Georgia Nott is best known as one half of NZ brother-sister duo Broods, but she’s ditched the male half of that equation, and collaborated with a bunch of talented women for The Venus Project: Vol. 1, a stunning 10-track album released yesterday, fittingly on International Women’s Day.
“This project allowed me to speak from an extremely honest place and create another type of music that I’ve wanted to make for a long time”, she explains. “The songs themselves are very different to what I’ve created in the past, very raw and lo-fi.”
She walked us through the album, track-by-track. Enjoy!
Moon to Moon:
While Camila and I were working on the production for the album, she showed me ‘Moon to Moon’. It had no lyrics yet but I immediately heard it being the opening track to the album. The tranquility of it combined with its cinematic quality set the tone of what I wanted to create with the album as a whole so well.
Need/Want:
Camila and I wrote this one together one afternoon. She started playing the piano and I started singing what was on my mind. She nodded in agreement as I sang. I think I was singing her thoughts too. It’s about feeling out of place in your own life. You’re home but you feel like no one knows you. When we feel like there’s something wrong with us or our life we naturally search for something or someone to blame.
Need a Man:
‘Need a Man’ is inspired by all the times I have been told “it’s not safe for you as a woman”.
Whether it has been travelling, going to a party, or simply walking alone (it doesn’t even have to be dark). Rules that didn’t seem apply to men. Rules that taught me to watch my back when I walked past a group of men, clenching my fists and planning how I would defend myself if I was attacked. Being told that “I need a man to protect me from other men”. I am frustrated because I don’t feel that I should have take preventative measures to feel safe around men and to expect the worst in men. And nothing will change until these acts of intimidation, exploitation, harassment and assault are called out and not tolerated. Nothing will change until the attackers are held accountable, instead of their victims. I wanted these raw thoughts to be accompanied by raw, unapologetic production. A lot of the parts are taken from the original demo when I initially wrote it a year and a half ago.
Numb:
I wrote this song a while ago when I felt like I was being held down by the world I was in. I didn’t feel like myself because I didn’t know myself. I’d let myself be steered by others onto roads I didn’t feel were right for me. I have often looked to others to save me or find me but I realised that was not something I could expect of another; it is something I have to do for myself.
Go Easy/Hey Love (Part 1):
This song is the most vulnerable one on the record. It comes from a place of uncertainty that I think everyone feels at one point. We keep distracted and forget to take care of ourselves until we find ourselves in a place seemingly suddenly, where we feel like we don’t recognise the person we see in the mirror. When I find myself here I often ask myself a lot of questions; Am I still who I want to be? Am I still good enough for the people I love? When I experience this fragility I have to consciously give myself some grace and forgiveness.
Won’t Hurt:
Initially written around 2 years ago, but still just as relevant to me today, ‘Won’t Hurt’ is about the duality of being both strong and vulnerable at the same time; woman are so often described as being “too emotional” as if it is a burden on the world. I personally believe the complete opposite; that being vulnerabile lifts the world into new levels of connection and understanding. I’ve been working on accepting my own emotions over the past few years and by sharing them more openly, and have worked to make them become my strengths. It can be scary being so open and honest, but it’s more freeing than painful. Vulnerability is liberating!!
Take Me Out:
I wrote this song when I was having, what my friends and I call, “the Sunday Scaries”. The feeling after being on top of the world and then coming down with a bit of a crash at times. When you are the last one left at the end of the night and you don’t want to go back to reality yet. This song is about chasing that feeling. I recorded the demo in my bedroom and felt so comforted by it so I decided to put the demo version, as it was, on the album.
Daughter of the King:
This is a song that, like ‘Take Me Out’, I kept in its original demo version for the album. It’s a very personal song to me as it is dedicated to someone I love so much. It is also for any other woman that has ever felt like they have put up with mistreatment in a relationship. No woman should feel that it is their fault or that they deserve to be mistreated. This is my hymn to Venus, asking her to keep her children safe from harm and to remind them of their worth.
Sorry Kids:
I wrote this song in a hotel room in Manchester. I worry a lot about the fate of our planet. At times it overwhelms me and upsets me that the coming generations will inherit a world that has been exploited and bled dry.
