Laura Groves is an artist and producer born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and based in South London.

As a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter, she explores themes of inner worlds, healing, connection, and imagined environments and real-life surroundings, though mixing traditional songwriting with experimental synthesised sounds, textural electronic layering, and a passion for home recording.

Following on from her work as Blue Roses on XL Recordings, Laura has released two EPs under her own name on DEEK Records, created with longtime collaborator Bullion - Thinking About Thinking (2013) and Committed Language (2015), and A Private Road - her debut release on Bella Union.

Along with her solo work and three-piece band, Nautic, Laura has built a reputation as a sought after collaborator, in both live and recorded settings, for the likes of Darkstar, Wilma Archer, Sampha, Westerman, Ragz Originale, The Paul Institute, Bat for Lashes, and Hannah Peel.

Much of Radio Red, the first full length album Laura Groves has released under her own name, was written, produced and recorded by Groves in her studio, watched over by two radio transmitting towers. “I became very drawn to them and they became like symbols to me; they were always awake, sending their messages, the red lights always came on at night and watched over whatever was going on in my life.” The album deals with themes of communication - missed and intercepted signals, chance meetings, synchronicities, the channels through which we try to express our true feelings, the outside interference that can get in the way and the joy of letting go and allowing the messages to flow freely.

Working its way through years of Laura’s life as an artist - early experiences of releasing music, live performance, touring, build up and breakdown, the record was a way to tune in to the many, often conflicting signals of fragmented memories. “I’ve always been very sensitive and open to what’s happening around me, and also struggle with the sheer amount of noise sometimes. There was a radio tower on the hill opposite the house where I grew up - I would look out at the network of streetlights winding up towards it and it all had a sort of mystery to me. It was a kind of escapism and a comfort, with an undertone of melancholy that was hard to put into words. I think that glow, that strange feeling, is what I’m always searching for and exploring through making music and artwork.”

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Following up her 2019 Choice Music Prize nominated album Bath Time, spectral Irish artist Maija Sofia is back with her second full length album - True Love, arriving September 2023.

Leaving Dublin in search of space to create, Sofia sought out the South West Coast of Ireland for inspiration. “It was a period of deep transformation in my life. I left the city and moved down to the coast of Cork. For three months I lived in a 300 year old former-yacht club which is now an artists residency” she explains.

Building on themes of reflection and mysticism, True Love shows us how to accept messages from beyond in order to connect within. “It was the first time I was free to make music without any fear of being overheard, the songs became louder, I was experimenting with my voice in different ways, and the lyrics became more direct, more unselfconsciously emotional”.

True Love also features an array of accomplished Irish musicians who helped bring Sophia’s world to life: “To record the songs, I returned for a week to the haunted seaside house with my band - Solamh Kelly on drums and Chris Barry on bass guitar, harp by Méabh McKenna, saxophone and clarinet by Ryan Hargadon, and Ruth Clinton and David Tapley added theremin and pedal steel remotely.”

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