Nan

Album: The Dreaming Room (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song is a reconstruction of a phone call Laura Mvula made to her grandmother, in which the singer's nan (impersonated by Mvula) tells her to "write a song I can shake me foot."

    Mvula took this instruction seriously when writing for The Dreaming Room. She told The Daily Telegraph: "I'm a dark soul, but I'm also a playful child. I didn't want to be sat at my piano for this album. So I started having fun with old synthesizers. A Roland Paraphonic 6 became my beast in the studio. It could play mad bass and funk and manipulate sounds… like the sound of me tapping my rings together, clapping my hands onto my bottom, hitting a book with my high heels."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")

Phil Hurtt ("I'll Be Around")Songwriter Interviews

Phil was a songwriter, producer and voice behind many Philadelphia soul classics. When disco hit, he got an interesting project: The Village People.

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The Remasters

Brian Kehew: The Man Behind The RemastersSong Writing

Brian has unearthed outtakes by Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello and hundreds of other artists for reissues. Here's how he does it.

Reverend Horton Heat

Reverend Horton HeatSongwriter Interviews

The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs.

British Invasion

British InvasionFact or Fiction

Go beyond The Beatles to see what you know about the British Invasion.

Chris Rea

Chris ReaSongwriter Interviews

It took him seven years to recover from his American hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)," but Chris Rea became one of the top singer-songwriters in his native UK.