NAO: "I’m not mysterious at all. I spend most of my time dicking around..."

NAO has captivated festival goers over the summer with tasters of her debut album For All We Know and we can finally hear the finished product on 29 July. It's only a day away, but we still can't wait - we've interrupted an intense pre-launch party rehearsal to take a quick look into Nao’s world...

Your new album For All We Know comes out this week, how does that make you feel?

I don’t know if the word is nervous, because I just think whatever’s going to happen is going to happen, I’ll just leave it to the Gods. There’s no point feeling nervous or stressed because I guess it doesn’t really help anything. So maybe I’m just excited? I’m proud of the record and I’m proud of what the music says so I’m really happy for people to hear it and to to see what the response will be. So I guess excited is a good word.

Is it a different feeling to when you’ve previously released music?

Yeah I think so because with the EPs I was learning about my sound quite publicly so I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted to say, so both of the EPs jump around a little bit. I guess there was more nervousness with that because it was more like 'Oh I don’t know if this song is very good', just because I didn’t know what I was trying to say. At the end of the two EPs I kind of summed up what I wanted to say right now and so when I was writing the album I had that in mind, so I feel bit more confident about it.

How would you describe your sound?

I feel like it has a lot of colour, I feel like it’s not one thing because it has so many different influences from funk to R&B... you can hear a little Prince in there, and Michael Jackson, but you can also hear a little Aaliyah in there. I would say that the album is colourful because its not just straight-up pop tunes but there are some more melancholy songs in there, and maybe some tunes where the production is a bit trippier or something like that. I’ve probably said about 50,000 words there, how can I sum it up in one, I can’t really!

You’ve mentioned a few of your musical influences, can you elaborate on a few of them?

I think one thing that is quite present in my music in this album is my guitar. Prince used a lot of guitar in his music and he used it to create his own interpretation of funk; no one sounds like Prince. I guess I listened to him a lot and because I wanted to use funk but interpret it in a way that is like 2016 and not 1970. So I hope I’ve done that. But also again I think Michael Jackson because, you know Michael Jackson’s voice, everyone knows it around the world, some of his lyrics are actually quite cheesy but for some reason he just makes it sound so cool. So sometimes I would do that and think 'oh sometimes it’s okay to use the word baby every now and then'. But also because people can sing those words easily, they fit in your memory for longer because they’re really catchy. I’m a big fan of James Blake and I love FKA Twigs, so I guess I explore that a lot in the production and just doing something that isn’t cliche to soul music, but just trying to find a different interpretation of it. So maybe sometimes I trip the beat up a little bit, or the bass line is a bit wonky. I sort of explore very new sounds and very left field stuff within the production.

What track from your album really stands out to you as the pinnacle of your album?

I feel like it changes every day, because I’m in the middle of rehearsing now, we’re rehearsing all these new songs and when you play them live you get a different feeling from them, so the I listen to the record maybe something like "Blue Whine" is my favourite, I know it’s quite slow paced but I like the journey it goes on, but then when it comes to live and we play "DYWM" [Do You Want Me]. We played that live yesterday and it was really amazing. The guitar lines are really beautiful and you could hear a pin drop at the very beginning. So it kind of changes every day but I feel like thats the point of this record; I’m not very good with singles. It’s like a dream world, I would have just put the whole album out as one, and everyone could chose their own singles from it and could choose their own pinnacle from it, which is basically for the audience to decide, but mine changes every day.

What made you come up with the idea of running a documentary alongside your album?

I felt like actually not that many people knew much about me. I felt like early on when I was releasing the EPs artwork there were things like hands and arms and there weren’t that many press shots of me... I just wanted people to know that I was a real person and the process that I go through to make music is very honest. It’s not in a big shiny studio with Pharell in the background. It’s just me and my friends, and kinda just working it out. I feel like most musicians are like that when they’re starting out, in your room making beats trying to think of something good, that is what this album was like when making it. I just wanted people to see that and also get to know me a little bit. Maybe with the artwork before I might have come across as a bit cold.

Or maybe mysterious?

Yeah but as a human I’m the most… I’m not mysterious at all. I spend most of my time dicking around. I just want people to basically see my personality a little bit more.

How many episodes do you intend on producing?

I was thinking about this the other day... maybe three or four. The album comes out soon so it could be one ore episode to sum it up. I mean it keep going on forever, could capture the whole journey. But I reckon one or two more.

You’ve played quite a few festivals already this summer, what has been your favourite performance?

I think there were two. Glastonbury playing Park Stage, I like that performance because of what it meant to me. I first played Glastonbury in 2009 as a singer for someone else and that was on Park Stage, so it was really interesting to have been a backing singer essentially and then have come back a few years later and done my own set there, and also you get nervous because it’s Glastonbury and there’s so many other amazing acts on and you’re like 'argh is anyone gonna turn up?!', and I got outside on stage and there were people there, and it did stop raining for a little bit. I feel like that was one of the highlights.

The next was this weekend I played Pitchfork in Chicago, and it was very rewarding because I wasn’t there for a long time. I was so tired, I flew in the day before, didn’t sleep because of the jet lag and then got up the next day and performed. I was knackered but to have gone all that way and have actual people turn up for the show, I could have easily one there and no one known who I am, and it could have been a complete waste of time. But seeing people there and they gave me so much energy just made me give a stronger performance, and they made it really worth while flying into to Chicago for basically 24 hours.

Are there any other festivals that you’d like to play next year that you haven’t this year?

Yeah I feel like there’s one in Japan, I think it’s called Fuji Rock, I mean playing in Japan just sounds cool and playing on Mount Fuji sounds even cooler, that would be good. I haven’t actually thought about it so much.

Your launch party is only a few days away - is this the time where you can really start to have fun with the album?

I think so, maybe once the album is out. It’s all building up towards the release of it so rehearsals are intense and the album is still to come out and people are still to respond to it, but I feel like that maybe when we go on tour later in the year, that will be the time to have fun with it because people will know the songs better then, I’ll be able to feel their reaction to it and they’ll be able to sing along.

What is your favourite aspect of being an artist and making music?

I think my favourite part is when you have a bit of dead space, when you aren’t writing for an EP or when you’re not writing for an album, and you have a moment to be purely creative with no objections and you end up doing some crazy random shit and it’s probably terrible. You jump on the bass (I can’t play bass), play around with the synth or make a jungle tune or a drum 'n' bass tune. You can have so much fun in that time as you have no barriers and you can be like 'oh this song isn’t for anything, it’s not for an album, it’s just for me'. I like those moments.

Are there any other artists that you’d like to work with in the future?

The list would be endless! I’d love to work with Frank Ocean, I’d love to work with James Blake, I’d love to work with Kendrick Lamar... I could name loads of people.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

I guess that I’m going on tour now, I tour America in September, and the UK and Europe in November, so that's gonna take a big chunk of it. Probably a few music videos and see what songs people like and make some interesting footage for that, but I think that’s it... sounds quite boring actually.

Words by Georgia Ivey.

For All We Know is out now - you can stream it below.