I’ve seen Laura Catlow perform three times now and she seems to get better every time. Always starting her sets with the song Looking Rough and always playing my favourite song of hers If there’s anything more soul destroying than working in telesales I don’t want to know about it, she’s really fun to watch on stage. Every time I see her it seems to be raining and while it was when I got chatting with her, for her performance the sun came out and made her show first-lick-of-the-ice-cream awesome. I talked to her about her recent Lword parody video, her music and how she’s like to work with Pete Doherty.

How do you feel when you perform?

I get weirdly excited, I absolutely love it. Sometimes my mind wanders though, like today I kept looking up and thinking “ah the sky looks nice” and had to put myself back on track. I also noticed someone wearing one of my t-shirts which put me off for a second.

Where do you get your inspiration for your lyrics?

From all the normal stuff that happens in life.. relationships, friendships, hating your job.

Does anyone influence you?

I’m influenced by loads of people, it changes all the time. I love so much music from Johnny Cash to Judy Garland. I’ll write a song sometimes and realise I’ve used the exact same chords as another song. There’s a fine line between ‘influenced by’ and plain old theft.

What’s your favourite cover to do?

I love doing a song called Don’t Trust Me by 3oh!3. It’s one of the only covers I do. I love being able to sing the words “I’m a vegetarian and I ain’t fucking scared of him.”

Would you like to collaborate with anyone?

I’d love to hook up with Pete Doherty and some of his stoner musician friends and perform Bob Dylan’s ‘Rainy Day Women #12 & 35′. Google it.

Has anything strange ever happened with you’ve been performing?

I did a gig in Manchester once and the ceiling started leaking and everyone had to stand watching me while holding buckets above their heads. And when I was in a punk band there were always fights while we were playing, a guy once threw himself at me and I had to kick him off stage while playing the guitar.

Do you like a festival atmosphere?

I love playing festivals. It’s nice being able to play in daylight, although I do get easily distracted (see question 1).

What acts will you be seeing at Lfest?

I’m excited to see Red (of Red n Pink) collaborate with Christina Novelli, they’re both awesome. There’s loads of amazing acts on, I’ll be staying round all weekend to see as much as I can.

What 3 things would you have to have with you while camping?

Guitar. Wellies. Sunglasses.

So you got fourth in our fashion poll last year, how would you describe your style?

Fourth? That’s not very good is it? Please tell me there were more than 4 people to choose from? My style is based on what I can jump around on stage in, that won’t fall off and I won’t fall out of. I’ll be putting more thought in from now on though.

You could vote for any lesbian in the country so I’d say fourth was pretty good! If you had all the money in the world what would you be doing?

Gigging around America in an amazing tour bus.

What made you do the Lword Parody?

I just wanted a funny way to advertise my t-shirts and thought this would be perfect, what with me knowing a lot of lesbians an’ all.

Who are the girls in it?

I just rang round my friends and said “Do you want to be in an L Word parody?” and amazingly, they said yes. We had such a fun day doing it. There was me hanging from various pieces of furniture with the camera, a couple of the girls holding lamps and electric fans, someone holding a clapper board, another one holding a black sheet up. Yes, we used a clapper board. They’re not all gay, I’ll just put that out there, I’ll let you guess who is and who ain’t. Some of them are single too, I’m currently accepting date requests on their behalf.

What’s behind the design of your tshirts?

A girl called Aida from Spain had sent me some images a while back (I’ve attached one) and I really liked the quirky kind of style she had, so when I was designing a t-shirt I got in touch with her. I didn’t want my face on the t-shirt, it just felt kinda weird so we discussed some ideas, like the tiger head thing. She got back to me with loads of designs, including the awesome image that I used on the final t-shirts. I love it. She does some really cool stuff and I’m really grateful that she took the time to do that for me.

What will you be getting up to this year?

Writing and recording a new album which I’ll be releasing later in the year, and lots more gigs!

get tshirts here – http://lauracatlow.bigcartel.com/
Find out more about Laura here – http://www.facebook.com/#!/lauracatlowmusic
Follow on @Catlowman

Read our review of Laura Catlow at Birmingham Pride here — http://fisforr.com/2012/06/22/favourite-bits-review-of-laura-catlow/