As London Calling is coming up end of the month, we're bringing you a London Calling feature introducing fresh new sounds as a warm up for the festival. Nimmo is a five piece group from the North West of London, mainly led by the extraordinary and exciting vocals of Sarah Nimmo and Reva Gauntlett. Over a cup of tea on a Wednesday afternoon they opened up their musical doors and gave me a sneak peak of what it's like to be musicians in the London scene.
Genre: Gloomy synthpop
Location: Skyping from Reva's living room to Mandy's living room
Soundtrack interview: Reva's cat concert until they locked the cat out of the room
Does living in London influence your sound?
Sarah: London definitely influences our sound, especially lyrically I'd say our style of vocals are quite British. London hasn't influenced us in its tempo of the city, but more in its atmosphere and attitude. These key elements are what we like to translate in our music.
How do you girls complement each other?
Reva: Our vocals are really different but they can sound the same sometimes. I think they work well together. We've been writing music since we were 15 years old and so our vocals have grown and developed together. It's got this sound now, which we wouldn't have got when we just met.
Sarah: My voice has learned to compensate and under compensate in places and Reva's voice likewise in order for us to work as one voice.
Was it a conscious development or just how it happened?
Sarah: No, not conscious at all. It has just grown from playing together for a really long time and you only start theorizing these things when people notice you both have the style or sound a certain way together. Or they would say: “this sounds better when you sing it together”. We realize we have become really compatible, just because of how much we've sung together.
How would you describe the dynamics in your band?
Reva: At the moment we are together every day, for about 10 hours, since we're writing an album. But it's alright, it takes a while but you get used to when to back down and to go for a walk and take a couple of minutes to think. It's all good. We're old friends as well so we're used to it.
Can you describe your recording process?
Reva: Right now it's a process where we're doing it all live. We've done the complete opposite as well before, where we tried putting all sounds through computers one by one. There's something that gets lost when you record one sound at the time and you aren't playing with other people. When someone is pointing out it's losing energy, you need to keep that.
Other then each other, who would you like to sing a duet with?
Sarah: Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac's lead singer) should do. MØ would be fun, she's a Danish artist with an amazing attitude. Whether or not you're into the genre of music, she's got an amazing voice and I admire her style of writing with its hooks and melodies.
Reva: I'd like to work with Syd Tha Kyd, the lead singer of the band The Internet. She's got an amazing voice and is a really good producer as well. I think something cool could come from that. We both like Little Dragon a lot, although we don't think a duet with lead singer Yukimi Nagano would work.
Describe an average day of your fan
Sarah: I like to think of someone that knows how to have a good time listening to our music. Someone that doesn't take it all too seriously, however has a bit of a sentimental side. I like the romantic image that all fans are like that, but maybe that's just how I wish I was.
In your music video “Change” we see a young child putting on make-up.
Did you ever do that as a child and what did that look like?
Sarah: It was the actress and model Agyness Deyn that directed the video. It was all her concept and idea. I can't say I can't relate to the little girl, however unfortunately you could find me in a football kit or a Batman outfit.
Reva: I was in a football kit or a Power Ranger.
Girls: You should've asked us to wear make-up now, but that's maybe somethin' for Halloween.
Which other band from London should we give a listen?
Reva: The problem with us is when you're writing music you're just so out of what's going on elsewhere. I'm gonna admit I'm really late in the game of Wolf Alice. I've been listening to their stuff last week, they are from North London and they're cool. I'm sure there's millions more.
Showtime: Nimmo at London Calling Festival, Paradiso Amsterdam,
November 1st 2014.