Sarah Nimmo on Raw Emotion and the Release of “I Still Miss You”

The process of creative expansion rarely follows a linear path. Many artists, musicians, and wider creatives find themselves experimenting with different mediums, styles, and messaging before they commit to one succinct, clear vision. In Sarah Nimmo’s case, her upcoming debut album marks a new path. One where she is resolutely stepping into her solo career, which comes after globally touring and performing as the frontwoman of her previous project – NIMMO. The move to go solo is born of creative redirection, tracing back to her youth, when hours were spent pouring over poetry. Over time this practise evolved into songwriting and live performance. Sarah Nimmo is known for her uniquely honest lyricism that feels fresh, vibrant. The messaging in her music is a direct reflection of her many personal experiences with lives’ many lessons. Love, heartbreak, and taking things a little too far… All encased in the joy and hedonism of London’s queer nightlife scene.

For anyone who’s been through heartbreak, you’ll know the intricate ways in which these emotions seemingly come back to haunt you in new forms. But when you’ve found you’re finally over it, the whole experience feels like a distant memory, or a reminder of an identity that no longer belongs to you Though even when you think you’ve moved on, these very same experiences find ways to flicker back messages of new mystery and emotional strain. In Sarah Nimmo’s case – her latest release I Still Miss You perfectly encapsulates this feeling. Instead of overcomplicating these deeper emotions, Nimmo wanted to create a song that was direct, honest. Through this raw emotion, the accompanying music video further maintains its relatability regardless of the viewer’s personal journey with heartbreak.

These intentions and wider emotions are not merely representative of her latest single, but a nod to the expansiveness of her debut album, How Can I Explain Myself. “We’ve been really excited to release [this song] because it encapsulates the style of songwriting on the album – quite blatant.” Sometimes, as a result of coding deeper messages into art and music, the raw emotions that informed the initial experience are lost to misinterpretation. While the beauty of the artistic practise is that anyone can relate in their own distinct way, the intention of the artist can sometimes be muddied by overcomplication. In Nimmo’s mind – this kind of heart-on-sleeve storytelling is exactly what she wanted the audience to get from the latest track release. “I wanted the track to connect to people… A really direct representation of what it is like to miss somebody.”

Having grown up in a music-focused household, it’s somewhat surprising that Nimmo never learned to play an instrument until later. “I taught myself the guitar when I was about 15 years old,” she continued, “it was after I had my first girlfriend, I remember she played me Come as You Are by Nirvana… I still can’t listen to that song without getting goosebumps.” Nimmo is very proud of her queerness and the way this part of her identity and her community directly impacts her work. When it comes to visual queerness in her performance and outward expression, she finds that her androgynous appearance can lead folks to accidentally misgender her. When talking about the project with her manager, she decided to go for a name that was generally understood to be more feminine. “I went with Sarah, because genuinely, the amount of times I get misgendered… maybe 90% of the time.” But this experience is unique and multi-faceted: “It doesn’t really matter when I’m in the pub,” she continued, “when I’m on stage, it matters.” This is why she decided to go with a feminine name at the front of the project, “because it will tell people I’m queer.”

When it comes to the raw emotions that inform one’s work, it’s uncommon that they arrive, tied in a bow, as it were. Experiencing and creating via emotion are two different things, sometimes they are too messy to create within, leaving the artist or musician to wait until they’re processed to turn them into a new medium. I felt it important to understand the timing in which Nimmo began working on this latest track, and wider album. “I was actually writing the song as I was leaving a situation…It wasn’t even like I was completely over it, healed, reflecting… which is more common for songwriters.” This process can be difficult to navigate when emotions are still raw, working with an inspiration point that simultaneously operates as an open nerve ending is no easy task. Nimmo explained, “that track was really born out of the mess of it to be honest… which is quite triggering. But it feels good, it is a bit of an exorcism at the same time.” Interwoven into each of her songs, the listener is confronted with new narratives as they form real time. A result of emotional desolation and renewal, overlapping and informing one another.

