The Artist Explains: Navvy- 'Mad at You'
Auckland artist Navvy has just dropped her new single ‘Mad At You’, the first single from her new EP ‘No Hard Feelings’, it is safe to say this is a piece of pop brilliance. She took a moment to talk to us about the track and her plans for the future.
Your new track ‘Mad At You’ is out now, what is the track about?
We wrote ‘Mad At You’ about the fact that even after this boy who was supposed to love me cheated on me and did all these things to hurt me, I still couldn’t be mad at him. That frustrating feeling of not being able to force your heart to feel an emotion, in the same way you can’t stop your heart from loving someone if it just does.
Where was the track recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the recording process?
The track was recorded in Auckland, New Zealand, where I’m from! I’d worked with Sam de Jong (who produced and co-wrote) before, but had never met Rory Adams, the other co-writer. I think sometimes combinations of people can just he magical and that is definitely what happened that day. We always listen to music and chat before we get into what we’re writing about, and on this day we danced around to old school Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana to get us in the write headspace and the dancing kind of just continued all day.
You grew up surrounded by opera and classical music, what are your early musical memories?
Well I grew up in the same house as my grandparents, and my grandad is a wonderful singer, so I remember him singing a lot, but the first time I actually sang was at a christening. My sister was supposed to sing ‘Rainbow Connection’, but she got really sick and on the day I begged my Mum to let me sing it because I knew all the words. I think I was about 7 years old.
It wasn't until something happened and you lost your voice, that you started singing pop music, can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Yeah, I got nodules while I was playing Dorothy in a youth theatre production of The Wiz as a 12 year old and it did not look good. I didn’t want surgery, so our options for recovery were fairly limited. But I worked super hard and got the nodes to go away, but I’d taken a break from classical singing and fell out of the complete love I had. A few years later I decided to really properly do pop music and see where that could take me.
Your EP is out this November, how is that coming along? What can we expect from it?
Oh I think it’s wonderful, I really do. I’m such a fan of my own music ha. The whole thing is finished and I’m in the stages of getting new mixes back and it just sounds fantastic!
It’s four tracks (including Mad At You), and I hope you can expect to feel a LOT less sad than you did with the last EP.
How will it differ from your previous EP?
I think genre/sounds wise it’s very different to The Break Up EP. It is kind of left of centre pop, with some songs you can dance to and also cry to. It continues telling the story, but this time, I’m moving on and trying to navigate how to do that, and figuring out if that is even something I’m interested in.
Along with releasing your EP, you will be making your UK live debut in London on the 20th November. Have you been to London before? Will you be making any special plans for the performance?
YES!!!! I’m playing in London! I could not be more excited than I am to be opening for Robinson, whose music is on literally all of my playlists, but who is also one of the best people I’ve ever met in all my years. I went to London a few times growing up for various reasons, but most recently spent a few weeks there in July doing some session.