Interview Nectar Woode: “I don’t want to just make the easy breezy positive songs”

“I feel like people are discovering me through [2024 EP] ‘Head Above Water’, and then they realise that I’ve done ‘Good Vibrations’ before, and they’re connecting the dots,” Nectar says. “I’m very happy with that though, because it’s the most honest thing that I could introduce myself with.”

Less than a year since that last release, she’s now poised to follow it up with her new project, ‘It’s like I never left’ - and, as we sit down to chat in a Brighton coffee shop amid the chaos of The Great Escape, she buzzes with excitement at the prospect of debuting new song ‘Ama Said’ on tonight’s setlist. “It’s [about] wisdom you take from all the female figures you have in your life,” she says, explaining that she wrote it from the perspective of her younger sister. Recording it was a family affair, too: the titular Ama herself is on backing vocals, while their dad can be heard on sax.

Celebrating the women in her life has long been important to Nectar. She found her all-female band, who are joining her onstage tonight, through various jams and Instagram DMs as she gradually built up her community in London. “When you’re a female musician you kind of note each other down, because there aren’t that many!” she laughs. “You’re like, ‘oh, you’re a good egg, I’ll keep you in mind’.”

Family and identity are central themes on ‘It’s like I never left’, which adopts a slightly heavier mood than her previous outings. “I don’t want to just [make] the easy breezy positive songs,” she says, in reference to her existing material. “I love making that kind of music because it makes me feel good, and it makes the audience feel good, but I wanted to have deeper messages as well.”

Some of those questions found answers on a trip to Ghana with her dad in February, an event that became something of a narrative pillar for the EP - and is, indeed, the inspiration for its title. “It was me going to the place I was talking about originally with Jordan, and feeling instantly accepted,” she gushes. “All my anxiety washed away. I just felt like I was home.”

Ghana was where she penned two more EP tracks (‘Light As A Feather’ and ‘Lose’) with Ghanaian group SuperJazzClub, and was where she felt she finally understood her attachment to the country. It was also where she was when Elton John picked up the phone.

“They prep you about 15 minutes before,” Nectar recalls of her appearance on his Rocket Hour show, having only just landed from her flight. “I’m thinking ‘the producer’s gonna call me back’, but it’s literally Elton John just there like ‘hi’, and my dad’s in the corner asking ‘is that actually Elton John?’ It was crazy.”

Between travelling to Ghana and becoming pals with Elton - not to mention a “starstruck” turn on Later… with Jools Holland - Nectar’s year is already racking up the pinch-me moments. And, as she heads into a new era with this EP, it’s with the glowing excitement that she’s only just getting started.

‘It’s like I never left’ is out on 18th July via RCA/Since 93. 

Tags: Features, Interviews, June 2025, Nectar Woode