FEATURE: Spotlight: Nicki Wells — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Nicki Wells

_________

I adore a singer whose voice…

takes you somewhere magical! The last time I felt that was earlier this year when boygenius released their debut album, the record. That real beauty in their harmonies! That perfect blend. Billie Eilish, too, has that sort of fabulous and dreamy voice that has emotion and layers too. Billie Marten, yeas ago, when she released her debut album, Writing of Blues and Yellows. Such incredibly evocative and unforgettable singers. Nicki Wells is someone who very much fits into that category. Even though I have only recently discovered her music, her voice buckles my knees! I am immersed in her music and helpless but to surrender to it. With phenomenal songwriting and compositions that are so nuanced and scenic – in the sense they inspires visions of nature and eye-catching scenery -, Wells is an artist that everyone needs to hear! Her sound would be perfect for huge stations like BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 6 Music – and she would fit seamlessly onto their playlist. I love what she is putting out into the world. The London-based artist is a sensation. I am going to come to some interviews and a review of her album, Ellipsis. Before that, here is some background to Nicki Wells and her magnificent music:

“From folky roots, chilled electronica, rich sonic soundscapes to Indian classical inflections. All of these multi-faceted layers amalgamate, to create a rich musical palette of original sound” – Gig Soup

Singer, songwriter and composer Nicki Wells followed her 1st class honours degree in Music touring as a featured vocalist in Nitin Sawhney’s band. She has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious venues from London’s Royal Albert Hall and Sydney Opera House to Glastonbury’s main Pyramid Stage. Her voice has contributed to a number of films including Andy Serkis’s Mowgli, Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, Renny Harlin’s The Legend of Hercules and was a major part of the scores of BBC Documentaries such as The Human Planet series. Her first solo album Ocean was released in 2018 under the pseudonym TURYA (Listen to TURYA on Spotify.)

As a Composer in her own right, Nicki scored for Tanika Gupta’s theatrical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, Howard Brenton’s play Drawing the Line, receiving critical acclaim. She co-composed the score to Khyentse Norbu’s feature film Vara – A Blessing and has also composed five of contemporary dancer Aakash Odedra’s shows, which have featured in venues like Sadlers Wells, Royal Opera House and Edinburgh Fringe Festival, (winning the Amnesty International Award for the politically conscious show #JeSuis). Nicki also composed the score to documentary film maker Koen Suidgeest’s Girl Connected and then joined forces with renowned sitarist Anoushka Shankar to compose the score for upcoming documentary film about the Dalai Lama An Officer and His Holiness”.

With a great gig coming at Matthias Church, London on 29th November, I will make sure that I am there. One that cannot be missed! Go and book a ticket. You can buy Ellipsis now. I think songs from this album would work perfectly in T.V. and film. So atmospheric and engrossing are they, cuts such as Carry On and Warrior – a couple of my favourites – instantly fit in a particular scene/show in my mind. I am going to come to some personal insight from Nicki Wells. First, here is some background information about Ellipsis:

“Ellipsis, with its intertwining of Indian classical, Celtic folk, eastern European choral and western pop music, can undoubtedly credit its kaleidoscope of influences on Wells’ own fascinating heritage. Born in south London, she moved to a farm outside of Rome, Italy, when she was three years old, then to Himachal Pradesh, India – in the foothills of the Himalayas – three years later. Attending an international boarding school, Wells was surrounded by jungle and dramatic mountains, absorbing myriad languages and cultures away from the pervasive materialism of western society.

“Without question,” she responds, when asked whether her childhood has impacted her creative ethos. “I’m very used to movement and diverse ways of expressing myself. My work is definitely an amalgamation of all my experiences growing up; a combination of nature and nurture… where you live and how that shapes you, and what you take from life as you go through it.”

