Textual Intercourse: Nelly Furtado

Just me, a phone, and pop’s next big thing.

IGN For Men
15th Dec 2000

Here’s the first and biggest reason you should like Nelly Furtado: she writes her own songs. Wait, let me amend that: she writes her own songs, and they’re good songs. Unless you’ve been in a coma for the last couple weeks, you’ve probably heard her first single “I’m Like A Bird” floating around Mtv or the radio. Her entire album, Whoa, Nelly!, is a plethora of musical enjoyment, wrapped up in some tasty, happy pop. I was lucky enough to get called on to interview her, and she made it an entirely enjoyable experience. Here’s how it went down:

IGN Formen: You ever been interviewed by someone younger than you?

Nelly Furtado: No, I haven’t. Actually, yeah I have. I’ve done a couple college phoners, and I think yeah, yeah. I’m sorry, you’re not the first. It’s okay, you’re like the third. Actually, you know what? Last night I played a Christmas show, I was interviewed by someone who I think was about 14 or 15 for his school project.

IGN4M: Alright, let’s get into the vapid interview questions what first sparked your interest in music?

NF: He didn’t know the word “vapid,” though. [laughs] Just kidding. Well, I’ve always been doing, since I was a kid. My family’s very musical; my mother has always sung in the church choir, since I was young, and when she would have rehearsals at our house, when I was little, I would hide behind the couch and watch. And her father, her grandfather, her uncle, the great uncle, they’re all multi-instrumentalists and they composed music in Portugal, where my parents are from. So there’s this big heritage in music and I grew up always hearing about my mother’s father who was really well respected in his town for writing and being a band conductor. So I started playing instruments. First, I started singing. Which, obviously, my mum love singing, so I sang a duet with her when I was four at our church for about 400 people. I was singing in Portuguese before I was singing in English. I knew right away that I loved performing. And there was a lot of opportunities to play and sing at school. I joined a ukulele ensemble when I was eight, then I started taking trombone when I was nine or ten. I played five days a week in different bands: jazz band, concert band, marching band So I was very musical. I was always doing musical theather or dancing. My parents were show-parents though, so it was very organic, the love of music in my house.

IGN4M: You had a hand in writing all the songs on your album. What do you think of the trend of not doing that in most pop acts today?

NF: I don’t know, it’s weird. It almost seems like it’s become part of the genre of pop music. But what I think what’s cool about my record is that I’m one of the first in my generation (I just turned 22), and I think that a lot of the younger artists right now are not writing their own material. Or they’re just getting into it, or whatever, right. I just think I’m representing a sort of more artistic view from a young person, which I think is good, because I right my songs and I’m involved. I coproduced the record, I named the record, I picked the photos, I do everything, it’s me, it’s my brainchild, and I think that’s a positive thing for music. And I think I’m representing those kids who grew up with a bunch of 90′s influences, you know? I grew up with all the hip-hop and the urban stuff and I think that’s what my album taps into.

IGN4M: What kind of things do you take inspiration from, for your songs?

NF: I don’t know, just life in general. I used to be in a trip-hop band called Nelstar when I was seventeen, and I’ve done all the dj stuff, the house stuff, the songwriter stuff, and it’s all very melancholy, and I knew didn’t want a record that sounded like that. I knew I wanted a happy pop record, so I purposely wrote in a more uplifting, positive vein.

I’m inspired by everyday life. Sometimes my experiences like “Turn Off The Light,” I literally went to bed one night and had that thought and got up and wrote the song. But something like “Party’s Just Begun,” I’m also very inspired, in a hip-hop sense, which I believe is also very beat, cause I also like the beat poets, and I think they’re very hip-hop. And I love writing that way, too. I’ll literally show up at the studio and not know what I’m going to do and I’ll freestyle. So it’s not just one way for me, because I like writing prose and poetry, too. I like journal writing.

IGN4M: You said you wanted a kinda happy, pop kind of feel to your record. How’d you develop that style?

NF: Well, what happen was, it was kind of like a journey. My first infatuation and love was for R&B and urban music. So I listened to all hip-hop and urban music; I listened to everything from Ice-T to LL Cool J to Tribe Called Quest to Bel Biv Devoe to Mary J. Blige to Mariah Carey. And that’s what I loved, that was my world. I even wrote rhymes for a while, hung out with emcees and DJs and plastered my walls with the rap magazines and posters and stuff like that. But then, around my last year in high school, I started listening to more Portishead and Tricky and British stuff: Radiohead and the Verve, Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, Poe, just more like melancholy kind of stuff. I think it kind of fit it with, you know, post-high school depression. So, I decided, since all my friends had registered for college, except for me, so I moved to Toronto for a year. Got a job at customer service for an alarm company, and I started a group called Nelstar. It was a lot of melancholy kind of melodies. So I did that for a while, but I didn’t quite feel that that was utilizing my voice. And I still had to learn to play guitar. All the songwriters that I admired were writing more complete songs. So I decided to move home, to Victoria, and go to college, studied a year in creative writing, and learned guitar. And I realised that good music doesn’t have to be sad, it can be groovy, like the way Stevie Wonder is groovy or Michael Jackson is groovy. And I got more into the challenge of that cause I just felt it was more musical and an area where I could display my musical abilities more than trip-hop, because it’s very limited, that whole world of straight up angst or straight up somber vein.

