Against Me’s Laura Jane Grace

Episode notes

(Photo: Total Treble Music BMI / Rough Trade Publishing )

Musician Laura Jane Grace didn’t exactly plan to record an album while in quarantine. She had planned to tour with and eventually record an album with her band, the punk outfit Against Me!

Three days into a three week stint on the road, the band’s tour was canceled and everyone was sent home. With several dozen songs already written and a lot more time on her hands, Laura recorded Stay Alive, a solo acoustic album with a stripped down, folkier feel than your typical punk fare.

A lot of the album’s power comes from the feeling that it’s struck just the right emotional chord for that time. There’s usually just an acoustic guitar, sometimes a drum machine, and Laura’s voice: powerful, passionate and vulnerable.

Laura’s latest solo efforts dropped last month, that album is called Hole in my Head.

Her solo music isn’t exactly what you’d expect to hear from the lead singer of Against Me! – maybe more like the Mountain Goats or Neutral Milk Hotel. It’s music from a singer who is confident enough to let her writing speak for itself.

When Laura joined us a few years ago she talked with correspondent Jordan Morris about her early days playing shows in a laundromat, her love of Guns N’ Roses, and what it’s like to record an album while in quarantine. 

Hole in my Head by Laura Jane Grace is out now and available on her Bandcamp. Jordan Morris co-hosts a new podcast with Emily Fleming on Maximum Fun called Free with Ads. 

A version of this interview originally aired in November of 2020.