Get the song: http://penfriend.rocks/seventeen

Seventeen. Is there a more complicated age? Not quite yet an adult, but impatient to be treated like one; navigating an avalanche of new experiences and urgent emotions, dismissed by the grownups as “teenage angst” or “just a phase”. An exhausting quest to negotiate a new space for ourselves, juggling the interests of parents, teachers and friends while not knowing to question their motives. 

This song is an excavation, a letting go, an act of self-forgiveness.

Traumatic events from the past can feel just as fresh, years later, the ghosts of our former selves creeping up to tap us on the shoulder with icy fingers. 

Sometimes we need to package up our memories with tidy words to dispel the haunting. 

Sometimes we just need to stop blaming ourselves. 

Sometimes writing songs is like painstakingly sculpting sounds from thin air; other times they arrive in a whoosh, fighting to be heard. “Seventeen” appeared on a summer Saturday evening, falling out of me in jagged swathes.

Facing up to our ghosts isn’t a pleasant experience, but this song helped me over a major stumbling block from my past, bringing me a fresh perspective and new freedom.

CREDITS
Written, produced, performed and recorded by Laura Kidd at The Launchpad, Bristol. Drums by Max Saidi. Piano arranged by Laura Kidd, performed and recorded by Catherine Anne Davies. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Artwork by Alex Tillbrook, concept by Laura Kidd.

PENFRIEND - Seventeen

The first track in the latest six-track Correspondent's Club CD/download bundle is a cover of "This Is The Sound" by Battery Thinkers.

Listen to the original here: https://soundcloud.com/battery-thinkers/this-is-the-sound?si=9cf4d94eebff41af9a30248aee66729d&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Read how I made this cover here: https://penfriend.rocks/how-i-record-cover-songs

Join The Correspondent's Club here: http://penfriend.rocks/join

This Is The Sound (Battery Thinkers cover)

Obey Robots is a collaboration project between producer/arranger/solo artist Laura Kidd (Penfriend / She Makes War) and guitarist Rat (Ned's Atomic Dustbin). Their album "One In A Thousand" is out on 24th February 2023.

"Super Connected" is a song about the cognitive dissonance of feeling “super connected”: supposedly informed and part of a community via social media, yet deluded if we think typing words into a little box is enough to show empathy to people in very different situations to our own comfort.

“If we’re super connected, why aren’t we
all floating in the sea?”

VIDEO https://youtu.be/PCHSlFB8VN4

SONG CREDITS
============
Produced by Laura Kidd in The Launchpad, Bristol.
Mixed by Chris Sheldon at Red Cedar, London, mastered by Katie Tavini at Weird Jungle, Brighton.

All music by Laura Kidd and Rat. Guitars by Rat. All lyrics, arrangements, vocals, bass, synths, drum programming and lead guitar by Laura.

One In A Thousand

Obey Robots - Super Connected

Taut and propulsive, “Elephant” marries the pop nouse of XTC with the stop-start dynamics of 00’s post-hardcore mainstays Hundred Reasons before opening up into the kind of shimmering chorus that would have shot Obey Robots to MTV stardom had it been the 90’s.

SONG CREDITS
============
Produced by Laura Kidd.
Mixed by Chris Sheldon. Mastered by Katie Tavini.

All music by Laura Kidd and Rat, all lyrics and arrangements by Laura Kidd. All vocals and bass by Laura, all guitars by Rat. Drums by Max Saidi.

Rat’s guitars recorded by Dan Austin. All other instruments recorded by Laura in The Launchpad, Bristol.

Single artwork by Laura Kidd, robot illustration by Alex Tillbrook.

LYRICS
======
Newspaper shouts that we’ve had enough
The radio says we’re all out of love
Don’t let them take what you worked hard for
Slaving away for your family
There’s nothing left for the strangers who bleed
Hold tight to the things that you value

Thank your lucky stars
Look to the future
There’s freedom in guitars

We try to get it right
Fight the forces on the other side
Just a little longer
Unbandaging our eyes
Count the seconds as they crystallise
It’s just a little further

The government says we’re overrun
They get a break while you soldier on
Cos you don’t have the life that you deserve
You’re working hard for your family
There’s nothing else, you believe what you read
This wasn’t given to you on a plate

Don’t politicise
Stick to the music
Dance for a little while
Always scraping the barrel
Parroting lines
I’ve never felt so angry

We try to get it right
Fight the forces on the other side
Just a little longer
Unbandaging our eyes
Count the seconds as they crystallise
It’s just a little further

We’re wasting time
Don’t want to feel so bad
We’re wasting time
And it was all we had

We try to get it right
Fight the forces on the other side
Just a little longer
Unbandaging our eyes
Count the seconds as they crystallise
It’s just a little further

We try to get it right
Fight the forces on the other side
Just a little longer
Unbandaging our eyes
Losing hours as they hypnotise
It’s always a little further than we can

Obey Robots - Elephant

40 years after “Last Christmas” changed the festive singalong forever, its fictional prequel is here to shed light and nuance on a love story gone sour.