“There was always music around the house,” she recalls of her upbringing. Her English father, whose own troubadour nature led to a university friendship with folk icon Nick Drake, would play his favourites – Randy Newman, Bob Dylan – while her Swiss-French mother appreciated the intricate compositions of John Lennon and Kate Bush. Wells first began writing her own songs aged six, then, when the family moved to the Cotswolds when she was 10, got into Singer-Songwriters. “I wanted to be a singer,” she admits with a laugh. Aged 16, she was offered a choice between the renowned Brit School or the prestigious McDonald College in Sydney. Choosing Australia, she flew to the other side of the world, staying with family friends, and immersed herself in the city’s rich local music scene.

It was around this time that she stumbled upon the music of Nitin Sawhney. The British Asian artist has worked with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Jeff Beck and Sinead O’Connor, along with scoring the soundtracks to countless acclaimed films and TV series. “His melding of East and West made complete sense to me,” Wells says. This artistic appreciation was returned around the time when she studied at the Academy of Contemporary Music, where she was introduced to Sawhney by award-winning producer Pete “Boxsta” Martin. “Nitin came into the studio and I sang an ancient Sanskrit hymn,” she recalls. “He asked me to do a gig with him that ended up being 10 years of touring and all kinds of work… that was basically my university.”

It was Sawhney who produced Wells’ debut album, Ocean, which she released under the name TURYA, a project she began in 2015. “It’s derived from a Sanskrit word, turiya, which means the silence one experiences after sound,” she explains. “I was really interested in that concept: if you go to a performance and experience the ring of the instrument's final note, the sustained silence in between that and the applause is this thing, turiya, which you feel as a wave.” With Ocean, Wells dived into the elements: on the title track, her vocals rise and fall to mesmerising effect over soft ripples of piano. On opener “Rain”, electronic beats come into mingle with the more organic sounds: “I've walked for days alone/ And on my way, I found nothing,” she sings. “Heat of the sun, it burns/ Like those words, how they haunt me now.”

Ellipsis came into being when Wells moved from Greenwich, London to her mother’s home in the countryside during the pandemic. “It was actually great for our relationship, I think,” Wells, who is now based in Monmouth, Wales, says. “She really gave me the space and time to dive into my creative well. And I don’t think I’d have had that opportunity at any other point in my life. I definitely needed it.” Lockdown became a sort of “crazy, self-purging, creative period”, she recalls. “I wrote around 180 songs. Each day I’d go for a walk, and it’d be like catching these ideas with a net, going home and recording them.” Twelve of those songs made it on to Ellipsis, the first body of work Wells feels she has truly “given birth to” single handedly, one that asserts her coming into her own as an artist. “Every sound you hear was hand-crafted… it was like having my own chiselling tools, working on every detail”.

GuruViking · Ep46: Nicki Wells - Spirit And Song

Soul-baring and hugely enticing and fascinating, I am looking forward to seeing where Nicki Wells heads next. Ellipsis, in my mind, ranks alongside the best and most beautiful albums of this year. There are a few interviews from this year I want to bring in. It is useful, because we get to read different sides and aspects of Nicki Wells. She is a fascinating artist who will be playing huge stages very soon. Voice Mag spotlighted Wells prior to the release of Ellipsis. There are bits of the interview that particularly caught my eye. The more I learn about this majestic songwriter and her music, the more determined and resolved I am to explore more:

“A singer, a composer, a songwriter: Nicki Wells has worn many different kinds of hats in her career in music. A true citizen of the world, Nicki came to recognition working with Nitin Sawhney (who also produced her debut album OCEAN, which she released under the pseudonym TURYA), appearing on everything from TEDx talks to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage with him. Nicki’s blend of Indian classical music, Western classical, Folk and Jazz, along with a myriad of other influences have resulted in her music being truly one-of-a-kind.

Ellipsis is Nicki Wells’ debut under her own name, and the freedom of creating it almost single-handedly during lockdown resulted in an album of self-reflection and self-empowerment. “I think in a way it's more genuine to who I am,” she tells me, “I gave birth to these songs by myself without any producer or other engineer.”

“It was intensely personal and I just needed to do it by myself. It’s an album of roaring into existence as an artist.” “It was spiritual work, the whole album: …It was rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands mucky with creativity.”

