Musician and actress Nana Ouyang (歐陽娜娜) first found fame as a young cello soloist before trading the instrument for an acoustic guitar and exploring the possibilities of indie pop. Live Today, her first full length album of original music, comes on the heels of series of three EPs (NANA I, NANA II and NANA III) that saw her constructing acoustic and dream-pop soundscapes from guitar-based songwriting. The album is conceptualised around the idea of seizing the moment and uses sound textures to tie each of the songs to a particular moment of the day. Through Spatial Audio, ambient sounds, orchestral accompaniment and Ouyang’s emotive vocals build an immersive sonic environment to envelop her storytelling. Below, Ouyang shares some of her thoughts about making Live Today and producing the tracks for Spatial Audio: Tell us about your creative ideas, especially the indie-leaning sounds of your recent work. “Since NANA I I’ve really been trying to work on my own music. Even on Live Today I was still trying to find my own style, which I did by keeping track of my emotions and the moments of beauty I experienced. ‘Live today’ is a concept I hope I’m able to share through these songs. However people define the style of this album, my own hope is to create a personal ‘Nana style’—and I hope that Live Today can be enjoyed as its own little world of different emotions.” How was writing a complete album different from writing your previous EPs? “I think the most special thing about making an album is that it has a complete story and concept—the three NANA EPs felt quite fragmented but Live Today is a relatively complete whole. It feels like an interpretation of moments in time so the conceptual line running through the album is that of living in the present—how to seize the moment, how to hold onto the people important to you and record those precious moments and memories. That’s what feels special to me about making a full album—you can bring everything together, say all you want to say and share it as a gift to your listeners.” Why did you choose to write Live Today all in English? Was it different from using a mix of languages or just writing in Chinese? “I just felt most in touch with writing lyrics in English at the time. For me, the biggest difference between Chinese and English lyrics is really at a psychological level, because if you’re familiar with something and you have started out using it, then it gives you more of a sense of security. But one of the most important things about music—and maybe I feel like this because I studied classical music as a child—is that music transcends national borders and language barriers. Music is more of a feeling. So in terms of lyrics and imaginative space, I do believe that there would have been some differences if I had used Chinese lyrics for Live Today.” The lyrics on Live Today are mostly written in the first person. Would you say that songs like “Saving” are a reflection of your own experiences and feelings? “I wrote every song on Live Today from my own perspective and ‘Saving’ is actually one that’s most representative of myself. It’s about a girl who has a lot of personality and attitude, after all. I think at this stage—and in every song on this album—I’m still really writing about my own feelings and stories. Even if those feelings or stories are sad or difficult, I still try to show my strong side and my attitude towards life in every line and lyric.” What aspect of sound design did you focus on the most when producing for Spatial Audio? “The production for Spatial Audio was actually very enjoyable. We divided the music for each track into several different parts, each of which needed to be crafted in meticulous detail. For example, all the vocals needed both a left and a right track. I think this gave me a lot of room for creativity—and of course my producer also gave me space to express what I wanted to in the music. Of course, another very important aspect of this album was my choice of ambient sounds, because Live Today was conceptualised around the idea of a single day, with each track corresponding to a point in time—and each point in time having a corresponding ambient sound. For example, ‘1-4-3’ has bird calls and ‘Bedtime Story’ has rustling bed sheets. I think Spatial Audio does a great job of capturing the environmental sounds and I hope listeners are able to enjoy that sense of space.” Did the Spatial Audio sound design process remind you of any past experiences? “I studied classical music from a young age so I probably have a good sense of spatial awareness for concert halls and piano rooms. Classical music actually has a lot of requirements in terms of space—if the space is suitable then the music will sound more impressive to the audience. I also hope that when people listen to this album, Spatial Audio technology will help them appreciate the different listening experiences provided by different spaces—and let them enter into that imaginative space in their mind.” Did the fact that most of the songs on Live Today are acoustic tracks affect your design for Spatial Audio? Were there any songs you found particularly catchy or challenging to mix? “All of the songs on Live Today, except for ‘Saving’, were written on guitar, so for me I think I probably like the acoustic style more just because of this way that I write music and the style of music I listen to. I usually try to keep my arrangements simple because my songs aren’t especially lively or intense. Most of them are actually written from a quiet and peaceful place. So I hoped that the arrangements could stay true to the original demos and just be the icing on the cake for these tracks. “The song that was hardest to mix was probably ‘Live Today’ because the arrangement is unique among the songs on the album—the song brings in an orchestra, which means a lot of possible ways to approach the mixing. Ultimately I chose a darker tone because I liked the feeling of my vocals being enveloped by the orchestra. I wouldn’t say it was especially hard to mix but we did spend a lot of time going back and forth with ideas. “The catchiest song for me would be ‘Falling Back To You’. This is a special song because it appeared on NANA II but I made some changes to the melody, arrangement and lyrics. I’ve always thought the chorus and post-chorus of the English version of this song are super catchy, so I hope everyone likes it!”