Penfriend, aka music producer, songwriter and multi-disciplinary artist Laura Kidd, has revealed the brand-new video for the latest single ‘Exotic Monsters’, which premiered with Clash Magazine. You can watch the video here.
"We're more connected than ever, yet we're becoming more polarized,” Laura explains. “The pandemic promised a coming together of communities yet, as the third UK lockdown grinds grimly on, the people in my area of Bristol have battened down the proverbial hatches.
“It's easy to feel like we live on a different planet from our fellow humans sometimes, so with this video I wanted to bring the artwork for the single to life, to suggest that perhaps the monsters we perceive to be all around us are more similar to us than different. I spent 20 hours constructing 3D paper masks, set up a green screen in my living room and used up two of my daily exercise sessions to create this oddball trip into my imagination. Enjoy!"
Sparked by a throwaway phrase from Margaret Atwood's ‘The Handmaid's Tale’, ‘Exotic Monsters’ is a laundry list of asynchronous human needs and desires; a reflection of our increasingly confused, disconnected and polarised lives. A timely reminder of the practice of cultivating gratitude through meditation, the song is an attempt to examine our internalised inconsistencies; the ‘facts’ we pile up on our own backs throughout lives bombarded by airbrushed images and ads for the unattainable baubles we're informed are essential for true happiness.
Shackled to our phones by big tech companies monetising and eroding our attention spans, feeling increasingly as though we live on a different planet to those we disagree with, chasing likes on social media while forgetting to look after our brains and our hearts...where will this all end? Some days it's hard to believe late MP Jo Cox's poignant words, that "we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us".
Addressing this sense of disconnection and depersonalisation, ‘Exotic Monsters’ evokes the menace of ‘Enjoy The Silence’ era Depeche Mode with a nod to the 80’s Madonna hero worship of Sky Ferreira's ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’ and the hypnotic synth pop of Sylvan Esso.
To quote Björk, "I'm no fucking Buddhist, but this is enlightenment."
Exotic Monsters follows the release of her 2020 singles, the sincere and hopeful ‘The Only Way Out Is Through’ and ‘Everything Looks Normal In The Sunshine’, an explosive sugary pop banger that recalls the heady strut of Dream Wife and Dinosaur Pile Up whilst nodding quietly to the Blue Album-era of Weezer.
Laura is also behind the Attention Engineer podcast, which aims to address how in a noisy online world, the gift of someone’s attention is priceless. In each episode she has deep conversations with artists she admires about how they balance online and offline life, tour and family, creative introspection and happiness.
It has had acclaim from the Guardian stating that Kidd, “talks with insight and warmth to (mostly) other musicians.” Guests so far have included Tanya Donelly (Belly), Frank Turner, Rebecca Lucy Taylor (Self Esteem), Corin Tucker (Sleater Kinney), J Wilgoose Esq (Public Service Broadcasting) and Lemn Sissay MBE, Liz Stokes (The Beths) and many more and shot to #10 in the Apple Podcasts top music shows in the first three days.
BRAND NEW VIDEO ‘EXOTIC MONSTERS’ - WATCH HERE