INTERVIEW: NAO releases third album 'And Then Life Was Beautiful': "Life as a whole, even the tough parts, the sticky and the ugly, is beautiful and I wanted to put that in the record."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
British singer/songwriter NAO has been releasing music since 2014 and after coming third in the influential BBC Sound Of 2016 list, she has steadily become one of the most critically acclaimed British musicians of the last few years, receiving nominations at the Brit Awards, Mercury Awards and Grammy Awards to name just a few. She is equally as popular with music fans, with her monthly stream count on Spotify alone exceeding 2.5 million.
Creating an entire genre - ‘wonky funk’ - with her debut album For All We Know, NAO’s music blurs boundaries with R&B sitting on top of a foundation of electronica, with side trips into disco, trance and acoustic ballads. At the end of September, she released her third album And Then Life Was Beautiful which in many ways is her coming of age album, reflecting on the growth and confidence that comes with age and to embrace life, with all its messiness and struggles, as the beautiful gift it is. Like everything she does, the sonic soundscape is varied, with her electronic-R&B still very much in evidence on tracks such as ‘Burn Out’ and her collaboration with Adekunle Gold ‘Antidote’. Elsewhere on the album, there is soaring classical tinged soul with title track ‘And Then Life Was Beautiful’, melancholic electropop on ‘Better Friend’, and the gorgeous piano ballad ‘Wait’. NAO’s voice has long been one of the most unique in music, and it is just as strong on this album - emotive, powerful with a range moving effortlessly from high to low.
An artist that is continually evolving and growing, NAO creates music that may not always have content matter that is happy and joyful, but is always warm, empathetic, relatable and an absolutely immersive and soul conquering listen. We recently sat down with NAO to find out more about And Then Life Was Beautiful and her musical journey.
Hi NAO, thank you so much for the music and thank you for chatting to me. How are things in your gorgeously musical world?
Everything's going really lovely. I feel so different about this release than I did my first and my second album, I just was so stressed with the other two. I’ve taken a different approach with this release. With my first two albums, I felt like ‘this is the end, if this doesn't work, then my career is over.’ Three albums in I just have more confidence to know that albums are going to do what they're going to do, there's more projects to come so just release the music and let it go. So I felt a lot better about this release.
Gorgeous, the title And Then Life Was Beautiful might be one of the most smile inducing consecutively placed five words I've heard in a very long time and I love that it just keeps ploughing through the whole album. Can you talk me through your desire with regard to the collation of this collection?
I suppose the answer’s within the album title, actually. I sort of realise now, with a little bit of age behind me, that happiness wasn't a destination. We were all taught from a very young that life is about ticking the boxes, if we get a, b, and c, then we'll just be happily ever after. Going through some tough situations and seeing the lessons, even if they were really difficult, and also seeing the blessings as well, and realising that actually, life as a whole, even the tough parts, the sticky and the ugly, everything about it is beautiful. It's like one big strange painting and I wanted to put that in the record. The record isn't all happy songs, each song is dealing with some tough situations. Working out the lessons in them and trying to put that into into music is basically how the album came together and the thought process behind it.
It's just like ear candy. And there's so much heart and there's also some beautiful humour in there, which I love. You coined the term ‘wonky funk’ to describe your style, and I'm sure you've been asked this a hundred times, but I'd love to hear it in your own words on what wonky funk is.
Wonky funk is something I just really used for my first record For All We Know. I was exploring electronic music at that point and what role electronics have to play in R&B music and just pushing the boundaries of it. I didn't really have a word for what I was doing, it wasn't R&B and it wasn't straight up electronic music so I just called it wonky funk. But since then, from Saturn till now this album And Then Life Was Beautiful I wouldn't really call the genre ‘wonky funk’ anymore, it's sort of moved on from there. I wouldn't really know what to call it now.
You musical background is quite eclectic. You were in an acapella group for years, and there was backing vocals for Jarvis Cocker, and then there was your self made label and getting it all out there - you can talk me through your musical journey?
I've been singing since I was like 14 years old. I studied music in college and in university, and when I was in university I was doing every type of thing you could think of: backing singing, singing for parties, singing for other people's projects, singing for weddings. I was a jazz singer, I was a vocal teacher, I just did everything to make money, anything to pay the bills. But I really enjoyed that, because I didn't really understand that there was a way you could make a living out of singing otherwise, I don't think my parents understood either. Just doing a bit of everything, I was happy with that. But there came a point where I realised that creatively I had something to say, I just didn't really know how. As it happens, the timings just worked out, I was singing for someone else's project in a nightclub and Sam, who became my manager, was in the audience and we just got talking, we met each other at exactly the right time as he wanted to start managing, and I wanted to start making my own music. We started from scratch and here we are, as NAO.
You've always sung and you said you loved it, but, when did you realise that you had such this magical creature living inside your throat? Your voice is something else, you reach the highs and then you get down low. It's something otherworldly, it's incredible.
