Noah

photo: Raluca Moraru

Rebeka Prance and Joe Baxter have been performing together as Noah for three years, but their shared story begins in Nottingham in the early nineties. “We’re best family friends – roast dinners every week, that kind of thing – and we were brought up together until we were twelve years old,” says 23-year-old Joe. “Then I moved to South Africa when I was twelve and we didn’t see each other for a few years. Rebeka was busy with her musical aspirations and then I decided to come back here to study – at the Birmingham Conservatoire – and we connected and started doing little covers. One of my lecturers saw what we were trying to do and we started to do a bit of writing and formed Noah.”

So what’s the link with the ark-building biblical hero? “Our name is like the guy in the story that built a boat in the desert. Everyone asked him what he was doing and then the rains came and they said that they should have listened to him and everyone died. We obviously don’t want anyone to die but it’s a metaphor for what we want to do with our music and our artistry – to be something different. Something that seemingly doesn’t work but does,” Rebeka adds.

In the past three years, you’ve probably seen Noah perform around the city. They were one of the main acts on the Acoustic Rooms stage at Splendour and they’ve most recently taken the stage at the Theatre Royal as part of the now annual Nottingham Rocks night. The pair are both classically trained – Joe studied jazz drums at the Birmingham Conservatoire, Rebeka vocal music performance at the Academy of Contemporary Music, Guildford – so the opportunity of performing alongside an orchestra in one of the country’s leading music venues was too good to turn down. Rebeka said, “It was my all-time dream to sing with an orchestra. There’s just something so powerful about an orchestra and the Theatre Royal is so beautiful to play.”

photo: Raluca Moraru

While you may have seen the pair perform, you won’t have been able to rush home and download their music. The pair have been working on their debut EP since late 2013 and the as yet untitled release is set to land this autumn. Joe says, “We started recording it at Christmas but we’ve been trying to work out the sound. The first EP is so scary because it can do so much or so little for you depending on how it sounds. We wanted to really get it right because it is the launch of our band’s sound. It’s almost like a baby that you want to get out but no-one wants to give birth to an ugly child. We wanted to birth something that said ‘this is us’ and that we are really proud of.”

If you’ve seen the duo live or their covers online – versions of Corinne Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On and Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody are particularly lovely – then you may expect their debut EP to be a similar brand of gentle, acoustic folk-pop. However, it’s immediately clear that the pair have been working hard to bring a more rounded and expansive dimension to their music. “The sound is a lot more heavy than it is on the acoustic stuff,” Joe explains. “The acoustic songs allowed us to work out our voices and how we want to use them as an instrument but now we’re giving people a new variant to listen to.”

The two admit to being inspired by the likes of Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones and Earth, Wind and Fire. Rebeka says of their four-track EP, “It has a tribal influence, it’s kind of rootsy and anthemic in parts. It’s a representation of what you see live – a bit of me, a bit of Joe and then a bit of us together. Our lyrics are really important to us. We like storytelling but also to make observations about society and the way things are.”

photo: Raluca Moraru

Writing as a duo can be a tricky process. So how does it work for Noah? “When working in a partnership you have to appreciate the other person for the craft that they bring. We don’t work well together when we sit down and decide we have to write a hit song. It always ends up being a sham.” Joe says. Rebeka agrees. “There has to be organic inspiration from either side and then it begins to bubble away. Sometimes Joe will have an idea, he’ll bring it to me and we will wrestle with the song, shape it and mould it together. On other occasions, we prefer to write separately as it can be difficult to fully explain and portray an emotion to someone else. The process can take an hour but sometimes it can take up to six months.”

Of course, being in Nottingham at a time when acts from the city are achieving national and international recognition can only be good for them. Joe nods, “It genuinely feels there’s a good Nottingham buzz to tap into. We were at Splendour and it was really encouraging. So many people came out to see us and we were last on – and I guess that because we haven’t released any downloadable music yet that it was a big thing for us for people to be there.” Rebeka adds, “It feels like when we do put something out there that we will have enough support from our local area. If it does well here then that would be great.”

It’s clear from our chat that Noah have loftier goals and have been careful to delay their EP launch until it is absolutely perfect and they’re in a position to capitalise on a positive reception. I asked whether there was a limit to their ambition. “For us, we want it to go as far as it can. We’d like our music to be heard by as many people as possible. We’ve got good people in our team who know what they are doing,” says Joe. “We’re actually writing the second EP now and we will be playing another show in Nottingham. Then, maybe a few more dates around the UK. We’re just hoping to get on some really great supports in order to get the music out there a bit and see where it takes us. We can’t always focus on the future – we’re having a great time.”

Noah website