Name: Naima Bock
Nationality: British
Occupation: Musician
Current Release: Below a Massive Dark Land on Sub Pop

If you enjoyed this interview with Naima Bock keep up to date releases and tours at www.naimabock.com


Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Everything plays a large role, I would say that these ‘things’ like dreams or art or whatever only feel more important because they’re the opening up to a different kind of mind / life that all the more ‘banal’ every-day occurrences feed. I don’t think that whimsical things are any more or less important than leaving the rice-burnt pot to soak, although the feeling is different. Music is another thing we do in the line of things to do.
 
For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

It’s almost all chance other than the actual act of sitting down and choosing to pick up my guitar instead of doing something else (reading, watching TV, writing etc.). Not being at home loads means that this doesn’t happen that often, but the strength of the feeling I get when I actually am sat with my guitar in my kitchen (my flat-mate works nights so I get the flat to myself in the evenings) alone is enough to tell me that I will always do this, my whole life, and that I’m very lucky to have found what I love. But in answer to your question, no concrete ideas needed, it's all chance and the planning is the choice to pick up the guitar, that's it.
 
Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

Nope, kind of what I said above- I can write anywhere but to actually finish a song I normally finish it in the corner of my kitchen at this table that my mum bought when I was 7. I feel like the preparation lies sometimes in the not doing it for a long time, then it feels really good to do it. I don’t write all the time, I go months without writing a song because I’m in a different mode. I’m in practical life mode, I got deadlines, I got admin, I got god damn bills to pay!
 
Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

No, I find that a bit try-hard when people get like that. Don’t do it if everything needs to be precious and perfect, life ain’t precious with you.
 
What do you start with? And, to quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?
 
I don’t know what I start with, I don’t know who Bruce Duffie is but I would say it’s probably a combination of both. It’s a little too abstract for me to get totally on board with the idea of musicians discovering something ‘ethereal’. It makes me think of all these silly little song melodies floating on the astral plane somewhere around or just above our eye level that we pick out like Dumbledore with his wand when he picks out his slithery memories from the chalice.

That's what I think of when people say that a song was ‘given’ to them or whatever. It’s kind of a nice notion but it strikes me mostly as an attempt at the musician trying to seem humble and hide away from the responsibility of songs being good or bad. Or hideaway from the fact that they’re a bit self-obsessed, like most musicians, like most people in the west. Anyway, following that, I reject the idea that creative people discover the thing, we make it! We’re allowed to have made it, and because we’re all so similar and so much almost the same person; things resonate with people and become what they want it to become, they alchemise it to heal themselves, that's nice.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?
 
I think they grow together for me, I write the song and the lyrics together more often these days because I want to put a feeling in a nutshell. I want to reduce it into a song so I can look at it from above and not be consumed by it. That's one of the great benefits of creative stuff, you get the bad feelings out and you get the good feelings out and you can look at both from a different position. This is important, we don’t or shouldn’t only exorcise the bad feelings, if you do this… you will perish.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?
 
I prefer lyrics that make just enough actual sense so that the listener doesn’t feel alienated from the musician but there needs to be at least (and sometimes preferably only) one line of good rock-solid poetry per song. Laura Marling song ‘patterns’ on her latest album does that perfectly for me, all the lyrics are beautiful but then there’s this elevation mid song where she sings ‘pulled for meaning, I arch my back and from the black you were born. Forward leaning, at first abstract, you soon contract into form’, damn that's good.

Joanna Sternberg has that a lot, in their latest song just the line ‘life is a dream, life is a dream’ is one of the simplest lyrics I’ve heard but I cry at it every time. Joanna Newsom does that in her song ‘The Things I Say’ it goes ‘there’s a trick that's played by the light in the wine, that conspires to make me think I’m fine’. Lastly, that Florist song ‘As Alone’ where they sing ‘Emily, you know that you’re not as alone as you feel in the dark’, so beautiful, so sad.

