For the ones lost in reveries on their way to their 9-to-5, for the ones perhaps dreaming of the countryside but forever anchored into their urban scapes
“How the crowds emerge at night / Transported through the underground / Searching for that wonderlight / Glimpsed in dreams but rarely found”. In the cadence of a Romantic poet, Nabihah Iqbal’s music evinces from a fusion of transcendence and urban containment. Iqbal gives articulation to living in what can often feel as dystopian, ever-expanding metropoles, which we have to admit, is easier to accommodate to with a touch of sublime (just as Romantics would have it). After all, the otherworldly resides in the very worldly – and she is here to remind us that with the brooding tones of a 21st century William Blake, a life spent in the very midst of London, and resplendent instrumentals and vocals. It is however important to pertain to an order in her artistry: she is a multi-instrumental master and producer before she is a singer and poet. Iqbal grew up playing the classical guitar, the flute, the piano, and eventually the electric guitar, instrumental mastery being her domain of comfort and choice. In fact, she was vehemently opposed to identifying as a vocalist, at least until Sophie catalyzed the yet-to-be-explored facet when she asked Iqbal to record herself on tracks such as Lemonade and L.O.V.E. Shyly, but steadily, she built up to what now are some of her most beloved songs, in which her honeyed voice takes the lead.
Whether you are in the kind of city she diagnoses with tracks like Zone 1 to 6000, or in a tranquil environment where her more atmospheric sounds will reach you more easily, listening to Nabihah Iqbal’s DREAMER or Weighing of the Heart will suffuse you and ooze into your bones regardless. Talking to her, we wanted to find out what lies underneath the face-value of music as unfeigned as hers – inevitably, that led to us the weirdness of our century, mountain tops, and nostalgia for long-gone summers.
Hi there. How are you?
Hey! I’m okay, I just got to New York yesterday.
What are you up to in New York?
Well, I’ve actually kind of moved here now… But I’m just back and forth between here and London, and I’ve got two gigs this week in Montreal and then here. But today I’m having a chill day, because I haven’t had a day of just doing whatever I want for so long.
How come you made the move?
Well, I just really wanted to try out living in New York City, because it’s one of my favourite places in the world. And I have my artist visa, which lets you live and work here. And then I also had to move out of my London apartment. And the day I had to move out, I was coming to America anyway for a writing residency at the end of last year. So then I felt like maybe the universe is pushing me in that direction.
In my head you were still living in London, so I was meaning to ask you how it is over there these days…
Haha, I’m still there half the time, really, especially right now, because in the summer there’s so many shows and festivals in the UK and Europe. Since I’ve made a bit of a move, now every time I go back to London, it feels even more amazing to me. It gives me this renewed feeling of how much I appreciate it, and also just the history of the city and the energy of it.
I also really love London. You mentioned you went to America for a writing residency. Can I inquire more into that?
I went there after the last album, Dreamer, came out, and I did like 18 months straight of touring all around the world. Then after that finished in November, I got this chance to do an artist residency in upstate New York in the Catskills Mountains. So I was there from December to February. It was a really good experience in terms of being able to focus on my work and not having any distractions and being in a really beautiful place. But it was the first time that I’ve put my body through a really extreme winter. It was so cold. It was basically constant snow for two months, and it got to -25°C. It was beyond freezing. I think it’s cool to experience that once, but keeping it at that. It’s not my natural habitat.
That sounds really extreme.
It was really good for working and inspiration, also just being somewhere still, you know, after 18 months of constant travelling and touring and moving around, and then just to be in one place for two months. That was the first time I had that experience in like two years.
It sounds incredible. I also recently applied to an artist residency in the Arctic, but I’m scared I would just physically freeze like a fossil. But speaking of habitats, can you tell me a bit about your upbringing?
