Nora En Pure, 2017

Nora En Pure

Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Interview

Deep House DJ Nora En Pure On Her Signature Sound, Photography & More

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The emerging South African-Swiss DJ opens up about shaping her signature sound, her love of photography and biggest inspiration
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 23, 2018 - 5:36 pm

Swiss deep house DJ Nora En Pure chose her stage name because she wanted to sound more exotic.The moniker reflects her work: mysterious, unique and authentic. 

En Pure capped off the resurgence of Winter Music Conference on March 22 with an intimate conversation covering her creative process, thoughts on the current state of dance music, and her deepest inspirations and dreams.

In 2013 En Pure emerged onto the scene with the breakthrough single "Come With Me." Just a few years later, she has her own Sirius XM's Chill channel show called "Purified, " which serves as a vehicle for her to curate "the finest indie dance and deep house music." Her latest EP release, 2017's Conquer Yosemite, showcases her free-flowing house production prowess.

As a pianist, composer and DJ, En Pure celebrates the authenticity and spark of "live" music from the perspective of orchestrated electronic beats. She's become known for the striking chord progressions, inventive piano chops, and affinity for strings her music often employs.

"You have to have something special about your sound in order to make it long term," En Pure says. "Once you develop your signature sound, that crisp clear sound that I have… the energy of the sound makes people realize, 'Oh, this must be a Nora En Pure track.'"

And how does one develop that drive to hone in a sound?

"Personal things are more important," En Pure says. "Be stubborn about what you want to do."

She is also admittedly self-critical of her work, but her stubbornness and self-critique derives from her innate sense of determination. En Pure has found her way to success by sticking to her instincts and honing her style. But finding her audience has also required focusing on the delivery platform. 

"Spotify is very important," En Pure says, "and YouTube. In some countries, YouTube is very important. Sometimes you always underestimate some markets, especially South America, but it's a really big thing."

When not helping shape the evolving landscape of dance music, En Pure likes capturing literal landscapes with her camera. She is an avid photographer — not to mention a proud dog owner — and while she uses Instagram for her photography, she admits to despising social media, preferring human conversations instead. Professionally, En Pure hopes to score a film someday.

For now, En Pure is living in the moment, admitting, "I'm not on the phone all the time, so I don't see a lot of stuff in people's stories." Instead, she's currently out on her Sphinx Tour spanning North and South America through the end of April, with more dates to be announced soon.

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The Recording Academy @ ULTRA 2018

Photos: WireImage.com

News

Ultra, Miami Music Week With David Guetta, Tiësto, MusiCares & More

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The dance music community gathered in Miami for the year's biggest shows, parties, panels and premieres —here is your all-access pass
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 26, 2018 - 4:33 pm

Monday, March 26

  • Each year, the dance music artists, professionals, and enthusiasts from the whole world over make the pilgrimage to Miami Music Week. This year, we stopped by some of the week's hottest parties and most exclusive events to rub elbows with the world's finest DJs, including up-and-comers like Lost Frequencies, worldwide sensations such as Above & Beyond and genre pioneers like David Guetta.

    Go Inside Miami Music Week's Hottest Parties

  • As we all return home this Monday, head back to work and try to find our way back to reality, take a bleary-eyed look back at seven DJ sets from Ultra that stuck to the inside of our brains and beat hard on the walls of our hearts.

Sunday, March 25

  • Just before his sunset set at Ultra, we caught up with Dutch DJ/producer Tiësto to discuss "Boom" with Gucci Mane, music's power to heal and the motto that has informed his successful 20-plus-year career. Check out our exclusive chat with the GRAMMY winner.

  • Weren't in Miami this week? Live vicariously through our roundup of the hottest industry mixers, daytime beach bashes and exclusive afterparties from Miami Music Week. 

Saturday, March 24

  • For artists, crew members and music fans alike, there are few things more important than protecing your hearing. MusiCares, the Recording Academy's health and human services charity, was on the ground in Miami, providing hearing protection for artists and crew. Get the lowdown on what some of the clients had to say with our full report.

    MusiCares hearing clinic backstage at Ultra
  • On Thursday, David Guetta and Sia revealed their latest collaboration,"Flames." Just a day later, we sat down for an exclusive with Guetta for the full story on their fiery new single, his chemistry with Sia and how he's prepping for his headling set at Ultra.
     
    David Guetta photographed in 2018

Friday, March 23

  • Deep house DJ Nora En Pure's exotic moniker reflects her work: mysterious, unique and authentic. She capped off the resurgence of Winter Music Conference on March 22 with an intimate conversation covering her creative process, thoughts on the current state of dance music, and her deepest inspirations and dreams.

