Between diaries and beats: the intimacy of NandaTsunami in 'This is what I feed on'

Nanda began to approach music as one seeks to learn a new language to speak with their own heart. Inspired by diaries, passions, disillusionments, and transformations, she built an album that is, above all, a mirror of herself — but also reflects those who allow themselves to feel. Among her references ranging from SZA to Cazuza, passing through sounds like house and afrobeat, her work dives into vulnerabilities with courage and devotion.

We spoke with Nanda about the process of placing herself in each track, the loves that nourish her, and the liberation that comes from exposing wounds. Read the full interview.

• What was your first contact with music? Is it something that has accompanied you since childhood or did it develop over time?

My contact with music in childhood was always somewhat shallow; my family preferred forró and it was something more during festive occasions. My mother really liked Joelma, and in our house, she was like a pop diva; we would perform her show choreographies on the dining room table. But making music always seemed very distant until my teenage years and the beginning of adulthood. It was during the pandemic that I began to test and perhaps think of it as a place to express myself.

• What motivated you to create 'This is what I feed on'?

I really enjoy making songs that are what I “need” to listen to at the moment, and I went through a period where I felt like listening to something that spoke a little more about my heart, which was completely broken at the time I began to write.

• How did the creative process for the new album unfold? From the birth of the idea to the moment you heard it completed for the first time.

The project itself was born at a moment when I had just started a diary, where I was putting out everything I was feeling and thinking. This guided me to better understand the path my mind was taking, between the journey of falling in love, suffering, getting disillusioned, and then acceptance that we go through when things do not work out the way we want... The first track, Secret and Spell, which was released as a single, was also a starting point for me to delve deeper into my shadows, understanding how I was dealing with myself in these relationships. It also marked the beginning of this passion that guided me during the creative process of the album.

• What were the main sound or visual references that guided you in this album?

I think the sound references came a lot from Drake, SZA, A$AP Rocky, and Marina Sena. I was also listening a lot to Cazuza and other great names in MPB at the time; I wanted to understand how they could capture feelings and write in a way that you could understand, visualize, and that also transcended several generations. Visually, I was very inspired by weddings and representations of witch women.

• Did you take risks with sounds or experimentation that you had never done before?

Yes, house and afrobeat are the main ones.

• What do you want people to feel or reflect on after listening to 'This is what I feed on'?

I hope people understand how important it is to feel and pay attention to what is felt in our process of self-knowledge and growth.

• What was the most challenging moment of the entire process? And the most liberating?

The challenge was thinking about how the people in my personal life would react to seeing me expose these vulnerabilities. The most liberating part was not caring because that was what I needed to do for myself at the moment.

• You talk a lot about love on the album — but not just romantic love, right? What other forms of love do you feel nourish you today?

Track 6, 'I Loved You Infinite (interlude)', is a track that begins to sketch for me an idea of universal love, like the love for others being a channel for divine love, despite all the other feelings that come along. And ‘For All the Love I Have Ever Felt’ speaks a lot about self-love for me. About how the process of loving another is a mirror for you to face yourself in different ways.

• What was the process of transforming such delicate feelings into music?

Delicate haha it was a challenge to express myself so truthfully and to try to experiment with my writing in other ways as well. As I mentioned, starting a diary gave me a guide to understand what I was feeling and what I wanted to express. From there, I began to mold how this would transform into rhyme and consequently into music.

• Is there any track you think perfectly sums up the soul of the album? Which one would it be?

I think ‘For All the Love I Have Ever Felt’.

• Does the album talk more about you or is it a mirror for those listening?

It is very much about me, primarily. About what I needed to hear. But I also believe in the collective unconscious and that if I needed to hear these things, it will also be a mirror for other people who need to hear.

• If you could sum up the album in one sentence, what would it be?

For all the love I have ever felt and everything that makes me think of things that I have lived and what I have to share.

• And if you could give one piece of advice to someone, what would you say?

Self-knowledge is the most beautiful form of self-love. Allowing yourself to perceive and be present within yourself is the greatest act of gratitude you can give to yourself. And feeling is part of this process, the good and the bad.