Laura Macfarlane

Laura Macfarlane
Performing at Flinders St Station, November 2014
Background information
Birth name	Laura Sandra MacFarlane
Born	Glasgow, Scotland
Origin	Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Genres	Indie rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, audio engineer, fanzine publisher
Instruments	Drums, vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, vibraphone
Years active	1988–present
Labels	Patsy
Associated acts	The Brautigans, Manic Pizza, Sea Haggs/Keckle, Sleater-Kinney, ninetynine

Laura Sandra MacFarlane (also credited as Lora MacFarlane) is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and audio engineer. Since 1996 she is the founding mainstay of the Australian indie rock band, ninetynine. MacFarlane also performs solo and has been in other bands, including as an early drummer and singer with United States rock group, Sleater-Kinney (1994–96).

Laura Sandra MacFarlane is from Glasgow Scotland, her parents are George MacFarlane (1936–2006) and Patricia "Patsy" MacFarlane; she has two older siblings. The MacFarlane family migrated to Perth in October 1978. George was an accomplished musician and had played trombone and percussion instruments both with Scottish and Australian army bands.

Initially MacFarlane performed in the Brautigans, on vocals, guitar and vibraphone, with Augustine Hwee on guitar, Nikki Jones on drums and backing vocals, Bernard Langham on guitar and violin, Sophie Moleta on vocals and drums, and Kevin Stanley-Bodell on bass guitar. From the late 1980s onward, she also joined a variety of local bands including Halcyon Days on drums with Andrew Roberts on guitar and vocals, René on guitar, and Stefan on guitar.

Another Perth group, Louder than God, had an extensive line-up of ten members including MacFarlane, Iain McIntyre and John Young; which Bernard Langham described as "making a deafening racket ... sounds good." While still a member of Brautigans, she had tinnitus and wore earplugs, "I can't figure out what's going on with my hearing, so I'll keep playing music." MacFarlane then joined hardcore punk band, Manic Pizza, on bass guitar and vocals, with Gareth Edwards (ex-Thou Gideon) on guitar and Cameron Potts on drums. As a member of Manic Pizza, MacFarlane relocated to Melbourne in the early 1990s. Edwards later told René Schaefer of Mess+Noise that "Cameron was heavily into the Pixies at the time; I was a Hüsker Dü freak; Laura provided the actual talent."

In 1991 MacFarlane formed Sea Haggs (later renamed, Keckle) on guitar, viola, percussion and vocals with McFarlane and Potts. That group's material was later included on a compilation album, Jelly (1997). She also began publishing Woozy fanzine in 1992 with McIntyre.