Q&A: Nina Cobham Resets With Single 'Empezar De Nuevo (Que Pena)' on Patchwork EP ‘Middle of Nowhere’
OUR LIVES ARE WRITTEN IN THE STARS — and there are infinitesimal ways to explore the galaxies that lie within each of us. In her single “Empezar De Nuevo (Que Pena),” singer-songwriter Nina Cobham translates her story of lost love into a comforting alt-pop track. Fused with both English and Spanish, the release epitomizes her broad-reaching musical palette.
With feathery melodies and feathery vocals, Cobham showcases her exceptional bilingual and nostalgic storytelling. It’s as though she’s putting her thoughts in a kaleidoscope and asking listeners to look at her music from the inside out. Everything from the stripped-back guitar playing to her tapestry-like lyricism is candid, telling a weighty story in a simple way.
The song is a recollection of finding yourself by losing someone else and learning to find value in the little things. The dance Cobham engages in is bittersweet and liberating at once. This time around, she’s letting things happen and accepting them as they come into her life. This duality is at the core of her music, especially with “Empezar De Nuevo (Que Pena).”
In it, she makes a promise to herself to not think too hard about the things she can’t control. With that, she encourages herself to embrace all that lies in between during the days when she feels alone, alive, or awakened to the universe around her. Cobham wrote the track in the sunlight, afternoons, late evenings, and throughout the winter season. It’s weathered many changes in environments, just like her.
The single is one of five tracks on Cobham’s EP Middle of Nowhere. On it is a stream of songs that naturally flow and remind us to see the value in people and to treat them with care and find the promise in the everyday. With “What is This?” “Self Care,” “Worse & Better,” and “Mala Excusa,” she sticks to hope and comes out the luckiest girl in the world simply because she is wholeheartedly alive.
Stream “Empezar De Nuevo (Que Pena)” and Middle of Nowhere wherever you get your music, and read below to learn more about Cobham’s new track, guitars, life lessons, and more.
LUNA: With the song beautifully encapsulating its name, “Empezar De Nuevo (Que Pena),” what does the phrase mean in your life? How does it show up for you?
COBHAM: Starting over is always something I’ve seen as fun. I’ve done it so many times growing up with moving around so much, but there’s also a side to it that feels like grieving now. As an adult I feel the weight of it that I didn’t as a kid, the decision being in my hands. As a child the decision isn’t within your control — you’re just picking up and starting over wherever and whenever your parents want to, and I’m sure that felt scary at the time but it’s great — you get to make new friends and write letters to your old friends and experience exciting new things.
And while this can also be true to starting over as you get older [with] new places and experiences and people, it’s scarier because there’s more to it. You start grieving so many things: people, older versions of yourself, and places. I was dying for a start over in 2021 — I’ve only felt it like that maybe once before, but it was a real desperation for something to change after such a long period of lockdown and isolation and just a loss of direction. I just had a couple of months back in a familiar place — for the most part alone — to reset. Coming back after that, that’s exactly what I feel happened — the time since then has felt like a whole different life to what it was before. Sometimes it's just a brief reset that’s needed rather than a world-altering restart, but either way, it's starting over.
LUNA: If you had to pick your favorite line from the song to get tattooed on your arm (in that aesthetic cursive writing), which line would it be, and why would you choose it over the others?
COBHAM: My favorite line I think is “Stick to something that might show a little bit of promise” — it has kind of a dual meaning, in that at the time I was saying to someone, “Stick to someone that has a bit of promise,” but at the same time saying it to myself to stick to the things and the people that show promise and hope. Relating to what I was saying about starting over just before, some people are worth taking with you when you feel like you want to start again. Start again with them.
Sometimes while you’re in the thick of all the emotion and anger and confusion you can start jeopardizing amazing relationships because you're painting everything with one brush and they get tangled up with the bad things, when actually they are something that shows promise. That line from the song is a bit long, though (laughs), so it’d probably be “somewhere forevermore” — just that idea once you’ve gone through the grief of losing a happy or sad situation and letting go, both are hard in different ways. And [you] can look back at a moment with warmth, that kind of bitter-sweet feeling that moment is always going to be there — it's still yours.
LUNA: How did you come up with that relatable, heartwarming, and overall effortlessly human concept for your single’s music video? What inspired that specific, unmistakable style of nostalgic filmmaking?
COBHAM: The concept for the videos was really just about wanting them to be snapshots of memories to create that feeling of nostalgia, which was inspired by summer for sure, especially because “Self Care” and “What is This?” came out first, and I was thinking about what the videos should look like during that summer period. Just little snippets of day-to-day life or little trips, compilations, and collages of days full of things that related to the songs. Last summer was my favourite summer yet — I’d be the luckiest if this summer was anywhere near as good.
LUNA: Are there any songs you think this release could be a cousin of? Let’s say you have to put together a Spotify playlist of songs with the same vibe — which songs would be on it?
