“I love being busy, but my best ideas don’t come when I have lots of things to do. I can still be creative, but it’s not the ideal situation,” Nicolas, aka Parra for Cuva, tells me when I ask about his relationship with idleness, which played a significant role as inspiration for his new album, Mimose. Over two consecutive springtimes, he and his girlfriend rented a hut in the beautiful Liguria region of Italy to find idleness, new inspiration for his musical style and to get away from the Berlin bubble so that something new could emerge.
Currently, Nicolas is on his big album tour, but he still found the time to answer a few questions for us about the desire to rediscover oneself, writing melancholic music when happy, and why being a little bored makes him the most creative.
Photography by Max Hartmann
Hey dear Nicolas, your new album “Mimose” is inspired by idleness. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart, something I discovered years ago when I came across the book by Tom Hodgkinson, “How to be Idle.” I think especially in our times that are so full of distraction and speed, it couldn’t be more appropriate. How did you come across “idleness” for the
first time?
Hey Sigi! A tricky question for the beginning (smiles). So, I guess for me, being in a state of idleness always results in a phase of creativity. I love being busy, but my best ideas don’t come when I have lots of things to do. I can still be creative, but it’s not the ideal situation. The best is when I am a little bored, like during long holidays. I will make music just to pass the time, and I always have the feeling that’s when good things are coming. The first time I was in a state of idleness was really when I finished school and came back from my year abroad. I was living at my parents’ place for four months again in the middle of a warm summer. I had no obligations and nothing to do except go for walks with the dog and sit in the garden. We wrote “Wicked Games” during that time.
Getting away from the Berlin bubble and the overwhelming energy of the city (I can feel those words so much!) was also one of the main factors for the creation of this special album. Together with your girlfriend, you rented a hut over springtime in Liguria, Italy, for two years in a row. Visits from friends, walks by the sea, good food, and the fresh smell of the mimosa shrubs blooming just outside – inspired “Mimose.” Did you manage to keep at least a bit of this feeling from there in your everyday life in Berlin?
We were very sad to leave this place, but it felt like it was the time. Our home in Berlin is very cozy, and we put quite a lot of work into it. Paula, my girlfriend, is great in interior design. So our place feels very colourful. I am sitting in our garden right next to the studio, which has a little pond right now, which is very rare for a Berlin apartment to have. So I always feel fine here in summer, and when on tour, I miss Berlin a lot. Not only because of FOMO but also because it’s a friendly place. We brought a lot of mimosa flowers back home and dried them. These are now all over the place. I am very sure we will be back in the south next winter.
On “Mimose,” there’s also the desire to rediscover oneself. I believe that’s also a big theme of today’s time. You can lose yourself incredibly quickly in the pace and possibilities. After working on your album, did you feel like you had rediscovered yourself again, and if so, in what way?
What often happens when I make music is that I discover a certain feeling again. For example, there is a feeling that something strange is going to happen soon. Or a rather romantic feeling that always describes one point of emotion all the time. Maybe for me, it doesn’t feel like a rediscovery. I feel that I opened up a page or a channel that I did not know existed in me before I started writing this record. This can also happen when you collaborate with somebody. I made one song with my friend Marcel (Orbit), and I feel that I already opened up a completely new way of thinking about music.
Three tracks on the album are with producer and songwriter Orbit. You said he arrived in Italy and left as a friend. How did you come up with the idea to collaborate with him? And were there any difficult moments, especially when it comes to merging ideas from two artists?
I found him through Instagram and hit him up. We met like two days after and started writing music straight away. It felt really uncomplicated. Sometimes when you meet up with a producer, there is a lot of pressure in the room as everybody wants to contribute something important or be the one with the best idea. I never felt anything like that at all. If I had to point out one thing, it would be maybe sometimes the question about the style of a song. I always wanted to go somewhere a bit more housey than him.
