Interview with Day Nah: ‘I’ve always been drawn to captivating vocalists’

Romanian blues singer based in Copenhagen, Day Nah, will release her as-of-yet untitled debut EP towards the end of the summer.

The EP is about ‘breaking free of societal constrictions’, according to Day Nah: ‘I come from a family that’s quite traditional and conservative, and, unfortunately, also quite domineering,’ she said. ‘It took a while to realise it was important to break free of that. The EP will include four songs and what I love most about it is that each is quite unique in its own way, both in genre and mood.’

Given the diversity of her musical tastes and preferences, the songs have somewhat different influences as well: ‘What I love most about it, is that with this EP I feel I’ve gotten closer to developing my musical core, I feel I’ve found my style and my voice,’ she said. Her artistic name is taken from her real one: ‘It’s short for my real name, Daniela. In Romania, people call me ‘Dana’ but people found that hard to pronounce here. I felt I had to find a name that was easy to pronounce for everyone. My previous stage name was Daynah and that was quite hard to pronounce. At some point, when creating my Snapchat account, Snapchat suggested Day_Nah as a name, and when I saw it, I felt an instant connection to it and I decided to make it my stage name!’

Last month, she released her bluesy single ‘Wild and Free’, which opens with a hypnotic drum beat before she comes in on old school, jazz club vocals: ‘It’s part of an EP I started with my friend and producer Radu Constantin,’ she said. ‘He is a multi-instrumentalist based in London and also a graduate of The School Of Sound Recording from Manchester. The way I work with him is based on a melody, beat or chord progression. Radu normally composes a simple beat, sends it to me and I improvise and create a melody based on that. I wrote it after the second lockdown when I was rethinking my professional and personal life. I was turning 33 but felt unfulfilled professionally. I always wanted to do music but never had the courage to pursue it seriously. Before turning 33, I was thinking about religion and what that number means symbolically, as the year of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I craved a big change, I broke up with the person I’d been with for a long time. It was a turbulent time.’ She describes it as ‘a seize the day kind of song’: ‘I wrote it in the summer when I was dreaming about having a life of touring. ‘Wild and Free’ is my favourite song on the EP, but they all have a piece of my heart.’

As the track kicks off: “You know those days when you’re feeling a little restless. When you wake up with this bottomless thirst for danger? Mmmn, well I’ve been having a lot of those lately. There is one thing that might help and you’ll know just what it is, yeah. Tonight I’m going to town. I’m on fire, shoes on and I’m ready to hang. Oh well, now, where’s the party?”

‘Sonically, it’s the heaviest on the EP, being rooted in rock, but embellished with bluesy and soulful vocals‘

She met Constantin just by chance: ‘We met at an alt-rock club in Bucharest called Club A (laughs), everyone in my generation who’s lived in Bucharest has fond memories of that club. Despite being far away from each other, Radu and I kept in contact thanks to our love for music and in 2021, we decided to start working on an EP together. I’d done other collabs – low-fi, electro-pop and R&B. Somehow, I didn’t really feel they reflected my voice or my personality enough, and at that point I was looking for something different. Radu suggested doing something like ‘Wild and Free’ as blues from the 60’s and 70’s is my biggest love. I sent him a long list of songs which I consider essential in my musical formation. After that, he started working on what became ‘Baby Cosmic Crazy’. We decided to release three of the songs as singles and drop the EP towards the end of the summer. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s very possible it will be called ‘Wild and Free’ or ‘Adieu Authority’.

‘Adieu Authority’ will be released next month: ‘It’s another one of my favourites. Sonically, it’s the heaviest on the EP, being rooted in rock, but embellished with bluesy and soulful vocals,’ she said. ‘It was inspired by my relationship with some dear and long term friends of mine, who I consider my extended family in Denmark, since I don’t have any family here. Somehow, along the way, many friends and family, and sometimes even acquaintances or complete strangers, have taken liberty in advising or even commanding how I should live my life. This song came at a time when I was ready to fully embrace my own vision for my life, trust it and say goodbye to pleasing others at the cost of my own unhappiness.’

Day Nah already had ties to Scandinavia prior to her move: ‘I have family in Malmö, Sweden, and I came to Scandinavia as a child, then I came back to do a Masters degree in European Studies.’ She got into music when she was around nine years old: ‘I started on my own, my parents have quite a big vinyl and magnetic tape collection and my uncle had a huge collection of CDs he’d brought from Sweden. When we were at his, I’d go into his room on my own and just listen to them. My family loved a lot of blues, soul and funk like The Temptations, James Brown and Etta James but they also loved the king of pop, Michael Jackson, and had Whitney Houston and Celine Dion albums –  and these were the first female singers I tried to replicate!’

‘I love walking by the canals of Copenhagen’

She’s fallen in love with her adopted city of Copenhagen and what it has to offer: ‘I love walking by the canals of Copenhagen and walking in the buzzing streets of Vesterbro and Nørrebro,’ she said. ‘My favourite part of Copenhagen is the Christianshavn area of town along with Copenhagen’s hippie “Freetown Christiania”, which is a community that has its own rules and regulations completely independent of the Danish government. Christiania is home to many alternative and unique music venues where both professional and amateur musicians meet and play together. Aside from that, it is also home to ALIS Wonderland Skate Park, the Science and Cocktails event and a variety of bars, cafes, restaurants and souvenir stalls.’

