Fresh from putting the final touches on her debut album, All That We Know, the singer/songwriter, pronounced ‘nay-oh’, is currently in between festival slots at Glastonbury, Pitchfork in Chicago and Field Day London. “I was doing so much, it was really difficult to find the time to fully focus,” she explains. “Somehow, between waking up very early and going to sleep very late, it came together and I finally finished [the album] a couple of weeks ago.”
One of the isle’s most hyped new artists since kickstarting her solo career in 2014, her bursting schedule is no surprise. From 2016’s BBC Sound Of shortlist to a speedy #1 Hype Machine track on her first single So Good, to guest spots on Disclosure’s Superego and Mura Masa’s Firefly in 2015, the hype machine is well and truly churning.
NAO’s musical endeavours prior to her solo work came to an end right as she met her manager, and a domino effect of opportune breaks came her way. “I always wanted to be the voice of my own project and that was scary. As the years went by I felt frustrated. Naturally I’m quite a creative person and I wanted to find my own voice and what it was that I wanted to say as a singer and a musician,” she says. “I met my manager, who just happened to be in the audience when I was singing for someone else.
“A week later, he said to me, ‘If you wanted to support any act in the world, who would it be?’ and I remember James Blake and Little Dragon were the first two people that came up. Then to have Little Dragon hear my song and ask if I’d like to come on tour with them was a really lovely thing to happen.”
When it came to starting work on All That We Know, NAO learnt from her EPs, So Good and February 15, about what sound she wanted to carve out. “The album sums up what I’ve learnt. I saw what I wanted it to look like musically. With albums from when I was younger like The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill I loved that it had little skits and intros and outros that tie it altogether. I wanted that for my album, it is something that Frank Ocean explores. I could see this picture but I just needed the music to fit in,” she says.
All That We Know achieves NAO’s objectives skilfully; her influences like Hill and Ocean permeate across the record, as does her eclectic, multi-genre sound and touches from a solid lineup of producers. From voice memo pockets scattered throughout to the Unknown Mortal Orchestra-like Get to Know Ya, the gritty outlier In The Morning, the wild and lyrically lush Bad Blood and the funky acoustics on DYWM, it all works.
“For me, there was only so far I could take it before repeating myself musically or lyrically,” NAO says. “It was really important to my process to open it up for other people to help me so that the vibe is something original, to show that I can have different colours and textures to my voice, lyrics and production.”
North American and British tours fill NAO’s agenda until the end of the year but Australian shows are on her radar.“I think I’ve been asked to do Laneway Festival and that’s really exciting,” she says. “My band and I never thought we’d get this far.”
BY EMILY GIBB
