Penfriend

Since 2009, Laura Kidd has worked as a producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, first under the name She Makes War before retiring the project in 2020 and launching Penfriend. Drawing on her earlier experience as a producer, songwriter, and performer with She Makes War, she had already become a familiar figure in the British indie rock scene, sharing stages with Suede, Nadine Shah, and British Sea Power. When U.K. COVID-19 lockdowns began in the early 2020s, she turned to new songwriting that referenced her previous work while confronting the consequences of Brexit, the global health crisis, and contemporary social pressures. During the same period she launched the Attention Engineer podcast, whose conversations with fellow musicians mirrored the creative approach she was taking with Penfriend. After introducing the project with the single “Everything Looks Normal in the Sunshine” and issuing several additional tracks, she delivered the full-length Exotic Monsters in June 2021.