Laura Marling Switches to Louder Sound: Folk Singer Jokingly Hopes Fans Call Her 'Judas'

Laura Marling is at the end of her transformation from wunderkind to veteran. The English folk singer recorded her successful 2008 debut Alas, I Cannot Swim at 15 and is now set to release her fifth album Short Movie.

The 24-year-old has always had an edge to her style, but she has never wandered far from her brand of acoustic folk. Speaking with Rolling Stone recently, Marling revealed that Short Movie will be a departure from her previous material.

She said Hurricane Sandy was a big influence on her new sound.

"It was like a zombie apocalypse," she said, adding that she saw one panicked woman literally kicked to the ground on the street. "When all the lights go out, what does anything actually mean? Nothing. I've had that kind of thought in my head for the past two years."

Marling moved from London to Los Angeles two years ago, and tried to distance herself from earlier work.

"I was trying not to identify as a musician," she said.

But everything changed when her father gifted her a cherry-red electric Gibson 335, which fans will hear on Short Movie when it drops this March.

"That guitar completely changed my perspective on music," she said.

Asked by RS what she might do if fans are upset over the genre switch yell, "Judas!" at her forthcoming concerts, Marling smiled.

"I sincerely hope someone does at some point," she said.

Marling has four shows on the docket before the new album drops. Check them out below:

01/28 - Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club
01/31 - London, UK @ The Silver Bullet
02/04 - Edinburgh, UK @ The Caves
02/07 - Bristol, UK @ Thekla

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Folk Music