I love the track “Let it Burn.” It’s about liberation from the past. And I truly love the vibe of the choir. Can you describe how you felt when you first played this song together with the choir?
We recorded the song on a very hot summer day in a studio in the north of Berlin. We were like 12 people in a small room, and we had to close the windows during the recording, so it was very hot. When I first heard them singing the vocals of “Let it Burn,” I was blown away. I loved the energy and the vibe of the choir so much. When you look at footage of that day, you see me constantly smiling. We all had lunch after the session and a beer, and it was truly wonderful. Big ups to the “A Song for You” choir.
“It’s very strange, but I write melancholic music when happy, and happy music always comes out of me when being in a cloudy mood.”
How personal is that song for you – meaning, did you write this about a specific event in your past, or is it just in general this thought of letting go of old things and living more in the present?
I was very depressed while writing this, I remember that. It’s very strange, but I write melancholic music when happy, and happy music always comes out of me when being in a cloudy mood. It seems a bit obvious, but it still fascinates me a lot. I did not mean intentionally to let something go with this song. I just loved the harmonics of the sample and how it made me feel. I often get asked if there would be any deeper meaning to a song. Yes, there sometimes is a deeper feeling which that song made me feel, but there is never an intention beforehand that I want to express. My music is made by wanted accidents.
In the video for this song, you wear a shirt that your girlfriend Paula designed. So, of course, I checked out her site too and love the bags, scarves, clothes she makes. Especially with this embroidery! You also have a studio together – what does your typical day look like? And are your works mutually inspired, or do you work alongside each other?
We both have our studios at home. Mine is downstairs and has little lights, and hers is upstairs with much more daylight. When she is not in university, we usually start our day together by having coffee, going for running, and having a late breakfast. After all that, we usually disappear into our little chambers. We have big isolated acoustic doors everywhere, so it almost feels like you are alone at home. We then meet up around 6 PM to finish up the day. As we spend almost every day together, we both know what the other person is working on at the moment. Sometimes we ask each other for feedback or opinion on the piece we are working on.
“…there is never an intention beforehand that I want to express. My music is made by wanted accidents.”
You are about to start your big world tour. Are there any places that you have not been to before or that you are especially excited about? And how do you prepare yourself for such a big tour?
I have been touring mainly in Europe for the last 10 years, so I have been to every city that is on the route. I always love to play in Germany, to be honest. I am always a bit more nervous before a show here and I don’t know why, but it just feels a bit different than the rest. This year, I am most excited about playing close to Genoa in Liguria. As we have been there now so many times, and the city is deeply connected with the time I wrote that record.
Do you still get nervous before live sets? And if so, how do you deal with it?
Yes, I am always super nervous. Especially in my hometown or if you are about to play your first show for a while, and you don’t know how people will react.
To finish, I would like to hear a bit about your journey into music. Tell us a bit about how you got onto this path of music in the first place, and did you ever imagine you would pursue a professional career when first noticing that you really enjoy music?
I came into music because of my parents, I guess. They always listened to a lot of good music like The Beatles, Patti Smith, George Harrison, Tom Petty, but also stuff like Moby and so on. I was sitting with them and soaked it all in. I had early music school and piano lessons. My teacher put no pressure on me and let me play whatever I wanted. Later in life, I had jazz piano lessons, which influenced me a lot. That was also the time I started writing electronic music. A friend of mine taught me everything about Ableton and electronic music. We were sitting in his childhood room drinking coffee, smoking our first cigarettes, and jamming on a MIDI controller. We went to parties in an occupied house in Göttingen, where they played Kollektiv Turmstrasse and Extrawelt and more minimal house. Later, I fell in love with the easier and emotional after-hour sound.
Where do you see yourself in about 10 years from now?
I hope I will still be able to make music. As I have already been in the business for 10 years, I am actually pretty sure that I will do the same thing. I really want to teach music, so maybe that might also become a part of my life. Let’s see. (smiles)
Happiness is… loved ones.
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