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.
Support the show:
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.
Support the show:
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: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:How did you get started playing guitar?
Naima Bock: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: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:I mean, you can, how did you develop that, that distinct sound that you have?
Naima Bock: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: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:Can you tell us a little more about your process for songwriting?
Naima Bock: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: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:Also Joanna Newsome and Joanna Sternberg. Okay, let's talk guitars.
Naima Bock: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:This is a guitar nerd podcast, so we're into it.
Naima Bock: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: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:Counts yeah.
Naima Bock: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: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: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: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:so how does it change your songwriting?
Naima Bock: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: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.