Thank you, we can talk all day I like all these compliments! I knew that my voice was unusual, from really young and I remember being in primary school and me and my friend making a fake radio station on my karaoke machine. I remember listening back to it and thinking 'urgh why do I speak like that? My voice is so strange'. What I was hearing all those years in real life is not what I heard coming back at me through the karaoke machine, it sounded really high and squeaky. So I knew there was something unusual about my voice and when I would sing the Spice Girls in the playground at primary school, other kids would often stop and listen and say, ‘you actually have a nice voice’. So from quite early on, I knew at the very least I could sing and that I had an unusual speaking voice, but I didn't really think it meant anything really. But now, I often hear ‘oh you know when NAO sings’ because my voice is quite distinctive.
You have such a nostalgia to your music and I think that comes with your voice and also with what you're writing. Was it something as well that as you're going through that embracing the unique and embracing the mess as you put it in this album that's helped you in your personal growth?
Yeah, 100%. Growing up, you know, parents want to protect you and my parents were very guarded and quite private. If anything was going badly, they weren't really up for talking about it. That's something that I had learned initially and when I got to my 20s, that kind of mentality really slapped me in the face. I realised that I was hiding from a lot of situations that actually I really just needed to face up to so. I had a real stormy growing up period where I was just like ‘look, you can't just be nice to everybody all the time, you really need to speak up for yourself and you need to face these tough situations and conversations and breakups and whatever head on’. It's from that period of time that I really did some growing up and now I feel you always have to speak up and know your truth.
It's so lovely because then you can put it into your writing and help others. You really do sing for women and I hear it with all your music. It's like femininity liquified. How imperative is that within your own platform that you have as a public figure to sing of the insecurities and the strengths in young women?
Honestly, I have never I thought about it in that way, I didn't realise that I sing for women but if I think about it, I'm a woman so I'm naturally just speaking from my own perspective, and that's going to resonate with other women as well. In a strange way, I felt like I was just using my platform and my voice and my songs for healing messages for everyone. I hope that they're like a hug through our lives, transitions and things like that. A piece of art that people can turn to when they just need to hear some support or just someone that can agree with them or understand the situation. That's what I felt my music was for.
That's brilliant. My favourite track on the album is 'Little Giants' and it's a lyrical favourite. It's really beautiful, and a bit of an outlier with all your little metaphors. Where did this come from? It’s such a glorious track.
Yeah, and you're right, people keep telling me that 'Little Giants' is their favourite. 'Little Giants' is about secrets and lies and how they can suck up your energy that could be better spent on love and self care. In the song, you've been hiding little giants and little giants are the secrets that this person has been hiding from you. For me on the other side of that, it's the unknowing. I knew somewhere in my consciousness that this person had red flags all over them, that they were hiding something. It's not following your intuition, it’s not listening to your inner voice even though it can speak quite loudly sometimes. The song really explores that notion that you should listen to yourself - you did know that person was holding secrets from you, something's burning you, something's not right.
You've recently had a daughter, which is brilliant. I always loved that story of Lauryn Hill recording most of Miseducation... while very heavily pregnant with her first child. She said that it not only physically lowered her voice, but it opened something other in the sound of her voice in the way she was creating. Your album was quite a process and did you find the experience of motherhood shifting the way you approached recording the songs or writing the songs or collating it?
I actually would call this album the ‘anti motherhood album’! I found the transition into motherhood actually really difficult. I had my daughter during the pandemic, and it was during lockdown when the rules were really stringent. So no family members could visit in hospitals, your partner could only come in for a certain amount of time during the birth and had to leave straight away. It was a really difficult time and that didn't help my transition into motherhood at all and obviously you're dealing with a newborn, which for me I found that really stressful. When I had moments to sing and write, I found that really healing for me, and I didn't want to sing about my daughter, not because I didn't love her, but I just wanted to save a little piece of me for me. That little piece of myself that I remembered. I found it really healing. My daughter did get one song on the album called 'Antidote' and that was because the person who I've collaborated with Adekunle Gold, he also had had a baby just three weeks after me. it kind of felt like the right situation to sing about! But everything else, motherhood was the reason why I got it together because I just needed it to feel good again. That's how it shaped it.
This is why you sing for women, because not enough people shout about how crap it can be! This needs to be celebrated as the anti-motherhood album - keep something for yourself, because it's so beautiful and so important. Lastly, before I have to leave you what is on the horizon for you?
That's a really good question. I've recently made a decision not to tour next year, because I'm recovering from a health condition I have called chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME. So with that, touring would just mean my health going backwards, and I've been working so hard to get better. It was really sad for me to no to touring for the foreseeable, just because I love touring the world so much. Seeing these songs come to life with thousands of us all singing together in one room is really special and it's the moment that my albums really kind of find their way. So on the horizon is a lot of self care and a lot of healing of my body in order to be able to get back to doing what I love.
And Then Life Was Beautiful is out now via Sony Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things NAO you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
