INTERVIEW: Nadia Javed

Today is International Day Of The Girl (11th October), a time to champion the achievements of girls on a global scale and to highlight and challenge the gender inequality that girls still face today.

Women Of The World Festival (WOW)’s research into gender disparity in music has found the following: “Recent studies show how underrepresented women are in the industry: a landmark US survey reported that from 2019 to 2020, female artists fell from 22.5% to 20.2%; female songwriters decreased from 14.4% to 12.9%; and female producers declined from 5% to just 2%. The research also took a representative sample of 600 songs between 2012 and 2020, of 23 individual women credited as producers just seven were women of colour, resulting in an overall ratio of one woman of colour to every 180 male producers.”

Determined to help change these statistics, WOW Festival created their WOW Sounds music programme to showcase and celebrate a range of girl bands from across the globe. This year, they’ve recorded performances with Nadia Javed, Breakup Haircut, Sri Lankan acoustic trio The Singing Potatoes, Roma girl band Pretty Loud and a project Naytive Mentorship led by Australian rapper and songwriter Naomi Wenitong. Each performance has been released as an exclusive short set with an introduction about the artist/band’s activism. The UK acts all filmed sets at EartH Hackney which you can watch via WOW’s IGTV and YouTube throughout today.

We caught up with the amazing Nadia Javed (known to us as a solo artist, activist and lead singer of The Tuts) about her performance for WOW Sounds, what she’s gained from speaking to the girls in their on-going mentoring programme and the importance of talking about the “double life” of a female musician…

Hello Nadia! how are you doing? What have you been up to recently?

I had the most amazing morning even though I’m absolutely exhausted. I was on the London Eye at 8:30am mentoring sixth form girls and it was the most incredible experience, it was so much fun. I was able to give them advice and share my life story with them and it was so wholesome and vulnerable. Then I had to rush back home for a meeting at 12pm with my day job, so I went from being on this high of “life is so amazing! I’ve met all of these inspiring people!” and then my Mum messaged me to say “you’ve got a parking ticket in the post” and I was like “what is this!?” I have this double life thing. We need to talk about double life thing you know, this needs to be separate piece! I had to talk about this to the girls today. I was like “look, I’m a musician, but I have a day job still because I do have to think about how am I going to pay the bills, blah blah blah.” I was honest with them about it, because sometimes from the outside it can seem like I am a full time musician when I’m not. It’s hard. I was actually talking about balance to one of the girls, because she wants to do medicine but also do music as well, so it’s really hard to get the balance right sometimes without burning out.

It’s so much to balance isn’t it? Such extreme highs with your everyday life and the lows that come with that sometimes. I hope the parking ticket isn’t too expensive…

Tell me about your performance for WOW Sounds that you recorded at EartH in Hackney…

It was really amazing. I’ve played WOW Festival before with The Tuts on International Day Of The Girl at Southbank Centre and it was absolutely incredible. The crowd was just a sea of young girls from a local school and I felt like I was in Little Mix, because they were just going wild. So when WOW approached me again tis year, they initially wanted The Tuts to play, but we’re on a really long hiatus at the moment. I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip, so I asked how they felt about me performing solo and they were really supportive, they said they would love to have me, but with a full band behind me. At the moment with my solo stuff, it’s literally me and an acoustic guitar. I’m like the brown Ed Sheeran, except that I need to invest in a loop pedal so I can do all the stuff that he does. Although, I think KT Tunstall did the pedal thing as well back in the day, so let’s not forget about Katie…

So, I got a Ishani from Breakup Haircut to play bass and I got Christabel who’s previously been in other bands like Suggested Friends and I got another friend to jump on drums. Then I thought about which songs would sound cool live, so we did ‘My Therapist Said’ which is a very upbeat pop punk track. It’s about my journey through therapy and having a problematic white therapist who didn’t know what South Asian was, and then having a South Asian therapist who told me that I “punish men,” so that did not work well. But, good news, I do have a good therapist now! Then we did a stripped back, more emotional song called ‘I Can’t Marry You’ which is about coming out of a very long term relationship where I felt pressurised to get married to this guy because I’m Muslim and he was also Muslim. He was very nice, but he just wasn’t the one.