  • Despite the huge number of notable music documentaries captivating the stories behind the artists, albums, and movements we love, dance music has had disproportionately fewer shining moments on the silver screen, especially considering the genre's massive and ever-growing popularity and influence. Now, a new film changes all that — What We Started premiered at Miami Music Week on Mach. 22. Learn about the film with our report from the premiere.

Thursday, March 22

From South Beach to Wynwood, to Downtown and back, Miami is pulsing with the world's biggest DJs and most passionate dance music fans this week. The reason? There are several. Ultra Music Festival, Miami Music Week, and Winter Music Conference all coincide, making Miami the place to for all things dance music.

Inside Miami Music Week with top DJs

Whether you on the scene and unable to be everywhere at once, or you can't quite make it South Florida, the Recording Academy has you covered. We'll be bringing you inside access to all the hottest performances, parties and panels from on the ground in Miami.

Ultra Music Festival

Ultra Music Festival returns to its picturesque downtown Miami home this year for the festival's 20th-anniversary edition. While the annual lineup is always solid, 2018's docket is particularly strong with headlining sets on the way from a collection of GRAMMY winners and nominees including Afrojack, the Chainsmokers, David Guetta, DJ Snake, Kaskade, Steve Aoki, Tiësto, and many more.

Arcadia The Spider stage (by Arcadia Spectacular) at Ultra 2017
Photo courtesy Arcadia Spectacular

To mix things up at Ultra, the RESISTANCE Stages return with an incredible mix of underground dance music. This year the Carl Cox Megastructure, hosted as always by legendary DJ Carl Cox himself, features a stacked string of performances by Dubfire, Nicole Moudaber, and Paco Osuna. Meanwhile, the unforgettable Arcadia The Spider stage installation is back, and will will be led by dark techno visionary and Drumcode label boss Adam Beyer, along with sets from J.E.S.u.S. (Jackmaster, Eats Everything, Skream, and Seth Troxler) and Better Lost Than Stupid (Davide Squillace, Matthias Tanzman, and Martin Buttrich). This diverse mix of headliners and RESISTANCE stage acts ensure there will be something for everyone at this year's sold-out Ultra.

Miami Music Week

Miami Music Week coincides with Ultra each year, and brings countless parties and club shows to South Beach, making sure industry players and fans alike have no shortage of music to enjoy. We'll be tracking some of the wildest and most exclusive parties and hippest premieres throughout the week.

Winter Music Conference

Winter Music Conference is also enjoying a vital last-minute resurgence in 2018. After a long history of unofficially overlapping to make Miami the place to be in late March, Ultra and Winter Music Conference are now finally under the same roof, with Ultra's announcement earlier this week that it had officially acquired WMC. With these two powerhouses now in step to provide more programming and entertainment, the sky is the limit. We'll be following some of the can't-miss programs from WMC, bringing you the inside scoop on what's what in today's thriving dance music industry.

Many of the world's DJs who make the pilgrimage to Miami feel that Ultra and Miami Music Week mark the start of the New Year for dance music, an opportunity to show off the new stage sets they've been working on through the winter. Make sure you check back at GRAMMY.com all this weekend to see what surprises are in store.

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Martin Garrix, 2017

Martin Garrix

Tim Mosenfleder/Getty Images

News

Miami Music Week 2018: Inside The 'What We Started' Premiere

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The story of how two seemingly polar opposite DJs became threads in the same rich tapestry of dance music history
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Mar 23, 2018 - 12:17 pm

Despite the huge number of notable music documentaries captivating the stories behind the artists, albums, and movements we love, dance music has had disproportionately fewer shining moments on the silver screen, especially considering the genre's massive and ever-growing popularity and influence. Now, a new film changes all that — What We Started premiered at Miami Music Week on March 22 and is in theaters now. It delivers what may be the first truly great modern film about the makings of the modern DJ.

What We Started walks through the history of dance music, pinning its narrative to the star trails of two of the scenes biggest, yet seemingly most dissimilar, stars: 55-year-old underground acid house pioneer Carl Cox and 21-year-old main stage prodigy Martin Garrix. While their backgrounds are different — with Cox growing up in the in the U.K. in the 1970s without support for his DJ dreams from his father, and Garrix being supported from a very young age by his parents — the film illuminates the commonality between the two and the thread binding the movement: the love of music.

Featuring first-hand testimonies from the front lines of the dance music revolution from David Guetta, Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold, Tiësto, Afrojack, Moby, and many more, the film covers a lot of ground in 90 minutes. Directors Bert Marcus and Cyrus Saidi weave crucial snapshots of the formation and evolution of the dance scene from its disco origins to the rise and fall of underground rave culture, to the debate between the merits of the authentic craft of spinning vinyl versus the modern notion of "press play: DJs. It also calls out watershed moments such as Tiësto's performance at the 2004 Summer Olympics or Oakenfold's unprecedented stadium tour with U2, shining a light on the shift they created in the scene's momentum.

