0
Amsterdam-based alt-R&B singer-songwriter and producer Nambyar reveals the powerful visuals for his latest track ‘Once More’.
Marking the follow-up to his debut track ‘Warm In The Winter, which saw support from the likes of Hilly Dilly, 22 Tracks and MTV, who praised the track for its warm analog synths and dark aching vocals, comparing him to artists such as James Vincent McMorrow, Låpsley and SOHN. The track reached half a million streams within a month of release, making it onto Spotify’s ‘New Music Friday’ Playlist.
“Soulful cut that combines stirring, cinematic vocals with a melancholic electronic instrumental” HYPEBEAST
“With a voice as good as his, expecting him to stick around” HILLY DILLY
Melting sumptuous ambient synths, Nambyar surrounds his soulful vocals with tender and strikingly understated beats. His enigmatic and entrancing sound is aptly illustrated in the compelling video accompanying the new cut; where the singer’s confessional, intensely emotional and cinematic lyrics take center stage.
A vivid snapshot of his dark past experiences, the visuals perfectly translate the song’s melancholic tinge with the use of slow motion techniques, shallow depth of field is combined with a shattered mirror and a SFX bleeding heart to resemble the artist’s empty, incomplete and broken state.
Imploring “maybe we lost it all, hold on to me tight”, the lyrics for ‘Once More’ tells a story of loss, love and moving on: “I needed to cut loose from everything that was holding me back from being me. My relationship, my way of living and thinking. My way of making music. I wanted something real and new.” Born to a Fijian father and Dutch mother, Nambyar relocated to a small village just above Amsterdam to work on his own music for the last three years, honing his songwriting and production skills.
Initially inclined towards guitar-driven melodies and playing in a band, Nambyar’s current sound developed when he started writing songs on PolySix and Prophet analogue synthesizers in his own studio. The bold statement of an artist letting go of his past, ‘Once More’ was one of the first songs he wrote while holed up in the studio, this solitary time fed an uninhibited new musical focus: “Alone for the first time, I didn’t need to listen to others and was able to focus on what I wanted to tell. The stripped-down production was layered with three synths, while the high pitched vocal samples are taken from an old Italian singer, which I pitched to create the grid of the whole song.”
With his live credentials already including a performance at this year’s Eurosonic festival, Nambyar has been making his mark on the European electronic circuit, with writing credits including Swedish pop singer Erik Rapp’s new single ‘Look Like Lovers’ and a live performance confirmed at Amsterdam’s beloved Pitch Festival on 1st July, the talented artist is sure to make waves with ‘Once More’.