EXCLUSIVE: NEVE on 'DIZZYNUMB', James Arthur and headline tour
“Do you think if I sing loud enough, I might be invited on stage,” NEVE used to joke in the caption of viral TikTok videos.
Sat in the gods at arenas singing along to the hits of some of the biggest stars, the rising Northern Irish star began to build up a following. Fast forward a couple of years and NEVE is on some of Europe’s biggest stages duetting with James Arthur on smash ‘Rewrite the Stars’.
It’s been a stratospheric six months for the songwriter, who had already been cultivating a growing legion of dedicated fans through playful pop singles trademarked by big vocals.
NEVE had already supported Betty Who and Henry Moodie in recent years and delivered a swaggering debut headline set at The Grace in September but now, fresh off the back of touring with the ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ star, the singer is on her own headline tour across Europe.
“I DMed him,” NEVE admits when asked how the opportunity to support James Arthur came about. “I’ve been a fan of him for a very long time and was very honest about that and said it would be a dream come true to be your support act.”
Arthur checked out the star’s own music and soon the necessary booking agents had it all sorted – NEVE shared an adorable video of the moment she got the green light on social media as she fought back tears.
“The first night we did seven or eight thousand capacity and it was the biggest thing I’d ever done by about times seven,” NEVE remembers about the first stop in Hamburg. “At the start of tour, I suffered really bad nerves. At the first show, I didn’t know if I’d be cut out the rest of tour because I was so nervous – I think I had a panic attack on stage!”
Backed by her impressive catalogue of singles, the nerves clearly didn’t show as within a couple of shows, Arthur himself invited NEVE to come out and duet with him on stage.
“I did the first show and then spoke to him at the second show and he said it’d be good to a duet at some point, when I was ready,” NEVE explains. “He gave me options of songs but ‘Rewrite The Stars’ was the most obvious because there was the female vocal point. I was keen to do it and we did. I didn’t know it was going to continue the whole tour but once we did it, it became a thing.”
Concert-goers coming across NEVE for the first time were gifted a jam-pack support set punctuated by hits including the effortlessly catchy ‘Brutally Honest’, breakthrough track ‘guy friends’ and ballad ‘Should’ve Been Us’ – as well as a cover of Billie Eilish stadium-filler ‘Happier Than Ever’.
“I really thought about my set in terms of what James Arthur is as an artist and what his audience like,” NEVE says. “He’s one of the world’s best singers live so I really wanted to cater towards that and make it about singing. I wanted to showcase my range and that’s what came into the planning of the set.”
NEVE now heads back to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, Copenhagen, Cologne and Paris before finishing in London on her own headline shows. Many there will have come from the James Arthur gigs, but others are part of the hundreds of thousands who had been streaming the star’s tracks long before.
“There’s a group of girls that are really good friends with each other and a couple of girls are coming for the whole European tour,” NEVE shares. “They are travelling together because they met through my music. That’s really special that they’ve become best friends through my music. That’s something you don’t think about when you want to become an artist but there’s something really special about it.”
Of all the tracks the rising star has released, it’s ‘Want U Back’ that has reached the most people. Racking up nearly 2.5 million streams on Spotify alone, the tongue-in-cheek single has become somewhat of a messy breakup anthem.
As is natural with any pop star in 2024, before release NEVE jumped in the car with her mum to get a live reaction. Given the flick details the singer’s temptation to return to a boy who broke her heart, the eye-rolls and ‘Who’s this about?’ from mum made for a brilliant viral video.
“The day or two after my mum’s video went viral I texted my friend and said, ‘Is there any way before work we can do a TikTok’,” NEVE laughs. “I was at hers at 7 am as she works 9-5. We rented a ZipCar as neither of us have a car in London and did a TikTok in the car. The song came out two weeks later and it did 100,00 streams on the first day which was wild to me.”
Another highlight of the NEVE discography is last year’s ‘DIZZYNUMB’. An earworm take on anxiety, the track featured in CelebMix’s Top 50 Songs of 2023.
“I think what happened with that one, I went in the studio and said I don’t want to write about love. That’s where it came from. I was in a bit of a funk,” NEVE recalls.
“I get a bit anxious for sessions. I don’t often have many writers in the room and for that one, there were four writers in the room. I’m a bit of a control freak so was a bit nervous.
“I often do the chorus first or will have already written it. In that situation the chorus was last. I thought, why don’t we do something really weird or distorted? I love the Rihanna song Disturbia. She made up a word based on what the feeling is, that was hard to describe. I wanted to find this made-up word and you’re dizzy and numb so decided that was the name of the song!”
In February, NEVE threw a slight curveball when dropping the twinkling ‘Midnight’. A ditty about catching feelings far too quickly, the single builds into a huge chorus.
“I love ‘Midnight’ and where we are going soundwise,” NEVE says when asked if she can tease what’s next. “I know what the next single is. I think it’s my favourite song I’ve ever written.
“It’s really special to me. I wrote it after a panic attack. I wrote it in LA and came during a period of time where I was dealing with anxiety all the time and couldn’t really imagine not being anxious – but now we’re playing arenas!”
You can catch NEVE on tour across Europe on the following dates –
May 15 – Amsterdam @ Paradiso
May 16 – Hamburg @ Hebebuhne
May 17 – Berlin @ Prachtwerk
May 19 – Copenhagen @ Ideal Bar
May 21 – Cologne @ Yuca
May 23 – Paris @ Oberkamf Music Festival
May 29 – London @ Camden Assembly
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