Inspired #159 - NEEV
Singer-songwriter Neev hits you deep with her warm but husky vocals - creating an intimate experience for the listener. She took a moment to talk us about her new track ‘Excuse Me’ and the inspirations behind it.
Who are your top three musical inspirations?
Generally I'm always quick to say Nathaniel Rateliff and Rachel Sermanni, they're both singer-songwriters that create larger than life songs/ soundscapes just with their voice and a guitar and I suppose I wanna recreate that effect as much as possible. I love the simplicity of the combination and by contrast, the lasting effect it can have. A newer inspiration for me is Hayley Hendrickx, for very similar reasons but I also adore her song writing, it's funny and conversational on the one hand but also completely devastating and resonant on the other. I love the way she uses her voice, she really owns it and delivers what she wants to say with confidence.
Is there a certain film that inspires you?
Anything RIchard Linklater has done but more specifically the 'Before' trilogy and my favourite one out of that is 'Before Sunrise'. I think it inspires me through it's very engaging dialogue, its structure and again - simplicity! They're all values I try and bring to my songs as much as I can. Especially dialogue because that's something I really like to explore in my songwriting.
What city do you find the most inspiring?
Definitely the city I live in - London. I'm at my best writing in my bedroom in London after attending an inspiring gig. The live music scene here means that I could get to an incredible gig most nights and be inspired. A close second would be my hometown, Glasgow, because nostalgia's a really powerful songwriting tool for me.
Who is the most inspiring person to you?
This is something that changes every song! I tend to write about people, so I'd say the most inspiring person to me is the person I'm writing about in that very moment.
What were your inspirations when writing your new track?
The song is very situational and is written about a specific scenario so my inspiration was very much my sense of place and time in that moment. The larger and more general themes of miscommunication and conflict inspired me too as I wrote it.
How would you like to inspire people?
My main intention with any song is to connect to the listener, I love hearing people's different interpretations of the songs and I love analysing art and text in this way myself. So I suppose I want to inspire people to engage with me through listening and having their own interpretations of what it means and how it connects to their own experience.