"The Early Years" are recordings from the noughties - from Laura Rafetseder's "early years". 2007 was a gap year between the first version of Laura's band "Laura & the Comrats" and the second. The solo recordings have not been published to date - until now. They were found in lockdown during the pandemic while sorting out old boxes. Among those recordings you can find solo versions of Vienna at my feet (previously published on "Creating Memories" in 2010) and Marianne (previously published in a band version on "Make me Whole again" in 2006). The other recordings are so far completely unpublished songs. Many were written in the early 2000s when Laura was in her 20s. ​

Laura: "I write different of course today compared to 20 years ago. These songs have a certain innocence, they are really sweet, my voice is still brighter, they are demo recordings, but full of charm. They are like tender musical clouds on a blue summer sky."

Marianne

SoulMate

This record and especially this song is about the longing for solidarity, about how lonely we all feel if we try to take on the world all alone, in the workplaces, in the neighbourhoods, in times of crisis, fighting for our survival. I think everyone knows this feeling, especially in a time like this.

Swimmers In The Arctic Sea

beating hearts

A 'keeping your identity in a relationship' song, about what comes after the first rush of love, and more significantly about turning to loving and accepting yourself. In a way it's a very mature song, at least for my standards. But it also recognises that we are all young at heart, kids really, and that we all feel the same and face the same challenges.

we were young and wounded

That was in the middle of the so called 'refugee crisis', when all these children were drowning in the mediterranean. The album title is taken from a line in this song. It's about falling in love while the world is going nuts. We're all people, we're all human beings. And all we have is each other and we will drown if we allow divisions to kick in. The key line though is that we should be building ships, ie we need to organise.

hostile shore

This one started out as an exploration of love, why we need our very own island to maintain our identity, trying not to lose ourselves within a relationship. Women have a tendency to give up their identity, losing themselves in love. it's a lifelong struggle. After two verses the direction of the song changes and it turns into a break up song, and these lines came out of me, before i even knew we would break up ("and there you go again / hands in your lover's hands / blues in your lover's eyes"). It's one of the best lines i've ever written, and i didnt even mean to write it.

blues in your lover's eyes

song über den Streik der Ölarbeiter in  Zhanaozen in Kasachstan im Dezember 2011,der vom Regime von Nazarbajev blutig niedergeschlagen wurde.music and lyrics: Laura Rafetseder/“download of the song is free, but as the oil workers’ struggle and the struggles against the undemocratic regime in kazakhstan continue, I would ask you to donate directly to the campaign kazakhstan (the donations will be used for the building of independent trade unions and social movements): http://campaignkazakhstan.org/index.php/donate/

Ballad of Zhanaozen

08 - The Cat's Fading Colors

This is a song about female desire. It is also a variation on the theme 'a prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages'. Other female singers have also touched upon the theme of females as hunters (Laura Marling, Anna Calvi), this is one more take on it. Sexual energy is a force that drives us, but class society finds it hard to deal with it - we are either made into desireless objects or sexism hits back and haunts us in return.

Driven Creatures 

Running Wild

This song was inspired by a dream i had. There were a lot of wild colours in this one, especially blue and yellow. I dreamed i had a blue shellfish with yellow stripes taped to my hand. In a way its a song about the drugs our own bodies produce and addiction to fear and risk taking. Colours do play a strong role, hence the line in the chorus 'paint me on the floor'. A very sensual and sexy song.

The Bluest Hour

This song continues the theme of female desire. There is a fire that burns deep within us - on the bottom of our oceans. I love contradictions and the contradiction of different elements is a very interesting one. There is fire, it is spread by the wind, but that, in my world, happens at the bottom of the ocean. There are all these powerful forces within us and in our psyche. It is also a song about not being broken and holding your head up high.

Fire at the Bottom of the Ocean

Laura & the comrats, the band of Viennese singer songwriter Laura Rafetseder make music along the lines of folk/pop/acoustic.it´s the contradiction of sadness and happyness in popmusic - the great songs touch a nerve, make you happy and sad...
Biografie	
Once upon a time a little songstress fell in love with music listening to her songwriter dad's piano (he used to put music to anglo-american poets' poems), her mum singing lullabies and generally being raised on her parents records (dylan, stones, joni mitchell,...). At 8 an old tape of a radio show called „the roaring 60s“ made a lasting impression – she decided to become a revolutionary (the tape started with „hippies, beat, riots, revolution,...“ and sounded very exciting). She also went on to inhale pop music history, became a beatles freak at 13, wearing only grey leggings (it was the early 90s, you know), reading emily bronte and climbing trees. At 14 though she hijacked her dad's guitar, learned how to play and started writing songs (well... she didnt write her own lyrics at first but exploited her dad's poetry books and put new musical clothes to w.h. auden, t.s. eliot and w.b. yeats). The lyrics started to flow at 18, when she moved to vienna and took to the open mic scene there. With her band the comrats she recorded the ep make me whole again in 2006. Sadly guitarists critical jim and esch decided to focus on other projects in spring 2007, which meant an end to the comrats as we know them, but not the end to laura & the comrats as a bandproject. At the moment the comrats are in the process of reformation - bassist tino and drummer marc are back on board and we have a new guitarist, michael huber. Laura & the comrats debut sc" creating memories"  came out in April 2010. Solo debut " the minor key club" was released in fall 2012. New solo album "Swimmers in the Arctic Sea" is to be released on october 21 / 2016.

Laura Rafetseder

Popular tracks