Nicole Atkins: Ask Me Anything

NATKINS said:
Unfortunately I think I missed the Spongebob boat!
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Matt M said:
Loving this Goodnight Rhonda Lee album, which is getting me digging into some of your collaboration work. I love the stuff with Robert Harrison especially, Cotton Mather is such a great band. How did that come about? And how do you decide who and when you will collaborate with?

EDIT: The Bash & Pop song is freaking great too!
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Gosh, me and Robert Harrison go way back. Cotton Mather was a hero band of mine at an early stage in my writing. I ended up working for the record label they were on right after they left. Turns out the guy that ran the label was a major creep. I met Robert years after that when I name checked his band in the Austin Chronicle. He came to my show. We bonded over our disdain of said creep, and the rest is history. hahaha. we have a wonderful musical friendship.
my biggest collaborators would be him, jim scalvunos, Dave Moose Sherman, and now a lot of new musical friends like Binky Griptite and Britt Daniel and Tommy Stinson and spooner oldham. it all just kinda happens outta nowhere. I'll be somewhere, meet someone and I find that just getting together and writing a song is a way better and deeper way to get to know someone than like meeting for coffee. or whatever people do to get to know someone these days. I don't know. I love collaboration tho!
 
@NATKINS, first off, thank you for taking time to join us in our little corner of the internet. It really means a lot when artists join us for these types of interactions.

Now that Americana Fest is over, were there any acts that you hadn't heard/seen before and were completely blown away by?

Alternately, were there any acts you had hoped to see but just weren't able to catch?
 
Twentytwo said:
Love how the Nashville music community supports each other and that you all always show up at each others shows. Who are some of your more favorite Nashville artists?
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Me too! The community here is my favorite part of living in Nashville. I love Erin Rae, Phillip Creamer, Pat Sansone, Carl Broehmal, Lilly Hiatt, Thayer Serrano, Justin Collins, Phosperesent, Josh Hedley, Ruby Boots, Eva Lin, Indianola, there are just so many its tough to name them all.
 
NATKINS said:
Gosh, me and Robert Harrison go way back. Cotton Mather was a hero band of mine at an early stage in my writing. I ended up working for the record label they were on right after they left. Turns out the guy that ran the label was a major creep. I met Robert years after that when I name checked his band in the Austin Chronicle. He came to my show. We bonded over our disdain of said creep, and the rest is history. hahaha. we have a wonderful musical friendship.
my biggest collaborators would be him, jim scalvunos, Dave Moose Sherman, and now a lot of new musical friends like Binky Griptite and Britt Daniel and Tommy Stinson and spooner oldham. it all just kinda happens outta nowhere. I'll be somewhere, meet someone and I find that just getting together and writing a song is a way better and deeper way to get to know someone than like meeting for coffee. or whatever people do to get to know someone these days. I don't know. I love collaboration tho!
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Thanks! That's a pretty great list of collaborators. Looking forward to your next projects!
 
Indymisanthrope said:
Confession: I don't really understand what people have put together here in the new forum with the whole ROTM thing, but it's cool that you guys keep picking artists who are willing to do this.

If there's room for another question, mine would be: What's your approach to putting together album art? Do you want it to communicate something about the music, something about you as a musician, or is it standalone art that just happens to have an album as its medium? Same question(s) re: music videos, too.
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I always want the album art to reflect what the album sounds like. for example, "slow Phaser" was more of a desert disco prog record, so the 3 orbs with the eyeballs in the dusky color pallete, reflected what that sound would look like.
 
NATKINS said:
Gosh, me and Robert Harrison go way back. Cotton Mather was a hero band of mine at an early stage in my writing. I ended up working for the record label they were on right after they left. Turns out the guy that ran the label was a major creep. I met Robert years after that when I name checked his band in the Austin Chronicle. He came to my show. We bonded over our disdain of said creep, and the rest is history. hahaha. we have a wonderful musical friendship.
my biggest collaborators would be him, jim scalvunos, Dave Moose Sherman, and now a lot of new musical friends like Binky Griptite and Britt Daniel and Tommy Stinson and spooner oldham. it all just kinda happens outta nowhere. I'll be somewhere, meet someone and I find that just getting together and writing a song is a way better and deeper way to get to know someone than like meeting for coffee. or whatever people do to get to know someone these days. I don't know. I love collaboration tho!
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NATKINS said:
Me too! The community here is my favorite part of living in Nashville. I love Erin Rae, Phillip Creamer, Pat Sansone, Carl Broehmal, Lilly Hiatt, Thayer Serrano, Justin Collins, Phosperesent, Josh Hedley, Ruby Boots, Eva Lin, Indianola, there are just so many its tough to name them all.
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I had this insane fantasy in which I would hunt down the organ Spooner played on I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Lol. That clearly has not and will never occur.

Lilly Hiatt's most recent album was one I kicked around as a possible pick for this month. I just really dig her style. Everything I Had guts me.

You recorded GNRL in 5 days. Is there any part of the album you would tweak if you had had a few more days?
 
I wonder if that's the wurli Spooner played on my record?
For Rhonda Lee, I wouldn't change a thing on it. I just remember how much fun I had making it and after I approved the masters, I don't think I've listened to it ever again. I'm really happy with it.
Teeeee said:
I had this insane fantasy in which I would hunt down the organ Spooner played on I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You. Lol. That clearly has not and will never occur.

