FROM FORMATION TO PRESERVATION

Nadia Reid has made good on the promise of her debut album and ahead of a run of Australian shows she talks with Chris Familton about the emotional investment in her new release Preservation.

Avoiding the much talked about second album syndrome is a big thing, given that it has unraveled the potential of many a burgeoning songwriter. Nadia Reid has convincingly cast it aside on her new album, going into its songwriting and recording with positivity and a conviction born from her experiences of the last few years.

“The main thing with this record is that I felt I had more confidence, time had passed and there was a new level of assuredness in whether I felt that I could make a new record,” she states. “When I first made Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs I had been playing live for what seemed like a while but when you do something for the second or third time it all begins to be more familiar. Also, with this album there was more of what I wanted in there. The first one was less of that in a way.”

Reid chose the name Preservation “once the album was finished” and agrees that it refers to preservation of ones self and soul, romantic spirit and self-determination, before adding “this one is about preserving a moment in time, that’s why I choose to have those portraits on my album covers because essentially that is me from 2014-2016, who I was, what I looked like and what I was feeling, so it was one of those things where it felt immediately right to give it that name.”

The influence and role of geographical locations, cities and countries, plays a big part in Reid’s songwriting, both in her songs and the places where she writes.

“I think place plays into my writing for sure. I often associate songs with places that they were written in and that are meaningful to me and that are often not very meaningful to anyone else. Place is a huge part of my songwriting process,” she reiterates. “I’ve moved around a lot in NZ and I find travelling very inspiring and I find touring very good for writing, not immediately, but eventually it helps. It’s a huge part in unlocking the ability to write and access the flow. It’s certainly not a tap and not here all the time,” she reveals.

With increased touring and the comfort that comes with regular gigs, Reid has lost some of the raw on-stage emotion that she felt at the start of her career. It’s something she misses but the magic still reappears to remind her of the deeply personal connection she has to her songs.

“I think there’s a disconnect now. Early on I’d feel it quite a lot on stage and I’d really love it and I kind of need that and I’m waiting of that to come back. Because I’ve been playing a lot in the last two years there’s no way you can play a song every night for twenty nights in a row without starting to disconnect and you can’t avoid that. Sam [Taylor, guitarist] and I will sometimes play a song we haven’t played in ages or play a song differently and we totally feel it and that just happens randomly.”