INTERVIEW: Nardean releases new EP 'THE NEW ERA': "I've become more comfortable in myself and more certain of my choices and more able to express myself, how I feel and my honest truth in the moment"
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Australian singer-songwriter Nardean today releases her second EP THE NEW ERA. Packed full of her trademark R&B-rap-pop sound, which she calls ‘post hop’, Nardean’s music warps genres and pushed boundaries. Born in Sydney in an Egyptian immigrant family, before going on to study English Literature at Macquarie University, Nardean wants her music to highlight the under-represented and often misrepresented voices of Australian women of colour. “Growing up where I did, there was no one out here doing music, let alone an Egyptian woman,” she says. “I want to be the woman that young, multicultural girls can look up to, and see themselves in. I want them to know that if I can do it, they can too.”
To celebrate the release of her EP, Women In Pop spoke with Nardean to find out all about her career and her music.
Nardean, so lovely to be chatting to you! Congratulations on the release of your EP THE NEW ERA, it is gorgeous. I wanted to start by talking about the single ‘Weightless’, what a beautiful track. “This is for the healing / You and I are flawless regardless of our traumas.” I want to say refreshing, but I don't even think that gives it enough credit. Can you talk me through the inspiration behind this delightfully welcome song?
Thank you, that's really sweet. To be honest, it's a song I wrote so long ago. I wrote the lyrics maybe three years ago on a different beat. It is a song of healing because when I first wrote the lyrics it was darker, for example one of the lyrics is ‘I used to trust the stars more than I trusted humans’. But before it used to be, ‘I seem to trust the stars more than I trusted humans’. So it was a moment where I changed the lyrics to turn them into ‘Okay I've moved on from these things that I was struggling with’. The general inspiration for the song was just to focus on being light as opposed to heavy, light instead of dark. I feel a lot of time in the spiritual world you've got to look for the light.
You mentioned that you change the lyrics to shift how you were at the moment. I guess as an artist but also as an audience that's really important that we do that, and we evolve with what songs and what art means to us. Particularly for yourself if you're going to be performing and retelling and putting that song out there, you want to make it resonate with you, so it then resonates with the audience.
Absolutely. I'm starting to realise now the more I perform that some of the older songs that I wrote that were when I’ve been in a really dark place or I felt a certain way. It's hard to sing the same thing when you've moved on from it. To be constantly saying the same things that I don't necessarily agree with anymore sometimes you got to try to find a way to resonate it or just see it as a lesson, you know?
Your debut EP Creatress from 2018 was just wonderful. One of the things that really stuck out for me and that I thoroughly enjoyed was that it has this heartfelt political charge to it. What was your intention going into that?
When I wrote Creatress my biggest intention when I wrote that was I wanted people to listen to it and feel like they've come home. Like they could just put it on and feel embraced by it in a sense. I wrote it from the perspective of my higher self talking to my human self. It's the story of reforming your identity and taking responsibility for your life.
How do you feel you have changed or healed or evolved as an artist since the release of that EP?
I think the biggest evolution comes as a human, because for me my artistry is evolving in tandem with my humanity. The biggest evolution has just been that I've become more comfortable in myself and more certain of my choices and more able to express myself, how I feel and my honest truth in the moment. I feel with my artistry I get more freedom in a sense where I'm not trying to make things sound interesting or I'm not like trying so hard anymore. I'm just doing what sounds good or what feels good to me.
And speaking of you, your new EP THE NEW ERA is out today which is incredibly exciting. You say it hints at highlighting your signature love of language. Can you elaborate?
I studied English at Macquarie University, I was going to be an English teacher. I’ve always loved words and writing. My dad used to write poetry in Arabic and there's so many Arabic books around the house. I love books and I love words, you know? So for me the music is important, but the lyrics are always important as well.
Was that what initially drew you to a more hip-hop style?
Yeah, definitely. Because hip hop's very much about the lyrics.
Speaking of words, I want to know a bit about your song-writing process and what spurs you creatively?
It just happens so differently every time. Sometimes I'll set up a song writing session with someone and we'll be in the room and then we'll just write a song there, you know? Other times, I'll be walking down a street and a little melody will pop in my head and then I'll record it on my phone and then I'll go to YouTube and I'll find a beat and I'll write it or maybe six months later I’ll be in a song writing room and that little melody will pop back into my head. The best I could describe all of them is that they are puzzle pieces that happen over time. They're puzzles that you get different pieces of over time.
Like you said with ‘Weightless’, you'd written it years ago and then you left it.
Yeah, exactly. You might be walking down the street and see a billboard that has a word on it and that ends up being one of the puzzle pieces. You're like ‘oh that's a great word’, and you use that word. Some songs I'll write the first verse and then I won’t have a chorus, or the chorus just won’t work and then I'll leave it for months and then suddenly something will happen. A melody will pop into my head and it'll be like ‘oh my god that's the chorus for that song!’
I know you were born into an Egyptian family, hence the Arabic books everywhere, and you were raised in Sydney's west. But I also hear that your introduction into music was only very recent. Can you talk me through your musical discovery?
I was about 21, I was at uni at the time and I was working at [fashion store] G Star and I started dating a guy who was a rapper who worked there as well. That was my big, I guess, spiritual awakening in a way as well, it's the years that I got woke. It's where I realised that I didn't have to go to university and get a job and all that sort of stuff. I realised I could do whatever I wanted with my life. And then my boyfriend had a performance and I went to watch him. I saw a woman rapping on stage for the first time and I just had full body goosebumps and I was just like ‘oh my god... this is what I'm meant to do with my life.’ And then I just started gradually. I started writing poetry, going to a spoken word night and just started rapping here and there and then a couple of years later I started writing and that was when Creatress happened.
With your new EP THE NEW ERA is there anything you hope that people take away from your music?
I just want people to know that it's okay to be honest. That we're all human and we all struggle with things. We're all in this together. Let's just talk about it.
On that note, what was the most revolutionary album for you? Who was the artist, album or the track that did that for you?
I think To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar. He just completely reinvented his sound. The depth and the layers of that album while also being really good music with a political message, it's a 10 out of 10 album.
I want to know as a solo performer and songwriter and creator, what has been the greatest hurdle that you've faced?
There's lots of little hurdles. I think the biggest hurdle would be musical, because I haven't been singing my whole life getting that mastery of my voice has been definitely a journey and a thing that I've had to put hours into. Learning to sing harmonies, which I didn't even know existed when I first started out.
Do you feel coming in late in the game, do you feel that you're playing catch up with all these musical kids?
A lot of the time I did feel like that and I would let it get me down. But then I realised my lack of musical knowledge meant I could do weird things that people who had a lot of musical knowledge wouldn’t normally do. So in a lot of ways it was a bonus.
Because you didn’t learn the rules, you don’t know the rules so you can break them.
Exactly!
THE NEW ERA by Nardean is out now.
To keep up with all things Nardean you can follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
