OCULATE UK - DIGITAL COVER 005 - AUGUST 2025

NECTAR WOODE: "I THINK OUT OF EVERYTHING IN MUSIC, PLAYING LIVE AND SONGWRITING IS MY FAVOURITE PART."

TUESDAY 12TH AUGUST 2025

WORDS BY MATT SHARP

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE MILLAR

Nectar Woode is all you’d expect her to be from listening to her music. She brings a wonderful bright energy to her interactions. We sit across from each other at a nice restaurant-bar in Kings Cross’ bustling Coal Drops Yard, a pint for her, a prosecco for me. Not my usual, but I was feeling decadent. The waitress gives the pint to the man and the champagne coupe to Nectar without asking, earning a laugh from us both. Still? In 2025? I assume we both are thinking.

It’s the eve of the biggest show of her career, a support slot in front of a crowd of 17,000. Yet, you would not have guessed it from her relaxed demeanor, with the huge successes she’s experiencing clearly being taken in stride. What is it like being Nectar Woode right now? “No sleep, bus, club, other club! Haha no, it feels good. Everything’s connecting to the EP”. And it shows. Fresh off the back of her Glastonbury debut, which I’m told was a great success, the pieces are all falling into place. “I don’t think I’ve digested it, still, and it’s been like two weeks!”, she exclaims.

Nectar continues, “I think out of everything in music, playing live and songwriting is my favorite part”. A good thing too, given her proficiency with both. Alongside all these live sets she released two EPs in 2024, and has just dropped another in the past few weeks. “These first EPs… they're all introductions to who I am as an artist”, she explains. The latest is titled ‘it’s like i never left’, and it sees Nectar reflect on the Ghanaian side of her heritage, with some of the songs recorded during her first visit to the country earlier this year. Finding community is at the core of this EP. For Nectar, that involved the warm embrace of a country so special to her that she had nerves in anticipation of visiting. ‘it's like I never left’ was how she felt, beautifully capturing such a formative experience. Her latest offering is a heartfelt reflection on family, identity and what it is to feel.

We caught up with Nectar for her Oculate UK Digital Cover, speaking on Glastonbury, Ghana, Milton Keynes, the London jazz scene, & much more.

What does it feel like to be Nectar Woode at this moment in time with everything that's going on?

No sleep. Bus, club, other club! Haha no, it feels good. Everything’s connecting to the EP. It’s festival season, but also the EP launch at the same time, it's really nice. When I have a lot of songs about the weather, it works. I'm really happy for the EP to come out and people to hear a new side of me.

How was your first time at Glastonbury?

I went last year with Spotify and just did a bit of interview stuff. But I think it was good to actually go before and get a little bit of my bearings. I don't think I've digested it still, and it's been like two weeks, it was absolutely crazy. It was mad to be playing at Glastonbury, it's a pinch me moment. When people are listening, they're singing along, they know the lyrics. And you're like, what? It's crazy. It all just felt like Glastonbury in general is the warmest place. And then I'm playing warm music, and it just feels like it's the perfect audience for me. So it was the best.

Has being on stage always felt natural for you?

I think out of everything in music, playing live and songwriting is my favourite part. Playing live is super natural to me because I've done it for so long. Previous to releasing anything, I was still playing live and jamming around. So this is just something where it's like my home, you know, and I love to do gigs where people feel at home with me playing.

Speaking of songwriting, we’ve been lucky enough to get 3 EPs from you since the start of 2024. All of them five or six songs, what is it about releasing in this way that appeals to you?

I feel like these first EPs are like the introduction to who I am. So I wanted to do short form, just to test the waters. Also to be like, what do people gravitate towards? ‘Nothing To Lose’ was definitely like, this is just me. This is the intro. ‘Head Above Water’ has more of a deeper meaning. There's some sad songs in there, some positive ones. I wanted to give a point of difference. And then this one - ‘it’s like I never left’ - is more delving into my dual heritage, and about where you fit in society. So I feel like they're all introductions to who I am as an artist, and then hopefully soon we can get something in a longer form.

Given this project looks at being half-British and half-Ghanaian, how special was your first trip to Ghana earlier this year?

