Name: Nubya Garcia
Occupation: Composer, saxophonist, band leader
Nationality: British
Recent release: Nubya Garcia's new album Odyssey is out via Concord. The record features a band comprising of Joe Armon-Jones (keys), Daniel Casimir (bass), and Sam Jones (drums) as well as guests Esperanza Spalding and Georgia Anne Muldrow. About the recording of that LP, Nubya remembers: “The pieces that had strings definitely evolved when they were recorded later. British Grove is one of the greatest studios I’ve had the pleasure of recording in. I had an amazing engineer, Felipe Gutierrez, and so much space to do what we needed to do and just create. Amazing gear and just the right energy there. It also kind of had a residency feel to it for me, like it was away from the everyday life being on the other side of London everyday and we stayed near there too.”

If you enjoyed this Nubya Garcia interview and would like to know more about her music and current live dates, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.

For a deeper dive, read our later interview with Nubya where she talks about the Odyssey tour.



For Odyssey, where did the main impulse to create come from? What role did often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

One quote I had at the very top of my notes page and in the book where I write all my music is Bell hooks:

The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is – it’s to imagine what is possible.
– Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, 2012

I also have a lot of artwork from galleries and art spaces that sparked some musical ideas for me, I sent them to my creative directors when we were starting to build the visual world of this album so yes I would say a multitude of influences sparked and inspired me when writing this album.

I felt like they pushed and helped me craft my vision, made me explore ideas and sensibilities, and the conversations I was having with my friends really supported my dreaming and courage to imagine something bigger than what I thought I could create.

Especially in jazz and related styles, many argue that life-changing musical experiences take place live. How do you see that yourself and how, would you say are your live performances and your current recording projects connected?

Yes, I would agree that life-changing musical experiences happen live ... but I also think part of that is because you can’t go back to it, you know? Part of that transcendence feels extra special because it is in the present moment.

I will say though, part of that magic can be experienced in the studio too, reaching that connected and transcendent flow state exists, just in a slightly different way.

For me, my live performances and my recordings are very connected, I love to play new tunes out if possible before recording them, I love to get to see their live-life and the scope of the journey they can take with an audience.

Odyssey can be ordered with a bespoke incense. I have always been intrigued by the connection between scent and sound. What is this connection like for you and how did you concretely create the scent that fit the album?

Yesss, this has been something on my mind to do for years, I’m beyond happy to get to do it with Odyssey.

I think I’ve been quite fascinated by the connection for a while. For years I was the person who carried incense with them to shows or to clubs, it changes the energy, adds to it I think. It also brings everyone even further into the same sense of space, the same energy field ... It’s quite hard to find the words to describe it but I definitely notice a difference particularly when I'm on stage or if I’ve walked into a space that has a specifically chosen scent.

To create Odysseys bespoke scent I worked with Cremate. They are based in London, are black owned and make incredible natural incense. We sat and I talked about what I liked usually, what I thought would work, and they talked about what pairs well together which I found super interesting. I smelt their oils in the studio and we wrote some notes down to get some samples together.

I played the music whilst burning the samples, got some feedback together to send to them and then settled on a scent which felt like it orbited the same world as the music, one that felt both unique and a perfect fit.

The incense was not available to order with the Odyssey album in general, though, it was a just a limited quantity as a thank you to a select few.

Can scents also be a stimulus for creativity in the studio? What about other factors such as coffee, lighting, or reading poetry?

Yes definitely, a big part about including a scent was that that’s how I began most of my writing sessions when I go into my studio. That is, one of the ways to begin the process, setting an intention and a feeling.

Lighting is huge for me as well, I can be quite sensitive to it so where possible I choose natural light, a warm soft glow or like barely anything.

Coffee I’ve had to stop, because I love it a bit too much, and the crash is just not worth it!

For Odyssey, what did you start with, what were among the first pieces to get finished?

At the time I started really intentionally writing for the project I had been writing and just getting used to getting in a flow state and creating everyday for a while. Then things started to jump out at me to continue developing.

I can’t remember the very very first to be finished but “Triumphance,” “Solstice,” “Dawn” and “Odyssey” were among the very first to be completed.


Nubya Garcia in the studio. Photo by Marcus Grey

I thought it really interesting that you mentioned that you usually start on the piano but that, at a later stage, the drum machine had a strong influence on the writing. Can you eloborate a bit how the drum machine inspires the creation of new music?

Yeah I absolutely love my drum machine. I think that tends to happen when you get a new piece of gear in the studio - it sparks your creativity a little differently and makes you approach things in a varied way. Which in general is just super enjoyable.

I’m quite a rhythm driven person so honestly I wish I had got one sooner. It really opened up things for me to work from drums first more regularly and have it feel quite organic to do so without getting too stuck in perfecting a produced beat before laying a melody or harmony down. It keeps my creativity flowing to get to those parts.

One of the stand-out features on Odyssey is the use of strings. Did you already factor in the strings while writing and what do they add to the music, do you feel?

I had started writing for my band set up and the strings came a bit later. The tunes with strings were created with them in mind, as in it was like a ‘oh yes this one will be one of the ones with strings because it has the space for it’ sort of thinking.