That all sounds great, I’m looking forward to watching your set. You mentioned that you spent the morning with a group of young girls talking about being a musician. Do you think things have improved for girls and young gender non-conforming people who want to get into music since you were a girl yourself?

I don’t know how long ago that would have been for you actually as I’m not sure how old you are…

I’m 33 now. Before, I was very secretive about my age because I was like: “I should be rich and famous by now, I should be an established pop star and rock star by now.” But the truth is, I’m not. This is the reality of how long it’s taken for me to get to where I am now. I went on my first tour with The Tuts at the age of 24 with Kate Nash and then we played Glastonbury and then we went on tour with The Selector and The Specials. Then our last gig was with Bikini Kill at Brixton Academy. I’ve played Brixton Academy three times. I don’t think there is another South Asian female Muslim punk who has played that venue three times? I sometimes have to remind myself of that when I feel really shit about myself, but the point I’m trying to make is that it has taken me to get to this age, to have this “CV” that I have, because as a woman and as a woman of colour, that’s how long I feel it has taken to get here.

I think it’s different now though. I think there’s more support in a sense, because more and more people are opening up their platforms. For example, what you do at Get In Her Ears, you platform a lot of female and non-binary artists and we have the amazing Loud Women Festival too. There are more platforms out there trying to help and I think that’s a step in the right direction. We can use social media to be activists and talk about things and protest about things that we feel passionately about. I think that change is happening, not at a super fast speed, but it is happening. I think it’s important that people just become the change that they want to see. Because, let’s be honest, white cis mediocre men are still dominating everything, so we need to make sure that we don’t let that defeat us. Instead, we need to use that anger to fuel our music and our creative passion to make the change. Keep asking for help from people and networking and connecting with people and opening it up, rather than thinking that you have to solve this problem completely on your own.

I sympathise with you there. You joked earlier that you were “the brown Ed Sheeran” and some days I find myself being furious at Ed Sheeran as one mediocre man in the music industry, rather than taking a step back and connecting with our DIY music community and focusing on what I can do as part of that community and Get In Her Ears to make things better…

I mean, mediocre men – we could do a whole other interview about that as well! We’re all doing the right things. We’re using our voices and our platforms as best we can. There’s only so fast we can move before we burnout as well. You can’t do everything.

When I was speaking to the girls earlier on today at the London eye, they asked me if I ever felt anxious or nervous before I go up on stage. It is quite stressful, but there’s also a lot of imposter syndrome out there as well. We all get it, I get it all the time, but I told the girls to just remind themselves that there’s so many mediocre white cis men out there who are just doing the same thing over and over again with an acoustic guitar. So just by you existing as you are, and me existing as I am, is a political statement in itself. That is enough. You are enough.

With this WOW mentoring scheme, it’s taught me so much about myself, because I remembered that we all know more than we think we do. We’ve all been through so much in our lives, that we all have our own individual stories. We’ve all had our own struggles and painful experiences and those things have taught us so many lessons. Then it’s in moments like this, that you realise “oh, that kind of horrific experience wasn’t so bad now, because I’ve got to share it with someone and they’ve been able to relate to it and use it to their advantage now.” So it’s quite cool actually.

That’s really solid advice. Your work with WOW is clearly important to you, but I know you work with other great organisations like the Solidarity Not Silence campaign too. Are there any other charities or non-profit groups that you recommend we check out?

I dressed up as a pregnant woman to help my friend Janey who works for Level Up last month. A pregnant woman who was supposed to take part in the campaign had to pull out last minute so I stepped in to help out. It’s such an important campaign. They’re trying to stop pregnant women from being put in prison, because even if you have a short sentence, you can get put into jail for simple things like not paying council tax or a minor first offence. There are some horrific stories of girls giving birth in their cells and their babies dying – horrific things that no one should have to go through, so we are fighting for that really big change. We need around 10,000 signatures on the petition and we’re somewhere around 7,000 now. We want there to be a huge change in the law around this issue. Sharing these stories starts a conversation and that brings about the change.

The work that organisations like Level Up do to create change is incredible, I admire their efforts and your involvement too.

Before we let you go, are there any bands or artists that you recommend we check out?

