Laurie Levine reveals her Living Room

Album release

Laurie is quite experienced in the music industry, having released her debut album, “Unspoken”, independently. She described the process as quite difficult - which is highly understandable - having to market herself, but thanks to our favourite online social tools - MySpace and Facebook - the process was a bit easier.

This time round, Laurie has some firm backing from the Sheer Group's Seed Music, which also has artists such as The Dirty Skirts, Plush and Bed on Bricks under its wings. The process in producing “Living Room” was, therefore, much easier.

Why “Living Room?”

Laurie admits that she finds it hard to name things, but while visiting a friend she was looking through an Annie Leibovitz photo-book titled The Living Room and thought it fitted quite nicely with the space she was in, as the album relates to intimate spaces.

Laurie's songwriting technique is spontaneous. She doesn't find inspiration in anything specific, but rather in everyday living. She's a nu-folk musician who fits into the same genre as Katie Melua and co. It's a Southern US style of music that has a touch of blues and country in the mix, with an edge of modern-day folk.

So what does Laurie think of the SA music industry?

She believes in some ways it is improving - MK has produced some healthy competition - but in other ways it hasn't. Radio still does not support genres besides popular music, compared to the States where they have various stations to support a variety of genres. She also noted that the industry lacks good venues.

Some of Laurie's favourite SA musicians include Dear Reader, Taxi Violence, Jim Neversink, Faryll Purkiss and Hugh Masekela. If she was trapped in a room being tortured by music it would be heavy death metal and the like.

And in her spare time …

She's a serious animal lover who spends her spare time with her dogs if she's not reading. And if she wasn't involved in music, she'd be doing something to do with caring for animals, like running a shelter.

Laurie's plans for the future include learning the guitar as well as travelling overseas to promote the album. To her fans, she'd like to say - keep being inspired by music and keep listening to music that inspires you.