Sheila Elizabeth Nicholls grew up in Colchester, Essex UK. Her mother was instrumental in getting her started in music. She took private lessons in addition to taking up GCSE courses for musical theory. Sheila started writing songs introspectively to ground herself rather than to become an "entertainer." One of the things that stood out during her time in England was streaking at an England vs. Australia cricket match on live TV in May 1989. She did naked cartwheels during the said event, which to this day is still regarded as one of the top streaking moments in history.

Against her family's wishes, she moved to the US to pursue a career in music. Later in 1989, she moved to New York City then started a band she called Sheila Nicholls And The Splendid Frock. They started playing gigs and eventually made a demo recording. The demo reached producer John Boylan who provided a studio for Sheila to record her debut album. She then moved to Los Angeles to start her own imprint label, Essex Girl Records, and to record Brief Strop. Brief Strop is Sheila's debut album that was released in November 1999 under Essex Girl Records and was distributed by Hollywood Records. The record hit top-ten in US college charts and the song Fallen for You was featured in the film and on the soundtrack of the 2000 movie High Fidelity. Sheila laid the groundwork for the record and toured extensively in support of the album, gathering plenty of fans along the way.

A follow-up record was inevitable. Sheila released Wake in May 2002 under the same labels. While Brief Strop was a record that was personal and raw, Wake revelled in its shiny and poppy arrangements, thanks in part to legendary producer Glen Ballard. It was the label, Hollywood Records, that suggested Sheila go on a more “radio-friendly” route with Wake. Faith, a song co-written with Ballard, received ample radio play and reached the US Billboard Top-40 pop charts. More tours ensued, this time in support of the second album. Sheila got to play on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and open for k.d. lang's tour in Europe. Wake's recording process turned out to be a very interesting experience for Sheila. It paved the way for her to learn Pro Tools and eventually became a producer herself.

In the years after Wake was released Sheila built her own studio, improved her skills from being a piano singer–songwriter to midi–software extraordinaire, got married and now has a daughter named Milly. It was her newly-gathered skills as both a producer and midi–software whiz that catalyzed Sheila's reinvention of herself. In August 2009, after several years in hiatus, Sheila released the mostly-self-produced record Songs From The Bardo. Songs From The Bardo was dubbed as a "collection of tunes focused around making the personal infinite and the infinite personal."

It's time to give a round of applause to our June 2010 Flower-Powered Artist, Sheila Nicholls. She and her band of talented musicians Jessica Catron (cello, background vocals), Jessica Basta (background vocals), and Toby Semain (drums, percussion, guitar) joined us at ReadyMix Music studio for an exclusive KGRL live performance shot in high-definition video and audio. Check out our CD review of Songs From The Bardo and enjoy wonderful shots of the band courtesy of our good friend Jeff Koga. There's also a comprehensive interview with Sheila in video, audio, & transcribed form.

Don't forget that you can request a FREE copy of the FPA live session DVDs!

The record begins with a song that sounds like it belongs at the end of the album due to its emotional weight and gloomy sound. Where None Are Afraid feels like a bold statement, or perhaps a warning, intentionally designed to pave the way towards the exact musical direction that Sheila wants her listeners to experience. The musical style builds on the foundation she established in Brief Strop, only much tighter-sounding and expertly produced. Oh and it would be a crime not to mention the superbly played cello by Jessica Catron.

Continuing the emotional gravity laid out by the previous track, Pinking Up revels in its obscure musical impeccability and sublimely infused trip-hop beats. It belongs in a specific class of odd-sounding songs that never fails to impress me personally. Plus, it's a huge treat to hear more of the amazing cello – can't get enough of that! Pinking Up was written towards the end of the Bush administration and talks about the songwriter's revulsion and contempt towards the government's war on terrorism.

Bardo brings in a change of pace with its upbeat tempo and joyful melody. It has the same characteristic spit-shiny production and poppy arrangement as found in the album Wake. It's the good kind of pop. Bardo is an excellent track that deserves all the attention it's sure to get.

Old Friend is deceptively upbeat with its charming drumbeats. It's so easy to get lost in the trippy, hazy and swirly melody that this track offers. It does sound less trippy in the stripped-down version as can be heard in the FPA Live Session below, where the melancholic overtones of the song are magnified.

Full-on trip-hop vibes rock the house with the track Natural Law. It's both seductive and addictive. I'm quite in love with this side of Sheila Nicholls. Also gotta love that funky electric guitar and turntable! Oh yes, turntable! I never thought I'd appreciate a turntable but there it is. When properly used, it adds to the allure of a song, as it does in this track.