I literally have the most basic taste in music. Basically, all I know is the Spice Girls, The Libertines, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Taylor Swift and McFly. I listen to my own band’s album sometimes too!

Thanks to Nadia for the chat!

Follow Nadia Javed on Twitter & Instagram

Watch her performance at EartH via WOW’s IGTV and YouTube channels

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: Robin And The Goblins – ‘Future Angel’

Having received acclaim from the likes of The 405 and Berlin In Stereo, Berlin based non-binary artist Robin Romo – aka Robin And The Goblins – has now shared a poignant new single.

Exploring themes of queer shame and alienation, ‘Future Angel‘ flows with a sweeping majestic splendour as Romo’s emotion-strewn vocals soar with a sparkling grace. Propelled by a raw, impassioned energy and swirling baroque-pop ambience, a truly stirring soundscape is created, oozing an immersive, twinkling musicality. Of the track, Romo explains:

“I wrote ‘Future Angel’ from the point of view of a guardian angel that comes to warn a kid about the dangers of isolating yourself; of course the child was me. One night I was walking home after a night out and went into a snowed-in graveyard. I fell asleep for a couple of hours and when I woke up to the sound of crows and white all around me, I thought maybe I’d died. Turns out I was just hungover, but that inspired the imagery in the song, which I like to describe as ‘Dickens meets synth-pop’.”

Listen to ‘Future Angel’ here:

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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Track Of The Day: Lily Konigsberg – ‘Sweat Forever’

‘Sweat Forever’, the latest single from Brooklyn born and based Lily Konigsberg, is beautiful, shimmering electronic pop. Konigsberg’s intimate vocals are buoyed by a gentle, jangly ’90s guitar, somewhat reminiscent of a Dawson’s Creek soundtrack (in the very best way!), and the sweetest melodies, which make this something really special.

Konigsberg said she wrote ‘Sweat Forever’ as she navigated the break-up of a long-term relationship and some big transitions in her life. But, while it’s bittersweet, there is so much lightness too. She said: “It’s mostly about the bad part of going through a huge change in your life and the confusion surrounding that. But now I’m in the good part, so there’s something to celebrate. Sweat on brother!“

It’s proper pop music – nostalgic and polished, which isn’t necessarily something you’d expect given Konigberg’s earlier, more guitar-based singles or their work with self-proclaimed “New York’s weirdest” post-punk trio, Palberta. However, it’s testament to the sheer range of her talents. I’m looking forward to hearing more of them on her forthcoming debut album, Lily We Need To Talk Now, which is due at the end of the month.

Lily Konigsberg’s debut album, Lily We Need To Talk Now, will be released on Wharf Cat Records on 29th October. It is available to pre-order here.

Vic Conway
@thepicsofvic

Photo Credit: Felix Walworth

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Five Favourites: The Ophelias

Having just released their new album, Crocus, Ohio band The Ophelias continue to charm our ears with their stirring, shimmering creations. Showcasing a dreamy, folk-strewn allure, each track on the album flows with a beautifully captivating emotion, rippling with a heartfelt ethereal splendour.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate their new album, we caught up with The Ophelias to ask about their “Five Favourites” – five albums that they love the most. Check out their choices below and scroll down to watch the unique new video for latest single, ‘The Twilight Zone’.

Joanna Newsom – The Milk Eyed Mender 
The first time I heard a Joanna Newsom song, I lay upside down with my head hanging off my bed, put it on repeat, and let my eyes well up and blood rush to my head. It was ‘Peach Plum Pear’ and it was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was such a clear moment of eye-opening world expansion that I can still feel the vivid, confusing excitement of learning that this music existed. I was sixteen, and immediately bought The Milk Eyed Mender in full. I stalked around my all-girls Catholic high school with Joanna Newsom in my ears and Docs on my feet, staring off into space in the library as she sang about dirigibles and fruit. I make music that sounds nothing like Joanna Newsom, partially because no one else can sound quite like her. But the poetry of her lyricism and fullness of her harp, alone and rich on this record, have absolutely influenced me and my songwriting. The harpsichord and chorus of voices singing “I am blue, I am blue and unwell” have never left my reference palette. The other Joanna Newsom records are fantastic – I especially love Have One On Me, in all its sprawling glory and drama. But The Milk Eyed Mender was the first album to change my life, and has influenced my taste and creative process greatly. 

