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photo credit: Saffi

If you can appreciate a cinematic effort of vampire-esque glam punk, then the latest Laurel Smith visualizer will be right up your alley. A light-into-dark noir effort that spins the energy of the single into focus, it was concocted by Laurel herself and director Matilda Harding Kemp. Curious as always to see what this mysterious artist is up to, we asked her direct to pull back the veil and reveal her inner wolf by diving into a few key aspects of the release: 

Dad rock & nu metal

Laurel Smith: I grew up on rock/indie music (AC/DC, Pink Floyd, U2, The Police) thanks to my dad, so making wolf felt like a nod to my roots. I’ve recently been feeling my production style developing, circling back around to the first sounds that really hit me somewhere internally as a child. I’d also been listening to a lot of BMTH and Linkin Park on the bus to my sessions so that definitely set my tone for the day.

The wolf in the woods

Basically, all my lyrics are me seeing images/moments in my head and writing down what I’m seeing. In the wolf sessions I kept imagining a girl running through the woods lit up by the moon, it was beautiful and should have been peaceful but there was an unsettling undertone. That feeling manifested itself into a wolf in the woods with her. I think this is how I figure out the meaning in my songs and how they relate to my life, the images stir feelings which rise to the surface as I begin to connect the imagery with the real world.

The love child of Jungle and Rock

The original project I brought to my co-producer (Jules Konieczny) had lots of layered 00s pop/rock guitar melodies so I thought that the project might end up with some more rock inspired drums, but that didn’t really feel like it was working for the song. Then I found a jungle style breakbeat which just immediately landed it in the right place sonically for me. So really, wolf is the love child of Jungle and Rock.

Animalistic energy & bone chilling winds

With the song being titled “wolf”, the nature of my performance in the music video was rooted in an animalistic energy. I worked with a frequent collaborator + friend, Matilda Harding-Kemp who said; “wolf is about reclaiming power, tapping into that deep, repressed anger and letting it rise, awakening the inner wild” I won’t say it wasn’t a challenge to completely let go on set (made harder by the bone chilling winds rushing under the Queen Elizabeth bridge at Dartford Crossing) but with Matilda’s guidance I found a way to basically just not give a shit, scream + bare my teeth to camera and let loose.

Dreamweaving

Dreams are always a big source of inspiration for me, it’s the only moment you get to peek through the window of your subconscious. The wolf video felt like a pop rock Alice in Wonderland moment. Matilda writes: “We envisioned “wolf” to feel like a fever dream. Laurel awakens in a surreal landscape, stumbles upon a band and as the video unfolds, we begin to question if they were ever really there” Alice is sent there to discover something about herself, which feels similar to the video where it begins in a dazed confusion and ends in a learned sense of empowerment.