Naima Bock | The Acoustic Guitar Podcast Sessions

Catch up with singer-songwriter Naima Bock in this bonus Acoustic Guitar Sessions episode. We enjoy an impromptu performance of a new song—“Showers”—then discuss Bock’s roots in Brazilian and British folk music and get a rundown of her guitars and gear. Listen to her album Giant Palm and visit NaimaBock.com to learn more.

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Transcript

Nick Grizzle 0:00

Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Podcast . I'm your host , nick Grizzle . For this bonus Acoustic Guitar Sessions mini-sode , I'm joined by Naima Bock , a singer-songwriter with roots in Brazilian and British folk music . One quick note before we start . During our conversation , you may hear my dog barking in the background . Please accept our apologies in advance . He promises to be a very good boy during our recording sessions in the future . Our episode begins with an impromptu performance of a new song by Naima Bock , titled Showers .

Naima Bock 0:48

But I've been a trial Lord , but I can't remember before . The veins on your hand show me the way . Nothing easy now , nothing hard either . So just watch as you sway on stage An object or some kind of muse . But I can't get close to you , so I'll say your name again and again , like I sung before In another song . Your shoulders are wider than the mountains .

Nick Grizzle 2:24

How did you get started playing guitar ?

Naima Bock 2:27

um , so I had my father played guitar and so it was always around in the house . Um , in brazil I was lucky enough to grow up with a family who , so my dad , played guitar , um , predominantly electric , but at home he would play , you know , nylon strung , and then my aunts and my auntie was a cello player , is a cello player , and my grandmother is a pianist and so I was kind of grew up with a lot , of , a lot of that stuff , mostly classical . There they play classical music , um , and then so I had that that kind of sonic world around me is , is the guitar the instrument you mostly use for songwriting yes , I used to .

Naima Bock 3:13

I used to . I used to use bass more that would have , but that was about five years ago or something and , like a lot of the songs that were on my first record , I initially wrote on bass and then , uh , that was because I was , that's what I was playing in the first band that I was in . But then , yeah , no , the last five years it's been all guitar and I've tried to just have it with , like , make sure that the song is good enough , just guitar and voice , and then only , like quite a lot later , start thinking about other things to put on it so your , your voice is pretty distinctive .

Nick Grizzle 3:48

I mean , you can , how did you develop that , that distinct sound that you have ?

Naima Bock 3:53

I don't know really . I think I think it is just , I think it is mostly just um , it being my voice . I found found a recording not that long ago of me singing a Sandy Denny song when I was 13 . And it was really funny to hear because I thought about in my head , I thought , oh , I've come this far with my voice and kind of trying to be able to project more or doing trills better or these technical things that I sort of thought I was improving on , which I have improved on . But I listened to this recording of me when I was 13 and it is kind of the same , just like a few , like you know , octaves higher . So I just thought , well , I mean , yeah , you do sort of get what you're given in terms of your voice . And I remember once , like someone said to me , um , which slightly contradicts what I said earlier , because there is always improvement .

Naima Bock 4:48

But I think that , in terms of tone , um , and maybe that's mostly what comes across when people like have unique voices , is like the unique tone that they have , um , and I guess delivery as well , like depending on how much someone , how far someone pushes their voice , and often I think , the further that one pushes their voice , it can sometimes become more generic sounding . That's like not always the case , but I sometimes find that like , the better a singer is , you know , like , the more they kind of just sound like everyone else . Um , you know , not every case , but so I not that I resisted being a good singer . I just think that I had to like watch how far I wanted to push it . Um , but in turn , the next thing would be doing , I think , doing folk , like doing choirs , singing folk , a cappella songs . That's probably been the biggest helper in terms of learning how to be more open , less shy with my voice .

Nick Grizzle 5:59

Can you tell us a little more about your process for songwriting ?

