Laura Wood's journey to where she is today has had more than a few twists and turns. She was once a world-class athlete in karate, but an unfortunate non-sports injury cut that career short. An Englishwoman and former London resident, she eventually arrived at her current circumstance of living and working in Holland. Once karate had been left behind and her musical career had begun, there were still many different band incarnations and groupings left to be sorted through.

Not all of those changes were easy to deal with, but they led her to where she is today, on the verge of releasing her first full-length album. The road that brought her to this point may have been winding, but what's very clear at this point is that she is a talented, powerful singer-songwriter fully prepared to be heard by a wider audience. We're excited to have the chance to get to know her a little better.

TCZ: Your journey to a career as a musician followed some pretty unique paths, from World Championship Karate titlist to motorbike dispatch driver. Can you share with us that journey?

Laura: LOL, yeah, guess that does seem like an odd place to come from. In my mid 20’s I decided to take up a martial art, I always seemed to be a late starter LOL. Shotokan karate was the style I studied and it seemed to suit me! I had an amazing sensi, but he was also a hard hard man LOL. I was the only woman fighter he trained and boy did he train me.

I remember once my lip was bust open in training and I went to stop, boy, did I get yelled at, so I carried on until the end, bleeding and all. But what he did do was make me one hell of a tough fighter . . . the natural progression was to compete.

I was selected to represent Great Britain on 2 occasions, once in Las Vegas and once in Tokyo! In-fact it was in Vegas that I got my gold medal, which was pretty cool. In Tokyo I got through to the semi’s, which strangely enough I was even more proud of. I guess because it was in the Buddakan, which is basically the home of martial arts through-out the world, and only a hand full of karateka have ever had the opportunity to compete there!! It was a big old event with some 30 countries attending! So although I didn’t actually get a medal in Japan, I felt it was my biggest achievement in karate.

For work, I was a mini cab driver, I had had my own business for several years and following the ending of a relationship, I ended up with no business! I needed to earn money but had no idea what I wanted to do, so I got involved in the world of mini-cabs. Probably not the job for everyone lol, but it suited me. Nights were the best to work, and my karate kept me safe, so that's what I did! There did come a point though where I had had enough of ‘ferrying’ people around – hence my transition to motor bike dispatch rider, no passengers to worry about! I worked in London and boy was it a dirty job, mind you wearing all that leather was fun ;o) It was good money, but it wasn’t long before I felt like it was more like ‘a price on my head’ . . . motor bike dispatch riders are never expected to have a long career!

It’s a pretty dangerous job and needless to say one day I just didn’t get home, and I will say I am incredibly lucky to still be here today!

Not long after the accident, my house was broken into, as I walked in my front door the robbers went out the back door – I ran to try and catch them, but they had gone but that is when I first spoke to my opposite neighbour, who happened to be a drummer! Up until this point I was a ‘closet’ musician, also referred to as a 'bedroom' musician LOL.

I was fascinated and Fran invited me along to watch her band rehearse. Great fun! I started joining Fran while she’d practise in the studio. She would put MLE cd’s on and play along, good for arm and leg flapping lol. I’d quietly sit there and be singing along, eventually she managed to convince me to try singing using a mic, although it did take some doing!

After a few weeks of this she asked me to form a band with her my initial reaction was, "don't take the piss" lol, but once I realised she wasn’t, so born my journey into music. The passion I had had for my karate had left a huge hole in my life, and sadly, due to the damage to my knee it was a path I could no longer walk so music was something I could put myself into, mind, body and soul!

TCZ: When you first began performing, do you remember that first night when you took the stage and how you felt?

Laura: Oh God yeah! I don't think I could ever forget that first time I had to stand on stage. It was made worse by the fact that our guitarist had "flipped out" and left me as the only guitar play. Our set was made up with a mix of my own songs and quite a few MLE songs, as it goes lol.

Originally I only played guitar on a handful of the songs, but after losing our guitarist [3 weeks before the gig] I sat down and had to learn to play them ALL!! So that didn’t particularly help my nerves LOL It was a huge bar that a friend of mine ran we set up and before I knew it we were surrounded! I will never forget standing there with the live mic in front of me and knowing I had to speak! I honestly felt that if I opened my mouth I was going to throw up on the audience! Thankfully I didn't . . . well, not until our break at which point I made a bee line for the toilets!

It was an amazing evening and not one person from the audience knew it was our first outing!

TCZ: What was the first concert you ever attended and did it influence you at all?

