'She Drew the Gun' is a band formed in Wirral in 2014 that started off as a solo project for singer/songwriter Louisa Roach who was born and raised there. She started playing guitar at 13 and was soon performing 'Oasis' covers at friends' parties, but music was only a hobby at that point. After moving to Liverpool to study Psychology as a mature student, she picked up the guitar again, studying by day and strumming by night, in part-time bands. Then a handful of tracks she'd sent to the BBC were singled out by DJ David Monks, who immediately booked her for a live session. It was that session that put 'She Drew The Gun' on James Skelly's radar. Impressed by her, 'The Coral' man promptly signed her to his Skeleton Key label, helping to release her debut single. On the band name she says, "I wanted to get something recorded, so I bought a decent mic and recorded at home and put something out on the internet. I didn't just wanna call it 'Louisa Roach'; it had to be something a bit different and something that could grow afterwards if you wanted it to."
As a solo artist she released, 'If You Could See' in early 2015, and after touring Europe with 'Fink' in 2015, emerged with a fully formed band to realise her own
solo ambitions. With Louisa on lead vocals and guitar, Jack Turner on bass and lead guitar, multi instrumentalist Jenni Kickheffer on keyboards and synthesiser and Sian Monaghan on drums and percussion, they toured the UK supporting 'The Sundowners' in 2015 after signing with Skeleton Key Records.
In April 2016, chosen from a long-list of 120 entries, they won the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent competition with their music described as psych pop and known for its often political lyrics. After performing with the other seven
finalists, they were named as winners with a prize of £5000 and a slot
on one of Glastonbury Festival's main stages and also performed on the John Peel Stage on Sunday the 26th of June. Louisa said, "I’ve always felt drawn to music that says something, that goes beyond simple love songs. As a songwriter,
you've got the whole spectrum of human experience to draw from; half of
that is the bigger picture stuff."
Skeleton Key Records released their debut album, 'Memories Of The Future' on the 22nd of April 2016 featuring previous releases, 'Where I End You Begin', 'Since You Were Not Mine' and a new single 'Poem'.
Having crafted their debut under the watchful eye of James Skelly it is an album filled with suppressed guitars and chilled percussion.Uncut Music Magazine described it as 'Junkyard Scouse soul, built ingeniously on a
Wirral council budget'.
After spending the summer of 2016 performing at festivals across the UK, supporting Jeremy Corbyn's Election bid, they were invited to perform at Zandari Festa in Seoul, South Korea, as part of the Liverpool Sound City Takeover before finishing the year supporting 'The Coral' on their UK tour.
In 2017 they won The GIT Award at an all-day event at Constellations taking home
the sixth GIT Award prize together with the £1000 and Parr Street
Studios recording time. They next performed at the SXSW Festival before going on their own UK tour, including main stage performances at Glastonbury, Deer Shed, Cambridge Folk Festival and On Blackheath, amongst others.
Their brilliant
follow-up album, 'Revolution of Mind', was released on the 5th of October 2018 on Skeleton
Key Records. Produced again by James Skelly at Liverpool’s Parr Street Studios it was every bit as addictive as their debut album with Clash Magazine describing it as "a confident, immersive sophomore effort" and "a stellar return from a truly important group."
In 2018 they went on a UK tour to promote their new album, playing alongside the likes of 'Bodega' and Anna Calvi at the 6 Music Festival in March 2019. They then got around all the festivals you can
pack into one summer and finally embarked on their biggest headlining
tour to date.
In early 2019 there was announced a fresh tour, 'Trouble Everyday Tour', which is their biggest to date, taking in dates at Liverpool's O2 Academy and London’s Electric Ballroom as well as finishing up with dates in Belfast and Dublin. In 2021, Truck Store named their latest album, 'Behave Myself' as their No.4 Album of 2021.
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