Noa Lauryn, an Amsterdam-born artist, blends smooth R&B and funky Soul with captivating melodies and personal lyrics. Raised by musician parents, her sound is reminiscent of Anderson .Paak, Mahalia, and Lianne La Havas. She gained attention in 2020 and has since released her debut album "coin collection" featuring notable artists like Candy Dulfer. Noa's energetic live shows and new single "Ringing with Love" showcase her evolving musical journey. Before the session with her band, the Incredibles, at Hidden Gem Studio in Amsterdam, we had a moment to reflect on her creative process, shaping her sound, and exciting news.
I'm Noa Lauryn and tonight I'm here with my band. They're called The Incredibles. And the show tonight, it's a mix of some newer music like my latest single, but also some classics that we've been playing for years. Last year, we really worked on our live arrangements, so now this is going to be very different from the record.
How do you feel in this current chapter of your life, in your music, in your art?
I feel really good about this chapter actually because so last year I released my debut album called Coin Collection and it got picked up really well. It's been streaming really well and we did some super cool
shows last year and now I'm working on a lot of new music and I feel like I'm starting to get an audience that's gonna receive the new music as well and I'm trying to collaborate with new songwriters and producers so that's really exciting for me collaborating with a lot of new people and I'm planning another release in the spring so working towards that.
How would you describe the sound of Noa Lauryn?
Yeah, so it's definitely derived from soul and neo soul. I grew up listening to artists like D'Angelo, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu. But I wouldn't say it's the same sound. I really feel like neo soul was a very specific era in time and
I'm not trying to recreate that sound. I'm just trying to borrow things from it like some vintage sounds and groove is definitely the most important element in my music. We want people to headbop when we play. Yeah, so I'm also trying to mix it with the new technologies that we have available now and trying to get it sounding a little bit more crisp and a little bit more modern and even electronic sometimes. Like modern soul. I'm looking for a term actually to describe it that's not neo soul. There should be a new term for soul nowadays. Like what Anderson .Paak is doing, what Mahalia is doing, Cleo Sol... it comes from there, but it's not the same. So I feel like we need a new term.
Tijmen de Nooy Photography
Is there a message you’d like to convey in your music?
I always try to empower people with my music in the way that I'm writing about vulnerable things, painful things, as well as happy things. And in my music, I think I try to convey that it's all part of your journey and it's
all a chance to grow. So everything you experience, even if you're ashamed or if it was really painful, try not to push it away. I try to write
about it myself and sing about it. And I think the message in the end
is always like, you're going to be stronger for it and you're stronger
than you think. That's kind of what I tell myself and what I try to tell the audience as well.
What’s in store for Noa Lauryn in the near future?
Yeah, this summer I'm doing a few cool festivals. In Amsterdam I'm playing Grachtenfestival for example in August. I'm very excited to take my band and do some shows in the summer. And then the fall I'm really gonna take for that EP to finish for the spring. And yeah, also when that's finished I'm just gonna go on and collaborate also with more international artists. I've been in touch with some producers from the UK and from Italy and Germany actually. As well as some new friends of friends in Amsterdam that I'm starting to collaborate with. So I'm just really excited to broaden my group of collaborators and musical friends to make new stuff with.
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