NavelGaze is a one-person experimental artist, based in Meanjin (Brisbane), Australia. After spending her teenage years playing in various prog rock and heavy metal bands, she started releasing her own music when she was 16, with her first NavelGaze album, It Is. From her early experiments with drone, harsh noise, and doom metal, she has continuously explored new styles and influences, developing her songwriting and production skills with each new release. With the release of her 2021 EP, Lost/Gained, she started to play live shows and develop a local fanbase, leading up to her upcoming album, who/am/i — her most polished release yet, experimenting heavily with her EDM, industrial and shoegaze influences.
NavelGaze recently released her latest album, who/am/i. This album features 6 tracks including the single “Abandonment Girl” and is currently available on all streaming services.
who/am/i explores themes of identity as NavelGaze works to understand who or what she really is. The album focuses heavily on her EDM, industrial, and shoegaze influences and is her most polished and well-produced release yet.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with NavelGaze about dream collabs, trying to choose a favorite song of all time, the new project, and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Are you able to choose a favorite song of all time? Or would you label this an impossible task? If yes, what’s the song? If no, what’s your current Top 3?
Well, my favourite song of all time is definitely Supper’s Ready by Genesis. I could talk about this song (and Peter Gabriel-era Genesis in general) for *hours* lmao, but this song to me is just… perfect. The hard part is actually the question of my *second* favourite song of all time haha, there’s some very, very fierce competition there.
What about who/am/i makes you most proud? Was there a specific goal you were trying to accomplish with this release?
I’m generally pretty self-critical about my work, but honestly? There are actually quite a few things about who/am/i that I’m proud of! For one thing, this is the first time I’ve really put a lot of time into making it “Sound Good”. While I’ve been making music for most of my life, I basically had to teach myself production stuff from when I was 16 or 17 years old. I now actually know, like, how to get my DAW to do what I want haha, but I still struggle a lot with the mixing/mastering stage. For my previous stuff, I’d generally just do my best (and maybe get a little touch up from one of my friends who knew how compression works), which was fine back when I didn’t really care if anyone heard my music. But this time around, I wanted my music to *finally* sound the way I wanted it to, so I hired my incredibly talented friend Amy Sargeant to handle the mixing and mastering. I honestly cannot speak highly enough of her, she’s so good at what she does and I just… had no idea my music could sound that good. So I’m really proud to have worked with her!
I’m also pretty happy with the songs I wrote, and with how they come together as a whole. I think the album has a genuinely distinct and cohesive sound, which has been pretty hard for me to pull off before — my earlier stuff can definitely sound more like a random assortment of genres than an actual album sometimes haha. And on the individual track level, I feel like Abandonment Girl is probably one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written.
Most of all, though, I am proudest of the track Aria. This song was written for and about my closest friend, and about how grateful I am for her presence in my life, and she really loves it! So I’m very, very proud of that song, more than any other music I’ve ever made.
Overall, with who/am/i, I really wanted to focus on exploring my own identity and sense of self. I’ve had a *lot* of big “Life Changes” over the past couple years. This album was, I guess, my way of working through that, of trying to find some kind of consistent self-image through it all. I don’t know if that makes any sense and it definitely sounds more pretentious than I meant it to haha, but I’d say I’m pretty happy with it!
What inspires you to create music? What motivates you to keep going?
This is kind of a tough question! When it comes to sitting down to write a particular song, a big part of it is that I want to listen to a song that won’t exist until I make it, if that makes sense? Sometimes the idea’s pretty well-formed before I start writing it, but it’s also often just something really silly and basic — Goodbye, for example, I started writing bc I had the idea of “vapourwave but with vaguely blackgazey guitars”.
More broadly though, I guess I just kinda don’t know what else I would do except make music? I’ve just been doing it for so much of my life that it just feels like an entirely natural fact of my daily existence or something. And when it does get hard, like when I’m really burnt out or feeling really insecure about whether I’m actually good at it? The thing that always helps me the most is to just strip away all the questions about the “external goals” of the music — whether other people would like it, whether the mix is okay, how or if I should release it — and just focus on the *process* of making it for its own sake, if that makes sense.
If you could collaborate with anyone – dead or alive, famous or unknown – who would it be and why?
Oh, this is a tough one, because there are so many people! I actually really enjoy collaborating, especially with my musician friends, so if any of them are reading this, please hit me up if you’re interested!
But when it comes to well-known musicians, I would say my bucket list would be:
-Nick Cave, because of how his incredible artistry has been so massively influential on my own songwriting. Plus, his lyricism in particular is amazing and definitely the part of music that I struggle with the most
-Taylor Swift, not just because it’d mean I was somehow successful enough to collaborate with Taylor Swift haha, but also because I find a lot of her music really emotionally resonates with me — I’ve made a slightly embarrassing number of Taylor Swift remixes that will never see the light of day lmao. I also feel like her songwriting could potentially actually work with my experimentalism and focus on texture/soundscapes, so I think our music would sound so incredibly weird together that I’d absolutely love listening to it even if it was a huge disaster
-Finally, Gavin Harrison, because he’s my absolute favourite drummer of all time, and so much of my “style” is deeply influenced by his work — the way he approaches rhythm in a way that’s both so complex, but also incredibly enjoyable to listen to, is really something I try (and usually fail) to emulate in my own work so I’d *love* to work with him!
What was the last song you listened to? Favorite all-time bands/artists?
The last song I listened to was “Pharma” by GBRESCI — they’re this really neat Italian group who make really interesting, dark, kinda experimental music that I’d say generally falls into the “atmospheric trap” category. They’re very underrated I think, and they have some really beautiful lyrics as well (I can speak a bit Italian), and they really got me through some tough times recently.
As for favourite all-time artists, god where to start! I guess I’ll just list the first 10 who come to mind (and who I haven’t already mentioned) and force myself to stop there haha:
-Chon
-Steven Wilson
-21 Savage
-Sewerslvt
-Mournful Congregation
-Radiohead
-Violet Cold
-Bill Wurtz
-Rat Jesu
-Senses Fail
Where is the best place to find you and stay connected?
My music can be found on basically all streaming services! If you really wanna support me as well, you can buy my whole discography (with some bonuses here and there) on Bandcamp. I don’t use social media as much as I really should, but my main one is @navelgazemusic on Instagram! All of these links can be found at https://linktr.ee/navelgazemusic
I appreciate Your time. Want to say or plug any other projects before we part ways?
Thank you so much! This is actually my first time ever being interviewed about my music, and I just wanna say it’s a huge honour for me, I’m really grateful. My album is out on the 29th of March, and you can already listen to the single version of Abandonment Girl on all streaming services. And that’s all, thanks a bunch!
