Intuitive, Weak, & Elemental: N NAO on Music, Id, and Artistic Expression [Interview]

Montréal-based pop experimental artist N NAO, born Naomi de Lorimier, is redefining herself and her id via 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 neighborhood via her artwork.

On the Competition de Musique Émergente (FME) in Rouyn-Noranda, Abitibi, N NAO mentioned all the pieces from id 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 all over the place for N NAO—the world round her turns into, fairly actually, her oyster, an area she explores and shapes via sound.

Photograph Credit score: Lea Taillefer

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

Yeah, that is attention-grabbing, ‘trigger I really feel like my artistic course of is tremendous intuitive. I really feel like I’ll perceive what I’ve executed good after I’ve executed it, as a result of I am so within the second once I’m I am doing it.

So intuitive could possibly be a strategy to describe my musical id. I am actually impressed by my desires or issues which can be extra felt within the physique, relatively than actually based mostly within the head.

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

Every part is centered across the vocals, largely as a result of once 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 via the looper.

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

I can say, once 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, once I’m making music, it is tremendous intuitive. So I used to be actually drawn to water. I used to be swimming so much throughout the making of the document and filming loads of sparkles and water, and simply actually into that aspect. 

Afterwards, once I did the previous sequence of songs, I used to be like, okay, that is an album about water, largely, and different stuff, like love, friendship, relationships with my sisters, my pals.

My final document that I simply launched was about fireplace. However for me, the aspect is a large umbrella underneath which I make my selections. 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 individuals. I’m a really delicate particular person, 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 once 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 particular reference and what it impressed?

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

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

Additionally, once 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 extremely repetitive means.

In order that’s an instance, similar to looking of the window after which getting touched by this picture and attempting to translate it in my very own phrases, you realize? 

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 smooth in a means. 

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

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

I used to be born within the ’90s. It was so huge and releasing 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 realize?

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 type of like this mix of experimentation and tremendous catchy melodies.

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

Her vocals are wonderful, and the lyrics are tremendous private. There’s a extremely 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 concerning the voice and being susceptible.

She’s not on social media; she’s doing her personal factor. I type 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 susceptible in your work whereas nonetheless conserving house for creativity and creativeness? 

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

For my new music, I would like it to be extra detailed, extra exact. As in, extra private to my story, the place I’m sharing extra. I are usually shy generally, and I would like 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 mislead anyone. 

Like should you really feel unhappy, should you 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 in case 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 realize, you’ve got a dream and you do not know if it is practical, so that you’ll, like, say to your self, “No, no, no, do not go there,” simply so that you don’t get dissatisfied in the long run.

I can discuss perhaps a sensible collaboration that I’d do sooner or later, like Helena Deland. She’s an excellent good Montreal artist that I met a couple of years in the past once we have been each beginning our tasks, and we talked about perhaps doing one thing collectively. So that may be one in every of 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 route, perhaps, as a result of I’ve it in me—the atmosphere. 

So perhaps 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 probabilities.

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 liked once 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 attention-grabbing as a result of I’ve to step again to essentially give it some thought. Montreal is such an attention-grabbing metropolis. I am a Francophone in Montreal, and I really feel like that is type of a factor.

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

As a Montreal artist, I’m attempting 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 at this time? How would you like them to really feel after listening? 

I would like them to really feel heat inside. I do know I can are usually emo, unhappy, and melancholic generally, however at this time I’d love to simply convey some pleasure and a few mild into individuals’s our bodies and minds.

In order that’s for at this time. 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 respect 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 advanced, and what classes have remained with you?

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

However it’s humorous, as a result of once I began, I used to be actually within the shadow of all the pieces I did. I wished to make music for myself and only some individuals, and I used to be, once more, actually shy about my id as an artist.

After that, I attempted loads of issues, you realize. 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 kind. However with all my pop and refrain expertise, I really feel like I am mixing contrasting parts.

However it’s good to simply put your roots within the floor and actually embrace what you’re. I need to be pleased with it, you realize?

What function do you hope your music performs in listeners’ lives? Do you intention 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 received 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 particular person is so free; I need to free myself. So, yeah, to free individuals in a means, as I am attempting to free myself—that could possibly be my reply.

By the best way, 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 once I was in Cégep, I used to be round 18 or so, and I used to be simply doing it, you realize? 

I had some lessons, however I wasn’t actually paying consideration. I used to be simply being tremendous intuitive. Ableton is type 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 each day. I’m working alone challenge 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 pals, like, “How would you make this?” or “How would you try this?” 

I’m not tremendous shy about starting one thing. Perhaps that’s serving to. I is perhaps 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 uninterested in what I’ve created and utterly bored with it, I’m going to my engineer. Now we have a dialogue, and so they assist me determine issues out. It’s necessary to have that type of relationship.

Something new and upcoming that you just need to like inform individuals 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, generally, 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 present 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 individuals.

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

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

When you consider air, you consider local weather change, and nature is intertwined with it. So recycling previous sounds of mine, perhaps 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 put it aside within the vault perpetually. Just do it. It is so necessary to share and be collectively. I really feel like music is an efficient strategy to meet individuals and simply construct a neighborhood. 

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

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

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