In the end, What We Started manages to provide an appropriate introduction to newcomers of the genre and a heartfelt, honest look back for those who were there for the real thing. 

"I feel like everybody could watch this movie, not just house music and electronic music fans, but anybody interested in the genre, in the movement," says Garrix. "This movie represents us. It represents what we stand for. It represents the good energy, the positive vibes."

The premiere was followed by an in-depth discussion with the directors and the film’s two main stars, and the room was packed with some of dance music's biggest names and most enthusiastic supporters. Cox was quick to laud Marcus and Saidi's efforts for speaking to the core of the film's subject matter.

"Seeing ourselves on screen, our story, our lives," says Cox. "It made me cry your movie exudes so many emotions about our scene. Not many people know that or feel that about what's happening with our music culture. It really does touch your heart… That's what music's about. It pushes your emotional buttons … it's our lives. It's what we're here for."

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A Perfect Circle

Maynard James Keenan and Billy Howerdel

Photo: Rebecca Sapp/WireImage/Getty Images

News

A Perfect Circle On Influences, Collaboration & Building 'Eat The Elephant'

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The influential rock group stopped by the GRAMMY Museum to discuss the impetus for their new music, their early influences and the creative process behind their big 2018 return
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Dec 25, 2018 - 7:30 am

A Perfect Circleis the kind of band fans wait with bated breath to hear new music from, no matter how long they are away. In the case of Eat The Elephant, the band's fourth album, the wait was a full 14 years. Still, the new material was met with much anticipation, a testament to the art.

A Perfect Circle Talk 'Eat The Elephant'

Back in October, we premiered a video for the title track from the album-length film the band made for Eat The Elephant. In the song, lead singer and songwriter Maynard James Keenan’s stark, haunting vocals creek and soar over lead composer and guitarist Billy Howerdel's dynamic backdrop. During a recent visit to the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles,as Keenan and Howerdel shared how they came to revisit the project after all these years away.

"I think it was just time," said Keenan. "I was really busy with Puscifer for quite a while. Then I was gonna get back into doing some Tool music, and they weren't ready, so I was like [to Howerdel], "Hey, what's up?"

The time passed since their previous album, 2004's Emotive, manifests itself on Eat The Elephant in the space within and around its songs, creating a new sonic environment from the band's previous work. This had everything to do with how the songs' foundations were built.

"A lot of times on this record we had the song kind of almost complete, and then he put the vocals on top. It was pretty amazing," explained Howerdel. "Maynard had a lot more input into the music this time, just to, you know, try to some things, because he knew where he was gonna go vocally. He wasn't in the room when I was working on the music, so we'd kind of lightly steer in that direction. And I think it worked out because he just had something in mind and then was able to throw the solid final performance on top of it."

When it comes to architecting a vocal, Keenan does it like no one else. The genesis of his genius instincts begin with responding to the music, as he revealed during the conversation. "First and foremost, it's a reaction to the melodies and structures and time signatures that the group of musicians are presenting me, whether it's Mat Mitchell, or Billy, or Tool," he said. "It's all a reaction melodically to those rhythms, constructing it in a way that feels like an actual conversation. And I of course react better when they're not in 4/4. I don't speak in 4/4."

"Then [I] figure out where that emotion is going, and then just look at your life experiences, what you're experiencing at the moment, and attach a set of words or a circumstance to that set of rhythms and melodies to see if it opens up a whole story, because you know, human interaction, human experience from birth to death, there's an infinite number of flavors and colors and bandwidths and emotions that come with those experiences."

Keenan also named an intriguing roster of early influences, providing a glimpse into his stylistic DNA. His early exposure to everything from Roberta Flack to Black Sabbath to Joni Mitchell led to an appreciation of Minor Threat, Killing Joke, Swans and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, which in turn led him to Gillian Welch and PJ Harvey.

"To me, there's a sadness that's captivating in that writing that's essential," Keenan says of Welch, Harvey and his tastes as they've evolved over the course of his life.

A Perfect Circle has evolved, too. At its core, it's a dynamic collaboration, which means Keenan and Howerdel cannot say what will come next.

"It's a marriage of sorts," says Howerdel. "You have to make this more than just the sum of its parts, more than the sum of the two of us. That comes from the unknown of collaboration… Having collaboration is the magic of never knowing what's coming next."

A Perfect Circle’s Billy Howerdel On New Music, Touring Again & More

Elle King

Photo: Daniel Mendoza/Recording Academy

News

Elle King On Self-Love & Individuality: "You Don't Get What You Don't Ask For"

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Backstage at ACL, the GRAMMY-nominated pop rocker dishes on her latest single, her upcoming album, what she does to unwind, and why she loves Austin
Nate Hertweck
GRAMMYs
Oct 7, 2018 - 2:39 pm

Roaming backstage at the Austin City Limits Festival, wearing a big cowboy hat and an even bigger smile, Elle King's energy is contagious. It's the same blend of confidence, character and creativity that launched her into the budding star she's become since releasing her 2014 breakout hit "Ex's & Oh's," which earned her two of her three GRAMMY nominations. With a new album, Shake The Spirit, on the way and several sizzling new singles teasing what's next, King is primed for a full-blown gritty pop rock takeover.