Naima Bock 6:01

about your process for songwriting . Yeah , I think that I've had it's changed a bit over the last six months actually , because before , prior to six months ago , I would normally write two to three songs per year , which is just nothing . I would be very it would take me a long time to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with the song and what the lyrics should be , and it would just take me a long time to write it and finish it . And I sort of thought of this as like a , you know , a bit of a slow cooking attitude towards songwriting , which I was fine to function in , because I didn't ever I mean , I'm grateful to myself for not ever really putting um like pressure on myself to write songs , because , and if I had periods of time which I have had many where I don't feel like writing songs , I don't beat myself up about it . Um , my friend calls them the fertile void , which is I quite like , because , you know , other things grow up in that time and you sort of ingest more than you put out , and I think that that can be important . Um , but the last six months I've found that I'm at , you know , I'm back at university again and doing something other than music has been the best thing for writing songs . It's the . It's probably like a strange brain trick , you know , um that where you , if you , the thing that you have to do songwriting has become my procrastination , and so then I'm just writing loads of songs , which is fun , and I was going to say , like it's , it's a lot of .

Naima Bock 7:41

It is dependent on who I'm listening to and if , if I've got an artist or a musician that I'm really invested in , in that period of time over it normally lasts two to four months where I just listen to one person predominantly , and if I have that kind of feeling towards a musician , then I'll write more songs , um , influenced by what they do . I was listening to . I listened to like Phil Elverham , so Microphones , mount Eerie , but I hadn't I hadn't known anything about him before last year , and then I found the Microphones in 2020 album song , and so I listened to his music for about four to five months and I still listen to it quite a lot . And then also in the , and then the last person has been about three months I've predominantly just listened to , like everything Will Oldham's done so Palace Brothers , palace Music , funny Prince Billy , and actually those two are the . I think I'd say I could probably just leave it at those two for the last , for the last period of time .

Nick Grizzle 8:52

Also Joanna Newsome and Joanna Sternberg . Okay , let's talk guitars .

Naima Bock 8:54

Uh , what guitars do you play and what do you like about them ? So I've had , um , my first guitar that I got , which is the one that I played live up until a year ago , is the Yamaha FG800 or something . I can't remember the exact model , but it was . It was like 250 pounds , which is probably about 300 dollars , I'm guessing , and it was very cheap . But it was very sturdy and it and it stayed you know it didn't warp played , you know it didn't warp and it stays in tune , and it was a really good guitar . But I I kind of moved away from it . Um , I just thought , well , I'm like I thought , if I'm gonna do this as a job , I need to get like a real expensive guitar . So I tried to buy , I went through a few different guitars . Um , I mean , should I actually reel off all of the guitars ? Is that going to be boring ?

Nick Grizzle 9:48

This is a guitar nerd podcast , so we're into it .

Naima Bock 9:51

So yeah , so I had that Yamaha and then I went and then I did , because I definitely wasn't a guitar nerd I just thought I want a guitar that looks cool . So I got a Hofner from like a 1964 Hofner . So I got a Hofner from like a 1964 Hofner and it was very thin , which is , um , yeah , very thin , like v-e-r-i thin , and uh , it was not a great guitar and it really went out of tune all the time . But everyone thought , everyone was like , wow , that looks so cool and then thought , well , maybe I'll keep it as a kind of investment . You know , it's like pretty old and it's been kept in good condition-ish , but yeah , and I have , I've still got it . I've tried to sell it . No one wants it , so I don't know what I'm gonna do I'm sure somebody out there wants it from 1964 .

Naima Bock 10:44

I feel like , yeah , I mean , my other option is just to hold on to it , you know . And then , like , in 40 years it'll be worth loads more . And then I moved on to , and then I bought a larivay um mg 800 , I think is . I'm I'm closing my eyes because I'm picturing the sticker inside the guitar , but I can't say that I know exactly what the model is for that . But an OM , I think the Larrivee was and it was . That was a really beautiful guitar , but it's too , it's too precious to take on tour or to play gigs with . It's just , it's really nice and it's rosewood as , and so I just keep it at home in its case and play it like every now and then . And then I had , and then I got but this is acoustic guitars . Actually I realized I was talking about Hofner . Hofner was hollow body , which is , you know , half of an acoustic guitar .

