With an ethereal blend of haunting melodies and raw emotion, Novo Amor stands out as a true luminary in the contemporary music scene.
Born Ali John Meredith-Lacey, this Welsh singer-songwriter has captivated audiences worldwide with his poignant compositions and tender vocal delivery. His musical journey has been marked by remarkable achievements, including critical acclaim for his debut album, Birthplace, and over nine million monthly listeners on Spotify. Yet ultimately, Novo Amor’s talent transcends beyond his mere musical prowess –– but it also lies in his ability to craft profoundly intimate narratives that resonate deeply with listeners, ones that forge an emotional connection that transcends the boundaries of language and culture.
Despite his humble beginnings as a DIY musician, Novo Amor has garnered widespread recognition for his evocative soundscapes and soul-stirring lyrics. His music possesses an innate ability to tap into the depths of human emotion, drawing listeners into a world of introspection and vulnerability. Whether it’s through delicate acoustic arrangements or expansive electronic textures, Novo Amor’s artistry shines through –– which is something that can be evidently noted in the entirety of his recently released album, Collapse List.
Prior to his appearance at last month’s Wanderland Music Festival, Billboard Philippines caught up with the renowned multi-instrumentalist to talk about his highly anticipated performance, as well as the inspiration behind his long-awaited follow-up to 2022’s Antartican Dream Machine.
Wanderland 2024 marks your first time performing here in the Philippines. What tracks from your discography are you most excited to perform here today on stage?
Um, well probably “Terraform” is my favorite song to perform live. Because I don’t have to sing, and my fans are the ones doing the singing, so that’s a nice load off for me. I enjoy playing the more upbeat songs like “Utican” and “Opaline” because they’re fun for me as well. But really, I’m just excited to play all the songs.
Photographed by Mayks Go
Regarding your upcoming record Collapse List, it marks your fifth album overall and follows two years after your last one, Antarctican Dream Machine. In that period in between, what would you say about your creative process and what inspired this upcoming album?
Well, a lot of change happened within those a couple of years. I’ve left the city that I’ve been living in for like 14 years, and I moved up to the countryside where I started to build a studio, and that took me about nine months to do. So, I kind of used that time as downtime for like not making music for a minute.
Because there, I was kind of reevaluating why I was making music, and looking at what I like, and being on breaking from touring for me. And yeah, I guess the album is kind of just about this slow progression of change, and it’s kind of like this timestamp of where I am in my life right now.
Photographed by Mayks Go
The title itself of the record, Collapse List, is really interesting because you don’t hear that very often. How did that come about to you?
The album title, Collapse List, comes from this American life podcast series called Small Town, where there’s this kind of very intellectual older Duma guy who lives in this very very small town in the middle of Alabama, and he gets in touch with the podcast to basically query a murder that you think has happened he thinks has happened in the town. But the podcast can kind of end up being more about him and his quirkiness, as well as the nuance of this seemingly too-intelligent for this small-town guy who’s basically never left.
He’s like a hometown hero I guess, that always thinks he’s kind of like he’s a little bit bigger than the position that he’s in, and then he would then he would write these lists to the journalists, and to the podcast kind of outlining everything that’s wrong with the world including all these things we need to change –– like environmental and social-political things.
So as he would type all these things, his collapse lists, [for me] I guess making the album started to kind of realize that I felt, through my own change, I was narrating my own collapse list of things that I needed to change in my life and the direction I want to go. It kind of felt appropriate to me so that’s really where a lot of inspiration came from.
Listen to Novo Amor’s Collapse List below: