Catch an interview with Novo Amor (Ali Lacey), grab the debut EP from iTunes, and watch the video for single "Welcome to the Jungle".
Why use the stage name Novo Amor?
Ali Lacey: I mean, it kind of, in a way, conveys why I started the project. It's Portuguese or Galician for 'new love', which kind of just represents why I started the project, kind of what the songs were about, when it all began, kind of like, I was throwing my passion into something, which was music. I had gone through a break-up, which is very kind of cliché in a way, but that's kind of why I use it as an alias, just so I didn't have to use my real name.
The EP was just released in 2014, how has Woodgate, NY been received?
Yeah, it's been received really well. The first track from the EP I wrote for a friend's feature film and after the film came out in the middle of 2013, everyone kind of took to the track really well like, "oh, wow, that's really good, you should make more," so I just kind of kept going with that. It was received well on my blog in the UK and the US and got picked up by a record label in Norway, so I ended up just making a bunch of music to go around it and then that kind of started spiraling, as well. It's been received better than I expected it to, as a song I wrote for a friend, initially.
Aside from your cover of "Welcome to the Jungle", have you been working on any new releases?
Aside from that, I'm kind of writing for an album at the moment. I'm kind of half way through, I'd say, and it's going to take a while to produce it all. I'm writing with a guy called Ed Tullett, who I wrote the last song with, we're putting out an EP together this year; there's kind of a lot going on. I think the AXE "Welcome to the Jungle" cover is kind of taking up a lot of my time at the moment.
Are there any bands or artists who have inspired you or your sound?
There are a few artists which kind of sound similar, I guess, and are coming out these days: a guy called Dustin Tebbutt from Australia - he's kind of similar - is good; a guy called Vancouver Sleep Clinic, he's one of those that I really like and he's similar to my style. A lot of the music I've listened to in the past year has helped mould the sound in a way, something like James Vincent McMorrow and Bon Iver; I'm just taking elements of all of them and just making it my own while songwriting really.
How would you describe your sound?
Quite ethereal, I guess. It's an ambient, ethereal, fragile kind of sound. I try and make stuff that will move people in a way and kind of have something epic in it and make it really quite melodic.
What do you hope people are able to take away from your music while listening to it?
Like I said, I always try to make music that will maybe move someone in a way, like I get a lot of messages from people saying 'oh, your song, I can really relate to that,' or, you know, saying they're going through a break-up and the other person really likes my music and stuff and whenever they hear it now it kind of gets them in a way. Receiving messages like that, it's really nice to know that people are relating to music in the same way that I am when I'm making it. It's kind of like, I'm not really hoping that there's anything people can take away, I'm just making the stuff that I want to make and what I want to hear so if people like it, you know, that's great.