ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The British singer-songwriter Laura Marling signed her first record deal when she was 16 years old. And she knew even then that she wanted to approach the music industry on her terms. Here's what she told a guest host of NPR's Morning Edition way back in 2008.
What's that meeting like where you tell Virgin records, actually, no, I'm not going to have my photo on the album jacket?
LAURA MARLING: If they ever tried to make me do anything like that, I would down toss.
SHAPIRO: Is that a British expression? I'm not familiar with it.
MARLING: Down toss. It's not working. I've put the guitar down. Music - the music industry is whatever you want it to be. If you want to be mega-famous, you're going to have to do things that people tell you until you get mega-famous. And then you can tell everybody what to do.
SHAPIRO: Well, now, Laura Marling is an established artist who has won a raft of awards, and she has just released her eighth album, "Patterns In Repeat." Laura Marling, it is good to talk to you again some 16 years after our last chat.
MARLING: Wow, I can't believe that.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
MARLING: Thank you for having me again.
SHAPIRO: It is really nice to have you back. You had such a clear vision, even as a teenager, of how you wanted to relate to the music industry, how you wanted to shape your career. How has that vision evolved as you have grown into the established adult artist you are today?
MARLING: Well, I think it's much the same. I mean, I was surprised to hear myself say that. I don't remember, obviously, saying that. But I still very much live by that sort of philosophy. And I never have changed since then, it sounds like. I've always just...
(LAUGHTER)
MARLING: ...Stayed exactly the same.
SHAPIRO: I love that you're surprised by that, that it's not like a slogan that has hung on your wall through every record and every interview you've ever done, that, like, this is your true North.
MARLING: No, it's not. I mean, I think it's part of my obstinate nature. I think, you know, like, a contrarian nature, maybe.
SHAPIRO: Well, on this latest album, "Patterns In Repeat," your new role as a parent figures prominently.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHILD OF MINE")
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Inaudible).
SHAPIRO: At the very top, one of the first sounds we hear is your baby leading into the song "Child Of Mine."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHILD OF MINE")
MARLING: (Singing) You and your dad are dancing in the kitchen. Life is slowing down, but it's still b****ing.
SHAPIRO: Can you paint a picture for us of the scene that you are giving us access to here?
MARLING: So I recorded this album when my daughter was 4 months old, which, in retrospect, was very smart because after they can start walking, you really are limited in what you can do. But before that, you know, they sort of sleep or sit on the floor, you know? So basically, I turned my living room into a recording studio and had her in the room for the entire recording process and just stole moments where I could to record. So there's very - there's a lot of sort of incidental homely noise on the album that became quite an important sort of character.
SHAPIRO: And in this first song especially, I think there are lyrics that feel universal to the experience of being a parent and very elemental.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHILD OF MINE")
MARLING: (Singing) Last night in your sleep, you started crying. I can't protect you there, though I keep trying.
That was the first song I wrote after she was born, which - and I hadn't been expecting to have any interest in writing. I'd, like, very much prepared for not having any interest in writing for years. But, of course, what I didn't understand or foresee is that the experience of becoming a parent really cracks you open to a new level of truly terrifying love.
SHAPIRO: Your father wrote one of the songs on this album, right?
MARLING: Yes, he did. He - there's a song on the album called "Looking Back."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOOKING BACK")
MARLING: (Singing) Today with age, my body is bent. And against my will, I must relent.
My father was a songwriter in the '70s, so I knew it. I'd always thought it was a really good song, and then he played it just sort of when he was here visiting after my daughter was born. And it just, like - it floored me, the new relevance that it had to the album that I was putting together, because it's written from the perspective of an old man looking back over his life and wondering whether his love was well-spent.
SHAPIRO: How did he react when he had heard your version of it for the first time?
MARLING: He actually hasn't (laughter).
SHAPIRO: Oh, what?
MARLING: He hasn't heard it yet. Yeah. He'll hear it when the album comes out. I mean...
SHAPIRO: No.
MARLING: It - yeah.
SHAPIRO: Why are you keeping it from him?
MARLING: I don't know - again, something to be investigated, some weird, sort of crooked...
SHAPIRO: Are you going to, like...
MARLING: ...Like, sort of...
SHAPIRO: ...Sit him down and, you know, close the window shades and turn the lights low and play it? Or are you just going to let him download the album on his streaming platform and listen to it whenever he does?
MARLING: I think probably the latter. Yeah. I think I'm trying to avoid...
SHAPIRO: I shouldn't...
MARLING: ...That first time.
SHAPIRO: ...Judge, but that seems so odd to me.
MARLING: (Laughter) Welcome. Welcome to my universe. But, you know, yeah, it's sort of too embarrassing to confront him with it face to face.
SHAPIRO: What do you think that means to him to have that song he wrote on this album?
MARLING: He's a bit like me. He's sort of embarrassed by too much attention at once. But I think it will mean - I don't know. You love to know what your parents actually feel and think. They're kind of a mystery to me in the best way.
SHAPIRO: One could ask.
MARLING: Yes, but that would be too straightforward.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
MARLING: Can't cope with that.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAURA MARLING SONG, "LOOKING BACK")
SHAPIRO: You wrote the title track of this album, "Patterns In Repeat," when you, your partner and your baby were in Paris for a funeral, and it was the first time you had ever taken your daughter to a hotel. So people can imagine all of the chaos that that entails.
MARLING: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: And there's this line.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PATTERNS IN REPEAT")
MARLING: (Singing) I want you to know that I gave it up willingly.
SHAPIRO: I want you to know that I gave it up willingly.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PATTERNS IN REPEAT")
MARLING: (Singing) Nothing real was lost in the bringing of you to me.
SHAPIRO: Nothing real was lost in the bringing of you to me. Will you tell us about what that means to you and whether it's true?
MARLING: Yeah. Oh, it's certainly true. The funeral that we were attending was - it was an extraordinary example of what it is to give everything to your children. You know, earlier, I was saying, wouldn't it be great to understand the desires and innerworkings of your parents? And in a way, it's part of the process that you don't know that. It's because it's for your benefit that their passions and desires are subjugated in your honor. And there's something profoundly healing about understanding that as you become a parent and also something to be incredibly proud of.
SHAPIRO: Do you think about your daughter someday using your songs, these lyrics, this album and others to understand you in a way that you talk about wanting to or wishing you could understand your own parents?
MARLING: Maybe. Like, a big part of my early life was finding it very difficult to express myself, you know, straightforwardly. And there may have been suggestions of that still being a problem in my life in this very interview.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
MARLING: But in some ways, that is a problem. But where I have never struggled to say something in terms of what I want to get across is in songwriting. So I hope it serves as that, if not just for my daughter, for people in general.
SHAPIRO: Well, Laura Marling, it has been such a pleasure talking to you again after all of these years. Thank you for the conversation.
MARLING: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed speaking with you again.
SHAPIRO: Her new album is "Patterns In Repeat."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PATTERNS")
MARLING: (Singing) But as those years go by, they'll look upon you kindly like a friend. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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