Girl in A Thunderbolt
Norwich, England, United Kingdom | SELF
Music
Press
I thought long and hard about who we should invite from the local scene to be our very first headliners. There seems to be a kind of circle of acts that headline events around the city, and I felt we should maybe break the mould a little. Girl In A Thunderbolt has grown in stature since she morphed into a full band live. Although still using the loop pedal to full effect, the addition of bass and live drums has made a far richer tapestry. With lots of upcoming gigs around the country, it was pretty cool to strike first. From the opening bars of ‘Gun Squad’, I knew we had made the right choice. Maria is musically edgy and has a real presence on stage.
A good mix of songs old and new – including a rocking version of ‘Volatile’ – had the crowd nodding and swaying. For the life of me, I can’t understand how this girl does not have a major recording contract. To be perfectly frank, as glad as I was to have her headline our opening night, I find it frustrating that talent like hers is not picked up. The packed bar seemed to agree and demanded more as the last bars of ’4AM Situation’ faded out. As Maria remarked to me later, they really must try to get used to playing encores as a band. However, we were lucky enough to get a two song solo encore. - Battery In Your Leg
I thought long and hard about who we should invite from the local scene to be our very first headliners. There seems to be a kind of circle of acts that headline events around the city, and I felt we should maybe break the mould a little. Girl In A Thunderbolt has grown in stature since she morphed into a full band live. Although still using the loop pedal to full effect, the addition of bass and live drums has made a far richer tapestry. With lots of upcoming gigs around the country, it was pretty cool to strike first. From the opening bars of ‘Gun Squad’, I knew we had made the right choice. Maria is musically edgy and has a real presence on stage.
A good mix of songs old and new – including a rocking version of ‘Volatile’ – had the crowd nodding and swaying. For the life of me, I can’t understand how this girl does not have a major recording contract. To be perfectly frank, as glad as I was to have her headline our opening night, I find it frustrating that talent like hers is not picked up. The packed bar seemed to agree and demanded more as the last bars of ’4AM Situation’ faded out. As Maria remarked to me later, they really must try to get used to playing encores as a band. However, we were lucky enough to get a two song solo encore. - Battery In Your Leg
It has been quite a while since a song really stopped me in my tracks because it sounded so different, but Norwich-based Maria Uzor (aka Girl in a Thunderbolt) did just that with her EP Songs for Modern Lovers. It’s a pretty dark view of modern love in Uzor’s lyrics, mirrored in the music: ‘Old Bones’ opens with an ominous shuffling beat and plucked guitar, before the languorous-but-menacing vocals come in, building to a crescendo of a single held note against pounding drums – and that’s only the first minute. Extraordinary stuff.
The next two tracks don’t quite have the same impact, but that’s speaking relatively; they’re still great songs in their own right. ‘On the Wall’ has something of a ‘troubadour’ feel, whilst ‘Volatile’ is more bluesy. Whatever the style, though, it’s Uzor’s vocals that shine most brightly; she sings with such a theatrical relish that it’s hard not to get caught up in her sound.
The closing song, ‘Curtains’, shows a different side to Girl in a Thunderbolt; it’s a simpler acoustic number with a gentler vocal style, but the dark overtones are still there. It rounds off the EP in fine style.
All in all, Songs for Modern Lovers is a brilliant set of tracks that thoroughly deserves a place in your music collection. - Culture Revival
Girl In A Thunderbolt is currently playing just about every venue Norwich has (which I can assure you, is not as easy as it sounds). Characterised by soulfoul guitar and the smoothest vocals since Al Green sang Let’s Stay Together, her set demonstrated that she belongs nowhere near a Katie Melua-style (a.k.a estate agent music) songstress. Standing out from any other artist in this come-one-come-all caberet showcase, she used not only basic instruments, but a loop pedal which made her at least three times better than anyone I expected to hear at a tiny cabaret night. In brief, I liked her, and so did everyone else by the end of her (sadly, too short) set. Powerful and professional, Girl In A Thunderbolt takes emotive melodies and layers them over increasingly complicated loops.
There’s nothing quieter than a stunned audience, and every detail, down to her use of dual microphones to harmonise with herself was captivating. It’s a sign, in an industry which often cuts its’ own throat to fuel competitive selection, when another performer dedicates a song to you because of the beauty of your set.
That’s exactly what happened when Joshua Fisher took to the stage. - Never Enough Notes
Discography
Nitroglycerine (single) - May 2011
Seven Sisters (album) July 2010
Songs For Modern Lovers (ep) - October 2009
Photos
Bio
Based in Norwich, in the east of England, Girl in a Thunderbolt began in 2007 as the solo project of myself (Maria Uzor). Armed with my acoustic guitar, loop pedal, and vocals, I played in excess of 250 gigs in Norwich, London, Bristol, Brighton, Ipswich, and a tour of Norway, honing my stagecraft and songwriting between 2007 and 2010.
In 2009 I was successful in securing funding from The Arts Council to record my first album, a 9 song affair recorded in Bergen, Norway, under the guidance of Producer HP Gundersen (Sondre Lecher, Tim Rose, The Real Ones, The Last Hurrah), which I self-released on my own label, Hey Buffalo Records.
2009 was also the year that I played Brighton's Great Escape festival, alongside Bearsuit and Fever Fever.
Earlier this year I decided I wanted to expand my live sound and so brought Dan Gregory in on bass, and Jo Appleton in on drums to give my songs more power. After 6 months of practicing, we played our first gig as a band in June 2011, and have played 16 gigs together so far at the time of writing.
In October 2011, close friend Ed Parker was added to the line-up on guitar and backing vocals.
Highlights of the past few months so far have been playing The Union Chapel in Islington, Supporting Sea Of Bees, and playing to increasingly packed audiences at The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch, and the Hawley Arms in Camden.
I would describe our sound as tribal acoustic indie-blues, with jazz-punk vocals. Our influences include Howlin' Wolf, Warpaint, Silver Apples, Roxy Music, Adam & The Ants, Timber Timbre, Nina Simone, The Velvet Underground, Tuneyards and 60s psychedelia amongst others.
Our music is very spacial, overlapping tribal rhythms to create a trance-like backdrop, against which I sing. We do not use a full drum kit, preferring a more stripped down, primitive sound of floor toms and snares. Often I will set up a loop on the guitar, and then myself and Jo will both drum on that, with Dan providing a low-end rhythmic bass. It's all about the rhythm!
We've very excited at the response we've been getting at gigs, with comments such as "mesmerising" and "captivating" being banded around with alarming regularity.
At the moment I'm writing the follow-up album, and we plan to enter into the studio in the new year to record.
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