Interview: LAURA LOE

Her music is a blend of pop, funk and soul that appeals to both young and old. Her voice has that indefinable quality of an ascending star, creating her own unique style along the way. Laura Loe is one singer/songwriter who knows what she wants and she is shaping her future to reach her destiny. Originally from Borneo, Laura came to Australia about ten years ago to go to school. “I went to boarding school,” she tells me. “And I’ve been involved in music from a very young age. I was always in talent competitions, the high school musical and always wanting to be on stage but the main thing was to come here to get an education.” Laura attended university here and did everything that was necessary to ensure that she had a well-rounded education to prepare herself for a career in music. “I didn’t want to go into the music industry not knowing about the world. I think going to university really prepared me to start taking on the music industry.”

“I actually went to two universities,” explains Laura. “My first one was the University of Melbourne and I did Politics and Creative Writing there and then I thought I wanted a little bit more because Politics and Creative Writing weren’t things I wanted to fall back on if my music didn’t take me anywhere so I decided to do Publicity.”

At the end of last year, Laura had an opportunity to be on Australia’s Got Talent. “They invited me to come to the audition,” she tells me. “And they really liked me so I made it to the semi -finals.”

Being on Australia’s Got Talent gave Laura the exposure she needed to get her name out to the public. “I had a plan regardless of whether I was going to win the show,” she reveals. “I was always going to release an EP and when I did the show, I thought I would hold off a little bit until I start getting exposure and then once I’m finished with the show, I can concentrate on getting the EP out and hopefully give people who haven’t seen me on the show, something to listen to.” So far, that plan is working well.

Her recently released debut EP features four tracks. The songs are an eclectic mix of musical genres and demonstrate the young artist’s impressive writing skills. Two tracks were written by Laura and guitarist Hughie Hanily while the other two tracks were penned by Laura herself.

Laura says that she is like any other artist starting out in the business. “I’m still trying to develop myself,” she says. “I’m trying to explore and experiment with a lot of things. The songs on this EP, I’ve had for a while and I’ve been writing heaps of songs since then so it’s always going to be a development process. I love all genres of music so it’s always going to be difficult trying to figure out exactly what I like. But I’m really happy. I think there’s a song for almost everyone on the EP at the moment and there’s a little bit of a mix of everything but all of it is still me. I’ve written all of that myself and I guess the producer that I worked with also had a bit of an influence with the soulful ones and the funk ones and stuff like that. I think I’ve definitely started to develop my own style and it’s definitely getting there. Back in the day, what they used to do is sign artists to labels and they actually developed them before they actually released anything. They called it a ‘development deal’. So I told myself ‘You know all that. You’re just going to be a development deal yourself’ and that’s what I’m doing. I’m developing my own style.”

I wondered if she had any advice to share with other young, up-and-coming artists just entering the world of music? “I definitely would say that I’ve got my foot in the door,” she explains, “But I’ve still got a lot to learn, lots of places to go. The sky’s the limit for me. I want to be touring the whole globe. Why dream small if you going to be doing something like this? So I guess that would be my advice, to dream big and to always know your craft and know what it is you want to do because talent isn’t everything in this business. You have to understand the business. You have to understand things that you want to do and plan it properly and just keep a good head on your shoulders and whatever you do, know exactly where you stand and what you want and don’t let anyone take advantage of that. At first, you don’t know the industry but as you go along, you’re going to learn more and if it gets harder, then that’s probably a good thing so don’t worry. That’s what I keep telling myself.”

For the next couple of months, Laura will be promoting the EP and getting people to listen to her music. “Next year I’m going to try to gig as much as possible,” she resolves. “And maybe do a small tour to keep pushing it as well and getting out to all the fans that voted for me on the show. I think that there are definitely people there that I want to reach out to so that’s the immediate plan.”

And her ultimate goal? Laura is very determined about her goals for the future. “To be an international artist who tours the world,” she declares. “That’s the goal and I’ll hopefully achieve that but I definitely would like to develop myself for a bit longer. If I get signed to any record label or management, I’d like to know that it’s because it’s something that I want to do and not something that has to be done. I’ll just keep working as hard as I can and plan the plan, do the plan.”

Not that it is likely but, if the plan doesn’t work? “Change it!” she laughs.

by Sharyn Hamey

Copyright © 2012 Sharyn Hamey All Rights Reserved.

Laura Loe’s independently released self-titled EP is out now

For more information, please visit www.lauraloemusic.com