‘Baby Cosmic Crazy’, which she released as a single in February, showcases how broad her tastes are musically. There’s an undercurrent of blues winding through the song but it’s also got a big 70’s psychedelic vibe: ”Baby Cosmic Crazy’ is the first track intended for the EP, and, when I wrote it, I was super excited for the future and for finally deciding to pursue music in a serious way,’ she said. ‘In this period, I had all these thoughts and considerations about who I was and who I wanted to be as an artist. I’ve always been fascinated with the 1960’s and 1970’s hippie era and the bohemian atmosphere surrounding it, and most of all, with the iconic Janis Joplin. In the same period, I was also discovering the young yet incredibly talented Tash Sultana (Australian multi-instrumentalist, producer and musician blending a variety of genres in her music). So, in my heart, ‘Baby Cosmic Crazy’ is my tribute to the genius of these artists and others but it’s also a love anthem to my future self, as I was projecting these images onto myself. As I was writing the song, I was mentally creating and visualising this character that combined revolutionary creativity, wildness, passion and sensuality, and I was not only fascinated by it but also infatuated with it. So yeah, imagine yourself dancing in the mirror naked, stripped of all inhibitions or fears, fully accepting of your physical beauty in all its forms, satisfied with the choices you’ve made, having no regrets – and falling in love with that self. That’s what ‘Baby Cosmic Crazy’ is about.’

Her musical tastes are incredibly varied, running the gamut from folk to heavy rock: ‘Apart from Janis Joplin, I’d say James Brown, Etta James, The Rolling Stones and Tina Turner. Led Zeppelin, I listened to them a lot in my childhood, my dad was a big fan. And Amy Winehouse, I love her, she was amazing. I cover her songs ‘Back to Black’ and ‘You Know I’m No Good’. I think what I love most about covering Amy’s music is the vulnerability and honesty of her lyrics, to which I can so easily relate. I feel like the biggest challenge in covering her music lies in the complexity of her vocal timbre and sound, which is so distinctive and recognisable, and with this comes a lot of pressure, as her delivery was so flawless and confident.’

‘My favourite Stone is definitely Mick Jagger, his energy while performing is incredible, his charisma, his eccentric moves and style’

She notes that pop music is very big in Denmark, as is hip hop, while R&B and soul are making waves: ‘I really like Alex Vargas (half-English, half-Uruguayan), he lived in the UK at the start of his career and did this beautiful cover of Usher’s ‘More’, which I completely fell in love with,’ she said. ‘He does this amazing blend of pop and blue-eyed soul. (He performed an incredible cover of ‘Hey Jude’ on the TV show ‘Ted Lasso’.) He has an amazing, deep, bluesy-soulful voice. Coco O is a Danish singer of Tanzanian descent, she used to be in the electronic duo Quadron. She’s got a gentle, subtle, beautiful voice. I love the band When Saints Go Machine, they’re very cool stoner pop, they’re amazing live. Sleep Party People are a bit more alternative, more shoegaze. I feel like there’s a lot of potential in Romanian folkloric music, it has been successfully incorporated in the work of amazing blues-rock/psychedelic rock band Phoenix – one of my father’s favourites, that I grew up listening to – but also by the punk-folk band Zdob si Zdub (a Moldovan band) and by Subcarpati, which has been referred to as underground folklore, mixing hip-hop, trip-hop, dubstep and other electronic genres with different folkloric instruments. In the future, I would like to experiment and probably use ethnic Balkan rhythms and classic Romanian folkloric tunes and see where that will take me!’

If she could write a song with anyone, she is quick to say Jack White and The Rolling Stones: ‘I saw both Jack White and The Rolling Stones live at Roskilde Festival. They were both astonishing performances in their own way. I think Jack White is probably one of the best guitarists in his generation. The Rolling Stones are legendary and my favourite Stone is definitely Mick Jagger, his energy while performing is incredible, his charisma, his eccentric moves and style, his wit and coolness are just infectious!’ Another musician she’d love to chat with is Janis Joplin: ‘If she was still alive, she’d be really fun, she’d have a lot of stories! I’d want to ask her how it felt playing at such amazing festivals like Woodstock and Monterey. If I could play at any festival, I’ve thought about Glastonbury a lot, that’s the one.’

Her dream line up would be fantastic: ‘It’s got to be my biggest inspirations – Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Prince is a must, Lenny Kravitz, Jack White, The Black Keys, I love their music. Rival Sons, what an amazing voice! I’ve always been drawn to captivating vocalists. Prince was astonishing, the funkiness of the music, his persona. I think he was a very mysterious man (laughs). His voice is very interesting, very distinctive. He was very unique.’

Day Nah’s love of music and of creating it is infectious and it’s clear just how energising she finds it: ‘The process of writing a new song is always very playful and experimental for me and that’s always a lot of fun,’ she said. ‘It’s just me and a certain beat, chord progression or track and I have the freedom to do whatever I want with it and that’s quite amazing. Jamming with musicians and composing music live – and by that I mean not online – is even more exciting and that’s something I’m hoping to do a lot more of in the future. Just letting your instrument and your instinct guide you in creating something in the moment and going with the flow, it’s beautiful and exhilarating!’