N NAO on Music, Identification, and Artistic Expression [Interview]

Montréal-based pop experimental artist N NAO, born Naomi de Lorimier, is redefining herself and her identification by sound.

Signed to Montréal-based indie label Mothland, N NAO makes use of music as a private outlet and a method of self-exploration, bridging Québec’s anglophone and francophone communities by singing in each French and English whereas fostering connection and group by her artwork.

On the Competition de Musique Émergente (FME) in Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi, N NAO mentioned all the pieces from identification and drawing inspiration from the weather to seeing technical instruments as extensions of her creativity and utilizing the Earth itself as her muse.

Studying her insights, it’s clear that inspiration is in every single place for N NAO—the world round her turns into, fairly actually, her oyster, an area she explores and shapes by sound.

Photograph Credit score: Lea Taillefer

How would you describe your musical identification and what makes it uniquely yours?

Yeah, that is fascinating, ‘trigger I really feel like my artistic course of is tremendous intuitive. I really feel like I’ll perceive what I’ve carried out excellent after I’ve carried out it, as a result of I am so within the second after I’m I am doing it.

So intuitive could possibly be a method to describe my musical identification. I am actually impressed by my goals or issues which are extra felt within the physique, moderately than actually based mostly within the head.

Yeah, for my final album, I wished to make music for the physique, you already know, not just for the mind. Extra to be felt within the hips and within the coronary heart. It is music from the guts and for the physique. Additionally, impressed by nature.

All the pieces is centered across the vocals, principally as a result of after I first began N NAO, I solely carried out a cappella units utilizing my looper. The rhythms are based mostly on my breath and my vocals, layered by the looper.

As a result of it is a brief loop, there’s this mixture of trance, hypnosis, and rhythms, with numerous samples of like subject recordings that I do after I go on hikes or one thing. So numerous natural samples, however with an excellent digital strategy.

I can say, after I’m within the studio, I see my laptop as one other a part of me, or as an instrument.

The place do you normally draw inspiration when creating new music, and the way do these influences form your lyrics and manufacturing selections?

An enormous theme for my music is the weather. My first album that I made was about water.

As I mentioned earlier, after I’m making music, it is tremendous intuitive. So I used to be actually drawn to water. I used to be swimming lots throughout the making of the file and filming numerous sparkles and water, and simply actually into that component.

Afterwards, after I did the outdated sequence of songs, I used to be like, okay, that is an album about water, principally, and different stuff, like love, friendship, relationships with my sisters, my buddies.

My final file that I simply launched was about fireplace. However for me, the component is a large umbrella underneath which I make my choices. So it simply helps me within the studio, like “what would fireplace do inside that state of affairs?”

For the following album, I am actually into air. I like clouds.

Zooming in, it’s about my relationships with folks. I’m a really delicate individual, so I expertise issues intensely.

So music helps me simply categorical myself. I really feel prefer it’s a mix of an mental, philosophical strategy with an excellent delicate one.

I like to attract on non-musical references or inspirations as a result of after I’m within the studio, I need to make music that’s my very own. I don’t need to replicate one thing; I need to create one thing new.

That’s why I prefer to get impressed by films, discussions, or landscapes—as a result of it’s not musical; it’s extra-musical.

Are you able to discuss a selected reference and what it impressed?

For instance, there’s an outdated music I made referred to as “Le plus belle selected” or “The Most Stunning Factor.”

I used to be simply searching the window whereas it was snowing, and there was a snowplow clearing the streets in Montreal. I obtained impressed simply by that dance—the machines eradicating the snow—and I used to be simply watching.

Additionally, after I’m within the artistic course of for a hook or a music, I loop myself, so I can spend an hour on a melody or a loop, enjoying it in a very repetitive means.

In order that’s an instance, similar to searching of the window after which getting touched by this picture and making an attempt to translate it in my very own phrases, you already know?

Once I’m singing—as a result of it is so repetitive and I can keep for a very long time within the music—I prefer it to be delicate in a means.

I am additionally an individual who likes distinction. Once I’m making melodies or the trail for the melody, I need it to be tremendous soothing for me, and when it is proper, it might then be soothing and meditative on stage.

Which musical influences have pushed you on this course, providing you with permission to discover your sound—like Björk, for instance?

