Waiomu’s Nur Peach is coming into her own as a musician on June 22, with the release of her debut album, Syncopate.
The 23-year-old singer-songwriter, daughter of well-known Coromandel musician Dylan Wade, said the release is the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. It’s an autobiographical collection, chronicling her first year at Auckland University – finding independence, growing into her sound and learning to embrace herself.
“It was written while I was in my first year at uni, and it was also the year I turned 18, so it has a lot of themes about coming of age and about taking big risks,” Nur said.
“I felt like I was coming into my own musically and learning a lot about who I was, because I’ve always struggled with fitting in. The title of the album, Syncopate, is a music theory term which means emphasising or accenting the offbeats. But I’ve used it metaphorically to mean daring to be different… [To] make big changes in your life and in the world.”
The 10-track album is a departure from her folk roots, bringing in a funky electropop sound which Nur said was heavily influenced by her studies.
“There is quite a definite pop sound in a few of the songs, and that was something that was very new for me. Some of the songs were actually for my [Bachelor of Music] course, handed in as assignments,” she said.
“The whole concept behind the album… That came from the song Offbeat, which was inspired by something my teacher said. He said something like, ‘it helps to be a little bit offbeat’. And the hook of that song just flared to my head as soon as he said that.”
Although Nur wrote the entire album in 2019, recording was delayed due to the pandemic, with most of the studio work taking place in 2022. Nur and her producer, Scott Seabright, worked hard to maintain the feel of the music even as her style evolved in the following years.
“It was really important for me to keep this one as it was, because it really felt like it was such a strong body of work and so much represented that particular year in my life. Adding stuff from other years didn’t feel right,” she said.
“[It’s] a time capsule of this really amazing, really beautiful year of my life where I was probably able to be the most independent I’ve ever been able to be.”
Music has been a part of Nur’s life from a very early age – she’d written more than 200 songs by the time she left Thames High School, and performed at the NZ Spirit Festival, Auckland Folk Festival and the Prana festival, as well as singing in Israel and busking on the streets of Paris. In 2016, she was the Waikato regional winner of the Play It Strange Get Connected songwriting competition with her song Feel The Sun, and in 2023 her single release Gift From Above, featuring Dylan Wade, was playlisted on Coromandel’s CFM. However, Syncopate has been life-changing, she said.
“It was really amazing seeing the album manifest into something that I could actually listen to all the way through, as opposed to just something in my head. It turned out better than I ever could have imagined,” Nur said.
“The whole experience just helped me accept myself a whole lot more. I remember question[ing] whether it was dishonest to release a song like Offbeat before I’d fully accepted myself. [But] it’s releasing that brings acceptance.”
DETAILS: Syncopate by Nur Peach debuts on June 22, pre-sales available now at https://nurpeach.bandcamp.com/album/syncopate.
