Laura Mvula has recalled the “cold and cruel” way her record label dropped her via email.
The Green Garden singer took to Twitter to confirm she had been let go by Sony in January (17), following poor sales of her second album The Dreaming Room last year. In a new interview with the BBC, Laura has revealed the surprising way she found out the news.
"I didn't see anyone, I didn't hear anybody's voice. I just read words. It felt so cold and cruel," she sighed, noting the message was only around seven lines long.
"Not even the fact that I was dropped, the way that the whole thing happened. To be treated like that doesn't feel quite just."
Laura signed to the company with a five-album deal and her 2013 debut record, Sing to the Moon, received critical acclaim and scooped her two MOBO Awards along with a BRIT nomination. Little did the star know how the tables would turn when her next set of material didn’t perform well, and she admits she was “naive” in thinking the label would support her until the end.
"It's about money, it's about sales,” she explained. “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.”
Luckily she’s learnt from the experience and is now looking to the future, including her upcoming work with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she’ll write the music for a new stage production of Antony and Cleopatra.
The 30-year-old also keeps advice from late musician Prince close to heart.
"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,” she recalled of a conversation they had before his death in April (16). "But I think actually, now I reflect, I understand what he was saying.
"I don't have any regrets... I made two great records with (Sony)."
