Spotlight On... Nani Porenta

“We've got pre-production today and tomorrow, and then, yeah, two shows in Glasgow, and then one in London.”

We catch up with Austria-born, Edinburgh-based Nani Porenta over Zoom; sat in front of a colourful twinkling Christmas tree, she’s about an hour away from setting off to join Jacob Alon for a massive weekend of shows in Glasgow (Mackintosh Church, 5 & 6 Dec) and London (Koko, 8 Dec). Porenta has been part of Alon’s live band during their continued rise over the past 12 months, but has also found time to write, record and release a new EP, South Clerk St Demos, which arrived last week showcasing a more hopeful and intimate side of their music.

It sounds like it’s been a pretty full-on year for you, being on the road with Jacob a lot. How’s that actually been for you? 
Do you know what, it's been really fun. It's the kind of stuff that I wasn't sure I was ever gonna get to do and to be able to be a part of it, it's been so lovely and it's had a huge impact on my life. Mainly just because of our friendship as well, it's just been amazing to do that with them and have the best time [...] I'm having a blast, I'm riding that wave until there's nothing to ride anymore. As long as I’m needed and wanted, I'll be there. Hell, yeah!

So you were already friends? I was gonna ask how that all came about with Jacob and the band. Were you already gigging together in Edinburgh?
So Joe, who now is on bass – we've rejigged the band again, we kind of do that semi-regularly – and Neil who's on drums, we've been playing music together for years, because they also play with me for full band stuff. And then Jacob, we had met before, just at a pub or something and I thought they were really funny. And then I went to see one of their shows really early on, and I was like, 'fuck, I really would love to make stuff with them.' And then they had come to some of my gigs and eventually I was just like, 'let's just like, have an afternoon, see if maybe there's something we can do together' and then they came over and they were like, 'actually, yeah, I think you'd be a great addition for the live stuff' and I was like, 'I'd love to'. And that's when we started making music. 

Our friendship started slightly before that, but it really all happened hand-in-hand; we just really felt drawn to each other, which was nice. I think with both of us making music as well, there's a really nice understanding of all these things between us and, I mean, their life’s obviously very different to mine in that way now, but we still have a really core bond. We'll chat about things, and I feel so understood and seen by them. We've talked about this before, and they feel the same way. Even if the music stuff stops tomorrow, they’re still one of my best pals.

It sounds like it’s all been very organic and lovely. It was so nice to bump into the two of you in the pie queue in Dundee (shoutout to Clarkies), that was so funny and very unexpected. 
I had such a good night at The SAYs, I was just buzzin’!

Before we talk about your new EP, I wanted to ask about the name change where you've gone from NANI to your full name, Nani Porenta. It seems to also signify a complete style shift as well, so I just wanted to know why you felt the need for this change, and what has the process been like?
The name change mainly was because it felt like a bit of a fresh start, but also I was talking to a friend of mine and he was like, ‘if I Google your name, it's just that Portuguese football player.’ I was like, ‘yeah, he's class but good point.’ 

The direction change... yeah, it's tricky because I'll always do everything in projects, almost. This EP now, it was written over a wider span of time, but it was mainly recorded within two weeks in February in my old bedroom, where I had my piano and my guitars and everything was just cramped in the corner.

I had like two weeks where I wasn't away with Jacob, I didn't really have any other projects going on, so I was like, ‘okay this is perfect, I'm just gonna not leave my room for two weeks and see what happens.’ And I had the best time; I've not been able to just sit and do that for a very long time. Even when I was younger, that's kind of how I started making music. It was just sitting in my bedroom and figuring out like a wee mixer and how it was working and how I could plug it into my mum's computer and stuff like that. So it was the same kind of setting, but just years later, so I think I just really dug into something. 

But the direction change, yeah, I think even two years ago when I was releasing the previous [poppier] stuff, that kind of sound was already there, but I wasn't really wanting to explore it yet [...] The stuff I'm working on now (that's gonna be next) sounds really different again. I always like to think of it like project by project and maybe trying to hint at the next one within the one before. 

I guess it's very mood-driven then, and dependent on where you are in your life at the time and maybe what you're listening to yourself and what's inspiring around you. Were there any artists that you tapped into in the process of making the EP?
With this one, Adrianne Lenker is obviously a huge one, Big Thief, that kind of sound or even Alex G. All of these artists in that realm, but also playing with Jacob was also a huge influence and just being around them, or even my friend Hector Shaw. I guess the people I surround myself with and then we all have these shared interests in these certain artists.

