Meet NAO, a unique-voiced power woman from East-London. You might know her already from covering Frank Oceans Thinking ’bout you together with Mura Masa (worth listening). If you are in to alternative hip-hop music, definitely give NAO a try!

 

Wonky-Funky music
NAO describes her music as wonky-funk. Though this funny description fits, it doesn’t do much right to the truly awesome vibe Nao drops. At Rockstone Sessions, we found it quite difficult to define NAO’s sound, speaking in terms of genre. But to give you an idea; when Disclosure would be on the left, and D’angelo is on the right, you would find NAO in between, on the upper side, next to the jazz and soul.

Bad Blood
Especially in Bad Blood – ‘Drinking lime and bitter from my lemonade‘- is where she shows what her voice is capable of. It drops at least one octave and it sounds perfectly planned and straightforward. Though the way she uses her voice is incredible, it does makes sense when you know she graduated at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

 

 

Intuitive-and improvised love-songs
Her songs are more about discovering what she can do with her voice, rather than that the lyrics tell a story from A to B. With the assemblage of words she creates a wonky vibe. In an interview she explains about the way she makes her music, which is based on improvisation and intuitive. Her lyrics are usually not about personal stuff, thought this special relationship between improvising and lyrics, for example in Adore You she sings: ‘You’re making my voice reach places that it’s never been.’ Sounds quite like an intuitive, personal love-song to us.