“I think the need to hear one’s own current is really important as an artist, and that’s what I was able to do, probably for the first time in my life, in 2020 when I moved out of London to my Mum’s. Because my life before that was always very very social, always on the move…. But it’s really important to sometimes just switch off the television and then hear what’s bubbling inside.”

“Now that this world is becoming more and more technology based, I want to be more and more a recluse. There’s an element of just wanting to have a simple life, a couple of chickens, have some animals, have some fruit trees, and try and live off the grid a little bit”, she says with a bit of a wistful smile. “But obviously we are part of this world where it’s all very necessary to be part of these social media apps and stuff. But as a creative it’s harder to hear what you need to say.”

Sanskrit is a language that Nicki incorporates into much of her music: Turya, the name under which she previously released music, is derived from the Sanskrit word for the silence after sound. With Ellipsis also having meanings of the space between the tangible elements, I asked Nicki what it was about this concept that drew her so much to it.

“I find that the silence between the sound, or the space between form, is as important as the form and sound, and I think that a lot of the time that is very much overlooked. Because as humans we’re always chasing the answer, this quick release, this quick fix.” “I think the process of something becoming what it is is much more interesting to me than the actual result.”

“It is the silence that is the canvas of the sound, and that’s what gives it its structure; like space gives pottery its structure. (Nicki also makes pots as her merch under the name TURYA) I’m very interested in the in-betweens, not just the black and white but the greys. That’s always the interplay of life: that we’re always living in the formless and form. An idea is initially formless until it becomes form. Whether it’s a pot or whether it’s a song, suddenly something is tangible. And I’m very interested in that interplay between formlessness and form; and I also would say that about ourselves: I’m not necessarily interested in myself as a form, but I'm more interested in deconstructing myself to be formless. That’s why I like to self-examine where I’m at, because we are all changing [and] morphing… at any given point, and so I really need to sometimes focus in on where I’m at, to see what can I give, what can I offer with where I am at now”.

Rather than source the entirety of 15 Questions’ interview with Nicki Wells, there are some particularly I wanted to highlight. I love what Wells says about spirituality. How her creative process works. So rich are the songs you hear on Ellipsis, I was interested to learn how things started and came together:

“Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

There is an element of having a certain environment that is conducive to the creative process. I can’t create with a lot of mess around. A messy environment also gives you a messy mind.

I like to have a minimal environment, that is uncluttered. During recording I’ll always light a candle for example, to have a little ritual and blow it out after the recording as a kind of thank you.

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

As I said above. And yes, lighting is so important too. For me, it has to be dim and cozy but if I’m writing during the day I like as much light as possible.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

The music comes easier to me. I usually write the music first then words come. I try to stay very close to my initial feeling and try not to dilute it otherwise it becomes something else and can be scattered or distracted.

Of course there are many times where a song is completely different to how you first imagined it. I like the song to guide the way for me and I’ll try to listen carefully to the direction it wants to go.

When do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

Lyrics come after music for me. I like to read books, poetry which really inspire lyrics.

Sometimes I have watched a film and wrote a song about the same kind of narrative.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard

Imagination, poetry, a play on words, humour and wit when appropriate and a feeling of not taking yourself so seriously. As you would converse with a friend, to have that informality, ease and gentility.

The best songwriters for me are the likes of Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Jeff Buckley.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

By trusting the process, being concentrated and open to the creative flow.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

Exactly the latter.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

I go with it. Sometimes I try to go back and focus harder on the original feeling but if it’s not meant to be, then I allow myself to be swept with the creative tide and the song go where it needs to.

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

Everything is spiritual. The word spiritual itself has come with a lot of associations and concepts and that’s a problem. To me it’s about being part of a flow in an open and surrendered state and in that there will always be gifts, surprises and lessons along the way.

Spirituality is a way of being not a way of doing. If you are in that childlike curious, open yet focused state, quite frankly I think you’re there. And the creativity can flourish within that state”.

