This year has been nothing short of explosive for Montreal-based artist Neomi. Her singles “Tables” and “Dangerous” have garnered the alt-pop songstress an evergrowing amount of success. The Canadian artist kicked off the year by releasing “Tables” in January 2019, a single about an on-again-off-again relationship, emotional turmoil, and a rollercoaster of feelings, Neomi showed no signs of slowing down. She was swiftly back in the studio working on her next piece. Release August 9, 2019, “Dangerous” did not only grasp the listener’s ears with the expressive soundscape and lyrics, but it completely captured audiences because Neomi dropped a matching music video at the very same time.
The visuals match the song’s sentiment perfectly with empowering scenes overflowing with Neomi’s confidence. “Dangerous” is uplifting in the most chaotically beautiful way. The video has amassed more than 5k views on Youtube alone. Not only this but Neomi has gained herself over 5k monthly listeners on Spotify and has only been active for a short time. With three singles out now, (“Body on Body”, 2018) Neomi is quickly on the rise and recently wrapped production on her debut album, expected to be released in 2020.
Listen to Neomi’s music here!
Welcome to BuzzMusic Neomi! Great to be able to chat with you, thanks for the interview! What can you tell us about the overall concept of your debut single “Body on Body”?
First of all, thank you for having me on BuzzMusic again! I'm excited to do this with you guys. So a bit before Body on Body was released, I was working on a couple of different songs and I was going back on forth on what I wanted the first single to be. When I'm making music some songs just feel better than others when listening to them in their full production and so after finishing the production on Body and listening to it for a few weeks, I found myself gravitating towards it. I knew I wanted the first release to be uptempo and representative of the place that I was in my life at the time so Body was really fitting for that.
“Tables” was an incredibly versatile and catchy track. Where did you draw the inspiration to create this particular type of sound?
Thank you so much! I feel like what I wrote about in Tables is one of those situations and feelings we've all either been in or experienced in some sort of way. I was in this very one-foot-in one-foot-out situation going on during the writing of this and I got to a point where I didn't know exactly what I was feeling or how to express my current state of mind. I sat down to write this song and to kind of see what would come out and what came out was Tables.
How would you say that “Dangerous” compares to the kind of music you curated when you first started out as an artist?!
Interestingly enough Dangerous was actually the first song I wrote from everything I've released so far. I wrote Dangerous maybe like 3 or 4 years ago and it was the first single I had that was fully produced; the rest of my songs followed after. I held onto Dangerous for a while because I wanted to introduce my sound with some versatility first (more uptempo for Body and then a more melancholic feel for Tables) and by the time Dangerous was released, it felt like it fit into and help further establish my sound as an artist.
You were so captivating in your music video! What was the concept behind the music video for “Dangerous”? How was the filming process for you?
Thank you! For the Dangerous video, my director Chris Kells and I wanted to show the three major stages in a relationship in the way that I've experienced them. The first bit of the video shows an all-white, dreamy, untouched and virginal type of aesthetic which represented the beginning stages of a relationship; everything is super new and they're more or less no problems, it's just very blissful. Then going into the red scene, I wanted to represent the highest of emotions in the best and worst way at the same time; these were all fiery and explosive feelings in my mind like anger, lust, and all that jazz. The last blue-themed scene with the waterfall was my way of visually representing cleansing yourself from the toxicity of a relationship after getting out of it. I come out of the water with my makeup running and stuff (it's a miracle my false lashes stayed mostly intact during this part haha) which is how one might feel coming out of a rollercoaster relationship: a little roughed up but coming out stronger on the other side. The hair, makeup (done by Gabbie McGuire) and wardrobe choices (styled by Janice Katsof) were also specifically chosen to help further communicate what these scenes were each trying to get across. The filming process was honestly the most fun day of my life. It was an 18-hour shoot so it was very long but very fun. I had amazing people on set with me that I was working with as well as friends and family who came to support me. It was just a very fun day with a lot of love all around. I feel very lucky to have gotten to experience that.
Do you prefer the more intimate recording process over live performance? How do you personally feel when you're performing your music live?
I think both are so different. I'm an introvert at heart so by starting out with songwriting in my own space by myself I was able to really experiment with my sound and get comfortable with it before bringing it to the studio. The studio was a lot of fun. I got to try out different types of sounds and bounce ideas back and forth with my producer, Kevin Jardine. Performing live gives you such a rush and seeing people react to your songs right in front of you is very cool. Performing live also helps you distinguish your strong songs from your weaker ones. You can write a song and think it's the best song in the world and then you play it live and nobody's into it and the energy's just meh. Live shows help you see what songs people react to more which is awesome. So to answer the question, I think I prefer live performances just because I love getting to share my music with people face-to-face.
It was great having you here on BuzzMusic once again! What’s can you tell us about your upcoming album?
It was great doing this interview with you guys, thanks for having me! My upcoming album is going to be released in March 2020 and I'm super excited! I've been working on this album for at least 3 years, if not a little bit over 3 years, and these songs are so special to me. I'm really excited to put them out and see how people react to them. I feel like I'm sharing all the different sides of who I am. It'll be cool to put it out there and see if people can relate to it - or to see if they hate it, or love it, or whatever. I'm ready for all the reactions haha.
@thisisneomi