Laura: Ok, this sounds awful, but I honestly can’t remember what the first concert I ever went to was! LOL suffice to say, I had an interesting youth! I do remember going to see Thin Lizzy [oh I’m giving my age away here lol] I was so excited, they rocked!

TCZ: Tell us about your gear and any professional training you have had.

Laura: Well for me it’s pretty simple, I play acoustic guitar, so I don’t have the banks and banks of effects. Guitar wise, I play a Yamaha APX-9C, a brilliant little guitar for live work, it’s got a huge sound for a small guitar! It has two separate pick ups, the usual bridge pick up and a goose neck mic in the body of the guitar, duel controls mean you can mix and shape these two sound sources in anyway you want! It is a pleasure to play, and boy does it pack a punch!

As far as professional training goes, I have had varying lessons on the guitar. At one point I had classical lessons butbasically, apart from odd periods of lessons, I am pretty much a self taught player. To this day, the best way to get me to play something is to show me how to do it. I’ll sit down and learn it! I think my best learning ability is "stubbornness" and the refusal to be beaten!

TCZ: Can you share with us the biggest obstacle you faced while recording your current EP, Laura Wood & Luggage?

Laura: Well, because this EP is made up from various recordings, done over a period of time there weren’t any major problems. Although during a specific recording session things were maybe not so easy. I remember the last time Hobbit recorded with us, and I can still see him sitting there and me knowing he would be leaving [although nothing had been said at that point], I could just read him! So that was hard, we had had the same line up for a good few years and when you start losing members it hurts.

TCZ: The tracks Dark, Angel and My Obsession all seem to be favored by the fans. What do you believe is the common thread in these three tracks that make them such fan favorites?

Laura: Lost Love, Forbidden Love, but hey, I'm guessing here lol. I really only know what I wrote those particular songs about. I do know though, that music is [for me] an incredible emotive medium. It's a way to reach out and touch people. I write songs that mean something to me – I'm not someone who puts a bunch of words together I think it's cool, or because that's what I should be singing about. I write it because I mean it, I write from my heart, from my soul, from my life. Even those angry songs. I don't think I've ever written a song that I couldn't tell you why I wrote it. So I'll say "passion" is the common thread.

TCZ: Can you tell us the story behind the track, "Children of The Storm" ?

Laura: I sure can! It’s an old song, one I wrote straight after seeing TV footage of horrific scenes from Rwanda. I had been watching the news I was incensed by what I had seen – children, dead children and they die because of well, why do they die? They are the innocent victims of war . . . man’s wars! I’m not a political person, I personally feel that all politicians do is lie, they lie to each other and they lie to the world . . . so, my silent protest is I will have nothing to do with it! I have my own views and I keep them to myself.

But when it comes to the lives of the innocent being torn apart I have to say something! I sat down, my anger in my head, turned on a recorder and just played. When I had finished I listened back to what I had sang and wrote it down and "Children of The Storm" was born. It’s probably the only time I have written a song in that particular way. I didn’t write it, it wrote it self. I was just the mouth it came from. And as long as the song is, it's exactly how long it took to be born – and that’s the god’s honest truth. It was what was in my heart.

TCZ: What is your most difficult song to perform live and why?

Laura: Touch The Sky! It’s not that it's a complex song to perform, it’s because of the journey this song has made. It's a very personal song for me, I actually wrote it about my mother [which isn’t something I tell everyone lol] and the day she left to join my father living abroad.

I was 16 and a typical difficult teenager I guess, I loved her and hated her all at the same time! Writing this song mended some bridges – I finally forgave her I guess. For other people this is a song about losing someone. That's why it is hard to perform even today. Well, very sadly a few years back one of my fans died from breast cancer. Her husband asked me to play this song at the ‘wake’, it was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. He sat in front of me the whole time – I couldn’t even look at him, because I wouldn’t have been able to carry on. I played it acoustically and I played it for Pat, it had been her favorite song! It was an emotional song for me before that, but after that time it became a very special song and one that, to this day, if I think about it too hard, I just can't do it!

TCZ: Tell us about your band mate Jeff Bax and what he brings to the band.

Laura: I’m glad you asked about Jeff, he’s a star and has become a huge part of my music. I actually found him on the internet! His main instrument is bass, and what a player! I went to see him play live, best way to see what you are letting yourself in for lol, I was blown away! He is truly a talented man and played that bass as if it was a part of him! But it’s more than just his musical abilities, which are vast. He plays from his soul and he has a good soul, music is his passion and we just clicked. I write a song, we get together and he adds those extras that make it a great tune. I am not a technically minded musician, and he knows all the little ‘tricks’ that turn a good song into a great arranged song.

