Nimmo obsess over mortality on new single “Orange Skies”
Watch the new video from the U.K. duo.
Nimmo made a low-key return with their single "Too Late" earlier this year, marking the duo's arrival as an independent act after a split with major label Sony. Today sees the arrival of new single "Orange Skies," the first taste of an upcoming EP due on November 15. The song is a slice of Nimmo's native London filled with spoken word verses, ominous basslines, and garage-influenced drums. It's a rumination on mortality revolving around a passionate cry of "Now that I'm here I'm going to show you who I am."
A video for the track, premiering above via The FADER, taps into the song's themes of life and death. Filmed in a London playground, Sarah Nimmo and Reva Gauntlett are totems around which characters from their life gravitate. It's an eery and moving visual that adds extra weight to the already heavy "Orange Skies."
Speaking via email, Sarah from the group told The FADER all about the new song and video, as well as plans for the future. Read on for the latest from her.
What has Nimmo been up to since we last heard from you?
We've been mainly recording for our new EP Songs From The Credits alongside playing shows and DJing. We put out "Too Late" as sort of wink to show our fans that, firstly we were still very much here and that the journey was still continuing and growing. It was us working independently pulling us back to a true place and setting out the way we want things to look sound and feel, and ultimately showing us in our most honest form.
You parted ways with your label. What happened there and how do you feel now as independent artists?
It was just a standard major label moment where it no longer makes sense for you to be there. We feel fairly fucking ecstatic about being independent. Me and Reva have been scheming and creating since we can remember and so making stuff happen the way we want on our own terms with people we love and respect just feels like coming home but fresh and still thrilling every day.
Tell us all about "Orange Skies"
"Orange Skies" is about the paranoia of dying and not having control over the way you're remembered. It's about the wrong people being at your funeral and the right people not. It's being held somewhere religious when we're atheists and also imagining the dreamlike and haunting images that go through your head when you picture that day.
The video is a one shot of me and Reva on a bench placed oddly on a concrete football pitch, a place of huge significance during our childhoods. We used this setting to create a surreal and transient space where different people from our lives constantly pass through. The boys that enter with footballs and bikes are Reva's nephews; the woman that dances with Reva is my mum. The nuns are our best friends and the congregation are a collection of lovers, band mates, family members and a friend's dog! We created moments with people that we felt reflected parts of our personalities. At one point a family friend, Georgia plays woman with authority and screams in my ear until - like many a maths lesson at school - I cave and walk out. It's our funeral and its happening without us.
Is the single a good indication of the rest of the new music you've been working on?
"Orange Skies" is a collaboration with our close friend Maya Jane Coles, and so doesn't necessarily reflect the sole sound of the record. The single is part of an EP and each track is fairly different. We wrote these songs sporadically during the time we left Sony and theres a consistent theme of exiting that runs throughout. Sometimes escapist, sometimes nostalgic and at others, honestly feeling pretty lost.
Nimmo play live at London's Sporting Clube De Londres on September 26.