Alex G – Trick
There’s nothing like a perfectly crafted, catchy song. Alex G has records worth of those, but Trick was my entry point. Freshman year of college is great for becoming friends with people, soaking up their music taste, and never seeing them again once your schedules change and welcome week ends. I’m grateful to the fellow freshman who put on ‘Mary’. The thing about Alex G songs is that they’re not revolutionary – guitar, bass, drums. But they’re so perfectly executed that they feel new. Most of Trick’s songs are short and to the point, so when he chooses to extend an outro or repeat a chorus it feels purposeful. I see that reflected in my songwriting – trying to be purposeful about extending things only if they need to be extended. The Ophelias as a whole have super varied music tastes, since we come from different backgrounds and approaches to music, but have all coalesced around Alex G. He makes songs that are sometimes accessible, sometimes experimental, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes silly. We can all find something we relate to or want to emulate in his work, since it covers so much ground. I graduated a couple years ago now, and Alex G has created songs beyond just guitar-bass-drums, but Trick holds a special place in my heart.

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless 
The first iteration of The Ophelias formed in high school, when Andrea and I were seniors and Mic was a junior. Jo grew up in Madison, WI, and they joined later, so at this point they were pulling pranks and applying to film school. Andrea and Mic played in another band together with friends of mine, which is actually how I met them both. That band was playing at a warehouse show that I booked, and in the middle of their set they burst into a cover of ‘When You Sleep’. I watched Andrea play the iconic melody line through fuzzed out, pedal-laden violin and was completely obsessed. I loved the song already, but hearing it in that new context made me rethink how violin could be intertwined into the songs I was writing. My Bloody Valentine is another band who we sound nothing like, but we all definitely take influence from. The layers of sound, the soft octaved vocals, and the unexpected use of items like vacuum cleaners are all exciting, specific sounds that have affected the creative choices we make. Loveless is a whole world within an album, something that sweeps you up into it. 

that dog. – Totally Crushed Out!
I’m not sure how I found this album – maybe the public library, maybe somewhere on my parents’ shelf – but I’m very happy I did. It appeared in my life one day and became the closest parallel to the music I currently make. ‘She Doesn’t Know How’ is one of my favourite songs of all time, and the way that this record bobs and weaves through more punk-inspired tracks and softer, violin-and-harmony focused songs inspired me to not only expand my songwriting to harder, faster places, but to also feel content and settled in softer songs. The violin acts as a second (or third) guitar in a lot of songs as well, sometimes carrying the melody line or engaging with the vocals. Andrea’s parts are extremely dynamic, and it’s always fun to watch her figure out ways to slide a harmony into a guitar chord or mimic a vocal line with her own twist. I started listening to Totally Crushed Out before I had a band at all, and originally didn’t think to name it as an influence. But as the songs evolved, I realised how much I wanted to emulate that dog., and how I had been moving towards that for a long time. 

Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do 
I struggled with which Fiona Apple album to include on this list. It came down to this one or Fetch the Bolt Cutters, which even though it only came out in 2020 left me reeling and full of new ideas for ways to stretch and evolve. But as I was re-listening to both that record and The Idler Wheel, I realised just how much of an impact The Idler Wheel has had on my creative process and decisions. Jo and I were obsessed with the ‘Hot Knife’ music video in college, watching it over and over again to see her avoid eye contact with the camera. Fiona Apple is a master of tension, building it up both in her voice and the piano as they caterwaul and thunder. Her records feel organic, like you can hear moving parts in the rooms where she recorded. Her lyrics are twisty and literate – she fits more into a single stanza than most say in a whole song. I try my hand at that every now and again, seeing what can fit in the container I’ve created for myself. But the other lyrical side that makes Fiona Apple so particularly gut-wrenching is when she forgoes the poetry and says it straight out, like “All that loving must have been lackin’ something / If I got bored trying to figure you out.”

Massive thanks to The Ophelias for sharing their ‘Five Favourites’ with us! Watch the new video for ‘The Twilight Zone’ here:

Crocus, the new album from The Ophelias, is out now via Joyful Noise Recordings. Buy it here.

Photo Credit:  Cam Whaley

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