Núria Graham

From another point of view

Núria Graham

Núria welcomes us to her home in Barcelona. She is a singer-songwriter and Catalan, from Vic, with Irish roots on her father's side and Cordovan roots on her mother's side.

So far he has released three albums, and he has lost count of the exact number of concerts, but at least more than 300. Poetry inspires him to compose songs and every day he finds time to play the guitar. We talked about the solitary life of the music world, and, although when we ask her about it she thinks about it for a while, she couldn't name a favourite concert or audience, as she finds something to enjoy in everyone. You can follow her closely on her Instagram.

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NT - What/who introduced you to the world of music?

NG - I think my first influence was my parents, everything they listened to at home. They are not musicians but they have always liked it a lot, and since I was little I hummed everything I heard. My father always sang to me before going to sleep and I think I have this in my subconscious somehow. Later, when I was about 13 years old, I realised that I didn't know how to express myself very well and that's how I started to express myself by writing songs. I had been playing the guitar for years but I didn't really get the hang of it until I used it to compose songs.

NT - What musical references did you have in your childhood and youth?

NG - When I was a child I listened to a lot of traditional Irish music, as well as groups like Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, The Pretenders, Bjork, U2, Robert Johnson and a lot of blues. Then I went through a stage of adolescence of listening to everything on the radio, and when I was 14 or so I became very interested in the world of jazz and a huge world opened up for me, and that's when I decided to get "serious" about singing.

NT - What message do you want to convey?

NG - I have the feeling that I have the answers but not the questions, by making music I try to find this, the questions for the answers that I have inside me. And that's what I want to transmit. My music for me is like my way of expressing myself and searching for myself. It is something almost spiritual.

NT - How do you feel when an audience spends a certain amount of time listening to you?

NG - A lot of good feelings, obviously. The audience has a very important fundamental role in music. It's a reciprocal thing. When you play, the audience is giving you something, when I'm improvising something live, it's thanks to the vibrations of that audience, that place... it creates something magical and unrepeatable. It's difficult to explain but it's a wonderful feeling.

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NT - Who would you like to collaborate with? Even if it's not in a musical format.

NG - I'm interested in all kinds of disciplines, lately I'm really into radio stuff and I love talking to people not just about music but about anything. I've realised that I love talking. I also love writing. I've always written things apart from my music, I wouldn't consider it poetry or anything, I just write to get things out of my head.

NT - Where would you like your music to reach/sound and where would you like to play?

NG - I love going places, getting to know the people, the landscapes, the food, everything. I would love my music to take me to all these places that I haven't been to yet and that I have to go to. Whether it's to a village in the Basque Country or New Zealand.

NT - Which of the songs you have composed do you feel most proud of/identify with?

NG - It's hard to say, I feel identified right now with the new songs I'm doing at home, but of the ones I've done, I think it's "Bird Hits its Head against the wall". the lyrics say "baby i'm just waiting for time to pass" and this phrase I think unfortunately represented me at the time I wrote it.

NT - What will we find on your next albums?

NG - To the Nuria of today, who I don't even know what she is! I want to experiment and do new things.

NT - What are you currently listening to?

NG - Lots of things, right now I'm really into the new Blood Orange album. The other day in Naples I bought a record by Fabrizio de André which is amazing.

NT - Do you have any recent musical discoveries that you've really enjoyed?

NG - Right now I'm thinking of the rapper Noname, who blew me away when I discovered her. I highly recommend her!

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NT - Can you recommend a book?

NG - For poetry, anything by Edna St Vincent Millay. And for novels... the other day I read Demian by Herman Hesse and I loved it. And of something new like that, "Crezco" by Ben Brooks, a super young guy who has a style that's a bit like a twenty-first century Salinger, very funny.

NT - Can you recommend a restaurant?

NG - I've been a few days in Naples, I recommend you to go there to eat the best pizza in the world.

NT - Can you recommend a film?

NG - It's difficult because I don't watch a lot of films. I love Jackie Brown and Pulp fiction for example. What soundtracks. I also loved Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch, and Coffee and Cigarettes (the part of the conversation between Tom Waits and Iggy Pop is brutal).

NT - Can you recommend a place?

NG - Connemara, on the west coast of Ireland. It is my spiritual home.

NT - When would you wear the clothes you are wearing in the photos?

NG - To go everywhere. For God's sake, I can't get rid of my green jumper. My new favourite piece of clothing.

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