There is sometimes nothing better than a chance encounter in a pub or a coffee shop that leads to a serendipitous encounter of something fabulous.

And, so it happened that whilst sitting in the Bullers in Looe I began chatting to a lovely guy nick-named “Swampy”, who told me about his partner’s band, “Lady Noir”. (You will gather as you read on that there is a lovely endearing ‘nickname’ vibe to the whole group)

The rest, as they say, is history. At Phluid Records, we listened, we loved, and now we want to share.

As this week’s “Pheatured Artist”, we caught up with Lady Noir to find out more about this fascinating and eclectic band, not least of which being, where did that wonderful name originate, together with the great names of the musicians themselves.

Fronted by Hannah ‘Shady Lady’ Leach (percussion and vocals), the band comprises Alfonso Garcia Garcia (saxophones), Chris ‘Le Hat’ (guitar), Izaak Eglington-Watts (bass guitar), and ‘Old Chocolate Wrists’ Naumann (drums & Percussion).

“We were looking for a band name, quite literally just before our first show, and wanted something simple”, they told us. “As a band we are trying to encapsulate a “Film Noir” tone, both in our sound and our look, and as Hannah is ‘The Shady Lady’, so the name was born. People are often intrigued when they realise we are a fully collaborative band and it’s not just Hannah with backing musicians.”

Having played Lady Noir’s Youtube video for the song ‘Dead of the Night” on last week’s Wal of Paine Show, on Phluid FM, we can attest to the bands over-arching theme, as the song is set to sections of the 1922, F.W Murnau Horror film Nosferatu. If you have ever wondered how a vampire would look performing to ‘Twisted Junk Jazz’, here is your chance to find out.

Those were the three words that the band used to describe their sound when we posed the question: “It’s a kind of Jazz inspired by old Film Noir movies, but not a smooth jazz. More of a ‘rough-around-the-edges’ dirty jazz, mangled with funk, world and hip hop influences.”

Wow. That is an eclectic mix right there. But the band aren’t quite finished with that description of their music just yet.

“A healthy dose of something weird also helps to finish off our sound”, laughs Hannah, channeling ‘The Shady Lady”.

Given the opportunity to tour with any other artist, the band unanimously chose Tom Waits, and we can’t argue with that here at Phluid records.

“We could learn so much from him, and musicians he has worked with”, they say, “and it would be brilliant if fans of his music could dig what we are doing.”

That about wraps it up for this week’s pheatured artist. It just leaves us to say a massive thank you to the band for taking time out to talk with us, and getting on board with Phluid Records, helping us to promote new and local talent.

The band have a monthly residence at the Blues Bar in Plymouth on the last Friday of every month. Various gigs lined up across the West Country kicking off with the Apple & Parrot” in Torquay on the 18th of March. There is also talk of some continental dates later in the year.

Catch Lady Noir on the Wal of Paine show next week between 7pm and 9pm at vision.phluidrecords.co.uk