COBHAM: Ooh, I love making playlists. I have one for “Empezar” actually. I think “Ghosting” by Biig Piig is kind of written about a similar thing; maybe “Splinter” by spill tab too.
LUNA: Was there an instrument, sound, vocal, or production element that you thought was non-negotiable, one that above all else had to somehow be included in the piece?
COBHAM: The drop down into nylon string guitar pre-chorus and at the end of the song, I don’t know, I just write a lot of my songs starting on guitar, alone, this wasn’t one of those songs so I felt it was still important to include the intimacy of just guitar and vocals and repeating that same lyric, especially at the end - like when you’re spiraling with a thought trying to make it make sense and end up going in circles until you have the ‘oh, ok’ moment. Me, Jack, and Frankie made this on the first day they came out to Spain, the guitar part was actually recorded on this little digital camera I had picked up in a charity shop for £5.
LUNA: When you play the track for the people in your life, is there a part that gives them a strong reaction like getting chills, or being visibly caught off guard by something they heard?
COBHAM: A lot of my songs are quite unpredictable in what direction they’re going and what the next section is going to be. I love making them that way — it also means the reactions I get are more fun; there’s just a whole array of facial expressions. I think the pre-chorus into the chorus, from that stripped-back section to everything kicking back in is where I’ve noticed the biggest reaction!
LUNA: Congrats on your new EP Middle of Nowhere, which released Feb. 10th! Can you give a sneak peek of what can be expected for listeners to hear as far as genres, lyrics, sounds, and cover art go?
COBHAM: It’s definitely a rollercoaster of emotions — I think you can hear how fed up I was in certain situations (laughs). It’s the “getting over” of a lot of situations and knowing I deserve better, plus needing to do better for myself. Also stopping trying to control every aspect of everything I’m going through as a protection strategy and just letting things happen how they happen, knowing when it's worth it and when it's not — that’s a theme that comes up throughout a couple of the songs, I think. It is funny that I wasn’t in any relationships during the writing of any of the songs. I’m not actually sure what genre it would be classed as either… [In terms of sounds,] you can definitely hear which were written in the sun and which were written at night or in winter weather! The artwork was done by George Vicary — we just chatted through the themes for each one and he sent so many ideas over. It was hard to choose!
LUNA: In a perfect universe where your top artists were sent your EP and listened to it before it came out, what do you think would they like the most about it? With that, who would be getting an advanced copy of your EP?
COBHAM: This one’s very tricky because the EP is such an assortment of sounds, some of which I think are polar opposites, and I listen to so much music there’d be such a long list I’d want to send it to. Obviously, Mac Miller’s song is mentioned in “Self Care” — he was quite experimental but who’s to say? I’d hope to think anyone who I admire or sent it to would think it was a quirky/interesting project with stuff like automation on vocals in “Self Care” through to bossa influences or darker synths, or just the bilingual nature of the whole EP.
LUNA: As an avid guitarist, what guitars do you tend to gravitate toward the most? How was it getting to record an Artist Check-In with Fender?
COBHAM: To be honest I’ve always tended to gravitate more toward acoustics for writing. I got a nylon string too because bossa summer songs sound so right on them, and I have a mahogany wood acoustic guitar [that] I sit writing on at home because the tones are beautiful. But Fender has always been a dream — it’s always been my dad’s go-to growing up because they were always his favorite. It created this sentimental attachment in me.
Last year Fender sent me a Jag-Stang and I love love love it. I’ve played it at every gig since, I’m pretty sure, so to be able to go back to Fender 11 months later and do a check-in… As far as I’m concerned, that’s the biggest thing I’ve done yet! I can’t explain. It feels like it's come full circle — it's so fun to be able to tell my dad I’ve done stuff like that too!
LUNA: What’s one question that you deeply want to be asked in your interviews but haven’t had the chance to answer yet? What would your response be?
COBHAM: When a song was written! There are songs on this project from last year, from 2021 too, but they’re coming out now. I think, when a song was written, what period of your life, etc. is a major factor in its identity.
LUNA: This doesn’t have to be music-related, but what’s a life lesson you learned that you want to share with others who might be going through a similar situation in their own lives?
COBHAM: I had to think about this one, but also not too hard because this is something I kind of live by so it may not be applicable to everyone and might even sound cliche, but especially in my life… Relationships are more important than work. I don’t just mean romantic. I mean connections with your people, the effort you put in, how hard you love on people without doing it for something in return, being there when they need you — it's more important than your career. I don’t mean in terms of “networking.” Really make an effort to notice the good people and the people who want good things for you, and keep those ones.
You want to start over? Start over with them, it’ll make it ten times better, trust me. When you find people who feel like your people, whether that's family, friends, or a partner, just really take the time to see the value of that. Just do everything from a place of care. Don't treat people like an experience or currency ([it’s] especially common in the music industry — it’s a horrible feeling). I’ve had periods of time where I’ve had not nice people around me; it’s funny now to see how they were just kind of removed. The people I have in my life now are the best of the best, and it's taken a long time to get this way where I feel at home (which is all I’ve ever wanted).
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