Ottawa’s ambient R&B artist “Neekoe” bares her soul

Photo credit: Kaya florczak

When Neekoe first walked into the Artist Alliance studio, there was something very compelling about her. She was only there as a visitor with another artist. When she messaged me a couple months later about helping her get her music done next level, I was excited to work with her. When she showed me the songs and told me she had done everything in her apartment bedroom I was blown away. It showed me her amazing talent right away and I knew it would be a great project. After we put down the vocals onto her recording work, the songs came to life and now she is releasing them to the world. We sat down to talk about her thoughts on her career and the direction of her new music.

Ottawa Life: Hello Neekoe, tell us a little about your artist background and when you decided to do music as a career?

Neekoe: I have always wanted to pursue music as my path. There was never really an alternative for me, music has always been my method of communication. I started playing instruments at a very young age, and was performing many different vocal styles and shows throughout my youth. Always playing and performing classical music and show tunes, I often felt resistance because it wasn’t the music that I truly felt connected to but it was how I was trained. There was a defining moment for me in 2014 while in BC. I saw deadmau5 perform “Strobe”for the first time live at Pemberton and I’ll never forget that moment of clarity when I truly understood that by whatever means necessary, I would be pursuing music for the rest of my life, because it is my language.

What are your most memorable music accomplishments to date.

At this point I am just getting started with my own musical career! My personal accomplishments so far are more rooted in the daily tiny details that build and become something. The first time I completed a song, start to finish. Learning to write lyrics, building drums, my first release, my first show, the list goes on. Learning to produce and become an artist are my greatest accomplishments. I am proud of the steps that I have taken and sometimes it’s the little things that mean the most.

Tell us about your current endeavor and why now? Do you have a band or are you a solo artist? What does the next year look like for you?

Right now I’m sitting on 5 singles lined up to be released, they are actually projects that I created well over a year ago now.  I had plans to travel to South America for several months, and they happened to just be completed as I was about to leave so I wanted to wait to release them until after I had returned. Now I’ll be able to market and distribute them properly with the intention of giving them my full focus. My debut show and single release for “Nobody Else” will be my first time performing any of my original pieces, and I will be performing all of my completed works with a band that I have recruited to help me perform them live. Although each song of mine was originally created completely synthetically on the computer with software instruments, the band and I have been working hard to try to match the sounds and recreate my pieces, so that we can produce a wicked live performance and show everyone who I am and what we have been working on. After this show is complete on the 28^th of September, I am eager to get back in the studio to work on new projects, working to make things bigger and better.

Tell us about the new music you’ll be doing, what its like and when we can expect to hear it?

There will be a new single release coming every month following the launch of my first on the 28^th. I can say that you can expect to hear a style develop between the works, something unique and in some ways a lot more worldly. The new music that I will be creating after the show will highlight a lot of different instruments from around the world and incorporate the sounds of the places that I have travelled to and experienced, or at least my perception of them. I would also like to move towards making some more traditional R&B and hiphop beats, merging together with my own style. I have recently expanded my studio to help me learn new styles of song writing and producing, so I am looking to have the sound grow and expand into the next level.

Catch Neekoe at The Lonestar Loft on Sept 28/2019. Doors open at 8pm Ages 19+. Get your tickets on Eventbrite.