Wow, that’s so cool! Good luck. Um, well, I’m from London, born and bred. And I grew up in central London. Basically lived there my whole life; I wouldn’t swap it for anything. I was actually thinking about it this morning as I was walking through NYC and then watching a dad with his little kid. You hear a lot of people saying that they don’t want to bring up their children in the middle of a big city. They’d rather do it in a small town in the countryside. For me, I can’t imagine any other way of growing up. Also, my family’s Pakistani. My parents moved to England from Pakistan, but all my siblings and I were born in London.
How many siblings do you have?
I’m the oldest of six. But yeah, in terms of music, I did a lot of music at school growing up. I used to go to music school on Saturdays and I always loved music from when I was a baby. And then as soon as I became a teenager, I started going out to gigs. That was another really good plus point of being in London and being able to go to a gig any night of the week. At that time I was really into sort of like punk and metal and alternative music. I lived quite close to Camden town. So there were a lot of gigs there, all the different venues all the time. And then as I got a bit older and became 18, when you can start going to nightclubs, then I really started experiencing electronic music and the club world. And feeling all of the positive ecstatic feelings that you get from dancing in a nightclub and then going to music festivals and things like that.
So what would you say was the first direct, more personal contact that you had with music?
Probably as a teenager when I started learning the guitar, because before that, from a young age, I did classical guitar, but then I played the flute, piano, recorder growing up.
Flute was my main instrument. From about the age of 13 or 14 when I started getting guitar lessons, I would always ask my guitar teacher to teach me Green Day or something like that, but all those songs are really easy and it’s probably quite boring for him. So then he started teaching me jazz chords and so I would do that kind of style alongside jazz guitar.
I also feel like a lot of your earlier work is very instrumentally heavy in comparison to your more recent body of work. I was wondering how you engage with the two mediums.
I’ve never really thought of myself as a singer and I find singing the hardest bit, I’d say. So I just naturally gravitated towards doing instrumental music and I didn’t even think about incorporating vocals because I thought it’s not going to sound good. It was actually one of my best friends, another musician called Sophie, who encouraged me to use my own voice. We were hanging out a lot in the studio and then she asked to use my vocals on some of her music – on two tracks, from Lemonade and L.O.V.E., it’s like some of her earlier releases.
Wait, so we are talking about Sophie Sophie?
Yeah, Sophie, Sophie.
Oh my God, okay.
Yeah, so that was really the first time I ever put my voice in any kind of music. Sophie was already a really good friend, but then in terms of music, just very good at suggesting things and guiding me. When she was away, she’d just lend out her music studio to me and some other friends. And then we’d be in the studio together and it was Sophie who’s the one who suggested I should try and record my voice and use it on my music. At first, I was just incorporating it as more of a texture rather than trying to do lyrics or sing or anything. But that’s the starting point. And then you get a bit more confident and a bit more comfortable with the sound of your voice. And then it progressed to like where it’s got to today. But that’s literally what planted the seed. So I have to thank Sophie for that.
That’s so sweet. I obviously was listening to your music before, but this piece of lore evaded me. I think that’s so precious.
I don’t speak about it a lot. It’s just too sad, really. But I mean, you asked me the question, so that’s the answer.
Thank you for sharing that with me then. Going forward, the first time I started listening to your music, if I had to put it into a visual image, it felt like this beautiful postcard from a really big city that you accidentally find and let yourself be lured by. It’s this nostalgic, urban relic-y sentiment that it carries. This is perhaps in reference to Zone 1 to 6000. My question would be, how does weaving in these two worlds, like the nostalgic and the somewhat meditative world with the urban and palpable one work for you?
