Naked through life
I discovered the music of the Australian songwriter and singer Noemi
Liba thanks to her debut EP titled Freefall,
released in 2005. One of the songs included in it was Too late, but fortunately, in my case, it wasn’t because I was
enjoying the birth of a magnificent artist. A month ago, NAU NUA presented her
first album called See, saw, released
in 2012, in the article Face to face
beyond the corner, a description of my personal journey along her deeply
rich music and mainly, her intimate lyrics full of sensitivity. She’s the moon and the sand, the water and the
beach, the night and the daytime, always full of life.
Your debut album is
called SEE, SAW. Do you live so fast?
I
guess it is more that I live on the edge rather than in a space of safety. I
have never been one willing to conform to the kind of life that brings safety.
There have been times I wished I could! So SEE, SAW is a play on words I guess
– at once it is the child’s game where we go up and down in relation to one
another, up towards the sky, then down towards the ground, which I think is a
good metaphor for life. As well, it is about the observations of humanity that
I collect as I go– as in what I ‘SEE’ and what I ‘SAW’ when I wrote these tunes.
Dreams
are very present in all your songs. What about reality?
Yes, true! Dreams and reality are actually a continuum for me. I am
very fluid with these boundaries. Life for me is a dream we live in order to
work things out, understand the nature of things and delve a little deeper.
Australian Aboriginal People traditionally integrate their dreaming and living
and could access amazing knowledge this way. Scientists are still trying to
fathom how they do it. I have loved growing up and living amongst this ancient
and amazing culture.
In the song CARRY you sing "Too many eyes can't
see...two of my eyes can't see". How do you live that blindness?
Sometimes I have felt lost in the world
because what I see as so incredibly beautiful or so utterly important seem to
be squandered or destroyed by us humans. It breaks my heart and makes me feel
like I come from another version of reality. This song is referring to me
laying down this battle for a while. Sometimes people just don’t see. And
because I am also less than perfect, perhaps there are many things I just can’t
see. This tune was written after a long year of touring, in Australia, the
United States and then landing in the Middle East to rest and to write some
music. I was exhausted, needed to allow myself to be carried and to accept the
state of things for a while.
"I'm a lover, I want to love". It
sounds more like a need than a desire. There's no difference between need and
desire?
I do love and I do need to love. I
find love to be an essential state of being. It doesn’t mean I have to be in a
relationship – it means I want to love my friends, my family, my life, my
world. It is like a life force – without it, I feel stuck in mud. Of course,
loving in a relationship is an absolute gift and a desire of most of us. I am
no Buddhist – I think desire is a sensual spice. I guess I also love to desire!
What could we find in your personal MOON AND SAND?
Ohhhh… my personal MOON AND SAND is a place where the spectacular lives
in a whisper rather than a shout. And the sound and touch of the water and sand
are intimate and peaceful. It is a place where promises mean something and
sensuality is a way of being rather than a fleeting indulgence.
Do you
really think "Truth is often what it seems"?
Yes. Truth is relative. We close doors when we are so sure that we
completely ‘know’ something. Of course is important to have a commitment to our
opinions or understanding, but I always think we are best off to leave a little
question mark there, because maybe we have not got all the clues, or maybe we
are understanding things in a skewed or biased way. It is the condition of
people to see things through our own set of understandings, don’t you think?What
about the future?The future? No idea! I
believe my future contains making music, performing and making records and
raising my awesome young son. Having said that, the future often surprises me!
What
do you think a naked ship could be?
A
beautiful phrase! I almost think that trying to answer your question would be
to shout over the poetry of the word. I guess I relate to it as revealing yourself
as you journey in life. I think that is what art is – it peels back the layers
of concealment to the point that we can often only express these things in
abstract or spatial ways. It is probably also a good metaphor for the life of
an artist as well, where we seem to reveal so much about ourselves that it can
be quite like drifting naked through life.
Read also NOEMI LIBA | FACE TO
FACE BEYOND THE CORNER here
NOEMI LIBA VIDEOS here
An interview by Juan Carlos
Romero
Noemi Liba website www.noemiliba.com
Photo by Beowulf Sheehan
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