Laura Groves

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Laura Groves specializes in atmospheric art-pop. Although she made an assured and acclaimed full-length debut in 2009 as the folk-rooted Blue Roses, she has recorded since then under her birth name. The EPs Thinking About Thinking (2013), Committed Language (2015), and A Private Road (2020), among scattered tracks and a variety of recordings and performances with peers such as Bullion and Bat for Lashes, preceded Groves’ second album overall, Radio Red (2023), released on Bella Union.
Originally from Shipley, West Yorkshire, and based in South London, Groves released her first single, “I Am Leaving,” on XL Recordings’ Salvia subsidiary in 2007. While it was credited to her birth name, she soon took the stage name Blue Roses, and in 2009 released a self-titled album. A couple years later, she composed and performed music for the 1920 silent film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Groves then shifted toward art-pop as a member of Nautic, a trio with Nathan Jenkins (aka Bullion) and Timmaz Zolleyn (aka Tic, who ran Salvia). She continued to work on solo material, and with support from Jenkins and his Deek Recordings label made Thinking About Thinking and Committed Language, EPs issued respectively in 2013 and 2015. Over the next few years, Groves performed or recorded with the likes of Bat for Lashes, Ben Reed, Sampha, the Magnetic North, and This Heat.
Particularly active in 2020, Groves was featured on albums by Wilma Archer, Westerman, and Darkstar, and was behind a remix for Yutie Lee. She also self-issued a handful of songs, appeared on the compilation Chill Pill II, and near the end of the year made her Bella Union label debut with A Private Road, her third EP. The following year, Groves co-wrote and was featured on “Blue Soul,” a song by Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde’s Lost Horizons. Her own “Heaven Again” was included on Scenic Route: The Road Less Travelled, Vol. 1, a compilation released in 2022, the same year she was featured on Jamie Leeming’s “Long Term Memory.” Radio Red, a simultaneously aching and comforting album titled after transmitter tower lights viewable from the home studio where Groves recorded it, followed in August 2023. ~ Andy Kellman