That’s such a nice description, I love it. Well, I just think you can’t separate them. Zone 1 to 6000 is a song about London, inspired by William Blake’s poem, also called London. And whenever I think about that song or the feelings behind it, I’m suddenly back in London and I stand in the middle of Waterloo Bridge, which is one of my favourite spots in the city. And when you look out in either direction, but especially eastwards towards St. Paul’s Cathedral, you just see all the buildings and the river cutting between. When you look at any big city’s vista, toward all the lights and buildings and windows and people in the distance, it’s like a million stories right there, they all weave together, throughout all past and present and future. They create this tapestry that makes up the city. Because for London, everything that happens in it now is somehow related to things that have happened before – I look at the city now, but I’m reading poets like William Blake, who are also Londoners and writing about the city two or 300 years ago. And they’re writing about the same river and the same kind of people walking around and the same feelings. It’s something that transcends time and eras. And in the same way that you might be in the countryside and feel a spiritual connection or energy there, I feel like you get it just as much in the city, if not more, because of all the people’s energies. And that’s something that I was trying to channel through that track.
That’s also such a mindful way to perceive it. I remember being 16 and flying alone for the first time and being above London, when all you can see is the city below you. It was one of the most insane feelings to just understand the vastness of it. There’s so much you will probably never have access to. Maybe you already tapped into this, but do you take inspiration from your immediate reality most of the time? Or is it more so from ineffable concepts, like dreams or things you imagine? I’m thinking of Dreamer as I’m asking this.
I think the first album, Weighing of the Heart, the inspirations behind came from abstract ideas or feelings. And then with Dreamer, everything in that album is really based on my own experiences and things that have happened. Weighing of the Heart was the biggest thing that I’d ever done creatively. And I cared the most about it. Then DREAMER was really hard to make in the first place. And then when I finally finished, it definitely felt more emotionally heightened.
But that whole album is 100% to do with things that I felt and experienced and seen. And I think that’s one of the reasons why so many people have identified with it, because there’s just a lot of emotion. My next album will be a combination of the two, really. With DREAMER, most of the inspiration for that was from the city, but I made the whole album in the countryside. I made most of that album, like working in Scotland on a couple of artist residencies there. And then also in the east of England in Suffolk. And that’s where I did most of the writing and recording.
I can imagine the English countryside feels so exponentially far removed from London.
I was finding it really hard to concentrate in the city and sit down to do the work. So then that’s what made me decide to apply for an artist residency. And I got one in Scotland and I just went up there for a few weeks and then really started. I really liked being in the city, getting the ideas or, you know, just doing what you need to do there. But then when you actually need to focus and put your head down, being somewhere where there’s no distractions and there’s nothing to do except work. So now it’s become one of my dreams to try and make a studio in the countryside, hopefully one day.
That’s such a wise realisation to have because multiple artist keep having the same epilhany. I feel like it’s this universal truth we have been sort of kept away from.
Exactly. And it’s just hard, especially when my studio is in the place called Somerset House, which has a lot of other artist studios in it. It’s in the middle of town. So it’s just, if you’re not fully focused or there’s this stuff going on in your mind and then you just have people texting you, being like, oh, do you want to meet up? Do you want to go for coffee? Or I’ll just be wasting time outside. Then you can’t really do the music. So that’s why I was like, this is not working. So I just had to leave.
Because you mentioned your inspiration in poetry and reading, I’m interested if you have any favourite writers or poets apart from Blake.
I was reading a lot of work by John Cutes. He’s inspired a lot of my music. I mean, they weren’t the only inspirations, but definitely fed into it. And then the track This World Couldn’t See Us, that was inspired by the best book that I’ve ever read, which is also the most depressing book I’ve ever read. And it’s by a writer called Thomas Hardy. He’s a Victorian Gothic novelist. And the book is called Tess of the D’Urbevilles. I read that book in the process of making the album. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s really intense. I don’t know if you’re in the mood for reading something really haunting.
I’ll sure keep it in mind, I’m not sure if I can bear it right now. Would you say that’s the primary medium you’re attracted to? Or do you also find inspiration in film or anything else?
I love films. When I was at university I used to really be into films and just like going to screenings of rare, more unknown films all the time. But I’ve just been so busy that I never watch anything really. So I was actually thinking to myself recently, I need to start watching more. And like, you know, people, when you’re talking to friends, everyone’s always recommending films when it comes up in conversation. So I’ve got a whole list.