The music video is equally powerful, with visuals that depict the experience of going through these kinds of difficult emotions. The video features cool-toned treatments and striking scenes. One in particular initially grabbed my attention. In the chaos of the busy bar, for a moment, Nimmo breaks the fourth wall. Vaguely affronting at first, viewership is forced to directly engage with direct emotion as Sarah becomes someone familiar, for a split second, instead of an unknown stranger you look onto. The blue tonal range used throughout the video happens to directly tie into Nimmo’s experience with Synesthesia. This specific neurological phenomenon looks like experiencing multiple senses at the same time, in unusual ways. For example, people with synesthesia may experience hearing colours, or tasting words. Nimmo experiences this throughout her personal creative process, “it’s basically when you’re creating something and you have a colour attached to it in your mind.” 

While Nimmo may be focusing her energies on a solo career, her creative process is not inherently individual. Working alongside a powerful team of creatives, the video became a collaborative effort. The Director, Mike Glover expressed, “The initial idea for I Still Miss You was to blend performance with a subtle narrative, following Sarah moving through London, caught in a loop as she yearns for a lost love. Surrounded by constant motion and crowds, she remains emotionally detached; present, yet isolated. As the city races forward, Sarah appears suspended in time.” Creative inspirations rarely operate in a vacuum. Instead different mediums inform the direction of each project as it ebbs and flows. Following up on his inspirations, Glover shared, “Inspired by the work of Wong Kar Wai, time becomes an emotional metaphor throughout. This is visualised through time lapse photography, moments of super slow motion and the use of slow shutter speeds, allowing movement to blur and stretch across the frame. The world accelerates or freezes around Sarah, creating a sense of dislocation from reality and suggests that life moves on, even when you can’t.”

When discussing other mediums that directly influence Nimmo’s work, she noted, “fashion is a big source of inspiration for me, I tend to spend hours thinking about what people are wearing for their album campaigns, or on tour.” Music is not the only way to drive home a message. Of course fashion plays a massive part in how one’s art will be perceived and engaged with, especially when it comes to stage presence. Audiences want to latch onto words, but simultaneously the “character” that is presented before them. Fashion creates a pathway to a whole new form of communication. Nimmo continued, “I spend a lot of time watching films… it just gives me so much perspective on what I’m doing.” If she were to sum up the three things that most inspire her work it would be, “poetry, films, and the pub.”

Much like Nimmo’s many experiences in London, she wanted the video to emulate the reality of jumping from one scene or bar to the next. “The whole idea of me running in this horrendous loop was inspired by real situations and experiences around that time where I would just never really go home.” Ah, the inevitable, ongoing cycle of hitting the pub after work, staying a bit too late. Next thing you know, you’re justifying a later spot, like a club or rave… And then comes the afters. These moments of chasing other experiences whilst in the throes of a difficult emotional time, serve as an escape. Employing every excuse to attend the next party – this becomes a subconscious effort to avoid the onslaught of difficult emotions when you finally make it home. The classic.

London is known for its near never-ending roster of queer programming and lesbian events. It seems that if you never wanted to go home, you wouldn’t have to. As someone who has experienced much of London’s queer nightlife, I asked Nimmo about her favorite pubs and parties. “I’m gonna say the best queer pub is the Nelson,” as for parties, “I’d say U-Haul [Dyke Rescue] and Adonis.” U-Haul and Adonis are both iconic queer nights out in London, U-Haul tends to focus on programming for queer people, with a special focus on dykes, sapphics, and lesbians. Meanwhile Adonis is a queer party more generally.

Many find themselves on the dancefloor seeking to escape a devastating heartbreak, a situationship gone awry, or generally emotionally distressing time. Much like the music video for Nimmo’s latest track, we find ourselves in loops – not realising that the COBRAH, Miss Bashful, or SLAYYYTER lyrics we may be singing along to might as well be “I still miss you.” We seek renewal from heartbreak in the early hours of the morning, kissing strangers, kissing friends, hoping that the sun won’t rise with new, painful revelations again. Sarah Nimmo bears these honest, raw emotions in her latest track. And this is only a taste of the danceable punchy music – paired with earnest lyricism that is on the way with her latest album. Stay involved and keep an eye out for How Can I Explain Myself.

CREDITS