She’s just 17, but Dundonian songstress Neave Marr is already living her teenage dream.
In the space of a year, the former Harris Academy pupil has gone from singing covers to crowds of 20, to writing and releasing her own music, with debut EP Diary Thoughts released in September this year to a healthy 4,000 regular listeners.
The slick, energetic record (think Dua Lipa or RAYE) combines crunchy guitars and sassy synths on love songs such as ‘Oh, Boy’ and ‘Without You’, while piano-driven ballad Comparisons cuts through the noise of modern life with an Adele-like lament over the impact of social media on young people’s fragile self-confidence.
Now, Neave has been taken under the wing of Dundee’s pop princess Be Charlotte (Charlotte Brimner) and is set to be one of two support acts warming up the crowd at Charlotte’s hometown gig at Church on Wednesday November 17.
Ahead of her “first proper show”, I caught up with Neave to find out more about her sound, the inspirations behind her tracks, and how she switched out schoolgirl for songwriter in just one year.
Uncovering Neave Marr’s ‘Diary Thoughts’
Rebecca: So Neave, you’re 17 and you’ve already released your debut record. What age were you when you started writing songs and singing?
Neave: I’ve probably been singing I could first start talking. I tried to write songs when I was younger, but didn’t have any luck – they were so bad!
So I wrote my first proper song, Oh Boy, last year when I was 16. I’ve always wanted to do music, but I only ever sang cover songs until then.
That’s pretty impressive! Who would you say are your biggest influences?
My favourite artist is definitely Harry Styles. I love the way he presents himself and I’m definitely inspired to be a musician like him. It’s not just music with him – he’s such a nice person and really grounded, which I like.
I also really like Mabel. I take a lot of inspiration from her, music-wise – my songs are similar to hers, I hope.
Do you have a favourite song right now?
Probably Golden by Harry Styles.
Which lyric have you written that you’re especially proud of?
I don’t know one exactly, but I’m really proud of my song Comparisons. That whole song itself was hard to write because it’s a vulnerable song.
I don’t like speaking about my feelings and hadn’t really spoken about that situation at all really. It’s just about comparing yourself to people on social media and stuff like that. So I just think that song as a whole is probably lyrically my favourite.
I wanted to ask you about that song. Do you think people understand what being a teenager during the pandemic with social media as your only way to connect with others?
When you think about it, people just post stuff. And it’s the whole Photoshop thing – which I completely get. You have a photo of yourself and you’re like, ‘I can edit that to make myself look better’ which is fine. I think you just need to be open about it.
Like it’s so damaging to some people to see someone and think, ‘Oh, she’s so perfect, they’re so perfect’.
It’s just not reality. No one has this perfect skin, this perfect body or whatever. There’s always something that’s not what it seems.
Let’s talk about your style. You play with rhythm quite a lot. Is that a conscious thing or does it just come naturally?
No, it definitely comes naturally. I don’t ever sit down and be like, ‘Oh, I want my song to be like this or that sound’. It’s just, if I like a song, I like it.
Do you write with instruments or over a demo?
So my first song, Oh, Boy, I produced by myself on Logic. I’d never done producing before, and it’s not something I like doing. I’m not into that side of things like and I realised that after I finished Oh, Boy! It’s so difficult.
And then then I found a producer (Ben Lauder) that I work with. So pretty much what we do is we’ll either have like a Zoom call, or we’ll send stuff like a demo and then I’ll write over that.
But sometimes, I’ll have a rhythm or a melody in my head and I’ll send it over a voice note, and then we’ll work from it from there.
It’s interesting you say you don’t like producing, because Oh, Boy is really catchy! What inspired you to create that first song?
Lockdown was a blessing in disguise for me a little bit because it gave me so much confidence to be able to push myself to do stuff. I think being in high school, I really couldn’t be bothered dealing with bullying or comments from other people. I thought I would rather make my high school life easy.
And then obviously, we weren’t in school. So I was like, ‘I’m just going to do it because I really want to’. And then I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on how to produce. And I’m not entirely happy with how it sounds now. But I think it’s good to look back on and feel how far I’ve come.
What do you do when you’re not making music?
I did have a job before – I worked for the local mental health charity Feeling Strong. And then my contract ended this year– so now music and singing is my full-time job, which is good, because I don’t want to do anything else.
Besides making music, I spend time with my family and also with my boyfriend (Liam McComiskie-Mitchell), who’s a photographer, which is cool. So we do some shoots and stuff.
He’s really creative, so he helps me come up with ideas for promotion and things.
With music, I never realised before that it’s not just making music. You’ve got to do so much promo and management and social media stuff. So I do a lot of that when I’m not actually making the music.
You’re a one-woman machine! And obviously you’re going to be supporting Be Charlotte on Wednesday for first gig. How are you feeling about it?
I’m nervous! Church is like, 400+ people. And I’ve only done one ‘gig’ before, which was just about 20 people. So it’s not really the same type of thing! I used to have stage fright, so but I don’t have it anymore. I want to do this so badly that I literally just got up and did it until I was confident. There’s no way around it.
And I’m excited too, because a couple of my friends and my family are coming along.
Be Charlotte’s been super helpful as well. She’s been so nice to me and she also helped me with producing, which is really nice of her. She’s really good to me.
What would you say to yourself five years ago, if you could talk to her now?
Well, when I was 12 I was probably dancing and singing to Hannah Montana, with a wig on, trying to be her. I didn’t even realise that I was going to be writing music at this point at all. So I’d probably just tell that Neave not to give up and to live her dream of being Hannah Montana!
Dundee’s Hannah Montana, I love it. And then looking forward – what do you hope your life is like in five years’ time?
OK, so I’ll be 22… I obviously definitely want to keep going with my music. I want to have an album by that time… and maybe have a manager, to help me! And maybe some people who are dedicated to my music and like listening to me – a little fan base.
It would be cool to go on my own tour as well, I want to do that for sure.
Big plans! What do you want to get across to the people who are listening to your music?
So I most of the time, when I make music, I just want people to feel good when they listen to it. I just want them to have fun, and feel good about themselves. I think that’s my main message. Because I am a person who deals with being really self-conscious.
People try to put up a front and say that they’re not self-conscious, but most people are. So I think that my message definitely is to just feel good about yourself and know that you’re not alone, because there’s so many people going through the same thing as you.
Neave Marr is supporting Be Charlotte alongside Katie Nicoll at Church, Dundee, Wednesday November 17 2021. Her debut EP Diary Thoughts is available now on all major streaming platforms.
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