I used to be born within the ’90s. It was so massive and liberating to see Björk simply make one other album with, I do not know, one other thought—like a flute ensemble or an album that’s extra industrial—and simply her voice is what retains all of it collectively, you already know?

For me, Björk is an efficient instance as a result of I prefer to look as much as people who find themselves so unrestricted.

Additionally, Jenny Hval—she’s tremendous conceptual in her lyrics and her stage efficiency, but in addition tremendous intuitive; the hooks she sings are actually catchy.

I form of like this mix of experimentation and tremendous catchy melodies.

Tirzah is one other instance, a singer from the UK. A good friend of Dean Blunt, half of a complete crowd that isn’t actually into promoting to the mainstream.

Her vocals are superb, and the lyrics are tremendous private. There’s a very intimate facet to it, but in addition within the manufacturing, there’s a mirrored image on it—it’s not simply surface-level. It’s actually private, and what she’s doing is one thing you may relate to as a result of it’s all in regards to the voice and being weak.

She’s not on social media; she’s doing her personal factor. I form of like that vitality as a result of music these days is so quick, and I like being natural and slowing issues down a bit.

How do you navigate being weak in your work whereas nonetheless conserving house for creativity and creativeness?

I really feel like I need to be as weak as attainable as a result of, in my lyrics, I do know my voice conveys proximity, however typically what I’m writing feels obscure.

For my new music, I need it to be extra detailed, extra exact. As in, extra private to my story, the place I’m sharing extra. I are typically shy typically, and I need it to be more and more clear

So I am engaged on that, however I really feel like together with your voice, you may’t deceive anyone.

Like for those who really feel unhappy, for those who really feel joyful, you’ll hear it within the voice, and due to how I produce my voice, I prefer it to be tremendous translucent. I prefer to play with results. For me, results are simply one other instrument.

However when you have like a powerful vocal efficiency, afterwards, you may play with it, and all the pieces is ok.

Are there any dream collaborators—artists or creatives, native or worldwide—that you just’d like to work with?

Wow, so many. Typically it is laborious to know if I am placing boundaries on myself as a result of, you already know, you might have a dream and you do not know if it is real looking, so that you’ll, like, say to your self, “No, no, no, do not go there,” simply so that you don’t get upset ultimately.

I can discuss possibly a practical collaboration that I would do sooner or later, like Helena Deland. She’s an excellent good Montreal artist that I met a couple of years in the past after we have been each beginning our tasks, and we talked about possibly doing one thing collectively. So that might be one in all my dream collaborations, Helena.

However exterior of Montreal, I actually like claire rousay, who’s an ambient artist. I noticed them play in Québec two years in the past. It is like an emo-ambient act, and I wish to go extra in that common course, possibly, as a result of I’ve it in me—the atmosphere.

So possibly I need to push it extra, and dealing with ambient artists can be good.

However yeah, it is so laborious to inform as a result of I’ve so many concepts. It is nearly opening my thoughts to the chances.

Additionally, Kassie Krut—they’re so cool. They’re from New York, and so they’re founding members of Palm, which was a band I actually beloved after I performed extra guitar.

Now they’re doing extra digital stuff, and I really feel like they’re the good ever. I’d be stoked to do one thing with them.

I like so many sorts of music, I’m not solely part of one style. I’d like to play with all of them.

How does Montreal—or the locations and recollections related to it—encourage and inform your work?

That is fascinating as a result of I’ve to step again to actually give it some thought. Montreal is such an fascinating metropolis. I am a Francophone in Montreal, and I really feel like that is form of a factor.

It’s an fascinating query as a result of I really feel like there are such a lot of separations within the metropolis, you already know—Anglo and Franco, completely different scenes—and I really feel like I need to make bridges between them.

As a Montreal artist, I’m making an attempt to construct bridges between issues. Additionally, as a result of I’m enjoying in additional mainstream bands and I come from a extra experimental, underground scene, that’s one other bridge I need to create.

For these discovering your music for the primary time at FME, what do you hope they take away out of your efficiency right now? How would you like them to really feel after listening?

I need them to really feel heat inside. I do know I can are typically emo, unhappy, and melancholic typically, however right now I’d love to only convey some pleasure and a few mild into folks’s our bodies and minds.

In order that’s for right now. Perhaps it’s due to the day I’ve had and my mindset driving up right here—I used to be seeing the panorama, and I used to be like, “Yeah, it is lovely.”

