Tuesday 19 September 2017

New Music: Introducing - Naaz


When you’re just starting out in the world of music, it doesn’t do any harm to get a leg up or two from those who have already had success and certainly when One Direction lad Niall Horan puts one of your songs on his Spotify Chilled Hits playlist, it’s not going to do any harm. Nor is it going to hurt in terms of exposure when Flux Pavilion and Yellow Claw collaborate with you so that you get to sing on a rampant dancefloor banger. However, even with these favours it’s not going to sustain you long term unless you can offer something special on your own terms. Thankfully newcomer Naaz does exactly that. 

Naaz (full name Naaz Salahaddin Ali Mohammad) is a 19-year-old singer, songwriter and producer from Holland. The back story that you’ll read on virtually every article written about her is that she was raised in a highly conservative Kurdish household and may have not ever pursued music until her parents were finally convinced that Naaz’s talents were too special to constrain. 

With a debut EP (Bits of Naaz) coming soon Naas has just a small handful of songs online; 2016’s Sadboy, and the two tracks from earlier this year that really show what she’s about. 

Words is a tender and ever so pretty pop song, one of those tunes that, if you are in love, will make you immediately want to play it to your partner and if you’re not, will probably make you decide that maybe it’s time to be so. “But yet it feels like I've never lived before, anything that's less turned into more,” she sings in her beautiful melody kissed voice and the world and life just seems a better place. 

Like Words, her other 2017 song Can’t clocks in at less than three minutes and with its warm soft synths and reflective tone also hits the spot.  It’s no wonder that Naaz has already picked up lots of streams on Spotify and You Tube. She is certainly Holland’s finest new music export.

Streams are one thing, but as any live music fan will know, you can clock up hundreds of thousands of plays on line, but it doesn't necessarily translate to a real life fan base. Playing live can help that and Naaz is now starting down that route. She plays the The Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, Germany this Thursday and will be coming to the UK (my country) in November to play in London at the Old Blue Last alongside another Breaking More Waves favourite Joy Crookes.

Naaz - Words



Naaz - Can't (Video)

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