Working with Jeff is just so easy. So many musicians develope egos that are usually way bigger than their actual talent. I don’t suppose I’ll get many friends for saying that LOL, but I am being honest! And sure, you need a certain amount of ego to get up on stage! But there comes a point when it’s just not funny anymore. I won’t name names, but recently I was working with a drummer, who is an incredible player, and a very talented musician. His ego meant he decided to re-arrange all the songs, play all the parts, and in-fact make my songs into something I am not!

Needless to say, he didn’t last! We now have a great guitarist on board, Brian, who again is someone who plays with passion, plays from his heart. I guess when working with me, it’s a case of ‘please leave your ego at the door or don’t bother coming in, it’s as simple as that! And as for Jeff, well, he’s just the best, he truly is my musical partner and will be for a long long time I hope!

TCZ: Currently you’re working on your first full length, what can you tell us about the new cd?

Laura: Well, it’s been a ‘work in progress’ for a little over a year now. But finally we got the 10 tracks we wanted. Strangely enough it wasn’t until Jeff and I were sitting listening to the final 10 ‘song’ demo versions that it hit me! Jef was reading the lyrics as he was listening, I looked at him and realised he was reading my life! Ten songs that tell who I am, where I have been, how I feel, how I love! It was actually an amazing moment for me, this is the first time I have written just with an album in mind! I didn’t really have a starting point as such, and it wasn’t my intention to put so much of ‘me’ out there, but it’s where it went by it’s self, so to speak lol. And in light of that, following a recent trip to see very special friends in Cyprus, the album will be called "Life Attribute", think about it ;o) Each of the tracks are very different, variety is the spice of life and all that! Seriously though, we treat each song as an ‘individual’ song – it’s true to say everything is rock based, but as to exactly where we’d slot in – that’s anybody's guess! We recently had a meeting with our engineer/producer and even he ‘with all his experience’ couldn’t pigeon hole us – and that’s just the way I like it! It’s going to be rock based, but, it’s about the lyrics, the melody, the feeling.

TCZ: When do you expect to release the new CD?

Laura: We are aiming at the first week in December! And it looks like it’s going to happen too!! So I’m pretty excited about it! I want to hear it as much as anyone else does LOL.

TCZ: Besides your new CD, what can fans expect from Laura Wood in 2007? Any plans to tour?

Laura: Yeah Baby!! LOL There are a lot of plans for the CD. It’s going to be heading out all over the place and the main aim I have is to take it out ‘live," and if we can put a tour together, off we’d go! Being based in Holland means access to most of Europe is pretty easy, no need for boats or planes lol.

I would love to get out to the States for a tour and will be looking into possibilities! I’m hoping it’s going to be a busy year for us! After-all, for me, playing live is what it’s all about, that interaction with an audience.It’s not the same when someone on the other side of the world is listening to your music, you can’t see their faces! It’s brilliant to know that people are out there listening to you. But I love that personal feel and that you can only get by being up on that stage.

TCZ: Anything we haven't touched on that you would like to share?

Laura: I could share my MLE story. It goes back many years, so if I told you I have sang with Melissa you’d be impressed huh . . . don’t be! It was in the days when I was a ‘bedroom’ musician and performing in front of my cat would have been too much for me!

I was at a party in Long Beach, Ca at a friend’s house, anyway Melissa appeared carrying her guitar case. We had already met a couple of times, but very informally. Well, she finally agreed to play and sat down and started playing "Watching You". I sat there with my mouth open, I was blown away by what I was hearing! After she finished, everyone decided it would be great if the English one sang with Melissa of course I was the only one who didn’t think this was such a great idea!

Well, peer pressure won and I basically was trapped in a corner with no way out – I had to do it! Melissa asked me what I wanted to sing "was she nuts, I didn’t want to sing anything after just hearing her!" LOL. For some reason, all I could think of was the Beetles and the song "Norwegian Wood" which I proceeded to mumble a few verses to LOL! So there ya go, I have sang with MLE – but that’s the real truth behind that story! It was one of the most embarrassing moment of my life LOL.

We did talk after and that’s when I found out she was in the process of recording her first album, I wasn’t surprised! So in that sense I was possibly one of the first Europeans to get the treat of hearing her! I remember telling her I’d see her in the UK some day and around 18 months later there she was, at the Kentish Town & Country Club! I wonder if she’d remember this.

Interview by GWGS © The Cover Zone October 2006