I simply need to actually admire the second, be current, and decelerate. I do know it is the top of the pageant, so if I can simply convey some good vitality and a breath of contemporary air

How has your artistic course of developed, and what classes have remained with you?

I really feel like I am getting increasingly assured in myself.

Nevertheless it’s humorous, as a result of after I began, I used to be actually within the shadow of all the pieces I did. I wished to make music for myself and just a few folks, and I used to be, once more, actually shy about my identification as an artist.

After that, I attempted numerous issues, you already know. I attempted the guitar, a extra folks strategy, and I attempted to make extra ABA kinds inside the songs I wrote.

Now, I really feel like I am simply beginning over—extra within the free, experimental, ambient type. However with all my pop and refrain expertise, I really feel like I am mixing contrasting parts.

Nevertheless it’s good to only put your roots within the floor and actually embrace what you’re. I need to be happy with it, you already know?

What position do you hope your music performs in listeners’ lives? Do you purpose to consolation, encourage, provoke thought, or one thing else?

I really feel like when somebody tells me after a present or after listening to my album, “I obtained tremendous impressed,” that is the very best praise ever.

Once I actually get pleasure from a film or an album, that’s the sensation I get too—like, “Oh my God, I need to do my factor.”

Like, this individual is so free; I need to free myself. So, yeah, to free folks in a means, as I am making an attempt to free myself—that could possibly be my reply.

By the way in which, how lengthy did it take you to be taught manufacturing?

I’m an excellent curious being, and I—I don’t know. I began with the pc after I was in Cégep, I used to be round 18 or so, and I used to be simply doing it, you already know?

I had some courses, however I wasn’t actually paying consideration. I used to be simply being tremendous intuitive. Ableton is form of easy, so I simply picked up the fundamentals after which had enjoyable. I began sampling myself and went from there.

As a result of I’m spending increasingly time within the studio for my job, I be taught one thing new daily. I’m working by myself undertaking and enjoying in different tasks.

However I really feel like, as a result of I am an excellent curious being, I’m all the time asking inquiries to my buddies, like, “How would you make this?” or “How would you do this?”

I’m not tremendous shy about starting one thing. Perhaps that’s serving to. I is likely to be extra shy starting in sports activities or different areas, however music is my language.

I really feel like I’m not afraid to ask questions, to be curious, and to be a newbie, even when I don’t really feel assured.

I’ve by no means actually combined any of my albums myself, and I really feel prefer it’s good to collaborate afterward.

For the brand new music I’m making, I spend time on the pc, and as soon as I’m tired of what I’ve created and fully bored with it, I am going to my engineer. We’ve got a dialogue, and so they assist me determine issues out. It’s essential to have that form of relationship.

Something new and upcoming that you just need to like inform folks about?

So for my new compositions, that is the air period I discussed. So I am actually into clouds, into that feeling of lightness, like levity.

Only a mild feeling, like similar to floating.

As a result of life is so heavy, typically, I really feel prefer it’s a pleasant feeling to make music for like an elevated self or similar to a floating.

Did you make any particular sonic selections to provide your music a floating, ethereal feeling?

Yeah, now I am actually into my tapes as a result of I’ve so many archives within the studio of me strolling within the forest or simply within the streets—me touring in Paris, being within the subway, and speaking to folks.

I don’t know, with new buddies, I’ve collected so many subject recordings. I need to pattern them, and with the air idea or theme, I need it to be tremendous mild, like a cool response in a means.

Even eco-friendly—by recycling my sounds and never utilizing completely new ones, you already know? I’m actually into that.

When you concentrate on air, you concentrate on local weather change, and nature is intertwined with it. So recycling outdated sounds of mine, possibly like in a membership, however with out all of the decrease finish, focusing extra on high-end sounds.

My favourite a part of creating one thing is being on the very starting of it

What recommendation would you give to underground artists who need to launch new music however really feel scared?

I really feel prefer it’s all the time higher to get it out than simply reserve it within the vault endlessly. Just do it. It is so essential to share and be collectively. I really feel like music is an efficient method to meet folks and simply construct a group.

So yeah, attempt to get out of your solitude and attain out. Don’t be fearful of failing; it’s regular to do shitty stuff, and sooner or later, you’ll create one thing good.

You simply need to be able to, as we are saying in Québec, ‘péter sa coche’—break your head on the ground: simply soar, fall, after which get again up, you already know?