Nudista - Live at The George Tavern

If you can imagine Ethel Cain and the Pixies having some sort of magical love child, you’re somewhere in the realm of nudista’s music.

The duo - composed of Pilar Matji Cabello and Robbie Carmen – released their debut EP Halfway Here in 2022, a body of work that was born as the result of the lockdown. The EP is infinitely tender, a real sign of the times - capturing exactly the feeling of that surreal era.

Over the last 6 months, nudista have released four tracks that now join as their latest EP Nothing Makes Sense Until It Does. Nudista’s new record definitely keeps strong connections with their indie-folk inspired debut, but with a newfound, rock-influenced sound and tone of assertiveness that feels like a perfect move for the band’s sophomore EP.

Pilar and Robbie are a duo who possess an ability to express raw emotion in their music, while simultaneously always keeping the listener on their toes with dynamic sound and production. Their songwriting and vocals complement each other with a special kind of sentimentality that is rarely tapped. It’s distinctive, and it comes together seamlessly.

The venue the band chose for the debut of Nothing Makes Sense Until It Does was the George Tavern - a legendary pub that has previously hosted the likes of Dusty Springfield and Amy Winehouse. Given the quality of the show they put on, we think the choice of venue makes perfect sense.

Navigating the pre-show chaos of sound checks and the growing audience lining up to get their pints, Heddon Press went out to the smoking area to find nudista and have a chat.

What’s your guys origin story?

Pilar: So we met in university. I had also done solo work before but after meeting Robbie through mutual friends I asked him to make music with me because I wanted to make music in a proper band. We decided to develop songs together as a proper band.

Robbie: Around this time, soon after, we travelled to Madrid to do some recordings which was cool.

So where does the name come from?

Pilar: The name comes from my Spanish origin – nudista roughly translates to ‘naked’ / ‘nudist’, which is how I would often feel in my creative output and performance. We don’t really tend to rely on complex metaphors. We want listeners to understand our songs on an individual basis, so it largely came from that.

As a duo, how have you developed through the process of this EP?

Robbie: On the whole there’s definitely much less self-consciousness in what we’re doing. More confidence. Our sound has developed in this EP and the extra strings from our band tonight reflects that and lets us captures it all better in our performance.

What would you say the wider creative process is like for you both?

Robbie: It varies depending on what we’re making. Sometimes we build half a song each, and then they just fit together. Other times, I’ll have some lyrics, and Pilar will have a melody for them. It changes a lot – we don’t have a strict structure. It’s quite collaborative.

Pilar: Looking forward, we both want to start writing and recording together from the very beginning. Our next step is an album which we want to be collaborative from start to end, build together from the start.

Are there others working with you both behind the scenes?

Robbie: Oh yeah, definitely. All the people working in the band for one.

Pilar: There’s Kieran on drums and backing vocals, and Ben on bass, and Rory on keys. Our old keyboard player moved back to China.

Robbie: Its always been an international group though – it’s represents our direction and it suits what we do. The melting pot of lived experience nurtures the creativity.  

How’s the experience of writing/expressing these really raw and personal lyrics in English compared to Spanish, with it being your second language?

Pilar: I think find it easier to write in English sometimes. It feels like when I write in Spanish, I’m giving too much away. But English expression gives me a kind of barrier, and I can detach myself from everything a little, to keep some of the emotion close to myself.

Robbie: And it’s cool for me as well, because sometimes Pilar might ask me how she can best say or express certain things, so that further adds to the collaboration of it all.

The George is obviously an iconic venue. Did you choose this place for any particular reason to debut the EP?

Pilar: I used to work behind the bar here! And I really like it as a venue. Obviously, everyone seems to play at the George, and it’s sort of what’s exciting about London for me. It’s how it’s always been, and I think that adds to the show that we’ve put together.

Robbie: Its got a lot of history behind it we’re really glad to be playing here tonight.

Nudista didn’t label themselves with a genre, and chucking genres on music and performance can be unjust sometimes – it doesn’t capture the unique nuances and essence. But on the whole we thought this show was a real warming evening of alt-folk-lofi ascension with a defined thread of rock and heaviness which ran through the set.

We think it’s probably safe to say that nudista’s creation and performance of the EP’s first two tracks Different Eyes and Waiting Lines takes a huge leap from previous works in terms of confidence, production and instrumentals.

Waiting Lines is nudista’s most anthemic track to date for sure, something obviously recognised by the band themselves, with Pilar joking that “We’re turning into rockstars now, okay!” before performing the track. Big instrumentals and a clear forthrightness in Pilar’s voice this made this track a hit with the crowd in the George.  Different Eyes lives in the same quarter of daringness to nudista’s previous work, but with rock-instrumentals and a heavy edge which is reminiscent of grunge and nineties alt-rock.

Pilar’s intimate performance of Somebody Else definitely pays tribute and returns to the more indie-folk character of their first EP. It’s, in Pilar’s singular description, “transcendental”. An acoustic ballad that grounded everyone in the room. Infinitely serene, grounding the audience again after the more raucous Different Eyes and Waiting Lines. While the track pays homage to their earlier works it still has a strong projection of directness and self-reckoning which stays in theme with the broader story of the EP.  (Also worth mentioning how nudista met the middle of their set with a cover of You & Me Song by The Wannadies – a perfectly fitting tribute if there ever was one)

The EP and the set finished with Codependency (a personal favourite) which is written and produced to a downbeat ballad with grunge-esque instrumentals, the song makes notes on how intricate codependent relationships are, with a longing for the past paired with knowing how that’s unattainable. The effect conjured by this track does well to encapsulate the wider story of the EP as a whole.

On their sophomore EP, nudista tell an intimate and emotionally resonant story of not existing as a lone force, but recognising all of the people, emotions and events which build your being as a person – a self-reckoning that you cannot control everything in your life, and how that is okay. That’s what we took from it, anyway – as they say, there’s no fixed meaning, take what feels right.

Each song and their debut performances to some degree individually captures the unique emotional experiences of this; Different Eyes reflects feelings relating confusion and conflict; Waiting Lines – joyous energy; Somebody Else – mellow self-reflection; and Codependency - reflection and remembrance. It’s an EP that is a beautifully crafted journey through complex and hard-to-articulate experiences at its core, and something which we recommend to all of our readers. Self-reckoning, catharsis, honesty. Poetry with banging instrumentals and production.

At this point Pilar and Robbie have been solidly writing and performing as nudista for around about six years, growing from Pilar’s largely solo work and Robbie’s various times with other bands in their respective younger years as musicians. Since 2020, they’ve been signed with Sad Club records – which they’ve said, since signing, has given them a strong feeling of responsibility and commitment to their work (clearly manifested in their latest EP).

Nudista’s next ambitions are to create a full-length album, written from scratch, entirely together. A powerful duo with things to definitely watch out for in the future.

Photos by Sarah Pruim // @sarahpruim.jpg