My two favourite films are Leon and Enter the Dragon, which is a Bruce Lee film. But I don’t really know how either of those would inspire my music.
Leon as in Leon the Professional?
Yes, I love it.
Me too. I feel like at a certain point in your life, you start talking about movies more than actually ever watching them. Do you have a favourite place on Earth?
If it’s an urban place, I have to say London for loyalty and everything that city’s given me. But the best experience I’ve ever had my whole entire life was in South Africa in the Cederberg mountains. So I’d have to say that was a life changing day for me. It was on a shoot for this hiking brand and I had to climb four mountains in three days. I think I started in a bit of a bad mood because we had to climb this mountain and get to the top before sunrise because the director wanted to catch it at the top. We climbed about a thousand metres in two hours with no stops. So by the time I got up, I was like, this sucks. But then the sunrise started and it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And from the top of the mountain, in every direction, the mountain range just continued. And where I was, there was this huge drop into a ravine. And so then the sun was coming up from one direction and it was kind of raining a little bit at the same time. So then in the valley, it started forming this rainbow. But because we were so high up and then the mountains dropped into this huge gorge, the rainbow kept going and it formed a full ring, which I didn’t even know was a thing. It made me appreciate the world so much. And then I was thinking, wow, maybe to get the best experiences, you have to go to the hardest places. And maybe that happens up there every single morning, but no one’s there to see it. That would be my favourite earth experience.
It really all lies in these moments of pure chance, or serendipity, I’d say. Speaking of the Earth, how do you cope with how the world is looking right now?
We’re now living in an era where for the first time you can just see everything in real time. The closest thing that’s happened to that before was probably the Vietnam War as the first televised war. But that was obviously a disaster in American military PR so after that they just decided to never do that again. Everything is a reminder of the fact nothing’s changed. People are still bloodthirsty and greedy. I feel horrible for people that are just stuck in situations that they can’t get out of, especially in Gaza right now. When I think about Gaza, it’s one of the worst thoughts that I can’t really ever get over. But then within all of that, what can you do on an individual level? All you can do is try and live your life in a good way and be understanding to the people around you. I mean even with the Iraq war, where we had the biggest protest in the history of the UK and a million people went out on the streets – even that didn’t do anything. And now, we’re seeing protests all around the world amongst all different kinds of people who are just exclaiming how horrible everything is, but it’s just falling on deaf ears. I don’t know what to answer for it to be inspiring, I feel like even my words are useless. What’s been interesting is that since the last record came out and we started touring in June 2023, most of that whole album tour was during what’s been unfolding in Gaza. I’m just noticing that every single show that I played there’s always people turning up in the Palestinian flag colours or keffiyehs, feeling like they can come to my concert and that I represent their solidarity. It feels like a beacon of hope… and solidarity, and safety.
It feels like we’re at a weird, oppressive junction rn. Potentially on a brighter note, is there a time frame in your life in which you would like to revert back to?
Summer 2009, after I finished my university, because that was such a fun summer. It’s like I worked really hard and then did my exams and then the day after exams finished it was the last period of your life where you don’t really have responsibilities because you’re just basically still a student. It was also a really hot summer in London. I just have a lot of memories of cycling around at night, going out, dancing and staying out all night and coming home at sunrise. It was so perfect.
Do you have any advice for someone maybe the age you were that summer?
Don’t let anybody bring you down. You’ve gotta gain a good, strong outlook of what you want to do and not let anybody else get in the way.
What are your dreams and your fears for the future?
My dream is having the energy and health to carry on making music. For me, my favourite thing is being able to tour and play shows and experience a physical space where I’m sharing my music with the audience. I feel so touched by everyone who’s responded to the last record and I just want to continue that. Essentially making people feel good from my music and being able to look after myself and my family so I can carry on doing it. And, I mean, it’s already happening.
