Artist Of The Week #134 - Navvy
This week’s Artist Of The Week is the wonderful artist Navvy - who continues to push the boundaries of pop music with her new EP ‘The Final Pieces’. This release is her third EP and brings everything to a conclusion while opening the next step for Navvy - she took a moment to talk to us about the EP and how it all came together.
Hey Navvy, so the EP is out there now! How does it feel?
I am SO incredibly excited. I love releasing music. It is for sure one of my favourite things in the whole world. I think particularly with this release it’s even MORE special, because I am super proud of the range of topics I cover this time. I always hope that when I put music out, it can help people in some way, and I think this EP has the potential to help lots of different people and I really could cry just thinking about it.
It is titled ‘The Final Pieces’, does that hold a certain meaning for me you?
Yeah for sure. This EP kind of makes up the final pieces of the puzzle that was 2019. It really was in so many ways, the very best year I’ve ever had. I got to travel and play my songs for audiences on the other side of the world, I met some of my best friends, I worked with the best team, I had such fun. But it also presented some of the most difficult, if not the most difficult, things I’ve ever dealt with in all my years. I think this EP covers all of it. I dive into grief and loss, and what that looked like for me, but also growth and triumph, and what that looked like. I wanted this to have finality to it, and there is a song called ‘Pieces’, so it all kind of came together, I guess.
The EP sees you working with longtime collaborator Starsmith, who has worked with the likes of Jess Glyne and Ellie Goulding. How does a song start and end when you work with Starsmith?
I think writing a song is inherently magic. Going into a room and creating something out of thin air that no one has ever heard before. It’s wild. But writing a song with Starsmith is it’s own kind of magic. He is BRILLIANT. He is so fun and hilarious and welcoming and warm, which you think would be enough for one person, but he is also INCREDIBLY good at his job. Like, it felt like we were just hanging out and then suddenly we had this song that was really good?!?! I have loved working with Starsmith and I feel really lucky to get to work with people who make the days so fun.
There feels like a link between this EP and your previous two, almost like a dairy. Is that intentional? Does this one bring it to an end?
Yes absolutely. When I first wrote and released my debut EP, ‘The Break Up EP’, I knew I had more to say than 6 songs would allow, but I wasn’t ready for the commitment and gravitas of an album. From the beginning I wanted to do a trilogy. It didn’t quite pan out how I imagined it would, but I am so much more excited about the way it did than I was about the way it didn’t. I actually think you can listen from the beginning of EP1 to the end of EP3 and it tells you a complete story, and I absolutely love that. I almost cheated and made an album anyway, just with a staggered release.
What are the key themes and influences on this EP?
I think one of the key themes is loss. The loss that causes grief, the loss of a friendship, or the beginnings of that, the loss of being heartbroken. The biggest influence was just life, really. I never imagined I would be able to write about an emotion as complex as grief, because I had never felt it in such a real and deep way, until I did. ‘Somebody Else’ is about friendship love, and knowing deep down I can’t be there for everyone. I think friendship love can be just as complex as relationship love, so it has been really fun to explore. I also talk about moving on and what that feels like. This EP is the first one I’ve done that hasn’t been completely thematic, and that’s been interesting and freeing, for sure.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
Yeah, I think any of the couplets in ‘I Learned To Lose A Friend So Young’. The opening line of the EP is “I learned to swim when I was 2, now I’m drowning in the wake of you”. That’s something I had in my notes app that I’m really proud of. It really explains exactly how I felt. I also love a water reference, and it shows. I’d written down that, and “I learned to read when I was 4, but I can’t make sense of words anymore”. It’s simple and easy to understand, but powerful and says a lot. My favourite type of lyric.
Now this EP brings everything to a conclusion so far for you, what next?
That’s a great question! I think I want to start exploring different types of love maybe? Don’t get me wrong, I still have more in me to write about relationships and break ups, and what that looks like 2 years later as opposed to straight away. But I want to explore things like familial love, like the love you don’t get to choose. I think I’d like to keep writing EP’s. I like to release music, so I like little bite sized chunks you can chew on for a little while, rather than a whole meal. We’ll get to the meal, but I’m not there yet.