Artist Name: Nessa P
Location: San Francisco, California
EP Title: Only Love
Release Date: 5/14/24(tentative)
Genre(s): Indie Electronic
FFO: Purple Disco Machine, John Summit, Fred Again
Track-by-Track:
“Only Love”
“This song is about love, plain and simple. I wanted to capture the feeling of processing the tough emotions that come with difficult moments in relationships. Whether they are between lovers, family, or friends. We endure tough times, times when only love can help us through. Times when we should not take action, nor have reaction, but to let these times pass, and to act and walk in love. Sometimes this may be something those in the relationship are going through together, or it may be conflict between two in a relationship. Either way, this song is about giving up control to love! Processing those hard feelings can be painful, or hurtful. It is when we are processing these emotions we can make situations worse and hurt people. I think maturity comes from knowing that all emotions are fleeting, it is important to walk in kindness, and to take time to think things through.” At a later point in the production”
“Only love came out of nowhere, one day I was stuck on a dance track, and writers block set in. I was at my studio when I called my boyfriend and told him we should go grab a drink. We went out to a couple bars, and had some great conversation, some of it centered around how far we’ve come together, then we headed back to the studio. I kept thinking about our conversation, how long we’ve been together, and how we’ve learned to work together. I realized that a lot of times we relied on taking no action during tough times. We learned to let those things pass and that has been a huge life lesson for me. When I got back, I had this phrase in my head “only love can save us.”
The proverbial lightbulb went off in my head and I was on fire. I immediately went into the booth, and said I was gonna wing the lyrics, and I did. They are super raw, and do not rhyme, but they just work. Later, Kahsii Autamese came to the studio and I asked her to jump on this track. We didn’t have a lot of time, so we did a little call and response type vocal where she sang one line and I sang another. She didn’t know that was what was going to happen, but I had to get her on the track, she has such an amazing voice, but we are currently cookin’ up some good good for you all, that will be coming a little further down the road.
Instrumentally, the focus was sort of nu-disco house, but as it goes I tend to get away from things a bit, I felt I was close, the Piano was the foundation of the track, I was using Arturia sounds, then I layered on some bass lines, and I muffled them up real nice with some sound treatment foam. I recorded that live off an orange amp with an SM57. Then I started layering percussion instruments. Next, I worked with the mini moog from UA, and layered that with a Dave Smith’s Mopho X4 Synth direct input. The song is pretty simple from a composition point of view,
(Gotta) Do This
“Gotta do this was a simple song that Chuck TZ put a chord progression down for, and again I took it from there, it is the only song where there is no live guitar or bass on the track. I used a sub bass, and a simple synth with an arpeggiator placed on it. I had some lyrics that I had written a long time ago that seemed to, not only come to mind, but to seem to fit when I was composing this song.”
“The song is about depression, and the freedom that comes with letting it all out. But it’s also about having someone in your life that you can be vulnerable with, and share those parts of you, that for the first time you feel safe, like you have a place where you not only belong, but where you also feel safe to express yourself. It’s really something special to have someone in your life who really gets you and shares all of life’s ups and down with you. Someone who won’t judge you, or use your trust against you, a true partner. ”
“Dance (All Night)”
“Dance all night is just an amazing song, it is like everything to me at the moment. It is somewhat simple, but can put you into a trance. This song makes me happy, and reminds me of all those times I got the opportunity to dance with the person I love all night long! And the times further in the past that I got to enjoy the late night with friends without care. More than anything It really embodies a lot of the time I have spent in San Francisco these past three years. I have had a lot of fun in other cities, but there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like San Francisco. The people, the night life, the EDM community, the absolute joy in life that is available here is something to be thankful for. I have made amazing friends, and a community in a place that I never thought I would be in a million years. The people of this city are abundantly kind, and radiate both inner and outer beauty. I have had the most outlandish adventures here, and have shared some amazing shows with people I love. I could imagine Dancing all night to this song in the City.”
“When it comes to the composition of this piece, we started with some piano. Chuck TZ laid down the skeleton of the track on piano, and I sort of took it from there. I immediately laid down some bass, a lot of Mark Ronson influence on this track, and the whole EP, but I had just got off a long trip where I binge watched his BBC Maestro and soaked up everything he had to say, and couldn’t wait to put it into practice. So I just kept layering drums, and then I hopped on my guitar when I was all alone, and the guitar loop just came super easily, I did one take, and set the telecaster down, I needed to go home and think.
