Dr. Martens Made Strong - Getting to know Tik Tok Competition Winner Nayana AB
By Ellie Carter
The Dr. Martens takeover of Peckham’s Copeland Park brought together some of the most influential names of London’s cultural scene for a day of panel talks, workshops and live performances. With a skatepark takeover from duo Motherlan, to performances from the likes Mercury Winner’s Erza Collective, Chi and P-rallel, Dr Martens mission was to amplify the voices of and showcase the collective strength and creativity of London’s underground scenes and sounds.
After winning their coveted TikTok competition, emerging singer-songwriter Nayana AB joined the bill for the Dr. Martens Made Strong event in Peckham’s creative hub, bagging the opportunity to perform alongside Ezra Collective in a night that celebrated the trailblazing creatives pushing the boundaries of self-expression across music, art and culture.
We sat down with Nayana AB ahead of her biggest gig to date to find out what this opportunity meant to her.
Congratulations on winning the Dr Marten’s Made Strong TikTok competition! How have platforms such as TikTok helped you connect with your fans and fellow musicians?
TikTok helps me reach an audience of people that I never really thought I would connect with. It’s help me push my idea of what my brand is as well, and I feel like once you’re able to do that on a visual content level as well as across Instagram, it really helps you to push yourself and think about what you want people to perceive you as.
The community of jazz musicians [I’ve found on Tik Tok] me makes me so happy. I’ve learnt so much from going to the Jazz Jams and just being around them; the Jazz scene has made me the artist I am today.
Your lyrical flow is beautiful, can you tell us how you've honed your sound?
I’m a self-taught singer, so going to Jazz Jams has really improved my technicality and my understanding further. I used to be part of a choir called Flames Collective so through that I learnt to sing in harmony, and singing in Jams and being part of the band rather than the front musician. When I’m walking around or at home I’m just always singing, people say when I yawn it’s like a riff! So yeah, I’m always actively singing.
How has being part of Flames Collective helped you develop as an artist?
Flames Collective offered me my first introduction to writing songs. Before then, I didn’t think I could write my own music, it really pushed me to try writing my own material. As well as that, the experience of being on the stage and the comfortability of being around other vocalists was so important in helping me become a confident performer.
Who would you cite as your creative inspiration?
Nina Simone, Lauryn Hill and Ella Fitzgerald are my top three! I love Ella Fitzgerald for her scatting, I love Nina Simone for the timbre of her voice as I also have a really low voice, but also because she was such a pinnacle figure in the civil rights movement, and I want to make music that motivates people to have conversations about feelings, and things that take it further than just the gig on the day. And Lauryn Hill because she was that guy! She’s amazing, for what she did for Hip Hop as a woman and her flow, her singing, her vulnerability, it’s amazing.
I love Little Simz too, if there was one female rapper I’d want to emulate it would be her.
What do platforms such as the Dr. Marten's Made Strong mean to you as an emerging artist?
It’s so important! Getting the opportunity to perform on a big stage like this, usually it would take all of my lifesavings to do something like this, let alone having the whole audience to fill this room, it’s something of my dreams, I get really emotional about it.
Shout out to Dr. Martens for platforming creatives from the underground scene and giving me the opportunity.
What or who makes you strong?
My friends and my family make me the strongest. My family has supported my creative journey and saw my potential and have pushed me towards it. And my friends are too. We're part of a multidisciplinary creator’s collective called the DA Community, where we give feedback to each other, have mental health days and put on shows together. I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.
I absolutely love your latest releases, especially Hold My Tongue; what does 2024 have in store for Nayana AB?
I’m going to be releasing a few singles ahead of my live album that I will be recording at Steam Down at Matchstick Piehouse in front of a live audience later this year.
I’m also performing at the Southbank Centre on 16th November which you can get tickets for here!