Lilly Hiatt's most recent album was one I kicked around as a possible pick for this month. I just really dig her style. Everything I Had guts me.

You recorded GNRL in 5 days. Is there any part of the album you would tweak if you had had a few more days?
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Kris said:
Hi Nicole, thank you for joining us here.

What song sent you down the path of becoming a songwriter yourself?
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Three songs that stick out to me of times where I was immediately inspired to write after hearing them are: The Rain Song by Led Zeppelin, Last Goodbye from Jeff Buckley, and Guided by Voices "Cut Out Witch." Each of those songs when I was young I remember being immediately inspired to make something whether it was a video treatment for the Rain Song, a poem after hearing Jeff Buckley, and then driving and listening to Cut Out Witch and driving really fast and getting this enormous feeling of excitement like my heart telling my brain that I was a musician.
 
NATKINS said:
after I approved the masters, I don't think I've listened to it ever again.
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I've always wondered how much artists listen to their own stuff. I'm honestly surprised you haven't listened to it since then though, but I guess you also are playing those songs every night so it makes sense. Speaking of playing songs every night, do you ever get sick of the repetition or decide you don't want to play a certain song live anymore?
 
NATKINS said:
I wonder if that's the wurli Spooner played on my record?
For Rhonda Lee, I wouldn't change a thing on it. I just remember how much fun I had making it and after I approved the masters, I don't think I've listened to it ever again. I'm really happy with it.
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Yes, it is a great album! You should be sooooo happy with it. I hesitate to call any active artist's album a masterpiece because it implies there is no way to top it, but it really is (so far) your masterpiece. And it has been really well received here.
 
tonythegamer said:
Hey Nicole very detailed question inbound.

I currently am trying to write a song and I'm having a few issues. I currently have two parts of my song, the intro and chorus in 6/8 and the verse in 4/4. My question is do you have any ideas on how to transition between the two? I figured going from 4/4 to 6/8 I would just add a rest for the music, but going from 6/8 to 4/4 is tricky, because it sounds really weird. I would normally try to split them into separate songs, but they're tin in the same key and I feel like it would sound better if they were together.

Also, whenever you have a song "fragment" how do you typically try to develop it out? Do you develop around making lyrics fit or about the music itself, with the lyrics added later?
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gosh Tony, I dunno. I'm numerically dislexic. it's very frustrating. I just go with whatever I hear in my head and if it sounds good, I record it into my phone and then figure out what the chords are. I'm a big fan of time changes within a song tho. not many people do that anymore. the velvet underground did that a lot and it was exciting. maybe doing something different from what you normally do is gonna open up a whole new can of worms for ya. awesome fun dayglo worms. just go for it and if it sounds good then yay! if it doesn't at least you tried. it's all good and fun.
 
Kris said:
Hi Nicole, thank you for joining us here.

What song sent you down the path of becoming a songwriter yourself?
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I always wanted to write my own songs but I had no idea how to start with lyrics so I played cover song shows and played rhythm guitar and sang in other peoples bands. when I graduated college I asked this club in Asbury Park called the Saint if I could do a gig and he said I could so long as I had original songs. I lied to him and told him I did. I wrote 8 songs in two weeks and then just kept doing it.
 
duke86fan said:
Two questions

How did you feel when a barely known (we had 2 AMAs before but still we aren't the biggest) vinyl forum fell in love with your record and featured it in an unofficial record club?

What album do you feel influenced your sound that no one would expect? A kind of musical interest that would be surprising with the sound of goodnight Rhonda lee
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I thought it was really cool! I used to be a part of a vinyl listening club back when I lived in Brooklyn. so I'm honored that my album ended up here. you people are my people. hahah

one band that is a constant inspiration that people may find surprising is the Beta Band from Scotland. They have a playfulness and immediacy with their sounds and melodies and also use a lot of monotone melodies that I find very soothing in the same way I find krautrock really soothing.
 
NATKINS said:
one band that is a constant inspiration that people may find surprising is the Beta Band from Scotland. They have a playfulness and immediacy with their sounds and melodies and also use a lot of monotone melodies that I find very soothing in the same way I find krautrock really soothing.
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oh awesome

the beta band were really good... i'm thinking about picking up the 3 EPs in a little while
 
Jonathan Y said:
First off thanks for joining us here on the forum!!
Goodnight Rhonda Lee, is such an intimate retelling of various factors/moments, that seemed to shape your direction/future as they happened. I believe every one of us has 'LISTEN UP' type moments, and what we do with them is the true test of life. So thank you for sharing your story!

Based on your release pattern is it safe to assume you will be coming with another masterpiece in 2020?
I'm curious as to what the new direction will be. Will the next project be a totally new sound with new ideas, a continuation of this sound and personal storytelling style with a new concept, or is that something we will just have to wait and find out?
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Thanks so much!
My new album is coming out in 2020! I can't share much yet but I'll let you know that my husband says of all my records, it sounds the most like my personality. absolutely bonkers but really colorful and fun. It's muppet soul with a side of Fonzi. I can't wait till you guys hear it. It's a big time headphones record.
 
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