Image credit: Stephanie Axelrod

A graduate of The New School and BerkleeNYC, Leah Nawy is now ready to make a splash in New York’s indie pop scene. She talks to Undertone about her dynamic new EP, and what it means to be in bloom.

There’s a palpable sense when talking to breakout New York indie pop singer-songwriter Leah Nawy that a long and successful career lies head. She’s too humble to suggest this herself as she video calls me from her Manhattan apartment, but even the title of her upcoming debut EP, I Could Bloom From Here, implies an artist with eyes on the glorious possibilities of her future, as well as a modest recognition that she’s not quite there yet. “It’s like ‘I’ve come this far’, and also yeah I do want this to be a beginning of making even better music,” she tells me.

That’s not to say Nawy has only just got started. She cut her teeth playing unglamorous gigs to largely disinterested crowds as a teenager in New Jersey’s coastal resort towns, and the songs on this new EP have been several years in the making. She must be getting sick of playing them by now, right? “They regain freshness once you put them out into the world,” she explains. “The other day my friend heard one of the songs on the EP, and just her simply ‘I like this!’ was the most invigorating thing.”

I Could Bloom From Here was created with an experimental spirit, a colourful collection of singles that veer from the softly strummed bedroom soul of opener I Was a Flower to the vibrant arena pop of Quicksand to the delightfully grungy standout Congratulations. As it happened, Nawy’s pivot to blues-tinged rock on the latter was something of a chance occurrence. “I had just gotten a bass and I was working so far on this serious song at 2am in the morning and I just started playing the bass line and thought ‘this is fun!’. We just had fun distorting the hell out of it. It’s just a really silly song where you get to say screw you to someone”.

“I want this to be the beginning of making even better music.”

Nawy had to pull on her New School classmates for another of the EP’s finest moments, the soaring sax solo that heralds Walking’s blissed-out outro. “I literally texted my friend ‘do you know any sax players?’ and long story short Nathan just showed up to the studio and did his solo. It’s such a cathartic release within that song. I’ve been hearing it for years and that solo doesn’t get old. Goes to show how good those jazz cats are.”

As for the aforementioned “blooming”, Nawy already has plenty in her calendar, starting with a grand EP launch show at nublu in New York next Wednesday, after which work will continue on an already half-finished debut album. “I wanted to save my first full album for when it feels intentional,” she explains when I point out that this 25-minute EP is almost long enough to count as an album itself. “Albums are so important to me and so many music listeners, and it’s something that I feel deserves to be crafted from the beginning.” If this effervescent new EP is anything to go by, it will be a technicolour delight.

Leah Nawy’s debut EP, I Could Bloom From Here, is out on 10 July.