It's a festive tale of love, understanding and the particular resignation that, when you break a songwriter’s heart, they’re probably going to write about it.

We all get carried away sometimes, taking steps down a road that steals us further away from our true selves. That awkward, sinking feeling when we realise we’ve made a mistake, led someone on with the best intentions.

Like milk left out on a hot day, love can turn so quickly to something else, but empathy is always an option...and there's another side to every story.

LYRICS
*******

It's our last Christmas
Our last Christmas

My friends think you are trouble
But I like your leather coat
The bad boy in the kitchen
With the world in every note

It's our last Christmas
Our last Christmas

But I don't want you to go
Not like this
So give me one more kiss

You made a fuss of cooking
But something won't compute
You seem to like my brother
And I think your sister's cute

It's our last Christmas
Our last Christmas

But I don't want you to go
Not like this
So give me one more kiss

It's honestly fine
We'll be just friends
And I'll tell my family

Promise me this
Come over and give me one last kiss
And promise you'll write a global hit
Come over and give me one last Christmas kiss
x

Our Last Christmas

🎸 Get this song PLUS the stormy title track immediately when you order your copy of my new album “House Of Stories”, out 25th April 2025.

The album is available on super limited edition vinyl colours, signed CD and KiT hybrid digital format, with tees, hoodies and hardback books to accompany the music
https://shop.penfriend.rocks/collections/penfriend-house-of-stories

===

Songs can mend moments. Art stretches time, giving me a chance to walk back into the room and say what I wouldacouldashoulda. Giving me the power to walk out.

“Emotional Tourist” is a fiery anthem* for anyone who’s suffered at the hands of bullies, creeps and narcissists. Fielding comments – or worse – on your appearance, your weight, your life choices. Painted into a corner by politeness, with an inability to believe someone could truly be that awful – and be doing it on purpose, too.

Just me? Sadly not.

11 years ago, faced with my soon-to-be-ex’s final attempts to extinguish my creativity I did manage to get out, but there was no blaze of glory. Real life is usually quieter than that.

I know I’m one of the lucky ones.

“Emotional Tourist” is a chance for me to rewrite my story in that blaze of glory – 3 minutes 40 seconds of foot-stomping, fist-wielding synth rock.

Because when events from the past refuse to stay there, the only thing to do as a songwriter is stab them in the eye with the blade of truth.

“You reap what you sow.”

* PS: my rule on such bragging is: if someone else (who isn’t a friend and doesn’t live with me) calls the song an anthem, I can call the song an anthem…

Emotional Tourist [Lazy Lover Edit]

Emotional Tourist

http://penfriend.rocks

I can’t do much of anything when I’m feeling down, let alone write a song about it, but one day in 2019 when I was trudging my way back, I made an attempt to leave a breadcrumb trail for my future self. 

"The Only Way Out Is Through" is my attempt to trap the "shapeless forces" that "pull at me", making them solid by assigning words to them, reducing their power and size to something I might feasibly be able to overcome. The aspirational sentiment that “resistance is crucial, forgiveness is beautiful” is one I find very hard to enact in the moment, but something I can at least continue to strive for. 

Ironically, this song is being released during my lowest fortnight of the last 12 months, so the safety line of lyrics I knotted inside the music is a helpful reminder of brighter days. 

The choice to release music in a universally dark time isn’t one I take lightly. “The Only Way Out Is Through” is the most resonant and useful piece of music I have to offer right now, a rescue raft for whoever needs one. 

That’s what this song is for me.

LYRICS 

Gotta get out of this 
Making a meal of distress 
Fatalistic to the bone 
Thunderclouds in every home 
Gotta get out of this 

The only way out is through 
Not gonna lose my heart - I never meant to 
The only way out is through 

Gotta get out of this 
Drowning in yesterday's tears 
Intimate conspiracies 
Shapeless forces pull at me 
Gotta get out of this 

The only way out is through 
Not gonna lose my heart - I never meant to 
The only way out is through 

The only way out is through 
Not gonna lose my heart 
I never meant to wish on a falling star 
But I won't let it go 

Denial take me away 
Pretend like I'm not the queen of stretching the days 
In all the wrong ways - til they break 
Denial take me away 
I crave your sweet mistakes but 
Resistance is crucial 
Forgiveness is beautiful 

The only way out is through 
Not gonna lose my heart - I never meant to 
The only way out is through

CREDITS
released September 8, 2020 
Written, produced, performed and engineered by Laura Kidd. Mixed by Dan Austin. Drums by Max Saidi.