IGN4M: It almost seems easier to tap into the sad kind of vibe and make people relive their sad moments than it is to make them feel happy.

NF: Oh, totally. I realise that, and people would literally hear my music sometimes, like my friends would listen to the trip-hop stuff and they would go “You know, knowing your personality, I would never expect you to make this kind of music” because it seem out of character or something. But it’s only encompassing one aspect of what I can do. I think the first song that I though was any good on guitar was “Hey, Man!” And I was like “Wow, this is a whole different energy.” I tapped into a different kind of energy there, and I was like “I think I have something more to say in this vein.”

IGN4M: What was your intent when you wrote the lyrics to “S*** On The Radio?” Cause there’s kind of like this double-layer thing going on.

NF: That’s my favourite song on that album, I wrote that on guitarriffs all in one go. And I really knew on the production side what I wanted to hear. The song is sort of a declaration of independence. It’s sort of a celebration of having enough confidence to kind of shun all the subcultures and groups you might have been a part of before, kind of breaking free and not being afraid to make a record on your terms. A good example is when I was doing Nelstar, I would never have written a lyric like “I don’t want to be your baby girl.” But this album is about a rebirth of not being afraid of writing R&B stuff, not being afraid of saying, “Yes, I listen to Mariah Carey.” That’s who I am. “S*** On The Radio” is just about not being afraid of myself anymore, not being afraid of my influences, not being afraid of what I can be musically, or of being corny. Corn old me.

IGN4M: Yeah, that’s what seems hardest about being a musician is having the guts to say what you want to say, what your first impulse is to say, and not have to worry about “Well, what are these people going to think about me saying this?”

NF: And the cool thing is, that song’s gotten the most response out of anything on the record. That’s the one that people like the best, and then I’m going “Wow, this is awesome. I can just be totally frank, and people like it. Yeah!”

IGN4M: People respond to that honesty. There’s a lot of references to the sun and the moon and other elements on nature on the album I’m sure I’m the only one who picked up on that

NF: [laughs]

IGN4M Pat: Is there any significance to that, or am I just grasping at straws for questions that don’t sound vapid and insipid?

NF: Actually, no one’s really asked me that before. Well I’m very connected to nature. I used to write all my songs outside, like when I was a little kid, before I knew how to read or write. I’d just go outside and get inspired by the spring cause I grew up on an island. It’s very beautiful, Vancouver Island. It’s gorgeous, right by the ocean, evergreen forests, seasonal changes, you know what I mean? And my parents are from a beautiful island, San Miguel, and I would spend summers there as a child and I would go up to my parents’ farmland and I would sing to get inspired, like Sound Of Music-style.

IGN4M: Spinning around on a mountain-top?

NF: Yeah, really! And I’ve always felt very connected to nature, and when I sing, I conjure up that kind of spirituality, which is connected to nature for me. I don’t know, that’s probably why I talk about it so much. It’s one of my favourite things, so that why I do put it in a lot. But I do feel a strong connection to nature.

IGN4M: You started playing the guitar recently?

NF: About three years ago.

IGN4M: Do you like that more than the ukulele?

NF: Ha ha ha. It’s okay. I’m pretty lazy, I don’t practice. I kind of use more as a songwriting tool. Even though I play onstage I think it’s a good instrument to write on because it dictates a feel to the song, and it’s good for pop, too, because the chords are more pop than writing on the piano.

IGN4M: One of the few instruments you can really accompany yourself with.

NF: Yeah! That’s true.

IGN4M: You can’t really walk around on stage with a piano.

NF: Yeah, and I’ve never really liked the look of that, though. Of the artist with the piano, singing. It’s so limited, it’s not me.

IGN4M: You can’t dance around and get into it.

NF: Yeah, you can’t. And I love moving around and singing. I feel most at my element when I’m freestyling. I think I learned that from Brazilian artists, the way they’re so inventive with their lyrics. And artists like Jeff Buckley, who I think kind of embodies the idea of using the voice as an instrument and being very proud of using the voice as an instrument. For a long time, I think I thought that just singing wasn’t enough; that writing was more important. But then when I heard Jeff Buckley’s Grace album, and he had all of those beautiful covers that he made his own through the beauty of his voice, I thought “yeah, I’m a singer, I’m going to use this tool.” That’s the instrument, that takes you to the higher level, just like an instrument can. Just like Jimi Hendrix playing guitar could take him to another level of consciousness.

IGN4M: Are there any areas other than music performance and writing that you want to get into?

NF: I think I have an A&R woman hiding in me. I love listening to new music. Toronto’s got such a great music scene, and I love listening to new CDs from unsigned artists. I’d love to start maybe my own label one day and start a production company, develop artists. Maybe a publishing company.

