Florence Shaw | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1988or1989(age 36–37) [1] |
| Education | Royal College of Art (MA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Spoken word |
| Years active | 2018–present |
| Member of | Dry Cleaning |
Florence Cleopatra Shaw is an English vocalist, lyricist, visual artist, and former arts lecturer. She is primarily known as the vocalist and lyricist for the post-punk band Dry Cleaning, with whom she has released two albums, New Long Leg (2021) and Stumpwork (2022).
Born to artist parents, [2] Florence Cleopatra Shaw [3] [4] first pursued a degree in illustration at the Camberwell College of Arts. Shaw would later obtain a Master's degree in visual communication at the Royal College of Art in 2012. [5]
Florence Shaw joined the London band Dry Cleaning in early 2018 as their vocalist and lyricist, [6] after the other members of the band had invited her to sit in on a rehearsal session where she was recorded speaking alongside the instrumentals. [7] In May 2018, Shaw performed live for the first time. [8] Shaw's spoken word approach has been often described as conversational [6] [9] and deadpan. [10] [11] During an interview for The Quietus in 2019, responding to a question of whether the tone of her vocals is intended to evoke mystery, Shaw said:
It wasn't really a conscious decision, but looking back that's the reason why I made it, for want of a better word, deadpan ... I think it's interesting to not know things. I think lots of things are really cut and dried and packaged in a way where there's no discussion to be had about what the songs are about, who's singing, it's just totally a consumable product in a short space of time. It's nice to make things a bit unknowable. [12]
Lyrically, she has often relied on a stream-of-consciousness approach [9] that mixes humour, surrealism, and the mundane. [6] By the band's second album Stumpwork (2022), Shaw began to source less of her lyrics from her own past writings and various assortments of found text [13] to improvise more in the studio. [14]
Occasionally, Shaw has featured on songs by other artists. In 2023, she appeared on the Sleaford Mods song "Force 10 from Navarone" from their album UK Grim . During an interview with the NME , Sleaford Mods' Jason Williamson said "I got to know her a little bit and I'm in total awe of how she creates this non-landscape; this empty portrait of whatever she's talking about. You don't even have to know what she's going on about, which is brilliant and I identify with." [15]
Until 2023, Shaw was a visiting lecturer, teaching illustration at universities such as the University of Northampton and Norwich University of the Arts. [2] In 2021, shortly before the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Shaw quit her lecturing job to focus on her role with Dry Cleaning, who had just signed to 4AD to release their debut album. [7] One of Shaw's earliest works in art exhibitions includes a contribution for Happy Birthday Edward Lear (2012) at the Poetry Café in London. [5]
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