The Only Way Out Is Through

"Let It Snow" is the debut single by Obey Robots - a bold new project from Rat (Ned's Atomic Dustbin) and Laura Kidd (Penfriend / She Makes War). Connected by mutual friend Miles Hunt (The Wonder Stuff), the pair pool their disparate influences to break new ground. 

GET THE SONG pay what you want/can digital download / pre-order double A side pink vinyl / CD: https://bit.ly/obeyrobots

An unflinching, anthemic powerhouse to close out a terrible year, "Let It Snow" announces itself on a motoric Krautrock groove recalling Stereolab's "French Disko" if rewired by Queens Of The Stone Age or "Used For Glue"-era Rival Schools. There isn't a jingle bell in sight - just a clarion call for a collective look to the future.

As her previously busy world reduced to the size of her Bristol studio, The Launchpad, Laura started creating cut-up collages from Rat's intense, melodic guitar parts, building new sound spaces to voice her hopes, fears and frustrations but, more importantly, to offer a hand to the uncertain.

The lyrics to "Let It Snow" issue a heady invocation to the weather gods to fast forward this worst of years by dousing the world in clean, crisp hope for brighter days, where we can hug our loved ones and gather together in dark music venues to celebrate the wonders of being alive.

The double A side single is available to pre-order NOW on limited edition pink 7" vinyl and CD, with the first track, "Let It Snow", available as a pay what you want/can digital download.

https://bit.ly/obeyrobots

===

Credits: Written by Pring / Kidd. Produced by Laura Kidd. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Guitar performed and recorded by Rat. Bass, vocals and synths performed and recorded by Laura Kidd. Drums performed and recorded by Max Saidi.

OBEY ROBOTS - Let It Snow

Sparked by a throwaway phrase from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”, “Exotic Monsters” is a laundry list of asynchronous human needs and desires; a reflection of our increasingly confused, disconnected and polarised lives. A timely reminder of the practice of cultivating gratitude through meditation, the song is an attempt to examine our internalised inconsistencies; the “facts” we pile up on our own backs throughout lives bombarded by airbrushed images and ads for the unattainable baubles we’re informed are essential for true happiness.

Shackled to our phones by big tech companies monetising and eroding our attention spans, feeling increasingly as though we live on a different planet to those we disagree with, chasing likes on social media while forgetting to look after our brains and our hearts…where will this all end? Some days it’s hard to believe late MP Jo Cox’s poignant words, that “we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us”.

Addressing this sense of disconnection and depersonalisation, “Exotic Monsters” evokes the menace of “Enjoy The Silence”-era Depeche Mode with a nod to the 80s- Madonna hero worship of Sky Ferreira’s “Everything Is Embarrassing” and the hypnotic synth pop of Sylvan Esso.

To quote Björk, “I’m no fucking Buddhist, but this is enlightenment”.

Fun fact: “Exotic Monsters” features several Creative Commons drum samples created by the European Space Agency, recorded at their European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. Using sounds from space on a song about feeling disconnected from life on earth just felt wildly appropriate…

CREDITS
Written, produced, performed and recorded by Laura Kidd at The Launchpad, Bristol. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Artwork by Alex Tillbrook, concept by LK.

ESTEC drum samples pk3, pk4, pk6 and pk11 credit: Peter Kirn/CDM/ESA CC BY-SA. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Exotic Monsters

PENFRIEND - Exotic Monsters

Watch the video and get the song at http://penfriend.rocks/cyh

“Cancel Your Hopes” is about doing everything you were told was right and then realising the world’s going to end despite your best efforts. Left stranded by those who were once the grownups, our mission is to keep trying to appreciate the incredible fact of simply existing in this beautiful world, while attempting to navigate the toxic parts of technology, live a meaningful life of use to others, love deeply and learn to accept love, leaving as little negative trace on the planet as possible while doing so.

CREDITS
Written, produced, performed and recorded by Laura Kidd at The Launchpad, Bristol. Drums by Max Saidi. Mixed by Dan Austin. Mastered by Katie Tavini. Artwork by Alex Tillbrook, concept by LK.

Cancel Your Hopes

PENFRIEND - Cancel Your Hopes

Sad songs to make you feel better.
Producer/bass/guitar/vocals+
Penfriend, Obey Robots, She Makes War.

Penfriend

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