Naima Bock
With a UK tour just completed and a show in Vienna on the horizon, singer-songwriter Naima Bock talks to us about the influence of her Brazilian heritage on her music, breaking out of a band to go solo and how her second album is coming along.
When did you begin playing music?
I began playing when I was quite young, about 8 or so, but not seriously. My dad played guitar, so I picked that up a bit. I was part of this community initiative thing, where kids were put together in groups and had to play a show - I remember hating it, but I remember I liked the process of learning songs and doing covers. When I was about 14 or 15 I began playing in a band called Goat Girl - there was never really a “penny drop” moment that it was the thing I wanted to do, I guess I just got lucky with the band getting signed when I was 17. It kind of felt like the realm of possibility widened with that.
Where are you based?
I’m actually half-Brazilian, so I grew up there until I was 7, then me and my mum moved back to London and I’ve been based in southeast London ever since.
Are you interested in or influenced by Brazilian music at all?
Yeah, I would say there is some influence in my music - stylistically, so not so much the genre of the music but the way it’s delivered. Vocally I’ve always really liked Caetono Veloso and Geraldo Vandre.
Was Goat Girl’s music much different to what you’re doing now?
A hundred percent, it was much more grunge, doom punk sort of stuff. The melodies in that band I thought were really good, I felt a lot of the songs could stand up just being played on an acoustic guitar. I probably would’ve stayed with it were it not such an intense lifestyle at the time - by the time I was 21 I was kind of done with it, and that sounds like such a young age to be tired of it all, but I was.
Did you take a break from music after that?
I did, although I kept writing songs - I love writing, it’s something I’d do with or without any kind of professional intent. I took a break for about two years, I went to university and started a gardening company. I thought my time in the professional music world was done, but eventually I made friends with this guy called Joel Burton and we started playing together, and I had so many songs written so we recorded an album during lockdown, although I didn’t plan to do much with it.
Has it been much of a surprise to you that you’ve pursued a solo career now?
I’m not sure, really. In my brain I think I was like “I’ll be an archeologist and a gardener and I’ll get my income”, because I thought that music was not a way to make money, I wanted something more secure. I think realistically though I’d sacrifice anything to carry on doing music.
Do you still have the gardening company?
No! It was me and my manager Josh Cohen, who runs Memorials Of Distinction, the label I’m on - we did it for a while, but then his career picked up and I made the record, and we just didn’t have the time. It’s a really enjoyable thing to do - as soon as it gets into winter it’s not so fun though! I did Archeology at uni, so not worlds away from gardening.
With the album being recorded during lockdown, did you have much chance to perform live much before its release?
I didn’t - we had to sort of relearn the songs live! It was very different with Goat Girl, where we’d performed live for three years before recording the album, so we went into the studio with full knowledge of what it’d sound like. After we’d recorded my album we were able to gather the people who’d played on it and go on a couple of tours.
Do you have any plans for a second record?
We’ve actually just recorded the second! We did a lot of preparation for it, then went into this sort of baptism of fire recording it, 10 days of just getting it all down, and we finished it at the beginning of September. There are 12 songs - we haven’t mixed it or anything yet, but it’ll be next year, we just don’t know when yet.
Is this going to be similar to your previous record or is there some new stuff in there?
I think there’s some new stuff. It’s pretty much exactly the same people playing on it to my first album, which is nice, although I definitely wanted it to feel slightly more intimate, as when I did the first record I hadn’t sung much live, so I think now I’ve improved my guitar and vocal techniques. Despite the amount of people on this it’s still quite stripped-back - I wanted to limit the amount of “band-y” songs. I think stylistically it’s in a similar world - I didn’t have anything set that I wanted to change, because I quite like what I do and what my sound is.
Do you write all your songs yourself?
I do - occasionally I’ll bring them to my friend Oliver Hamilton who plays violin with me, and he’ll bring back things like harmonies and guitar parts.
Who makes up the rest of your band?
Clem Appleby, Cassidy Hansen, Meitar Wegman, Oliver Hamilton and Oscar Guardans . There are so many different iterations - sometimes we play as a five-piece, sometimes I play on my own, sometimes I play with Oliver.
Words: Scott Bates