Pointless Tackles Vision recalls the style of Zero 7. This is one of the tracks that was fully self-produced by Sheila. The quality of the production shows. Go Pro Tools and software effects! Go Sheila!

It's time for some acoustic guitar goodness with Mighty Love. I have such mighty love for this song. It's one of the tracks I instantly fell in love with. The bassline, the acoustic guitar, and the melody are all killers. I can still remember the day I played this track during one of those New Music Morning (NMM™) events we do here at KGRL and how it received several hearts from the flowerites who were present.

I groove to the max as the crashing waves of Celery Bay roll in. I'd classify this track as lo-fi trip-hop. I could play this song on Repeat all day long and not get tired of it. It's just that good. And oh yeah, more turntables! Awesomeness I tell ya.

A little bit of jazz is on display in City Between. It's a classy track that once again features the almighty cello. I'm a sucker for the cello. I admit that I wasn't that drawn to this track at first but it grew on me. I had a slow-burn love affair with this track.

If there's jazz then there should be rock. Bed injects the rock-tinged flavor the album needed. I love the vocal work of Miss Nicholls in this track. The full-band arrangement is sublime. By this time I've come to accept that Songs From The Bardo just might be a no-filler album. I'm not too far from finding out, just two tracks left.

In the vein of Where None Are Afraid and Pinking Up comes another intensely emotional track, Lay Low. The combination of Sheila Nicholls and Jessica Catron is truly unbelievable. The two are musical goddesses. Lay Low is nothing short of breathtaking. This track alone justifies the inclusion of Songs From The Bardo in our Best Albums of 2009 list. Bravo! If you're like me and can't get enough of this track, it's your lucky day as they did an amazing performance of this track in their FPA Live Session performance. Yay!

The final track is no slouch either. Simplify sounds very much like a Zero 7 track (Simple Things and When It Falls era mind you). It's a lo-fi delight that will leave you wanting more. Ain't that a perfect way to end an amazing musical journey?

I'm having a problem summing up the album, as it abounds with excellence. To wrap up Songs From The Bardo in a little conclusion won't do it justice, so I'll just leave you with my highest recommendation for this record. If you need more convincing, just re-read the review and think about why you still don't own Sheila Nicholls' Songs From The Bardo.

Pinking Up

Bardo

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Listen to Sheila's responses in High Quality MP3 Stream using the player below:




Transcription excerpt from the interview:

KGRL: You talked about your folk-influenced songwriting process. When you go into the studio for production, who do you think influences you when you start adding the trip-hop and electronic vibes to your songs?

Sheila: I’ve just sort of been all over the place. When I was living in New York I was really into Tribal Quest and Dayla’s Sole. On the West Coast through the ‘90s there was a lot of bumping hip-hop. When I am in the studio, I will find myself going towards some of those influences [which] I am still surprised [are] part of my own influence, but it essentially is.

When I am in the studio, I work with a couple of people. Jez Colin is a really great producer and I really like working with him. We’ll take what’s written on the piano and just distill it down to the core and start from there and try [to] find an interesting loop that will go behind it, that will carry it and start to influence it and pull it along. As it does, very often it will just draw it out and change the timing of it a little bit and I’ll start to sing it differently. That’s something I really enjoy because when I’m just singing and not tied to the piano, the song will change. I have confidence in my voice in that process where I think my dance moves kind of come in and influence it a bit. It can stretch out and change the song in that respect. I really enjoy certain instruments.

I usually have a cello in it, but I have this really amazing DJ I have been working with recently called Chris, who is incredibly melodic and comes up with these really beautiful samples that give the song a whole other flavour. Simplify on the new record is a good example of that. He comes up with fifteen- [to] twenty-second samples that fit with the chord changes. He’s just brilliant like that.

Andres De Santana who I play with, is an amazing bass player, Brazilian [and] funky. It’s exciting to me to have the funk present in what I’m doing, even though it’s somewhat grounded in Essex.


KGRL: From where do you usually draw inspiration for writing music?

Sheila: You know...it’s difficult to know where it’s going to come from. During the Bush administration, I was just pissed. I was so over it. I was just so over the stagnancy of our thought process as a species, and that was really inspiring to me, and I was writing a lot of songs that had that in mind. More recently, I have had my bell hooks turnaround. If you know anything about bell hooks, you know she is a radical black feminist intellectual who at some point, came away from the anger and moved into a more #{unintelligible}.

