One-woman band Laura Moody tells Tim Hughes why she has more in common with electronica than folk and how the theatricality of her music makes a big impact live

With her striking looks, flowing hair and cherry red lips, Laura Moody appears more of a matinee idol than a cellist. But then she is no ordinary musician.

Singing haunting songs which tingle the spine, her fingers dart across her instrument’s strings, while tapping out time on its graceful flanks. The result is dramatic, eerie and very beautiful.

“If you think you know what a cello sounds like, what singing sounds like, and what a woman singing and playing the cello sounds like, then you’ll be very, very surprised,” she tells me. “You’ll have your preconceptions adjusted.”

Having gained attention with the contemporary, experimental and classical Elysian Quartet, Laura is now a commanding solo presence. Her spellbinding voice and virtuoso playing silences a room and is earning plaudits from lovers of folk, pop, electronica and hip-hop.

She has provided alternative, avant-pop musicianship to Anna Calvi, Kate Tempest, Hot Chip, Aphex Twin, Goldie, Antony and the Johnsons, The XX, David Sylvian and even Peter Gabriel’s New Blood Orchestra, performing in front of 9,000 people at an amphitheatre in Switzerland.

Tomorrow she packs up her unwieldy instrument and heads to Oxford for a show in the far more intimate setting of the subterranean Norrington Room at Blackwell’s bookshop, in Broad Street.

“It’s a real one-woman band,” she says, while taking time out from preparing for a show to promote solo album Acrobats. “I get myself on the train and carry my own cello everywhere.

“I often say I play for free, and get paid to carry things,” she laughs. “It goes on my back, so I look like a wounded tortoise. It’s what you sign up for – and it does save on gym fees. Once I did drop it on a woman on the Underground, though she was nice about it.”

While it doesn’t have the popularity of a piano or guitar, the cello is a great solo instrument, she insists. “There’s a large repertoire for solo cello,” she says. “There are lots of fantastic pieces from Bach’s solo suite, but also contemporary solo music, and I draw on that.”

While certainly not classical, and probably not folk, Laura admits it is hard to pin down exactly what it is she does.

“It’s difficult to describe as there are a lot of different influences,” she says. “I am sometimes put in a folk bracket as I sing songs and play an acoustic instrument, but I have more in common with electronica than folk music. There are folk elements but also elements of other kinds of music, and I draw from the avant-garde in terms of the sound I make.

“Some of it is spooky and some has a darkness to it with a melancholic aspect, but the theatricality and physicality of seeing it played live also has an impact.”

Laura has played the cello since the age of seven, going on to study it at York University and London’s Trinity College.

“It was my thing straight away,” she says.

“It’s been my identity in a lot of ways. I love it so much. The range of songs you can get out of a cello is remarkable, but another thing I like about it is the physical movement you make corresponding to the sound that comes out. There’s something about that music that’s like a dance.”

Being one woman with a cello with nothing to hide behind, save her own instrument, she admits it can be a nerve-wracking experience playing live.

But, she insists, it also has its advantages. “I’ve had the experience of being in a group, with the Elysian Quartet for 15 years, and playing solo.

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“When you’re working with a group it’s a glorious democracy. It’s hard work making sure everyone has their voice heard, and quite a challenge, but you do have instant feedback.

“Playing solo is much more exposing and risky but is also exciting.

“It’s almost confrontational as there’s no filter between you and the audience, but you can do so much with one instrument and your voice.

“I am influenced by electronic music, but choose not to use any loops. Doing it this way forces you to make more outlandish decisions.

“If you’re using a lot of technology, you can provide your bass line and beat, and fill in the picture in quite a traditional way.

“But with one instrument and your voice, you have to decide what to include and what to leave out – or imply in different ways. What’s interesting about solo music is that the brain fills in a lot of stuff that is implied.”

Having previously gone down well at Oxford’s Cellar, playing one of promoter Vez Hoper’s Irregular Folk nights alongside fellow cellists Beth Porter and Oxford’s Duotone (aka Barney Morse-Brown), she is looking forward to returning.

“I can’t wait,” she says. “It’s a great chance to play a special venue with personality and character. I make a real virtue of playing small venues. I enjoy having a real connection with the audience and being able to see them – I don’t know if they know that I watch them as much as they watch me!

“My music has a confrontational aspect and I love being able to see the whites of people’s eyes!”

CHECK IT OUT
Laura Moody plays the Norrington Room at Blackwell’s Bookshop, Oxford, on Friday, April 24.
Tickets from wegottickets.com

Cello Fellow: Duotone launches album in Oxford. More here...