NURIA - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Written by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Tuesday 20th September 2022
Press photo by: Jack Robertissot
Tassie Indie-Pop Songstress is Done Apologising
Mum-of-three, part-time GP and songwriter Nuria is a woman with a lot of responsibilities, and as her latest single Fucking Your Style attests, she’s not about to start apologising for being herself. She spoke to SENSE from Hobart about the Tasmanian scene and juggling her music with being a doctor…
How long have you been a part of the music scene? How long have you been doing this?
I’ve been playing music for a long time. As far as “part of the music scene”, I’m intermittently part of the music scene. I actually haven’t been doing a lot live in the last sort of twelve months or so. I’m just in the process of getting together a band at the moment. I’ve been doing a lot of solo shows around MONA and various other bars around the place, and I’ve been involved in the Australian Songwriters Association kind of Tassie mob, which has been pretty good fun, yeah.
How would you describe the Hobart scene? What are some of the styles of music that you see as being really popular? And what are some of your favourite venues?
I must say, the scene is pretty bare-bones here, and I do miss that, in Hobart. It’s certainly got heaps of great musicians, but as far as a real kind of thriving music community, and support for emerging artists to sort of showcase their music, is not massive here, which is a bit tricky. We’ve got a bunch of really great venues, and MONA has been really great in supporting artists, and they are constantly having a high rotation of Tassie artists going through, which is really nice. Then, associated with that, there has been Altar and Hanging Garden and all of that kind of developed in the city, which has been really great for the music scene as well.
The latest single, Fucking Your Style, you’ve been sitting on that for a while. What kind of headspace were you in when you wrote it? What was going on in your life?
I wrote it a couple of years ago, and I guess, similar to all the music that I write, it usually starts with a feeling, and then the way that that is fleshed out into a song may reflect a specific situation at that time, but it can also kind of take inspiration from different moments and different parts of my life. With this song, I guess I was sort of at a point where I was just frustrated, and a bit fed up with this sense of always apologising for things, and there was this moment that I was in where I saw it from a different light, and I sort of felt like, “Actually, I can’t be fucked apologising for that anymore. That’s kind of how I am, and maybe that’s OK.” It was a really fun song to write. I’ve had some people touch base with me since I’ve released it, going, “Are you OK, Nuria?” [Laughs] I’m like, “Yes, I’m great!” … It was such a fun song to write, and was just a really good process.
One thing that really leapt out from your press release is that you are a part-time GP … Pardon me for being presumptuous here, but was music perhaps an escape from the rigours of that job?
It certainly helps with that. My love of music, and my habit of playing music, started pretty earnestly when I was in my teens. I never really felt like I necessarily had what it took in skills, or necessarily perseverance, to go anywhere big with my music, so I felt like a backup was a good idea. [Laughs] I’ve always loved the idea of doing medicine. So no, the music started before I started medicine, but then certainly continued throughout that, and I do find it continues to be a very helpful way of unpacking my emotions, and having that contrast to the sponge-type thing of going to work and taking on the problems of other people, and then having an opportunity to deal with my own shit in music [laughs] is quite nice. I do find that it kind of satisfies different parts of my brain.
Are your kids fans of your music?
[Laughs] They do. They really like my music. They sing along. [Laughs] I definitely swear around my kids far too much, and my six-year-old’s favourite songs are the ones where I’m swearing frequently. [Laughs]
I found myself hearing a bit of Amy Shark a bit in your later stuff. Who are some of your favourite Australian artists? I noticed you name-checked G-Flip in your press release.
It’s certainly a good call, and spot-on. I love Amy Shark. I love her music. Such a fan. She’s been one of my biggest influences over the last few years. Prior to that, probably my most long-standing Australian influence has been Missy Higgins, and I feel like she was really responsible for getting me into it in my teens. She was the soundtrack of those years for me, and playing her music, and kind of internalising those songs of hers, really allowed me to develop my own artistic expression and my own voice, and my passion for songwriting, and that very much came from that time. As far as, I think I mentioned G-Flip and Lorde, in this song, particularly, I’m hearing the voice of those other really powerful female artists, so they definitely added some influence and inspiration in this kind of music, yeah.
What are your plans for next year? I understand you’ve done two full-lengths. Have you got plans for another one?
Yeah, I’ve got it ready to go. I just need to get the process happening, get the timeline, and get it out there, yeah. I’m finding it an interesting time to be releasing music. It’s feeling like the industry is more saturated than ever, and it’s really, really hard to connect with media, with outlets, so part of me is sort of like, “I wonder if there is going to be a better time to release songs?” [Laughs] There probably won’t be, but I think there is just such an enormous volume of music being made at the moment that it’s pretty hard to get it heard.
One thing I did want to point out … I believe you said in your press release that “I’m not cool in the slightest.” I kind of beg to differ. Someone who can do the music that you can do, while also being a mum, and also being a part-time doctor, give yourself some fucking credit, woman!
Aw, dude, thank you!
Though you did use Papyrus font on your latest single artwork, which as a graphic designer, made me go “ugh!” But other than that … [Laughs]
[Laughs] My cousin, who’s my usual graphic designer, she did pull me up on my font use there, so I probably had that one coming! [Laughs]
Fucking Your Style is out now.