Penny Lane born and Penarth bred Pete Lawrie blames his parents for his idiosyncratic tastes in music and for the passion in his songwriting. His mother plays the oboe in an opera, his father makes woodwind instruments, and his grandfather played on the original recording of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ by The Beatles. Raised listening to the sounds of Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, Elton John and The Beatles, Pete’s recalls that childhood summer family drives across the South of France were deeply rewarding musical journeys.
This EP is a rich series of recordings that introduces Pete’s modern southern soul, and draws upon bittersweet blues, gospel, country, all capped by his rough-hewn vocal. Unfashionably eclectic but warm and welcoming, Pete (and his band that he’s been friends with since school) wrote his songs with no pre-conceptions as to how they were going to eventually sound. Serendipity has been kind in these earliest of phases.
Live, Pete is already commanding the stage to broad audiences. He recently opened a show at London’s Royal Albert Hall after only a handful of gigs under his belt. It was a confident, mature performance, and was quickly followed by a lazy Sunday afternoon slot at Notting Hill’s club-du-jour, Communion.
Pete Lawrie is also somewhat prolific beyond his own recordings. A quick YouTube search throws up road-trip high jinx, hip-hop covers with Lauren Pritchard (under the River Kids moniker), whilst his MySpace hosts a series of mix-tape compilations of home recordings that should prove prized and telling as his career unfurls.
All That We Keep’s careworn beauty is a fine example of how special this unassuming character is set to be. Backed by two of his own remixes under different aliases, a Jay-Z cover (‘Song Cry’) with American songstress Lauren Prichard, and a new track written with Guillemots vocalist Fyfe Dangerfield, it’s a fascinating introduction to this intense but welcoming young Welshman.
All That We Keep will be released in the UK on 16th August
EP Tracklisting:
1. All That We Keep
2. All That We Keep feat. Shad (River Kids Remix)
3. All That We Keep (Calida Remix)
4. The Penny Drop feat. Fyfe Dangerfield
5. Song Cry feat. Lauren Pritchard (Jay-Z cover)
remaining Pete Lawrie UK Tour Dates:
1st August – The Big Weekend, Cardiff
7th August – Belladrum Festival, Inverness
20th August – Carnivale, London
29th August – Faenol Festival, Bangor
