Nicole Atkins is a 27 year-old singer from New Jersey blessed with a voice so vulnerable and graceful that it defies description. Her music has earned comparisons to Rufus Wainwright and Peggy Lee. She"s a crooner with enough laid back, bar-band atmosphere, and sultry pizazz, that she garnered a spot in Rolling Stone"s "10 Artists To Watch” list last year.

She has a new record Neptune City out at the end of the month that"s earning her the praise and attention she finally deserves. She doesn't just write music about dreams inasmuch as the process of dreaming. A process she describes both metaphorically and sarcastically as "an endless sheet of mist in the middle of a Swedish field. The result was a darkly psychedelic little orchestral record." Atkins isn't merely content to write music so much as paint it.

That is Nicole Atkins in a nutshell. Here"s our attempt to get to know the rest of her.

Q: How would you describe the sound of the new record Neptune City, apart from your previous work?

Atkins: Well, for Neptune City, I actually had a budget, so instead of getting string sounds off of a mini Casio from the 80s, we had real bona fide instruments. It was also great to be able to work out all the songs and record them live with a big band everyday in a studio, instead of tracking layers in my folks living room bar with my grandfather constantly walking in.

Q: If this record were a movie, which one would it most be like?

Atkins: Pan’s Labyrinth meets Blue Velvet meets Poltergeist ending in Beach Blanket Bingo.

Q: You listed hangovers as a musical influence. How is that so?

Atkins: When you are very hung-over you lie in bed alone for a long time, so all that surrounds you are these lucid thoughts. It’s easier to hang on to them because at that time, they’re all that you got.

Q: Your musical influences are very diverse as Led Zeppelin and Patsy Cline. It seems you could have opted to sing many different styles and moods of music to sing. Did you choose this type of music or did it choose you?

Atkins: I guess it chose me. I listen to all types of music, so why should my sound only reflect one? I like to put all my influences encapsulated in a single song.

Q: Does your training in art and illustration influence your song writing in any manner?

Atkins: The layering of sound is a lot like painting. It starts out as something so simple and singular and ugly, but then when you work at it longer, turns into an entire world.

Q: What was the worst experience you’ve had from your early career?

Atkins: Which one? There are many. Off the top of my head it would be living in the rat-infested wood shop warehouse in Charlotte, NC. It was a way of living dirt cheap while I tried to get away from the city for a while and write my record. It was liberating, yet totally terrifying and gross.

Q: At SXSW festival in Austin this year you did a cover of Leadbelly’s Where did you sleep last night? with a different band. What led to that?

Atkins: My band’s flight got canceled so that morning I was asked if I wanted to do the gig solo or cancel. It was a big “band” show so I was going to cancel rather than do it solo. That morning I was having breakfast with my friend's band, The Parlor Mob, and they were like “dude we know a bunch of your songs” so we did the show. It was ramshackle but it worked out well. Most of all it was fun.

Q: You are touring with Chris Isaak. What have you learned from him?

Atkins: I learned to always smile on TV or else I’ll look dumb. Haha! Also, he taught me how to make a man-made mouse trap out of a bucket of water, a ruler, rubber band, 5 pound weight and some peanut butter. It worked really well.

Q: Which song or songs have you wished you had written?

Atkins: Ave Maria, 7 and 7 Is from Love, Unchained Melody, Cherry Cherry from Neil Diamond, Pissing in a River from Patti Smith.

Q: If you were to recommend a great record to anyone younger than you, which would it be?

Atkins: Tonights the Night from Neil young, da capo from Love, The Damned, Meddle from Pink Floyd, and Tomorrow the Greengrass from The Jayhawks.

To learn more about Nicole's latest album, tour, etc. visit her MySpace site.

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Laura in NJ   |2007-10-26 13:28:24 what the heck are "spacing errors" that are blocking my comment from being submitted? [smiley=sad] Reply 0   0

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