It is pleasing to discover that Nicki Wells is already in the process of making another album! I learned this when reading Charm Music Magazine’s interview with a stunning artist who has one of the most distinct and spellbinding voices in modern music. If you have not discovered Nicki Wells yet, then you really need to follow her:

“The album's imagery and allegorical lyrics have a way of evoking vivid imagery. How did you approach the process of crafting these lyrics and what do you hope listeners take away from the imagery you've created?

As a person I think very allegorically. Pretty much all of my songs derive from a vivid visual narrative. When I write songs, it’s often like watching a movie in my mind. I hope listeners draw out their own imagery from the lyrics, as they would from a novel. Everyone has their own unique interpretation of a narrative.

"Ellipsis" features a track with the same name that's purely instrumental. Can you share your perspective on how this track complements the rest of the album and what it represents?

Ellipsis was the symbol of (…) of the album. At the end of a sentence which invites contemplation or to allow that information to sink in. It is the last track of the album and wordless because by then I said everything I needed to say.

@nickiwellsmusic The Vinyl of my album Ellipsis are here and they are stunning! Head over to my bandcamp to get your own copy! #vinyl #album #ellipsis #newmusic #albumoutnow #fyp #fypシ #singer #songwriter ♬ original sound - Nicki Wells

If you had to choose only one song from the album, which one would it be and why?

I’d probably say You’re Alright Kid because that was a song I had written to my six year old self and it was very personal and emotional for me to write. It was a hug to my child self and an image of holding her hand walking together towards her future.

Looking ahead, you have an upcoming live show at St Matthias Church in London. How does performing live contribute to your artistic expression and what can your audience expect from this upcoming performance?

Performing live is a whole other dimension of being a creative and I am looking forward to bringing these songs alive in a live context. We have a very exciting band which includes a string quartet and since the album has strings throughout the record, it will be a magical experience to have them live. I hope the audience are taken deep into the world of Ellipsis and come out feeling fresh and empowered.

After the release of Ellipsis, what are your aspirations and plans for the future? Are there any themes or musical directions you're excited to explore in your upcoming projects?

Yes, absolutely! I am already getting started with the next album and I have also joined forces with my husband Tarq Bowen for a duo project we have started called Bowen Wells which we are excited to explore. It’s a different sound to my own original work, very fun, lively and more of an Americana folk-rock feel!”.

I will come to some reviews soon. I feel Ellipsis is an album that warranted some attention and press love from mainstream sources. The music is definitely strong and worthy enough to get under their radar. I hope that they do tune themselves Nicki Wells’ way in the future! With that London November gig coming up, I feel it will not be too long until she is demand in nations like the U.S. and Australia. I will get to a review of Ellipsis by York Calling. This is what they had to say about a diamond of an album:

“With her new album, Nicki combines classical influences from around the world. There are tastes of India, Celtic folk, and eastern European choral music alongside western pop and influences from Wells’ own heritage. Born in South London, she moved to rural Italy when she was three. Later, she found herself in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. Her formal education then took her to Sydney, Australia before a return to the UK. This international upbringing has given Nicki an unusual and unique point of view which she brings to her music.

Nicki’s sound is influenced by a range of musicians, most notably the legend that is Nitin Sawhney who has worked with the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and Sinead O’Connor. Nitin would go on to produce Nicki’s first album Ocean released under the name TURYA.

Nicki’s new album Ellipsis is something of a re-announcement of her music and came about after she had moved from Greenwich in London to her mother’s home in the countryside during the coronavirus pandemic. It opens with Never Will. A delicate piano-led number, it’s a gentle and welcoming introduction to the album’s world. Nicki’s vocals are arrestingly soft. I found myself hanging on every word she sang.

Pavement keeps the piano but ramps up the atmosphere. It’s a dark and moody moment with beautifully descriptive lyrics that will haunt you. Carry On follows in much the same vein but introduces a hopefulness with its lyrical story. The Night brings with it acoustic guitar and ghostly harmonies. She Made You Feel Something is a beautifully textured track with ambient percussion and folksy vocals. The aforementioned Holy Smoke closes the first half of the album with an understated, memorable highlight.