But I think the point you made about what I'm listening to at the time is a huge factor for me. In the past couple of months, I'm really digging all those Danish artists that are currently popping up, they're so fucking cool and I want to be that cool. So that's more what I'm doing now, but at that time it was definitely the kind of world I had surrounded myself in, Angie McMahon was also a huge influence.

You recorded South Clerk St Demos in February with the intention they were to be exactly that – demos. But you've just decided, 'fuck it, I'm gonna release them'. What was the reason for that?
I was sitting with [the songs] for a little while, I think their imperfections are part of the character of the stories. So I was like I can really actually see that as being a release as it is. But also, in the past couple of years... I've had people giving advice and trying to help, everyone's always like, 'you know, you need to plan this and then this and then make sure you've got all these things' and it's so overwhelming…

I've tried to do that and it really just ruins the music for me after a while, because you're trying to market these songs that used to have so much meaning and suddenly they're a commodity that you're trying to sell and this time I was like, 'I really don't want to do that. I don't want to think about that. I don't really wanna ruin those songs'. Sometimes it can be worth going through these motions of marketing and promotion and all that, but I was like, I actually can't be arsed. I just wanted to share these, I'm really proud of them at that point in time so I don't want to lose that and I'm just gonna, yeah, fuck it and go for it. 

Would you say there's an overall theme then to the EP, or something you feel that links them together, is there a central idea?
It's funny, at the start of New Year’s last year, we were talking about New Year's Resolutions and stuff and my friend was like, 'I hate resolutions... but I love themes', so I choose a theme or a couple of themes for the year. So it was two hours to midnight and we sat there and I was like, 'I'm gonna think about my themes'; hope, because I need a bit of that, and then enthusiasm, and then the third one was softness. In terms of vulnerability I wanted to feel a bit softer, and when I was working on these songs, the softness and hope persisted throughout that as well. Even with the lead single, I wrote that for my baby niece and that whole song will always have so much meaning for me. 

We’re obviously nearing the end of the year, so have you started thinking about what your themes will be for your next project or for carrying into 2026? 
Very good question. I actually did think about this the other night. Currently I’m just mostly feeling stressed, but I don't want that to be the theme. Maybe I'll turn it on its head a little bit, maybe I'll just go for rage. The theme of hope in another shape or form would be nice because I think we all like to fall into these traps of just feeling like everything sucks, so I'm hoping that I can in some form continue on with this. I think I want to allow myself also to be a bit louder.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about your live shows. You recently supported Smerz where you described performing at those shows as being like “stepping into a new skin”. So I'd like to know a bit more about the shows and if we can expect any more shows in the near future?
I loved those shows, I had such a good time. As I was saying, the stuff I'm working on now is different again, so I was sitting on all this material that I thought would work really well with their whole aesthetic and their sound. I took two weeks where I did a lot of resetting my tech, I bought a new interface, I bought these boxes of gear and reset my guitar pedals. I really enjoyed giving a bigger sound that way as well, but still making it feel like it's me performing – because I had backing tracks and I didn't want that to overshadow what I was doing live on stage.

I had a great time and both the crowds in Glasgow and Edinburgh were really lovely. It was just really, really fun and the band as well – Smerz – they were so nice, they were also so cool, they were so cunty. I was like, ‘I want to be like you’. They had these wind machines on stage and they left one on for me – it was fucking sick. It was nice to step into that new skin and try out these new things, because I think I'm gonna shelve it again for a hot minute while I go dig back into the EP that’s come out now before I really want to commit to that.

For now, I'm actually playing New Year's Revolutions at King Tuts with Curiosity Shop, so that'll be fun and there'll be more of the sound that's come out just now. And then I've got a showcase in London at the end of January and I'm playing Lancaster on Valentine's Day, which is fun.

Then the next big thing is a headline at the new Pianodrome in Bruntsfield. I'm trying to figure out how I can make it a big show. I want to maybe explore all these different eras of projects that I've done, and then also do the music that I'm working on now but finding a way to pull the red thread through all of that and almost make it like a start to finish kind of performance, like really having a narrative. So that’s gonna be on 13 March. I'm hoping to make a big deal of it, even for my own sake to just try out something new, and with a full band as well.

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South Clerk St Demos is out now, available both digitally and on vinyl via Bandcamp
Nani Porenta plays King Tut's, Glasgow, 16 Jan; London, 29 Jan; Lancaster, 14 Feb; Bruntsfield Pianodrome, Edinburgh, 13 Mar

Follow Nani Porenta on Instagram @naniporenta

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