Her debut Sing to the Moon was released in 2013 and Mvula earned Brit, Mercury and Ivor Novello nominations, as well as Mobo and Urban Music awards.<\/p>\n But her next album, The Dreaming Room, sold less well and failed to break into the top 10 when it was released in June 2016.<\/p>\n Seven months later, Laura revealed on Twitter that Sony had dropped her. But she did not say how.<\/p>\n “I was definitely naive in the beginning,” she said. “When I was signed, I thought when someone says, we love you and we’re with you until the end, that’s what they mean.”<\/p>\n But, she laughed ruefully: “It doesn’t work like that, it’s business.<\/p>\n “It’s about money, it’s about sales. And that has certain implications if you are not popular or there aren’t enough elements in what you do that draws in the masses.<\/p>\n “The album culture is, ‘Momentum, please… when’s the next record coming?'”<\/p>\n She recalled receiving the e-mail, which thanked her for her efforts and wished her the best for the future.<\/p>\n “First I was confused, I didn’t understand. I was always told I was such a valued part of what Sony had become today – I was an artist who was taking risks and doing things that are fresh and genuinely new – I believed them.<\/p>\n “I guess in my head I always thought there would be a conversation, a renegotiation, but never a kinda, ‘it’s over’.<\/p>\n “It’s been a huge wake up call,” she added.<\/p>\n Mvula remembered a conversation she had with her friend, the singer-songwriter Prince, before he died in April 2016.<\/p>\n “He urged me, Mvula you have the music. Find the means to own your own thing and do it yourself. And at the time I remember hearing those words and thinking, yeah but you’re Prince, it’s all right for you.<\/p>\n “But I think actually, now I reflect, I understand what he was saying.<\/p>\n “I don’t have any regrets, because I think we made,” she corrected herself and laughed again, “I made two great records with them.”<\/p>\n But at a time when Mvula said she felt “rejected by the mainstream” she was asked to write the music for a new production of Antony and Cleopatra staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company.<\/p>\n It is the first time she has composed for a professional theatre production. “This is a huge moment for me creatively,” she said.<\/p>\n But while Shakespeare and soul music may not seem obvious partners, the collaboration should not come as a surprise. Mvula studied composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire for four years.<\/p>\n And she revealed that writing music for the tragic love story is a dream come true.<\/p>\n “This is what I’ve wanted to do since I was 12 or 13, write music for theatre and film. And here’s my first gig… and it’s not a bad first gig.”<\/p>\n Mvula said she “knew immediately” how she wanted her music for the play to sound.<\/p>\n “I had this palette forming that was somewhere between Prince’s Purple Rain and Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain.<\/p>\n “It’s been brilliant for opening my mind again and my heart to a new dimension.”<\/p>\n She added audiences should expect plenty of “groove and funk”.<\/p>\n She said she has “no idea” what she will do next, but insisted there will be another album.<\/p>\n “It’s now time for a new season for me, as an independent artist, which is really more true to who I am and what I do.<\/p>\n “Let what I do be in better hands,” she declared. “Let me better understood and taken care of.”<\/p>\n –<\/i><\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Singer Laura Mvula has revealed she found out she was dropped by her record label Sony via e-mail. In January, her former manager met the label and was told face-to-face that Mvula’s contract would not be renewed. But the Mercury-nominated musician told the BBC that she only found out about it from a forwarded email, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[137],"tags":[3,5320,5321],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Laura](\"http:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/63DB\/production\/_95236552_mvulabbcnew.jpg\")
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