Ten years on from Feet First, Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children are back. My Mother’s Name is the first single from a new album due in October on Glitterhouse Records. When we spoke to Nielsen in 2016, she was a globetrotting musician booking flights from a café in Georgia. She still lives between Greenland, Europe and North America, but her home has lately been talked about as a geopolitical bargaining chip, and that’s bound to colour how a song from a Greenlandic Inuit artist is heard right now, especially when it touches upon heritage, identity and belonging.
Neilsen shares that “My Mother’s Name“ explores the themes of identity, socialisation, and strength of female lineage – my mother’s name, which represents the self that culture and family has given me and instilled in me. The album incorporates the Greenlandic language and traditional elements into a modern folk sound that weaves in subtle tensions and the spirit of the times.
The songs are described as unfolding in gentle arcs, with lyrics that focus less on dramatic climaxes and more on inner movement. Recorded in Belgium, Denmark and Bristol, the sound is unhurried, built to give the voice room.
The accompanying live video for My Mother’s Name features Nielsen on vocals and guitar, Vitja Pauwels on slide guitar, Tim Vandenbergh on drums, bass and backing vocals, and Jan De Vroede — who first handed Nielsen a guitar and told her to write songs — on keys and percussion.
Bandcamp: https://glitterhouserecords.bandcamp.com/track/my-mothers-name