Pallot was born in London, but spent most of her childhood on the island of Jersey. Her mother is from India, whilst her father is native born from Jersey. Early in life, she spent some time living in India, but spent most of her early school years in Jersey. From there she won a scholarship to Wellington College, a famous military public school in England. Her time at this school provides much of the personal inspiration behind her single Everybody’s Gone to War as several of her school friends were directly involved in the Iraq war.
Nerina Pallot is classically trained in singing and piano, and then engaged in a peripatetic career around the fringes of the music industry. Outside these various industry-related jobs, Nerina Pallot was an active part-time musician with an ambition to follow a career in performing and song writing. At some point her career took her to her favourite job of this time, as PA to the music industry executive Andrew King; a key figure in the management of Pink Floyd from its earliest days. Still following her ambition to pursue a musical career, Pallot signed to Polydor in her mid-20s, despite misgivings from Andrew King. This signing resulted in the release of an album containing self-penned songs; the ironically titled Dear Frustrated Superstar (2001). However, singles released from this album failed to make a sales mark as did the album. Following this, Nerina Pallot was dropped by Polydor among some bitter recriminations which are documented on her web site. This experience was later to lead to the writing of Mr. King, a touching, and very probably unique tribute to a senior music industry executive.
Following this episode, Nerina Pallot returned to University to study English with a partially formed plan to become an English teacher. However, during her studies she rekindled a love of lyrical English and started to write again. The song Idaho came from this period, using the state as a metaphor for the place where she wanted to actively steer her life, rather than just letting it drift. Idaho, Mr. King, and Everybody’s Gone to War became three of the tracks that made up her second album Fires. This was, in part, financed by money from her publishers, Chrysalis, who had remained faithful, and partly through re-mortgaging her home. As important was the extensive good-will and contacts that she could call upon within the industry in both London and Los Angeles. The eventual album was released under her own label Idaho which, despite rave reviews, failed to make significant sales headway. This, and subsequent activities, lead to an early termination of her degree course, but she has expressed a desire to complete it.
Nerina Pallot persisted by extensively touring the country, and sometimes Europe, supporting acts such as Missy Higgins, Sheryl Crow, James Blunt, Suzanne Vega, Joseph Arthur, and Ray LaMontagne. This, and a very active and acerbic presence on MySpace resulted in a considerable word-of-mouth following. Typical of many of her contemporary artists in the Internet world, she is strongly supported by a group of dedicated fans, connected via so-called social networking sites. Nerina Pallot also benefits from support within influential parts of the media including the BBC.
Eventually this activity and support resulted in Nerina Pallot being signed to the Warner label 14th Floor who specialise in promoting acts with a partially established following. Fires received a slight makeover, and was re-released under the 14th Floor label. Everybody’s Gone to War was released as a single with a video filmed in a Los Angeles supermarket in the style of a Hollywood war film, save being staged as a “food-fight”. A second single, a remixed Sophia, was released in early October 2006. Learning to Breathe is to be released in early 2007 as the third single under the 14th Floor label.
During the summer of 2006 Nerina appeared at many music festivals, promotional and charity events. For the autumn months she is touring intensively in the UK and Europe as a headline act.
During her early 2007 tour of the UK and Ireland, Nerina Pallot reprised several songs from her Dear Frustrated Superstar period, possibly marking a coming to terms with a dark period in her career.
In 2007 Nerina Pallot was nominated for a Brit Award in the Best British Female category won by Amy Winehouse. Such was the unexpected nature of this nomination to her, that she had already set the date, St. Valentine’s day 2007 for her marriage to the music video producer Andrew Chatterley, both briefly leaving the reception in London for the award show.
Nerina Pallot released her third studio album "The Graduate" in 2009, on her own label. Nerina worked with many writers for the album but when it came down to the final tracklist only Pallot written material has made the cut. She wrote in her blog that she had approximately 60 viable songs. The album title refers to Pallot's 2009 graduation from university with a first-class honours English Literature degree.
Nerina Pallot and her husband Andy Chatterly wrote the title track and third single, "Better Than Today" from Kylie Minogue's 2010 studio album, "Aphrodite". Pallot signed with Geffon Records and released "Year Of The Wolf" in 2011. The album's title comes from her son, Wolfie, with whom she was pregnant during the recording of the album. Lead single "Put Your Hands Up" was originally written for Kylie Minogue.
Not Over You
Nerina Pallot Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I gave you love
I thought that it would be
And now it ain't so
And as the dawn creeps through the windows
Through the humming in the walls
I know it's time
But my heart's set to auto
It's a peerless machine
It only does what I'm telling it to
Yeah my heart's set to auto
And there's no going back
You press erase, that's what it will do
When the lights go on, we'll hide what we feel
And make a violent fortune however we deal
But in the end I know it's not true
I'm not over, not over you
I'm not over, not over you
I hear you choking back the words
And that's the thing: it's not the ending
It's the things we don't say
We trace our fingers 'round the ashes
Of the bones of us and
Here our love once lay
But your heart's set to auto
And there'll be no undoing
What is done is what had to be done
Yeah, your heart's set to auto
It's a beautiful thing
Let it run, let it run, let it run
When the lights go on, we'll hide what we feel
And make a violent fortune however we deal
But in the end I know it's not true
I'm not over, not over you
I'm not over, not over you
When the lights go on, we'll hide what we feel
And make a violent fortune however we deal
But in the end I know it's not true
I'm not over, not over you
I'm not over, not over you
The lyrics of Nerina Pallot's "Not Over You" are a melancholic reflection on the aftermath of a failed relationship. The singer acknowledges that she gave her all to the relationship, investing her love in it with the hope that things would work out, but it didn't. As the dawn creeps through the windows, she realizes that it's time to leave, as there's nothing left to salvage. However, her heart is set to auto, which means that it continues to do what it was programmed to do; love the person who hurt her. The chorus describes how they both hide their true feelings when the lights come on and put up a facade, but at the end of the day, the singer is not yet over her ex.
Line by Line Meaning
I gave you all I had to give
I gave you everything I had, put all my effort and energy into our relationship
I gave you love
I gave you my heart and affection, showed you my feelings
I thought that it would be
I believed that our love would be strong, that we were meant to be together
And now it ain't so
But it didn't work out, and now I know our love is not what I expected it to be
And as the dawn creeps through the windows
As the sun rises and the morning light enters the room
Through the humming in the walls
While hearing the sounds of the house, the noise coming from all around
I know it's time
I understand that it's time to move on, to leave this relationship behind
I should go
I have to leave, it's the right thing to do
But my heart's set to auto
My heart is automatic, it does what it wants without me controlling it
It's a peerless machine
It's a flawless mechanism, always doing what it feels
It only does what I'm telling it to
It's doing what it wants, but I'm telling myself that it's okay to feel that way
Yeah my heart's set to auto
My heart is always running on its own, without me directing it
And there's no going back
Once my heart has made a decision, there's no way to change it
You press erase, that's what it will do
If I try to forget or erase my feelings, my heart won't let me move on
When the lights go on, we'll hide what we feel
When other people are around, we'll pretend that everything is okay and that we're not hurting
And make a violent fortune however we deal
We'll try to make things work, no matter how difficult it may be or how much it hurts us
But in the end I know it's not true
But deep down I know that it's not going to work out, that our love is not meant to be
I'm not over, not over you
I'm not able to move on from our relationship, I'm still in love with you despite everything
I hear you choking back the words
I can sense that you're holding back your own feelings, that you're struggling to express yourself
And that's the thing: it's not the ending
That's the issue: our relationship is not over, but we're unable to communicate honestly and openly
It's the things we don't say
The real problem is the things we're not saying, the emotions we're hiding from each other
We trace our fingers 'round the ashes
We try to salvage our relationship, but all that's left is the remnants of what it used to be
Of the bones of us and
The remains of our love, which has now turned into something empty and hollow
Here our love once lay
Where our relationship used to exist, now there's nothing but ashes
But your heart's set to auto
Your heart is just like mine, running on its own without you controlling it
And there'll be no undoing
Once your heart has made a decision, there's no going back to change it
What is done is what had to be done
What has happened has already happened, and it was necessary for us to go through it
It's a beautiful thing
Our hearts, running on their own, is a beautiful and natural thing
Let it run, let it run, let it run
Let our hearts continue to do what they want, without us trying to force them to change
When the lights go on, we'll hide what we feel
Once again, we'll pretend that everything is okay and that we're not hurting in front of other people
And make a violent fortune however we deal
We'll continue to try to make things work, even if it's painful and causes us to suffer
But in the end I know it's not true
Deep down, I know that we're not right for each other and that our love is not going to last
I'm not over, not over you
Even though I know it's not going to work out, I'm still not able to move on from our relationship
Contributed by Jayce I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.