IGN4M: You’re sounding like Madonna over there.

NF: Really?

IGN4M: Yeah, she did that. She started a record company, and of all people, she signs the Deftones.

NF: Oh yeah I like the Deftones. You don’t like the Deftones?

IGN4M: Oh, no, I just saw them with Incubus and Taproot. They were awesome.

NF: Yeah, I saw them with Incubus, and then I saw the Deftones about two or three months ago. They were great. I love Incubus, it’s one of my favourite records this year. There’s another one. I love Incubus because they’re young and they’re doing good shit and they’ve got new ideas. I think Incubus is going to blow up and be the next big thing.

IGN4M: See, I was going to ask you what your favourite album of the last year was, but obviously, it’s going to be [Incubus's] Make Yourself.

NF: Yeah, Make Yourself is one of them, for sure. The other one is Jill Scott, Words And Sounds, Vol. 1 and Kenny Star, Tune Up. I like the new Eminem.

IGN4M: I think my CD-ROMs are going to start a fight because one of them has the Marshall Mathers LP and the other one has your album, so they’re fighting. Hard rap! No, pop! Hard rap! No, pop!

NF: [laughs, makes a mock voice for my CD-ROM] Put some pop in! Come on, you know you want it! You want some candy! You want to feel happy. To want to groove it up.

IGN4M: Well, after I’m done listening to Eminem, and I want to go do some drugs and some violent acts

NF: And do some vicodin.

IGN4M: Then I just put on the Nelly and calm it all down. And stare at my Christmas lights.

NF: I think it shows a international trend towards happier stuff, you know? That’s why reggae is so popular. Cause reggae is one of those styles of music that it’s hard to find someone who won’t listen to it.

IGN4M: Let’s you dance around. Getcha groove on.

NF: And there’s merit in that, you know, it’s not all about thrashing your guitar into your amplifier.

IGN4M: Not that there isn’t validity in that, too.

NF: No! That’s great, too.

IGN4M: There are the straight-up, angry, Slayer-type acts where you don’t get a lot of meaning behind the music, but then there’s stuff like Tool, who are just mind-blowing.

NF: Yeah, there’s a musicality to it. A passion.

IGN4M: Definitely. Alright, now we’re going to do the fun, short questions. What band or artist is irreplaceable to you?

NF: Hmmm what band or artist oh, Jeff Buckley!

IGN4M: Great, that preempts another question, because I was going to say “If you could bring back one musician, who would it be?”

NF: [laughs]

IGN4M: Gangsta rap or old school rap?

NF: Oooh man, in between. That positivity shit. Pharcyde, Tribe Called Quest I like Outkast.

IGN4M: What was the last concert you saw?

NF: The last concert I saw was Radiohead.

IGN4M: Ricky Martin, Robbie Williams, or death by being keel-hauled?

NF: Ricky Martin when he sings in Spanish. He sounds good when he sings in Spanish.

IGN4M: Kids In The Hall or Monty Python?

NF: Kids In The Hall! Canadians!

IGN4M: Alright, well this one you can’t play the homeland card with Mike Myers or Tom Green?

NF: Tom Green!

IGN4M: Whole, 2%, or skim milk?

NF: Soya milk.

IGN4M: How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie-roll centre of a Tootsie Pop, and is the chocolaty core really worth overworking your tongue?

NF: [laughs] Uh none, I’d eat one of those Creamsavers instead.

IGN4M: What’s it like living in a country that can elect a president in less than a week?

NF: [laughs]

IGN4M: There’s no real answer to that. What makes the US look stupider: this election debacle, everyone making a big deal about Clinton getting a little something-something on the side, or our main export being prefabricated boy bands and pop queens?

NF: I’ll tell you the funny thing: it takes that to get people to not be apathetic and apolitical.

IGN4M: Have you ever heard of Tourettes, the greatest band that’s ever lived?

NF: Tourettes?

IGN4M: No, one’s heard of us. It’s my band. I just mentioned it in every interview so I can link to our site.

NF: Ooh Tourettes cool. Do you smash your guitars into your amplifiers?

IGN4M: No, what we do is far more bizarre.

NF: What do you do?

IGN4M: We write a lot of strange stuff. A lot of it’s improv. So in our demo recordings, you can hear us laughing hysterically in the background, because we’re not prepared for what we’re doing and it catches us off-guard.

NF: That’s really cool.

IGN4M: If you could be any kind of bagel with any kind of toppings, what kind would you be?

NF: An everything bagel!

IGN4M: What does that entail, exactly?

NF: You know, everything bagels. They put everything on them: poppy seeds, sesame seeds, spice, Cajun something

IGN4M: See, I get a different response for that every time. No one ever gives the same response.

NF: Yeah, that’s weird.

IGN4M: People like different things. That’s what the world needs. Different bagels for everyone.

NF: And less apathy, right?

IGN4M: Yeah, less apathy and more choosing what bagel you’re going to be eating for the next four years!

NF: [laughs] Yeah.