Not all of the tunes have strings for that reason. I wanted it to feel like an organic addition rather than putting strings on everything

There are a few incredible musicians on Odyssey. What do you generally look for in a collaborator and what, specific made you want to collaborate with artists like Esperanza Spalding and Georgia Anne Muldrow?

I feel super grateful to work with everyone who is playing on Odyssey, they are all such incredible musicians and to continue to nurture collaborations new and not so new is something i’ll continue to do for sure.

I just have thoughts when I’m listening to people’s music sometimes of ‘ohh I’d love to play with them, or have them on something I’ve been working on’. Or it’ll come when I’ve written something and I’ll think, I really hear this person on this.

Esperanza and Georgia are both two musicians I have listened to for well over a decade, so this is truly special to have them resonate with my music and want to create together, it’s really an incredibly special moment for me. They both have an innately intimate and magical way of storytelling, they really wrap you up in their stories and draw you into their world. That is something I am deeply, deeply inspired by.

And of course they both have such an individual, instantly recognisable way of phrasing and phenomenal voices that just speak to me!

What tend to be the best collaborations in your opinion – those with artists you have a lot in common with or those where you have more differences? What happens when another musician take you outside of your comfort zone?

I think it can be so beautiful when a collaboration takes you out of your comfort zone and it works and still feels good, you know? I really love having things in common with other artists I want to collaborate with but I also am super interested when there are differences.

It is a beautiful meeting either way to me - if you connect, you connect.


Nubya Garcia Source Album Cover by Claire-Laura Flamand

In your QA on Youtube recently, you mentioned that you recorded Source with all band members in one room which obviously leads to some bleed between the instruments. Looking back, would you say that it is possible to capture the same energy if you're recording in separate rooms? Or did the Source sessions have their benefits after all?

Yeah I would definitely say you can capture the same energy recording in separate rooms, that is the making of a musician who knows how to connect despite different circumstances I'd say. Also me and my band have known each other and played for years - so being in different rooms doesn’t affect the music for me.

It does take a lot of focus and different active listening because it is different to being right next to each other and feeling the sound in your body. But, practice makes improvement on that front, so the more you do it, the easier it is.

Having said that I absolutely loved recording Source at Soup/Lightship, there’s an energy on that boat that is unique and I love it and will always love it. Having a bit of bleed is fine, it just depends what you’re doing with the recordings. I wanted to record another way, and it also changes the options for mixing and remixes later down the line.

There can be surprising moments during improvisations and as part of the creative process in general. What were some of those moments for Odyssey?

I mean, I think there are a lot of those moments in Odyssey, throughout the album, specifically in the improvisations. They are the really beautiful ‘can’t put words to that feeling’ moments.

In terms of the creative process, I loved watching “Triumphance” unfold. We’ve been playing it live for a year or so maybe even more than that ... so writing and performing the spoken word was a new development for me, one that I hadn’t planned as such. The addition of BVs, me writing the lyrics for the chorus, having the horns in the big drop of the melody line at the end, this tune really grew very naturally, organically and slowly morphed into a more expansive sonic space.



Another moment that sticks out for me is the end of “Odyssey,” the track, those melodies and that arrangement really came quite quickly when I was writing the strings there, that was a real real flow state.



“Water’s Path” was one that I wrote in one sitting, never edited any of it as I didn’t have anything to add that I thought would make it more meaningful. And that is super rare I think! As a creative you’ll always have thoughts and moments like: Is this done? Is this not? When is it etc etc. But with this composition I was in a whole different connected space that day. I didn’t listen back or edit and left it alone for a few weeks and when I came back to it I really felt it in my soul, so I didn’t change anything.



“We Walk in Gold” was another one that really unfolded quickly. This was one of the first ones that sparked from the drum machine, I think the day I got it!



When you're in the studio to record a piece, how important is the actual performance and the moment of performing the song still in an age where so much can be “done and fixed in post?“

Oh I'm all about the actual performance. I wanna know that the music is real to be honest.

Yes you can fix everything and anything these days, but I'm always quite wary of taking away some of the soul of the music in doing that.


Nubya Garcia and kwes in the studio. Photo by Marcus Grey

There are a lot of things that can be done to the music after it's been recorded. What did the post-production process look like and do you find it hard to let go of the music and finally let it go into the world?

Me and Kwes sat with the record in post for a bit but we were mixing, too. So, we didn't get to tooo lost in the options of doing everything and anything. We did a fair bit of subtle processing and things like that, experimented a bit with creating different sounds and kind of almost fitting them in so they don’t jump out at you - but they’re in there, layering up and adding to the sonic landscape.

I actually didn’t find it hard to let go and let it go into the world, because I poured everything into this record, was very intentional, and tried everything I was curious about. I really had the time to, and I'm grateful for that.

I also had such a vision for this record. So I was on the path and knew where I was pushing. When the time came, the time came, and I knew I had given everything and the ideas I wanted to, so that fulfillment and completion was definitely there.

It has always been my impression that your music may be called “jazz“ mainly for convenience's sake by the press. Still, it does have clear tangents with that tradition. What does the term jazz mean today, would you say, and do you see yourself as part of a lineage?

It is ever changing and that is powerful, the imagination and execution of music is powerful.

I’m grateful to be seen as part of a lineage, especially a lineage of an idiom that has given me so much strength and hope in life. That is an honour.