I tried super hard to put words to this, I had a lot of stuff people liked, but I finally put my foot down and said no I am not going to force this, I am going to let the people vibe to this one! The end of this song just kills me. It’s wild and crazy and imperfect, and just brings you on those ups and downs with it. This song means a lot to me, because it is just a feel good track, I just want people to have good times with this track! I want them to experience those transitions, and go on that roller coaster. We don’t always need words in songs to get what its all about, sometimes there is more connection in that style of expression. Words are overrated, I would know, I have been ruined, punished, and betrayed words more than once.”
“Tokyo Games”
“‘Tokyo games’ means a lot to me for several reasons. It is about a person’s idea of a place that is so foreign to them, it’s just so different from where they are from, and what they know. They have this idealistic, and stereotypical version of this place in their head that is almost like a “grass is always greener” kind of vibe. A place that you have never visited can seem like an escape, or a dream, if you’ve never been there. For me, one of those places is Tokyo, Japan. I have never been to Tokyo, and I have always wanted to go there, as long as I can remember at least. When the pandemic happened, the world had their eyes on Tokyo, because they hosted the Olympic games that never happened that year. It was like the universe was playing games with us. There was no way for me to go places I’d never been to, to get stamps in my passport, or move beyond the daydream. ““The Tokyo Games were another unfulfilled promise of 2020, they never happened. The escape that we could have had exchanged hands with our day dreams”“During the pandemic times we were a generation without a war or without an epic social movement like the salons of the great enlightenment, or the free love era of the 60s. Yet, we still went underground and broke rules to do it in our dystopian reality. Still, most of us stayed home and dealt with it in isolation. The lyrics are about a person thinking about traveling the world during the pandemic, knowing the greater forces of the world are against them, and they have to settle for a daydream. The subject starts to muse about the world in its current state, thinking that this generation would have a gap that could not be filled. This generation would lose something, if not just time, and not to some tragic war, or wild drug filled binge, but to isolation, and we were left to our own devices; alone inside our minds!“
“I feel like this song is sort of the unsung hero of this EP. I borrowed some records from a friend to practice making samples after being inspired by Mark Ronson. I had a lot of good stuff in that pile, but this record had my attention. It was some 60s tourism record that was intended to show westerners, or people around the world, what Japan was like. I recorded some samples and rushed the records back to him. I always had it in the back of my mind that I would do something with that record. It was just too thought provoking, and I was just flowing with ideas. I really needed to just give it time to settle. So, I was in the studio working with Chuck TZ, and he laid down this wild lead that made me think of those samples I made months and months ago. When he left I went to work, and produced the rest of the song. The lyrics just came out quick and easy. I didn’t even have time to think about curating a sound. I just had fun and played with it. We spent a few hours on this song at most, and the rest is history.
“I think the part I really connected to was the beginning of the record where the woman says, ‘This is Tokyo…’ and so on, because it really embodied that feeling I had during the pandemic of being dictated what places I day dreamed about would be like. It just fully embodied that feeling of what I felt during the pandemic about adventures to places I had not been to, and didn’t know when I’d get the chance again.”
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About Nessa P
Journeying from the sun-kissed realms of California, Nessa P is an electronic force to be reckoned with, channeling the heart and soul of ODESZA and the vibrant rhythms akin to Kygo. Each song she crafts is not just music but a heartfelt narrative. Influenced by the enigmatic beats of Flume, the jubilance of David Guetta, and the unapologetic exuberance of Diplo, her tracks are playful yet profound, a true reflection of her artistic spirit.
From her roots in California to the global stage, Nessa P’s music evolution is a tale of passion and perseverance. It all began with an encounter at the age of 14—an unexpected brush with dance music that ignited a lifelong passion. This love eventually converged with the inspirations she absorbed from her surroundings, birthing the unique Nessa P sound.
Through her recent tracks, she delves into themes of love, adventure, and self-discovery, encapsulating the raw emotions that many of us experience but often find hard to articulate. For those just meeting Nessa P, she’s an artist, producer, engineer, and multi-instrumentalist and somehow deftly juggling these various roles out of her studio in the Bay Area of California. As a writer, she spotlights under-recognized talent; as a teacher, she passes knowledge to working-class students. In her studio, she collaborates with rising artists and produces genre-fluid original tracks. Through her multifaceted industry involvement, Nessa lives authentically while uplifting her community.
Be it through her vibrant beats or compelling backstory, Nessa’s invitation is clear: join the journey, feel the rhythm, and become part of the tale she weaves. If you’re here for the music, her tracks will draw you in with passages of vulnerability and defiant resilience. If you’re here for the stories behind each song, you’ll discover someone chasing dreams without compromise. Wherever your entry point, with Nessa P you’re in for an experience that authentically captures the emotional spectrum of being human.