Nick Grizzle 11:38

Counts yeah .

Naima Bock 11:39

And then , after the Larivee , I tried to get , I tried to get a Martin . I've been kind of wanting to get a Martin for a really long time but they're really expensive , so I haven't quite managed to get myself a Martin yet . That's something that I'm going to work towards . But the main guitar that I play now is a nylon strung , which is this one . It's an Alhambra and it's new . I bought it new for for like 1200 . I actually will be able to tell you the model of this one . Well , that's a complicated model , surely not cslr , I don't know crossover alhambra , um , but it's got like a good . The main one of the main reasons I got this is mostly because , well , I mean , it's also solid wood , so it's not laminate , and it's got like a good . The main one of the main reasons I got this is mostly because , well , I mean , it's also solid wood , so it's not laminate , and it's the microphone . There's a microphone inside rather than I can't remember what the other kind of we know like metallic pickup is Like a piezo pickup or something .

Naima Bock 12:38

Yeah , it's not that it's like it's a fishman , but it's tiny microphone in it , which just means that , like because , try , I was using a LR Baggs pickup on acoustic guitars and acoustic guitars are obviously difficult to play live with and it's super venue dependent , like dependent on the PA . Um and they ? I didn't really give it a second thought until a very honest and kind friend of mine three years ago said that the guitar sounds like shit so I was like , right , I need to actually sort it out .

Naima Bock 13:08

And then , since then , I've been on a really annoying journey of trying to find the right mix of . You know , because I'd like to , I'd prefer to play with a microphone to the acoustic guitar , just an external microphone to the acoustic guitar . But in the gigs that I play usually , which like support slots , it's very kind of you know you got like 20 minutes to do a sound check and and the engineers hate you because they , like the , might have used a microphone and feeds back , and so I decided to get this guitar and um and the it's . It's still not perfect and it doesn't sound great when you strum it , but it sounds beautiful when you finger pick it and so it's been , it's been like the best thus far . But my , my , you know acoustic guitar pickup journey is not over .

Naima Bock 13:59

Um and actually I think nylon strung in terms of if you're going to be playing like just on your own , then it feels , I feel like the sound of it fills the room a little more . It's super warm and pretty loud as well . I mean on its own , without amplification , it's a lot louder than a steel strung . But yeah , I've enjoyed . I've enjoyed my nylon strung life over the last six months . It's been good and it it changes the way I write songs as well , I think how ?

Nick Grizzle 14:28

so how does it change your songwriting ?

Naima Bock 14:31

um , it's just a bit it makes it veers you away . It veers one away from just doing the kind of like you know , like the they're like very like basic strumming patterns and it just has to be finger-picked and it kind of means that I have tried to learn new techniques , with that not being like super successful , but I'm on my , I'm trying a lot of the music . Some of my favorite musicians that play acoustic guitar , I realized only recently , play nylon strung . So like I was listening to an Aldous Harding record , she plays mostly nylon strung other than when she plays piano . I know that Mount Erie , a lot of Mount Erie songs are on nylon . Some Jessica Pratt tunes are on nylon but like , yeah , I've started noticing the difference , I guess , in tones , a little bit more .

Nick Grizzle 15:18

To hear more from Naima Bock . Be sure to check out the show notes for this episode . If you're enjoying the Acoustic Guitar Podcast , please head over to our Patreon page at patreoncom slash acoustic guitar plus . This is a listener funded show , and your pledge of one or five or nine dollars a month helps us continue to produce new episodes . Plus , you'll get instant access to a whole bunch of great perks like exclusive live stream workshops , song transcriptions and guitar lessons . If you aren't able to make a contribution at this time , we understand . Another way you can support the show without spending any money is to leave a five-star rating along with a review on Apple Podcasts . This really does help with discoverability , and the more guitarists who tune in each month the better . Thanks again for listening and for your support of the Acoustic Guitar Podcast .