I am completely intoxicated my Naomi Westwater’s music: adventurous songs that refuse to be limited by genre, pulling from jazz, reggae, folk, Laurel Canyon rock, and freak-folk. (You can hear some of her music on our brand new featured playlist Tuesday Teardrops!) I was lucky enough to catch up with Westwater before her star rockets upward with the release of her EP Feelings in September.
The EP started as a single day of recording; as a graduate fellow at Berklee College of Music she had a few hours in the studio available. Wanting to record something with a little more substance, she and the band decided to work on a song about climate change, a song about chronic pain and also a song about racism and being multi-racial in America. Realizing there was time for one more, they added in a cover of the Billie Holiday jazz standard “Strange Fruit.” And suddenly things shifted.
Naomi wrote “Americana” while studying abroad in Rio de Janeiro. “Brazil has a high population of multi-racial people, and so it was very normal for me to be multi-racial and often people mistook me for Brazilian and were shocked when I told them I was American,” she says. “It was the first time in my whole life that I felt, racially, like I belonged. This song is me reckoning with what it means to be multi-racial in America when one of my racial identities is actively oppressing the other.”
“There are a lot of layers and subtexts happening, there’s a lot of self-hate and self-acceptance simultaneously,” she continues. “For the majority of history in America, our culture has separated Black and white people, and created a hierarchy, so in this song I ask the listener, I ask my country, ‘What am I to you?’ How can a Black and white person exist in a society that has tried to separate Blackness and whiteness for centuries?”
Naomi grew up on Cape Cod, MA, where she never quite felt like she fit in. “I felt ostracized throughout my entire youth, but I also felt that I never fully fit in Black spaces either.”
Growing up, her parents played reggae every Sunday afternoon — loudly with the windows open — along with jazz, funk, classic rock, and a healthy dose of ‘70s feminist folk like Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro. These influences can be heard throughout her music, along with Naomi’s own eclectic influences creeping in, ranging from artists who combine folk with big instrumentation, like Wilco and Ray LaMontagne, to other queer artists like Lady Lamb and Sarah Jaffe, as well as varying vocal stylings of artists including Valerie June and Ella Fitzgerald.
What’s the first concert you ever attended? What do you remember about it?
My mom took me with her to see Bonnie Raitt – I think in 1994 or 95 – at a venue formerly called Great Woods in Massachusetts. I was maybe 4 years old? It was summer, and I just remember sitting on a blanket by the grass. It’s not a profound moment, but a pleasant one, and who knows, maybe it inspired something in me.
Explain the title of your album.
Feelings is just that, all the things I’ve been feeling about race, and climate change, and my chronic illness, and the possibility of a life after death. Feelings is a reminder that the political is personal – these subjects affect me, and I can’t talk about them without feeling something deep down.
Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
Every song is different! Some songs start with a phrase that I repeat over and over again while I’m walking. Other songs sort of spill out complete all at once. Some are from poems or free writes, others are inspired by a chord progression. Sometimes I just sit down by my keyboard, or guitar, or DAW and start playing around, and lyrics magically pop out of my head. It keeps songwriting very exciting to do it a little differently each time.
What is your vision for a more just music industry?
It’s the same vision I have for the world: no capitalism and no supremacy. The industry is designed so that at every turn someone is making money off the artist – that’s capitalism, and it’s also designed with all of these hierarchies that bring along sexism, and racism, and ableism, and ageism – that’s supremacy. We need to value art beyond how much money it can make us, and we need to value the people who make art, even if they’re not making money. The act of creating is sacred; it should be treated as such and accessible to all.
Where are some places you’ve found joy within the country/Americana world?
When I have the opportunity to play music and make art with other musicians and artists it brings me GREAT joy, BIG joy, HUG JOY! I love learning from others, and being around people who respect music. And I get a lot of joy from the audience, to be vulnerable in front of strangers and have them receive it is so very powerful.
Feelings will be available on September 3rd.
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