I wrote ‘Only Happen’ with Jordan Rakei, that was the first song that kind of formed the EP, and it was about nine months before going to Ghana. At that point I had no idea I was going. Me and Jordan were just talking about both being from dual heritage separately. Being mixed race, you can’t fit in either society sometimes, and you don’t feel accepted from either one. That’s how we wrote ‘Only Happen’. Trying to find your inner rhythm and your inner self to push forward, because sometimes you'll feel lost in either side. After bringing all that emotion to the surface, I thought I would love to just go to Ghana, see my family, but also meet the music community and see what’s going on there. I always gravitate towards it in terms of music, High Life music, I’m always on Insta seeing what’s going on in Accra. It was so nice to go and then having the opportunity to work with SuperJazzClub and write those two songs that are now on the EP. It was like all the anxieties I had when writing ‘Only Happen’ just completely went away. There’s a journey in the EP from being super anxious about who I am, to then being like, oh, I don’t have to worry about this. That’s when ‘Lose’ comes in and there’s more carefree energy. So yeah, there’s a whole bunch of themes!

What do you wish for people to feel when they listen to the EP?

I want people to find a connection with your community. It doesn't have to be about being from dual heritage. I just feel that especially when you're living in a big city, and you're not from a big city, and you don't have your community, you go into this big place and you're like, where do I fit in? It's being assured in yourself to be like, I will find my community within time. And I still feel like that. Sometimes I'm like, have I found my group? But then you're assured in being like, no, if I know myself and what I stand for, I will find my community, and that's what I want it to mean; it’s like I never left.

Your family feels like a key theme of the EP, particularly on the track ‘Ama Said’. Can you tell us about the meaning behind that song?

So Ama is my sister, and she's eight years younger than me. She’s from a different generation where I think, they come with their challenges as any generation, but they seem way more assured in themselves. They just know who they are. They're quite like, certain. She just feels like I can go to her for so much advice. And I was going through a tough time, just before Ghana, with the anxieties of will I be accepted and all this stuff, and then I had a good conversation with her. She's always good at just being like, you know yourself, how can you get out of this? And just having a good sisterly chat. I wanted to make a song about how female conversations can really get you through, and that female community can get you through. It's all just about the sister advice.

Through your fashion, artwork, videos, it feels as though you’ve really found a visual identity with this. Tell us about how you approach that?

With the creative I always want to be honest with everything. I’m influenced by 70s culture, 90s RnB artists like Lauryn Hill, Sade, and how they’re very powerful people to look at, and also quite simple, clean cut. I always want the music to be at the forefront, but then the experience of what I’ve been through in Ghana, living in London, being from Milton Keynes, I wanted to incorporate that in there. A lot of the colours, the artwork comes from that. I wanted it to be a bit more in your face, but still give the 70s, 90s references.

Can you tell us more about your experience as a woman in the music scene?

I think being from a small town and a female musician coming in and trying to enter the jam scene, when I first got there it was very male dominated. No offence to anyone, but like hardcore jazzers when you don’t know theory, they’re like get the f*ck out. Whereas I slowly started to meet more people and more female musicians that were super welcoming. We have to be because there’s not that many of us, so you’re always both just really happy to be like, yo, you’re another musician that’s female or non binary and doing your thing and representing!

That’s how I met my band. I met my bassist from doing backing vocals, the keys player in more of a jazz scene, the drummer in more of an RnB scene. We all met through jamming. When you meet other women in the scene you’re like, wow, you’ve got confidence. You’re in a male dominated place and you’re doing the thing. Okay, let’s connect. Let’s jam together. They inspire me every day to just keep challenging myself as a musician.

Then there’s amazing collectives like ‘She’s Got Brass’ bringing female musicians together. Then my radio show ‘Women In Jazz’ is an amazing initiative to get more jazz musicians to the forefront of a wider audience. That’s why I love the radio show just to highlight people. There’s also allies, like male musicians that are putting on female musicians that we need to talk about too, because it’s really good to give props to the people that are doing the work. Because I don’t think a lot of men are.

Any musicians you specifically want to give a shoutout to?

Tia Gordon, Leah Cleaver, Sol Paradise, MRCY. We’ve got a good collective of people that are just smashing it!

What do you find easy, and what do you find hard about being a musician?

Songwriting and playing live, if I could just do that it would be amazing! If I could teleport everywhere as well, that would really make the songwriting and gigging thing really easy. The travel is long! The only good thing about travel is playlisting. I love getting playlists together and making my own little tracklists I get inspired by. And travel is good for inspiration, it’s just f*cking long! I want to teleport. Bring back teleportation.

Finally, what does success in music look like to you?

That's a really good question. I feel like I'm so privileged to have succeeded a lot in my goals, like I did Jools Holland and so many landmarks that childhood me is still screaming inside. But success, genuinely, is can I affect someone with my songwriting? Can I affect someone with my music? Can I make them feel warm and positive inside? If I can make them do that, I’ve done my job. If I can affect someone today and make them feel better, I’m happy, I’ve done my job.