"There are so many different things you can do with music," says singer/songwriter Nadia Kazmi, and if a consensus were to be gleaned from her debut, appropriately titled Arrival, that'd be a good one. Through the album's diverse incarnations of rock, pop and distinctive shades of soul, Kazmi reflects the spectrum of her influences and creative range. In so doing, she also bears out her versatility as a vocalist, affecting both subtlety and raw power with unassuming confidence.
And yet the crux of Arrival, and for that matter the crux of the artist, lay in a resonance of lyrical expression. With considered, well-crafted lines of imagery and metaphors, Kazmi evokes a rare sense of emotional purpose that makes her music all the more compelling.
You have a particular appreciation for lyrics. Where does that come from?
I think it’s because I started writing lyrics first. I’ve always written poetry. When I was five years old, I wrote a poem and, while my parents were out and I was with the babysitter, I recorded [it] on top of one of my mom’s favorite cassette tapes of another artist. She put it in one day and she was like, “What is this?” So I was quite creative when I was that young even… Another reason I concentrate on lyrics a lot is that many of my family members are poets. They write poetry in Urdu, which is my mother’s mother tongue. It’s the major language of Pakistan. My uncle and my grandfather are both published poets. I’m not saying it’s necessarily an innate ability. I don’t necessarily believe in innate abilities.
But you grew up around people who appreciated language.
When I was five I don’t think I had read or heard any poetry by any of my family members, but I chose that vehicle as my expression. It was immediate and automatic in some way.
You also have a great appreciation for Leonard Cohen and his songwriting.
He’s my favorite artist of all time…Actually, for my next album I’m doing Leonard Cohen songs. I know it’s been done before many times, but I’m trying to do something a little more interesting because I’m going to infuse it with that rock/soul element that I have for the rest of my stuff. So I’m really going to change the songs quite a lot.
Have you decided what songs you’re covering?
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