7 years since its debut, IMS continues to pave the way in the electronic dance music industry. Described as “the TED of music conferences”, 2014 marks the first year for the world’s most influential electronic music summit to make its way to Asia. IMS Asia-Pacific, which was held in W Singapore – Sentosa Cove on 11th Dec (Thursday), featured 35 speakers from around the world.
2 out of the 35 speakers are none other than Australian musicians Miriam Nervo (Mim) and Olivia Nervo (Liv), otherwise more well-known by their stage name, NERVO. No strangers to the Asian region, NERVO has played in various Asian countries including Malaysia and Singapore.
Fortunately for us, we managed to catch up with NERVO at IMS Asia Pacific to find out what they’ve been up to since we last saw them back here in Malaysia in 2013.
Hey girls! You’ve had your fair share of travelling around the world, what is it about Asia that you love most?
Liv: Hey you! Oh, we love Asia. It has so many different cultures that are so close to each other and being Australian, we’re used to the Asian influence. Now that we’re living in the UK, we don’t get as much of it anymore which is why we love coming to Asia.
Mim: Yeah, the Asian cultures are so different from the rest of the world so it’s a real treat to come out here.
You’ve written for various artists, what would you girls say is the most challenging thing about working with or writing for an artiste?
Liv: We really enjoy it. The most difficult thing is not being able to control it because of the other teams around the artist. I mean, it’s not like we can control our own journey because there’s always so many teams, labels and all that. But yeah, if and when an artiste changes their mind on the music that you’ve work on, I guess that’s the hardest thing we have to deal with.
Mim: Yeah. Really, the only annoying thing is that if you spent lots of time on something and they suddenly change the brief for whatever reason, so that happens sometime and that’s yeah, annoying (laughs).
I can imagine. During the talk, you mentioned that you’ve got an album set for release, could you tell us more about it?
Liv: Yeah, it’s coming out through Ultra and Sony all around the world. It’s got a bunch of tracks we’ve already released and you know, the album has records that we can play in our sets and some that didn’t fit in our sets so that’s why we wanted to release an album. The album is to show the different angles about writing and producing.
Besides your album, are you working on any other collaborations?
Mim: Oh yes, we’re always working. Constantly.
Liv: We just wrote one for Nicki Romero, doing loads constantly.
Mim: It’s keeping it fresh. Lots of ideas, we don’t always know where the ideas are going to go, which artist is going to pick it up or if we’re going to release it. We really like to just be in the studio and create.
Speaking of writing, which do you girls honestly prefer – working in the studio or performing live?
Mim: Oh that’s a tough question.
Liv: At the moment, because we tour so much, we really love studio. It feels like we’re going back to our roots. You know? That’s what we’re put on this planet to do. But then, the second we get a little bored, well not bored, but when we want to test our records, we’ll want to get out and start playing live. They’re both just as good (laughs).
Mim: They help each other as well because if you’re going to spend 4 days starring at a computer screen for 14 hours a day, you’ll just want to get out and see something other than a computer screen. Same as when we’re touring, when we’re sick of being in airports, that’s when we’d prefer studio time.
And apart from upcoming collaborations and your album slated for release in 2015, what else is in for NERVO next year?
Liv: We’ve got some residencies coming up. We’ve got the new residency in Vegas for Omnia.
Mim: Yeah, we’re also going back to – oh, actually we can’t stay for Ibiza but we’re going to be living in Ibiza again in the summer. We’ve also got a residency at Green Valley in Brazil so we’re really excited for 2015.
Woah! Sound’s like a busy year ahead! Let’s talk a little about your relationship, what is it like working together? Do you think it’s easier working together because you’re sisters?
Liv: Yeah, it definitely is!
Mim: We think so. We’ve had a lifetime of learning each others strengths and weaknesses. We work well together and we like bouncing ideas of each other because we’re both actually quite different so we often argue about creative ideas. So when we both like an idea, we both get really excited because we’re both hard to please.
And as sisters, twin sisters, what is the dumbest twin-related questions you’ve ever received?
Mim: If we’re twins!
Liv: No, no, no. We’ve had someone asked us what’s our birthday one after another!
Mim: Oh yeah! Some people get like mixed up, and we’re like “erm, the same day?”
LOL! Last one, if you were playing the lead role in a romantic flick, who would you each pick as your lead actor?
Mim: Oooh! I like this question. I absolutely know this one.
Liv: Don’t say Robert Pattinson, Mim! (laughs)
Mim: Of course! I would want to play “Pretty Woman” and Robert Pattison would be my white horse.
Liv: I want any of the Hemsworth brothers. They’re Australians, they’re hot, just any of them will do!
Haha! Thanks so much girls!
Mim: Thank you! Those were great questions!
Liv: Yeah, I really loved the last question. Thank you so much!
The NERVO girls were nothing but sweet and charming and it was such an honour to be able to speak to them. For more on NERVO, stalk them via these portals: Website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
We leave you today with “Revolution” by NERVO featuring R3hab and Ummet Ozcan.