Elle King Talks New Music, Brandi Carlile At ACL

The singer/songwriter sat down with us backstage at ACL to talk about her latest single, recording her new album in Texas, what she loves to do outside of music, and much more.

Your latest single, "Little bit of Lovin'" came out just yesterday. Tell us a little bit about how that song came together.

It's my favorite song with the [new] record. It has like some of the most meaning to me and I wrote it on the first night of recording, actually. I stayed up late, and the guy who runs the studio in Texas, he let me stay up late, and I was really going through a lot. Somehow this song just like came through me, and it was the first song that I really thought about, like, what message I'm putting out into the world? I was really struggling with a lot of things personally. I had no idea or concept of what like self-love was, and for some reason there was just this message that had to come through me.

And I'm really glad that it did. And I had no idea that I could write a song like that… I'd never been like, "Let's write a universal song about self-love and blah, blah, blah." And I just probably would have laughed at an idea, a song like that. But it came through me and it was a beautiful moment and that song made me snap back into my body, you know? It's kind of because of that song, which is how we got the title of the whole record. It's just a special, special thing and I hope that one person can hear that and be like maybe I should think about the way I feel about myself, and I should love myself. So it's an important song, I think.

Speaking of the new album, where were you able to take this project musically that was a new place for you, considering all the success of "Ex's & Oh's" and Love Stuff?

The special thing about "Ex's and Oh's" and Love Stuff was that, it really, it gave me a really magical platform. It gave me some say so on my own ideas, and I had no idea that I would be able to produce something, or make a record and have it be [my vision]. I didn't know that I had any kind of sonic vision at all. And so, I just asked my label, "Just let me make this with my band." And they did. You know, you don't get what you don't ask for right?

And so to go through all of this and have people around me, you know, men surrounding a woman and listening to her ideas and having really great support and not just musically, but emotionally and everything, I made this tangible thing that was such a cathartic process that is so me in every sense of the word. And there was so much freedom in it and it was just a really incredible experience.

You've been such an impactful artist in today's industry and society on issues like gender equality, authenticity and self-love. "Naturally Pretty Girls" is a bold, empowering example of that. How does it feel to have had that impact on music and on culture, all stemming from trying to write a song that mattered to you personally?

I never, ever, set out to be like, "I'm gonna make a difference," and "I'm gonna do something," but I knew that I would be a different type of person. Because there really is only one me. There's only one of every type of person. You know? And that's what's beautiful and we should celebrate individuality in every sense of the word. So I never set out to do anything like that, all I did was wanna play songs and you know, it took a long time for people to listen to me. So I fought louder and I sang louder and played harder, and then this theme came up with like people being like, "I agree with you." And like, I was singing about things, even on the first record and to now, like I sing about things that not a lot of people want to sing about.

When I see people come let loose at my shows, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And it's great, and you know people should be able to do that. People should celebrate themselves and their individuality. I don't want to sound like anybody else.

Before the interview, you mentioned you went hiking earlier. What else do you like to do outside of music?

Over the last like year and a half I've really had to find something other than music. Because, you know, music is a hobby, it's my "jobby." [laughs] It's like everything, you know?... But there can come a time in it where like, "Oh well this isn't gonna be a hit," and I don't want to finish writing a song. And there's like all this pressure that I was putting on myself and so I would go out to the desert, and it was very like healing for me. And then I got really into stones and I really like rock hounding. I'm not like a physically fit person, but I like to be out in nature, so I'm really into hiking and looking for rocks. I got a rock in my pocket right now. I found a really cool agate at Pedernales Falls, and I found some really beautiful agate, feel that, it's really soft. It's a healing stone. It's a grounding stone.

You've traveled and lived all over. What is different about Austin as a music town? And maybe specifically ACL, what sticks out to you?

Well, this is my first time playing ACL, so I don't really know anything about it yet, all I know is that like, like I've never played it in the past, because only the cool people played it in the past. So now I'm like, I'm playing ACL. I feel cool! But I love Austin, my music broke here, and so I owe so much to this town. I think that you have to be cool for Austin to like you. And you have to be [yourself], like keep Austin weird and everything. There's a really big celebration of individuality here, when everything is super, super special. And so, for someone to just show up in Austin, like me, and stick out and have people kind of gravitate towards me, that was a very, very cool thing. And so I've always felt very at home here. And I love Austin to death, I really do.

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