I have a child now and it moves [one] away from being in reaction because it’s just not really healthy, so I have been really looking at that more. Without trying to sound soppy or redundant, I am really just contemplating and meditating on love being really radical and something that, if we don’t get behind and study, who knows if we’re going to survive. [I] am trying to employ that in my life more, so that’s become really inspirational to me more recently. I have been reading some really good books. I really like #Daniel Pinch Back right now. I like otherworldly experiences when I can get them. Those things are always very influential when I return to my life.

It can be anything. It can be a conversation I have with somebody. It can be an experience that I have, but it’s always got some kind of kernel of meaning. It can just be a really gravelly emotional state that won’t go away that needs to be exorcised, which is traditionally where a lot of my stuff comes from.


KGRL: From writing to recording to the eventual release, it took more than five years to finish Songs From The Bardo. What was the hardest part of creating this album?

Sheila: I had this record deal for a while and when I came out of that I just felt like I couldn’t write, because I felt like I had been really muddled with energetically. It took me awhile to find that place that I felt I had lost [of] sitting in the music school, being really private. That to me is really necessary to feel like I am grounded in writing something of substance or that I like. So, I sort of took a little time off.

Also, I think during that period of time, I [didn’t] really like the culture of being a pop star, to be quite honest. I just didn’t care for it. I really didn’t like all the attention. It made me somewhat anxious to some extent, or the aesthetic of it [did]. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy being a songwriter and I really enjoy playing my songs for people that want to hear them. I think the hype was— I just sort of dropped out.

When you live in Los Angeles, everything is on TV and everything is hyped. I don’t really care about this or want this. I just took time and re-grounded myself and had a baby girl and have been really enjoying that. It’s fantastic having a uterus. Having a baby has been amazing. Then I realized I can’t really stop because it’s all I know and it’s what I love doing, and so I kind of got back into it.

Some of the songs we recorded awhile ago, and some are way more recent. There was a slowdown for me and then a picking back up, and [looking] at what I had. There were a lot more songs that didn’t make it to the record.

Also during that time...especially when I was pregnant, I also focused on...being self-contained. Instead of just being a writer and a performer, I started to really get into learning the software, which was a tough one because I didn’t know that much about what I was doing before that. But now, I can do a lot more preproduction on Pro Tools. That gives me a lot more independence creatively...in the sense that I can define...where I’m going, and I don’t have to go through a prison. It also saves a lot of money, which is great. It also keeps the [ability] to write and be creative in a private space, so I can expand that to other layers. Being a keyboard player, it’s really fun to play around with MIDI. That’s basically what I was doing during that time. I’m really fine with the amount of time it took, but now I’m on a bit of a writing streak. I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently and having a good time with that.


KGRL: What are your thoughts about major record labels?

Sheila: Well, I’ll tell you. That’s an exciting question. That’s the best question you’ve asked so far.

There are some things that don’t mix very well with capitalism. Art is one of them. Health care is another. Capitalism has become so incredibly greedy that there is nothing that is sacred. And art is sacred. And people’s health is sacred. And...education is a right. These are just basic human rights and pleasures that nobody, on many levels spiritually, should have to pay for.

Historically, music [and] bards are there, and then they’re not. They serve a purpose in the culture to allow people to see things from another perspective. When you conjoin that with a need to make money and you prioritize that, you change the nature of the artist in the sense that you change the nature of the way that the artist approaches their art. You change the nature of the writ[ing].

Writers have became very formulaic because they want to make a buck. Of course they do. They want to live. They want to feed their kids. Now we’re living in a world where a lot of the music we listen to is similar. It’s very similar. People use similar chord progressions. People are too afraid to move away from something because it doesn’t sound like whatever. In some respects I think the music industry has marginalized itself. This was inevitable because you can’t hold in expression.

As a musician, I am absolutely fine with anybody taking my stuff and copying it. Obviously I need to eat and feed my kid too, but I really don’t care if people want to copy my stuff for free. I’m cool with that. Bhuddists would say the Amish should be free. Music should be free. It’s a pleasure. I get pleasure out of somebody getting pleasure out of my songs. At the root of it that’s where it’s at, because music is about enjoying life.

I guess that was the best question you’ve asked, I think. The music industry is something that is now more in the hands of the artists, and this is a really good thing because it’s going to allow the art itself to actually evolve, for the first time possibly in a really long time. That’s really exciting to me.





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