Born to Irish parents and raised in the suburbs of Greater London’s Heathrow belt, Laura-Mary Carter always felt like she came from somewhere slightly else. Straddling cultures and identities, growing up in the outer edges of the city, she carried a quiet sense of being an outsider-of loving deeply, but never quite fitting in. That feeling of dislocation, of being slightly out of orbit, has shaped both her life and her music ever since.
Though Bye Bye Jackie is, at its core, a record about love-its beauty, its fragility, its failures-it’s also about trying to love in a world that often feels too fast, too rigid, too distracted for someone who’s always felt a little different. That tension runs through every note: the ache of connection, the quiet question of belonging.
Music was her way through. From an early age, Laura-Mary knew she wanted to be a musician, carving her own path. Best known as one half of the cult rock duo Blood Red Shoes, she’s spent the past two decades touring the globe with a guitar in hand, pushing boundaries in a scene where women with electric guitars were still a rarity.
Bye Bye Jackie, her debut solo album, peels back the noise. It’s more intimate. More reflective. Written across hotel rooms, green rooms, and quiet moments at home, the songs were born on a Spanish nylon-string guitar and shaped during a two-week session in Hackney, London, where Laura-Mary teamed up with Oscar Robertson (sholto) and David Bardon (sunglasses for jaws) on production-both known for their adventurous and experimental approaches to sound. IDLES’ Lee Kiernan features on “June Gloom,” adding a stormy edge to one of the record’s standout tracks The sound draws from a wide net of influences-channeling the hazy melancholia of The Velvet Underground, the dreamy sincerity of The Ronettes, and the lo-fi emotional punch of Beck at his most stripped back. It’s music that feels timeless and out of time, steeped in nostalgia but pulsing with emotional immediacy.
Laura’s lifelong curiosity spills into the music, too. At 20, she worked with secret files at the Ministry of Defence-an early brush with the unexplained that only deepened her fascination with UFOs, ancient sites, and the mysteries that sit just beneath the surface of things. A childhood trip to Newgrange in Meath lit the spark; years of travel kept it burning. She’s the kind of person who might sit in on a preacher’s sermon-not out of belief, but just to see what people are reaching for.
Bye Bye Jackie is the sound of someone letting go-of relationships, expectations, versions of the self that no longer fit. It’s a love letter, a breakup note, and a quiet manifesto for anyone who’s lived a life slightly off the map.
Roswell is calling. And Laura-Mary is listening.