034 ARTS – CANTERBURY FESTIVAL EXCLUSIVE
dream alive
KEEPING THE
From gracing one of the main stages of the Glastonbury Festival, through to winning an Ivor Novello award, Laura Mvula has true musical pedigree, as The Canterbury INDEX discovers speaking to her ahead of her Canterbury Festival appearance this month, plus we catch up with Festival director Rosie Turner
Neill Barston
I haven’t played Canterbury before as a solo artist, but I was glad to see the archbishop is now following me on social media,” says Laura Mvula,
as she refl ects on her highly eventful career to date. Whether the Most Reverend Justin Welby will be among the audience for her headlining Canterbury Festival slot on 23rd October is hard to say, yet she has amassed plenty of fans around the world for her gospel-infused R and B. Over the past fi ve years Laura has achieved critical acclaim culminating in a prized Ivor Novello songwriting award for the second of her two albums. Having burst on to the music scene in 2013 after securing a major record deal with Sony, her debut album, Sing to the Moon, swiftly made the top 10 charts. The singer’s powerful vocals, which have been likened to Nina Simone, have seen her lauded by major international artists, including the late Prince.
Though her rise to prominence was far from overnight, she says hailing from a creative family, including a brother and sister who are also professional musicians working for chart artists, was a key factor. “We were raised musically very openly, where Michael Jackson was as important to us as Handel’s Messiah,” she recalls of her formative years, which included studying musical composition at university in Birmingham.
WE WERE RAISED MUSICALLY VERY OPENLY, WHERE
MICHAEL JACKSON WAS AS IMPORTANT TO US AS HANDEL’S MESSIAH
But despite an early burst of success, by her own admission the past few years have proved deeply challenging, suffering anxiety attacks and the pressures of the music industry contributing to the breakdown of her marriage. Consequently, she admits, her second album was emotionally raw. But as Laura reveals, it has been a question of having little choice but using sheer willpower and support of family and friends to fi nd a way forward. “The past two-and-a-half years have been
a defi nite transitional stage in my life, but I’m about to get back out there with writing
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