Laura Dickinson's Lace Thief project epitomises the creative spirit of Nottingham: unafraid of challenge, independent, and deeply committed to her art. In advance of her debut record’s release, Laura talks to us about family, curiosity, and the city that has helped her express herself.
Laura Dickinson's pathway to music was a road less travelled. The Basford born and bred, multi-disciplinary artist first performed a song in public in 2022, and her first recording was made in 2023. Only three years later, the debut Lace Thief album, Inheritance, will be with us. By any measure, that is quick progress.
“I think it’s the mindset I have,” Laura muses, when asked what her secret is. “I always need probably three things going on at any one time to be happy in life! I always over-commit to stuff, and it spirals and becomes much bigger than it ever needed to be. I think that’s just the way I am!”
Although the Lace Thief musical project is relatively new, Laura regards it as the natural next step in a life of artistic expression. It all began as a child with an intense need to create.
“I probably infuriated my family with wanting to have my hand in lots of different pies,” she says. “I always really enjoyed making things... I think it’s just how my brain works.”
“I’m really excited by creating something and having something to say, and then thinking. ‘Is that an exhibition, or an artwork – or a song?’” she adds.
It was that creativity – plus plenty of natural curiosity – that led Laura on a path through fashion (a discipline she now lectures in at Leicester’s De Montfort University), video, poetry and, of course, music.
There’s a competitive but also really welcoming scene in Nottingham that has shaped me, not just to want to participate but to do really well
“I’ve always loved music … it’s always been there but it’s never been something that I really trained in until I was in my 20s,” she explains. “For my 21st birthday I asked for a guitar and taught myself to play… I also started writing poetry and then taking part in poetry slams.”
Poetry landed well for Laura: she won the Semantics Poetry Slam Championship in 2021. After that, she explains, she began to feel the need to say more through her writing.
“I did loads of poetry open mics before I started to segué into music. People started to ask me to come back and do a little bit of poetry and a little bit of music,” she says. “I guess that’s where the musical element came into it: I started to mash everything together – having a little bit of poetry, a little bit of song, a little bit of terrible guitar – and it spiralled from there.”
Music became one of the main ways for Laura to process her feelings and express what she really wants to say, but other types of art remain an essential part of what she does.
“For me, music is part of a bigger practice,” she continues. “When I think about music, I feel quite visual about it.”
Having lived here her whole life (except for one year of university), Laura regards Nottingham as a vital part of who she is now. It is a place she has found herself embraced, and challenged, by an ambitious kind of energy.
“Nottingham is inclusive but there’s also this push to do really well. You’ve got to do something really well to do well,” she says. “There’s a competitive but also really welcoming scene in Nottingham that has shaped me, not just to want to participate but to do really well. That definitely reflects in what I’ve done with the Lace Thief project.”
“Everybody is going to the next level with something yet it’s not about one-upping each other competitively but searching for the next thing to do better. That’s what makes the scene zoom sometimes.”
Inheritance was recorded at Mount Street Studios with producers Matt Robinson and Catherine Glenister (who also contributed backing vocals). Despite a steep learning curve, Laura says the album came together naturally.
“I must have had five or six songs ready to record, then by the time I’d recorded those, I’d written more. In the end there were only two songs that didn’t work on an album, and the rest fitted together. It kind of happened as we went along,” she reflects.
Given Laura’s multi-faceted skills, it was inevitable that her debut album would be more than just a collection of songs. Inheritance is a multi-medium product where the music is supplemented with visual responses.
Each of the twelve tracks has been offered to a different artist (all with connections to the Midlands); each artist used the music as a starting point to respond in their preferred medium (including photography, mixed media, sculpture and metalwork). Each finished artwork will be formatted into a poster and the collection of posters forms what Laura calls a ‘visual album’. She plans to exhibit the original creative works in a Nottingham gallery (and also hopes to take the show on the road to neighbouring cities including Leicester and Derby).
Inheritance is also a deeply personal album for Laura. It is one she says “holds onto the memories of loved ones and follows the reverberating impact they have even after parting ways” and “explores the parts of ourselves we inherit from the people around us and how in a beautifully circular way they continue to live through us and us through them.”
Laura illustrates this by explaining how the foundational title track is dedicated to and inspired by, a late family member who she credits for getting her into music.
“I’d spend so much time with my great uncle Ralph growing up. He was always really interested in music but he couldn’t play any instrument,” she says fondly. “One day he saw a baby grand piano and bought it. He lived in a tiny house in Bobbers Mill and they decided to put it in the spare bedroom upstairs – bear in mind this is a two-up two-down – so he took out the bathroom wall to put this piano in the spare room. That’s how I ended up having piano lessons, because he wanted somebody to be able to play this piano in the house!”
Laura’s song Inheritance is her way of processing memories of her uncle, the fact of his passing, and the creative gifts he has given her.
“The whole album comes out of that. Everything is about different people and life experiences –people and places,” she explains. “I’ve got tracks about my sister moving away, connections to other women, and there’s stuff about Nottingham on there. It’s all about my experiences and the people I’m grateful to have around me.”
Inheritance is released on Saturday 25 April, plus Rough Trade will host Laura for an album launch show that day. Look out for exhibitions of the accompanying artworks and artefacts in the autumn.
Editor's note: the print version of this article contained an error around Laura Dickinson's surname. Big apologies to Laura from both the editorial and music team!
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