Lomelda is also really good at that, along with the greats like Bill Callahan, David Berman, PJ  Harvey etc. Anyway, the list goes on and on- I’d have a lot of fun choosing my favourite lyrics from my favourite songs. I think those lyrics are where the song lives, I believe in those parts of the lyrics, that's where the good stuff is, the crux of the song. Whatever crux means. 

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?
 
I would say I probably ‘follow’ but I’m only dedicated to following myself. I have to avoid worrying how the lyrics might affect someone I know or if that melody’s too cheesy. I gotta let it be what I want it to be, truly and not adjust it through thinking too much. On the last tour we went on, one sound guy told Oscar (Hoy Chorale) that we sound checked for too long, although in that context we were just practicing because Meitar, our sax player, hadn’t played with us in over a year, I liked the sentiment. He thought we overthought it, and we probably do overthink it. I do my best at being unapologetic when it comes to songs, that's also known as being honest.
 
Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?
 
I let them sit, sometimes I Frankenstein songs together. Sometimes it takes three years for a song to find its final resting place. Then it can rest in relative peace.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

I don’t know. I feel very grounded when I’m writing. It doesn’t have the same buzzy feeling that I’ve gotten from certain spiritual places or practices. Although I think maybe true spirituality is that grounded feeling, fuck knows. It feels good, I can't say otherwise. Everything’s spiritual, right! Like I said at the beginning, nothing not spiritual.
 
When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

That's why I want to record stuff on tape, sounds better, feels better, not to have to think of what can be fixed. Studios are super stale, it has to be fixed because it’s hard to find the soul in a song when someone clicks their finger and makes you do it. It’s kind of a cruel joke about being a musician, it’s not easy to really get that feeling across on demand. Gigs are different, I don’t know why, they feel more fleeting so there’s a freedom to them.
 
Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?
 
Long process mostly. This year I’ve been finishing songs in one sitting, that feels amazing. The emotion was strong enough that I needed it done then and there so I could start playing it live as soon as possible.

Even recording a solo song is usually a collaborative process. Tell me about the importance of trust between the participants, personal relationships between musicians and engineers and the freedom to perform and try things – rather than gear, technique or “chops” - for creating a great song.
 
I think trust, comfortability, all feeling like you’re on an even playing field. If there’s a feeling of superiority among any of you, people become self-conscious and want to impress and then there’s not a willingness to make mistakes through experimentation, which is normally where the good shit is.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? In terms of what they contribute to a song, what is the balance between the composition and the arrangement (performance)?  
 
I don’t really know. I find it boring but I train myself to enjoy it as much as I can. I don’t have a super keen ear, I can’t tell the difference when something is mastered, I can hear when mixes are bad but I don’t know how to fix them (that's always fun for the mixer to hear).

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

Albums are released SO long after the songs were written that I really couldn’t care less about whether they’re out or in. By the time they’re released I’ve already written another album (god willing this continues!) so I don’t feel empty and I don’t feel proud, it's just something that happens. The emotions are there in the recording and when we’ve finished the recordings. I normally start writing again as soon as those songs are done, it’s no problem. I know it sounds like I’m prolific, most of the stuff I write is embarrassing but I don’t get too precious about it until I have to narrow the songs down to a record size.
 
Music is a language, but like any language, it can lead to misunderstandings. In which way has your own work – or perhaps the work of artists you like or admire - been misunderstood? How do you deal with this?
 
I don’t understand it myself so I can’t see from where it would be misunderstood. The nice things people say about it are true, the mean things people say about it are true. Although it's not popular enough to have loads of mean things said about it, every cloud!

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you personally feel as though writing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

That links back to the first question in many ways and actually since writing that answer I do think it’s different, it’s a different feeling, it feels more healing, more lovely, more heavy, all of the stuff. Coffee is great, I really like it but I’m not actually as proud of it as I am when I’ve written a song that I think is good. Nothing can beat that feeling.