“I was a teenager, so it was just fun. Pretty soon I was getting millions of views – it was crazy”: Laura Cox was a teen guitar sensation. Now she’s throwing the blues-rock rulebook out the window – and finding herself in the process

Laura Cox admits she didn’t have much of a goal in mind when she started posting her classic rock covers on this new thing called YouTube back in 2006.

“I was a teenager, so the whole thing was just fun,” she says. “Pretty soon I was getting millions of views – it was crazy. I think what people liked was that I didn’t take things so seriously. I was just enjoying myself and sharing music I loved.”

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For her new album, Trouble Coming, Cox sidelined her live band in the studio and recorded with the No Money Kids, a duo she describes as “the French Black Keys.” The result is an album that sounds and feels like something of a breakthrough.

Cox tosses out the rulebook on the bluesy, tension-filled mood piece title track, eschewing standard verse-chorus-bridge songcraft, on which she bags lead solos in favor of swampy, distorted vamping and atmospheric slide work.

“I felt confident in the song and realized that it didn’t need a solo,” she says. “I still love playing guitar more than anything, but it was important for me to grow as a songwriter and all-around artist, and that meant I had to do things differently.”

She laughs. “For the first time, I’m actually enjoying listening to myself. I play the record in my car, my bedroom, even in the kitchen. It’s like I’m listening to somebody else’s record. That’s the biggest success I could ask for. I’m really happy about this music.”

• Trouble Coming is out now via earMUSIC.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.