Ninush On Debut EP, Working With BC,NR, And Taking Centre Stage As Songwriter

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With ‘The Flowers I See You In’ out on Friday, we chatted with Ninush on the writing of her debut EP and taking centre stage as a vocalist

This Friday 6th February, London artist Ninush is set to announce her debut EP ‘The Flowers I See You In’. With a blend of alternative pop and folk and a few dashes of electronic production, the EP is our first glimpse into Nina Lim’s solo world.

However, you may have heard her work before. Over the last few years, Lim has worked alongside some of the most exciting musicians out of London, including Geordie Greep, Jockstrap and Black Country, New Road, even dropping the EP as the first release of Charlie Wayne’s new label The Bird. As a violinist, Lim has toured with these artists and more, as well as writing string arrangements for JADE, Little Simz and more.

In our chat, we covered the challenges of stepping into the new role of songwriter, lessons learned from these many collaborations, and what a full length Ninush album might look like.

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‘The Flowers I See You In,’ your debut EP, is out soon. How does it feel to be putting out your first solo material?

It’s really exciting to finally get it out. I was initially planning to get it released in the summer and then things just kept being pushed back. I was gonna just put it out independently initially and then my friend Charlie got involved and wanted to release it under his label (The Bird).

It’s daunting, I guess, given that it’s like a first impression of me, but I’m trying to not see it as being too scary or important. Songwriting is still very much a new venture for me, so I’m trying not to put too much pressure on it. 

Do you think of these tracks working together as a whole project or more like a scrapbook of what you’ve been working on over the last few months? 

So, they are basically a small collection of the first songs I ever made. Quite literally, there was nothing that was cut out, I don’t think. I’ve sort of released them in chronological order as well. Early on, I didn’t really have a plan to have an artist project and I didn’t have a conceptual idea of how I would sonically tie all those songs together. 

It’s almost like releasing a diary of my first ever attempts. I think if I were to make an album, then I would think about making it a bit more cohesive.

While this is your first solo release, you’ve been working with some pretty exciting bands and musicians over the last few years. I first saw you play with Black Country, New Road on tour. Did you learn a lot from all of these different collaborations?

Yeah, I definitely learned a lot from being around all these people. In particular, the members of Black Country, New Road and Jockstrap. A lot of us went to the same uni and spent a lot of time together. Learning about their writing process and learning about how they view music making in general definitely taught me a lot. 

They’re definitely some of the most open-minded musicians I’ve worked with and they’ve taught me to take inspiration from anything really. They’re all people with lots of different tastes and interests and then somehow they manage to gel those all together. 

A lot of my music is a reflection of not wanting to conform to one specific type of thing. I don’t see myself as trying to fit in with a specific genre, I’m just making whatever I want to make and inspired by anything I can take inspiration from, whether that’s pop music or film scores  or musical theatre. 

I understand you’ve done some string arrangements for some releases, including JADE, Little Simz and Holly Humberstone. What does that process looks like? Is it a collaborative process? 

If I’ve been asked to do string arrangements, I’ve done a mix of things depending on what the artist has wanted. Sometimes, they’ve just given me the track and have been like, “do whatever you want” and we just try a bunch of stuff.  And then other times they might have set ideas about what they want me to play. Generally, I’ve done quite a few where I’ve just been able to think of stuff on the spot, usually just in one session. 

Much of your career has revolved around being a violinist. I was wondering what kind of role that instrument played in the construction of the EP?

I think  most of the songs were written at the piano and then I’ve just known from the beginning whether I wanted to put strings on it or not. I wouldn’t say violin was ever the starting point, but there’s always violin somewhere. I think with it being a main melody line instrument, that’s probably helped with melody writing. 

It’s been challenging, not being a great pianist and writing with relatively limited piano skills or chord based skills. I’ve always needed to collaborate with friends on that to help bring my ideas to life.  

You described your most recent single ‘I Don’t Mind,’ as the closest you’ve come to writing a pop song. When you’re writing, do you have a specific direction in mind or do you just see what comes out? 

They kind of just come out how they come out. I think normally I start with the song and then I build the world around it based on how the song sits emotionally. ‘I Don’t Mind’ was a bit of a strange one because I really didn’t think it was a good idea and it was probably one of the worst songs I came up with on the EP.  

But then once I wrote all the string parts and recorded everything, it turned into this new kind of thing. It was only through playing it live and people really connecting to that one that made me think it was worth putting out. It’s nice in a way that it’s had a life of its own. 

Alongside more classical instrumentation, there are smaller touches of electronics as well, including in your vocals, for example. Does this style interest you and can you see yourself exploring this further?

The producer I’ve worked with on this EP (Sam Tsang) is from quite a commercial pop background and does a lot of electronic production. With the earlier songs that I did, like ‘The End’ and ‘Star Doll,’ more of that comes through. 

I don’t know if that’s something I 100% want to follow through with, I think it was more an outcome of it being a low budget hobby project. Ideally, if I were to finish an album, I would want to have as much of it live as possible. 

You mentioned that the EP is being released for Charlie Wayne’s (BC,NR) label The Bird and is its first release. Was there a certain pressure to being the first release on a label? 

I haven’t really thought about it in that way. It’s more of a risk on his part, to be honest. I think I’ve put so little pressure on this project in my own brain. I have really enjoyed making it and I’m totally up for wherever it takes me.

Charlie’s just a good friend of mine and it just seemed like a really nice thing to be able to work together, with someone I really trust and someone who’s played on so much of the music. He’s been really helpful with getting this EP come together. I wanted to do it independently and it’s kind of the next best thing after that to release it with a really good friend. 

What’s the rest of your year looking like? You’ve got the EP out on 6th February, have you got any tour dates planned? 

I’ve got a release show, I’m doing a festival in France quite soon and playing at Great Escape in March. And then after that, everything’s kind of up in the air! I’m hoping to try and put as much time into writing an album or finishing an album this year. That’s the current plan.

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Debut EP ‘The Flowers I See You In’ is out on 6th February via The Bird Records.

Listen to ‘I Don’t Mind’ here:

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