The second half of the album opens with the contemplative Sidelines. Nicki’s vocals are particularly beautiful during its stripped back first verse. I Have Longed To Be Here is a beautifully rich and meditative track where Nicki’s eastern influences are worn proud. Silent One is slow-burning, unfolding over six and a half minutes. The natural romance of its journey makes it another highlight.

You’re Alright Kid is a track that’s touched with the nostalgia of youth mixed with the melancholy of adulthood. Warrior has an understated sense of triumph. It builds to a rousing crescendo which gives us the album’s emotional high point before title track Ellipsis closes the album with a pulsating final chapter that combines electronic and acoustic instrumentals to great effect.

Ellipsis is an ambitious effort from an artist who has been through it all. Nicki proves herself as a fiery and accomplished song writer with this collection. Its emotional story is second to none and she brings such a wonderfully unique tapestry of sounds across its twelve tracks. This is an album to switch off and get lost to”.

One more review before we come to an end. It has been a real pleasure discovering more about this terrific artist. That mixture of sounds and influences stands Nicki Wells out as a very promising and must-hear talent. Someone with a very bright and interesting future ahead:

“At the start of this review, I want to highlight just how difficult it is to effectively convey themes while still adopting a minimalist, sparse sound—almost as if to see what it is that can be done while still sticking to the very fundamentals of what has defined music for the last 3000 years. I’m glad to report that Nicki does it flawlessly on “Ellipsis”.

The album starts out with “Never Will”, a beautiful ballad with not much for Nicki to hide behind but the faint pianos in the background. As the song starts out, you are immediately drawn into the lush and dreamy soundscape with her voice filling up your ears in almost an ethereal fashion. As the song develops, you are introduced to the skilful harmonies, well-articulated themes, and the promise of these elements just getting better throughout the album.

And get better it does! With the mild percussion entering the scene on “Pavement”, the theme of minimal, less-is-more continues, only this time with a little more drive and panache, which is a welcome change indeed. As we “Carry On”, we are immediately transported to a slightly darker sound, with deep, rumbling orchestral drums in the background, as the song presents an almost angelic sound, as if it is conveyed from the heavens above itself.

The strings appear on the next song, “The Night”, while her vocals remain the centre stage of the entire performance—and deservedly so! I was left mesmerized as she effortlessly wafted between melodic ideas, chord progressions, and energy changes. Class act so far!

As we get near the middle of Ellipsis, “She Made You Feel Something”, is quite the passionate number, with the poignance to mean the message it truly tries to convey. As she delves into themes of heartbreak, and encouragement, the vocal harmonies take the cake on the song, with intricate and expressive layering that really strike chords in you; they definitely did so in me.

With “Holy Smoke”, the next song, the themes keep getting more melancholic and poignant, with the execution remaining as crisp and flawless as ever. I will take a minute here to comment that it is challenging to keep sound and emotional intensity unwavering throughout an album of this length, much less we have a story with themes that each of the individual songs establishes. This is the kind of album that really goes the extra mile to demonstrate how it is done, and I do not overstate it when I say that “Ellipsis” really is a master class in more ways than one.

A special mention from Ellipsis is “I Have Longed To Be Here”, the kind of song that delves really into vocal experimentation with its long, drawn-out notes as well as powerful, moving strings in the background, coupled with themes of wistfulness, melancholy, and unadulterated power. The harmony towards the end of this song is an easy 20/10 performance, with something about it really, really moving something in me”.

Go and listen to Ellipsis. Follow Nicki Wells on social media, and really embrace and explore an artist who is producing such wonderous and unforgettable music! Her production and engineering work on Ellipsis is incredible. I can see her being hired as a producer and engineer. At a time when few women in the industry are noted because of their technical skills – and studios still have a massive gender disparity -, it would be good to remember that producing and engineering are two essential levels of an album. Getting the sound right. Making sure all the music is perfect. Ensuring the songs are mixed properly and there is that flow through the album. Getting the sequencing right too…in addition to that communication with the musicians. Ensuring everything on the album sounds as good as it could possibly be. Such an important talent in the music industry, I felt compelled to spotlight and salute…