22-year-old British-Indonesian artist Nadia Kadek today releases her anticipated debut project, with Green Car EP out now on Transgressive Records. The EP was recorded between the Oxfordshire countryside (Hook Studios) and Studio 13 with producers Riccardo Damian (Sampha, Jorja Smith, Yebba) and Jamie Biles (Isaac Gracie, Hohnen Ford, Asha Banks). Accompanying the release is an official video, directed by Georgie Cowan-Turner. 

LISTEN TO GREEN CAR EP | WATCH THE GREEN CAR OFFICIAL VIDEO

Over five tracks, Nadia explores our peculiar yet innate and beautiful longing for romance (‘Lemonade’), grapples with changing relationships with friends (‘Always Almost Losing You‘) and reflects on first, fleeting encounters with love that tragically occur when you’re too young to truly understand them. Elsewhere, on ‘Feeling It All’, she processes the intense emotions that come along with a departure from childhood, with her honest outlook on these all-too-relatable rites of passage etched into every moment – sweet and delicate but equally strong and cathartic.

Bruised family relationships are also a poignant theme, though through a lens of forgiveness in place of the bitterness one might expect. On ‘Green Car’, she sings “I want you to know I’m letting it go/I’m gonna sleep tonight,” an affirmation she says has become a “mantra” through the countless live shows she’s played it at.

“The more I sing those words, the more I feel like I’m forgiving myself and returning back to my life after a really hard time,” she explains. “Now it makes me feel like when you go back to the party and all your friends are still there. It reminds me that life carries on, even though things can get hard.”

It’s no surprise, then, that the EP is an ode to the spontaneous and healing magic of a gig. Nadia sought to carve out an ambience of organic live sound balanced by more atmospheric, beautiful noises. Within Green Car EP, she has sculpted a sonic universe that twirls and leaps around her honeyed vocals, as if the performance is unfolding right in front of you every time you press play.

“I needed it to feel like it was breathing life, and that there’s somebody in the room with you when you’re listening,” Nadia explains. “I wanted to keep the intimacy of acoustic demos whilst bringing them to life through this combination of live sound with slightly weirder, wonkier atmospherics.” 

It speaks to her refreshing nonconformity amid an era where artists are increasingly under pressure to aspire to social media virality. Over the past few years, Nadia has eschewed the new norm, instead gradually building a doting audience through playing live shows. While winning over the crowds with her silky, confessional ballads, she says the songs have, in turn, become almost a conversation with listeners. Her captivating live presence soon drew the attention of Transgressive Records, the renowned label known for championing some of today’s most respected and boundary-pushing artists.

Raised in the quiet countryside of Norfolk, Nadia describes herself as a “festival baby,” with early musical memories formed on long car journeys to campsites, soundtracked by the likes of Florence + The Machine and Jeff Buckley. From watching her heroes on the shoulders of fellow festival-goers, to playing Glastonbury 2024 after placing runner up in their Emerging Talent Competition, her story is already one of full-circle moments and quietly extraordinary determination. 

Her live credentials already include Glastonbury, BST Hyde Park, Latitude, two appearances at The Great Escape, and support slots with Chloe Qisha, Paris Paloma, Etta Marcus, Johnny & Lillie Flynn, The Crane Wives and Cordelia. Looking ahead, Nadia is set to perform at Wild Paths, Mutations, Pitchfork Festival, Eurosonic, as well as her own London headline date at The Forge at The Lower Third. Forthcoming date listings are as follows:

14th – 18th October – Wild Paths Festival, Norwich

4th November – The Forge at The Lower Third, London 

7th November – Mutations Festival, Brighton

8th November – Pitchfork Festival, London

14th – 17th January – ESNS, Groningen, NL

Recalling the shrewd sensitivity of Adrianne Lenker and Lizzy McAlpine, with Green Car Kadek weaves her poetic observations over wispy acoustic guitar. Though it’s only her first EP, it sees Nadia rightfully insert herself into a canon of songwriters with the ability to capture the feelings the rest of us can’t quite put to words.