Having already spent the last few years building and cultivating his sound, fast-rising artist Noah Bouchard has now returned to deliver his eagerly-awaited debut album 'Love Of My Life'.
Featuring the previously shared efforts ‘Came Close’, ‘Swan Song’ and ‘Sometimes’, this new twelve-track collection makes for an incredibly immersive listen. With his shimmering vocal performance spread across a diverse array of enchanting gems throughout, 'Love Of My Life' continues his ascent as one of the more captivating names doing the rounds right now.
So with the new album available to stream now, we sat down with him to find out more about his origins and what has been inspiring him most lately.
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What was the first instrument you fell in love with?
The first would probably be the drums, my uncle is a drummer and I remember being fascinated by them as a kid. These days, the saxophone is probably my favourite instrument, it’s got an incredible richness and tone. Although the emotion you can get from a piano is pretty special and that tends to form the backbone of a lot of my songs, so maybe that. Unfortunately I can’t really play any instruments though, despite my best attempts at learning piano and trumpet when I was a kid. Maybe I’ll try again some day.
What kind of music did you love when you were younger?
My mum brought me up with a lot of punk and indie rock music so I’ll always have love for a lot of those songs. The first music that really caught my attention and got me developing my own taste though was grime music. I’ve still got an iPod Classic full of old Ghetts, Wiley, Devlin mixtapes etc.
What was the first album you remember owning?
I have a vague memory of getting my parents to buy me a Jackson Five Best Hits CD when I was a kid so maybe that!
What is the one song you wished you could have written yourself?
There’s a lot but I think it’s got to be Into My Arms by Nick Cave. It’s rare to find a song that describes love in such simple yet effective and mesmerising terms.
Do you have any habits or rituals you go through when trying to write new music?
Honestly, not really! I generally don’t try to write music too much, if I do I find myself forcing it and nothing much comes out of it. Usually ideas will come to me on their own terms and I’ve just got to capitalise on that when they pop into my head.
Who are your favourite artists you have found yourself listening to at the moment?
There’s too many to name! To give a few, I’ve been listening to a lot of Kojaque, Blu, Adrianne Lenker, Amaarae, Jarki Monno, Shae Universe and Luke RV recently.
If you could open a show for anyone in the world, who would it be?
I think opening for Little Simz would be an insane experience. I’ve seen her live a few times and her shows are special, it would be unbelievable to be part of that.
What do you find is the most rewarding part about being a musician?
Whenever people message me or talk to me about how my music has impacted them, it really makes my day and makes me feel like I’m doing something that means something. That’s been happening a lot over this last week since my album came out, people have been so kind and it seems the project has really connected with a lot of people, I’ve had a lot of messages from people saying they cried listening to it or they learnt lessons about themselves or changed their perspectives on things through listening to it. That’s all pretty crazy to me.
And what is the most frustrating part?
I’m probably going to say the same as most artists in this generation. Having to constantly market myself, create social media content, blow my own trumpet… it can be a bit frustrating and doesn’t always sit well with me, particularly being an introverted person. I’m not a massive fan of talking about myself or constantly getting in people’s faces. So I’m trying to find a way to market myself in ways that still feel authentic and comfortable for me, we’ll see how it goes. I guess the other thing is how difficult it is to make money from music, particularly as it costs a lot to create these projects. Music has been critically devalued these last few years (or maybe decades). We don’t create purely for the sake of financial gain but the industry does feel pretty unsustainable at the moment.
And what is the best piece of advice you have received as a musician?
To think about makes me unique as a person and build my music around that. It’s easy to get caught in what others are doing or what’s currently popular, but if you’re not being authentic to yourself then you won’t get the same satisfaction from your music and people will be able to hear that you aren’t being yourself.
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Noah Bouchard's new album 'Love Of My Life' is available to stream now. Check it out in the player below.