On October 24th, Novo Amor was in Paris to discover his first album, Birthplace. An intimate and sensitive album full of light.Ali John Meredith-Lacey, the singer, was kind enough to answer a few questions by email to allow us to better understand this inner and fascinating artist.
His music is between James Vincent McMorrow, Keaton Henson and Olafur Arnalds. A softness in the voice and a sensitivity to the skin, all accompanied by a neat and authentic arrangement. Novo Amor, the new love is a brilliant project on which we had a lot of questions…
Where do you come from and how did you get into music?
I come from rural Wales in the UK. My relationship with music started very young, maybe when I was 5 or 6 years old. I remember watching my dad play drums and guitar and wanting to play them too. My obsession took over at the age of 13 when I bought my own drum kit and really got into music by watching skateboard videotapes.
Has folk music always been your favorite music?
Punk and rock were my first love. folk music only caught my attention when I was 19, after a summer in the United States. I romanticized a lot the music I was listening to there and I felt like it was a kind of musical revelation.
I read that Novo amor was born after a breakup. Is music a therapy, an escape for you?
Essentially, yes, that's right. I think it's important for me to feel like I have a purpose, whether it's just something to do on a day-to-day basis, or a big goal that motivates me and keeps my mind busy. The birth of Novo Amor was for me an attempt to analyze my personal life, to prove to myself that I could be tenacious and shout a glorious " Fuck you! " in the face of this rupture.
Two years passed between your first and second EP. What did you do at that time?
In fact, I see Woodgate, NY (2014) and Bathing Beach (2017) as sisters, written in the same spirit about the same period of my life, but at different times. I think the writing gaps are big and between EPs, I released a few random singles as well as a collaborative work with artist Ed Tullett. Last year, my attention was entirely devoted to Birthplace.
On your second Bathing Beach EP you add strings for the first time. What brought you to this instrumentation?
Over the past few years, I've opened up about what Novo Amor is and could be, and letting other people get involved has played an important role in this process. This project was very close to my heart at the beginning; I wanted to write and play all the instruments on the recordings, not a manager or do concerts. I invited a violinist – a friend of mine – to play on Bathing Beach and it completely changed the timbre of Novo Amor. From that moment on, I added strings, brass and other orchestral elements appeared regularly in my music, as can be heard in Birthplace.
In 2017, you released Heiress with Ed Tullett. Who is he and how did you meet him?
Ed Tullett is a close friend I met in 2013 at one of his concerts. Since then, we have spent a lot of time playing guitar together, learning from each other, writing and recording.
Can you tell us about Heiress? Did this project have an impact on the creation of your own album?
Heiress is a catalog of those 4 years, accumulated over sporadic weeks of recording in my old home. Heiress certainly had an impact on my own album, mainly because I was spending a lot of time with Ed when designing Birthplace. We were writing a lot of ideas, and a lot of them ended up becoming songs for my album. Birthplace would look completely different without Heiress.
Since 2016, your music is getting closer and closer to film music. Choice or chance?
Chance, I think.
I read that your music is often that of inner conflict, torment… What tormented you to write your album?
I don't feel like a tormented artist at all. I'm incredibly grateful to be able to travel the world and make music. I think when an artist starts, there is a struggle. Sometimes I couldn't pay my rent, while I worked at an ice cream parlour so I could make music at night. The struggle with Birthplace was more with myself; Try to meet deadlines and exceed my own expectations while meeting them. It's not a very healthy way to work and create.
Your EP was rather autobiographical but what about Birthplace ? How was it recorded?
I moved into a new house, a kind of outbuilding with a living space on the first floor. I demolished the walls, raised the floors and combined the living room and the second bedroom into a larger space where I set up a studio. I then spent the next 12 months recording and accumulating instruments, working 15 hours a day, most of the time. The album uses the same concepts as Bathing Beach and Woodgate, NY. It is firmly inspired by my stay in these places, but in a more joyful and festive way. There's a little pity for me in the album.
It seems that there are a lot of strong themes in this first album…
It's very personal actually. The meaning of the songs comes from stories I've heard, my relationships with friends, my relationship with myself, and the last seven years.
What is piece 13494 ?
It's a moment of calm and a transition in the album. 13494 is a postal code in the United States. This place is by a lake where I could spend every night for seven weeks absorbed by the vastness of the sky. I was 19 years old and I was 3000 km from home. It was a time of change in my life.
Especially your site, you talk about the environment. What is Birthplace and how did you end up on this project?
The Birthplace video project aims to raise awareness of the problem of plastic in the oceans. The directors Sil & Jorik – who also created a beautiful video for my song with Ed Tullett Terraform – presented us with the concept and it was too good not to say yes. I care deeply about our environment and think we should all be seriously concerned about our future. The idea that in 2050, there will probably be more plastic than fish in the ocean should be enough to make people think about their uses, destruction, pollution and its effects on our lives, our ecosystem.
About the Utican video: you said that Utica is a place where you felt at home when you were in NY. What is the connection between the song and the images?
Utican (i.e. a resident of the city of Utica) is about realizing that you no longer need in your life. It is a joyful realization: you are free to be free. Director Ethan Graham's video is his own interpretation of the song. It tells the brief story of a young boy who must cope with the loss of his mother while mastering his sexuality.
What does Birthplace mean to Novo Amor?
Birthplace is just the latest chapter of Novo Amor…
