit to making an album? Was there a specific tipping point?

I’ve written songs for years but only ever gave them to Dom to listen to as it felt so vulnerable. It was only when I’d built up a collection of songs that Dom suggested we make an album someday but I never really thought we would or that anyone would listen to it!
I suppose the tipping point was the age I am now- middle age has brought with it a little bit of bravery!

You recorded the whole album in your kitchen with Dom Navarra, and there’s something wonderfully unglamorous and real about that. Did the intimacy of that environment, as in being in your home, change what you felt able to write or say in the songs?

Most of the songs were written way before we even thought of recording but even if we did have the means to hire a studio I think I would have felt very intimated! I am a homebody and very grateful for the life we’ve created together so I suppose weaving that into the recording felt natural.

‘Coming Home’ is not only the lead single but also the story of how you rediscovered someone. Was it strange or even nerve-wracking to put something that personal out into the world first? How did the other party feel about it?

Many of the songs are about mine and Dom’s love story… I wrote a lot of them during lock-down when we started tentatively falling in love and I think Coming Home was one of the first songs I sent him: to express something I couldn’t say in person and to keep us connected when the pandemic kept us apart.
It’s his favourite song. What a big-head! Ha!

The album covers such a broad emotional range, romance, longing, resignation, forgiveness, acceptance, self-preservation. Did you sit down with a plan for what you wanted it to cover, or did it reveal itself as you went?

No plan. Just lots of emotions to metabolise over the last ten years or so- my previous relationship breaking down, both my parents passing away and then my relationship with Dom in the midst of it. I began therapy as it was quite overwhelming and my beautiful therapist and writing songs has really helped me sift through lots of what came up.

‘Dusty Heart’ is the track that I really love, that phrase in itself says so much. Can you tell me where that song came from and what it means to you personally?

Thank you! I suppose it’s about how heartbreaking loneliness can be. The image I kept coming back to was being on a school French trip and as I was only friendly with the boys that were on the trip I had to stay in a room on my own. And that isolated feeling of being in a strange place in the middle of the night has been a familiar feeling to me. The chorus’ ‘curtains drawn, stale perfume’ is a bit Miss Havisham isn’t it!? The inevitable passing of time feeling unloved and unwanted.
I love that William H. Macy quote from Magnolia- “I have so much love to give, but I don’t know where to put it.”

‘After All These Years’ features a duet. Who is singing with you, and how did you decide that song specifically needed two voices rather than one?

Dom and I wrote it together over lockdown- he sent me the first verse and chorus so I could write the second verse. So it was written as a duet. I love Dom’s voice but he didn’t think it was strong enough to go on the album so we found a lovely session singer, Joshua, online to sing his part.

‘The Other Side’ feels like it might be carrying someone else’s story as much as your own. Is that the case, and how do you approach writing about other people’s experiences alongside your own?

The ‘walking through the long grass’ is a lovely image I have of my beautiful mum on our last holiday together weeks before she passed away. She was very ill but she lit up when she was surrounded by nature, she was a true country girl.

‘Find the Light’ closes the album on a genuinely uplifting note, it feels like the sound of a face turning towards the sun after everything that came before it. Was it always going to be the closer, or did it earn its place as the album took shape?

Dom was in charge of the order and I think it’s a good song to end on… sad but hopeful! Again it’s about grief and searching for validation in others but finally trying to find it in yourself.

The album has a very distinct atmosphere, soft summer warmth, acoustic space, that sense of walking through fields and making peace with yourself. Was that a conscious sonic aim from the start, or something that Dom helped you find in the production?

I think that’s why I write songs- to find peace in myself.
We live in a village that is surrounded by beautiful countryside. We got a dog 3 years ago and going out everyday and seeing the seasons change is a true privilege I’d never known before. Having a dog is wonderful. But Dom definitely bought that out in his production- with birds tweeting and the slow, sunny atmosphere he created. He’s amazing at what he does!

You’re a primary school teacher and a mum, and you’ve made a debut album. When in your life does the music actually happen? Where do you manage to make it fit?

I work part time and on the days when I should be catching up on housework I’m usually noodling around on the guitar. I basically avoid cleaning by writing songs!
My children are all creative in their own way. And we’re all happier when we are making something whether it’s together or separately. Most of the time it works- but being a working mum you always feel like you’re being pulled in 20 different directions!

Teaching involves understanding how people learn and feel, especially children. Do you think that empathy you bring to the classroom has shaped the way you write lyrics and connect with listeners?

I hope so. Empathy is so important and recognising that every little person in your class has a rich, complex inner world with varying needs and dreams. Building connection is so important- with children and hopefully what I aim to do with my songs.

Are there any writers, poets or songwriters in particular who have influenced the way you tell a story in a song?

Too many!
I love the images that Sia creates in her songs- songs like Elastic Heart, Day Too Soon and Breathe Me. Amazing!
Natalie Merchant, Emmylou Harris, John Martyn- great storytellers with distinctive voices.
I love authors that take you on a journey-
Ishigiro, Auster, Le Guin, Garcia Marquez, Angela Carter… stories that explore memory, myth and magic. And of course being from Nottingham I have to mention Alan Sillitoe- legend!
And films like Before Sunrise/Sunset, Cinema Paradiso, My Neighbour Totoro that all deal with the passage of time and how we change and stay the same.

Dom’s background is in house music, and now he’s producing folk and acoustic records with you in your kitchen. That’s quite a journey for a producer. How do his instincts from that earlier world show up in the way he approaches your music?

Dom is in love with music, of all kinds. We are still discovering new artists together and love going to gigs and that’s always been something we’ve had in common.
His speciality was always Soulful House so anything that has got a bit of the artist’s soul inside he can craft it into something beautiful I think, whatever genre of music.

The album was released on 26th June. Now that it’s out in the world and people are hearing it, strangers, not just people who know you, what has that felt like?

It feels amazing but very vulnerable! As I said I never really intended these songs to be out in the world when I wrote them. But people have been kind so far so I hope they connect with whoever needs to hear them.

Is there a song on the album that you were most uncertain about including, one that felt almost too close, or too honest?

Crooked Smile and Dusty Heart. They are both written to a younger version of me. So they feel very exposing and are emotional to sing.

What do you hope a listener who has never heard of you takes away after hearing ‘Ready to Be Found’ for the first time?

That it’s never too late to be brave and be honest.

If your kitchen, the place where this entire album was made, could hear the record played back, what do you think it would make of what happened in there?

Get these dishes done! Haha!
That life- good and bad, joy and sadness- is happening all at once so embrace it all.

‘Ready to Be Found’ is a title that suggests something that was always there, just waiting to be found again. What else in your life, beyond music, do you think is still waiting to be found?

After spending a lifetime of hiding maybe middle age has given me permission to be seen and to keep growing and learning. That life is so much more than fitting in and being liked. To show my girls that growing older is amazing and all our voices deserve to be heard. Not just the loudest ones.

‘Ready To Be Found’ is available now on all streaming platforms, and ‘Coming Home ‘, from the album, currently features on my ‘Echoes At Full Volume‘ playlist.

And you can find Laura on Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.

July 13th 2026

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