Nadia journeys to dark places for album
Folk singer Nadia Reid has done a lot in two years – put out two albums, spent a year being sober, fallen in and out of love, and gone on a journey of self-discovery.
Add to that the fact that the Dunedin-based singer and songwriter was just 15 when she picked up a guitar, taught herself to play, and then learned to write songs and play them, and you have one impressive millennial.
Speaking with a maturity and self-assuredness that belies her 25 years, Reid’s second album, Preservation, released this month, reflects where she is right now. ‘‘Preservation is about the point I started to love myself again. It is about strength, observation and sobriety,’’ she reflects. ‘‘It’s about when I could see the future again, when the world was good again. When music was realised as my longest standing comfort.’’
Part of a new crop of folk musicians coming out of Australasia, Reid would be right at home in Nashville, strumming her acoustic guitar with her roundrimmed glasses and long, straight hair. When she toured the UK and Europe, her music was likened to the English folk singer, Laura Marling and, even more flatteringly, Canada’s Joni Mitchell and America’s Stevie Nicks.
In a four-star review of her latest album, The Guardian described her as a blossoming talent. The Times said her analytical, confessional songs are lovely.
In the short time since she released her debut album in 2015, Reid has travelled 10,000 kilometres to promote her music and gone from being self-managed to hiring a manager. Touring in February with her producer, Ben Edwards, and long-term guitarist Sam Taylor, they played 28 concerts in a whirlwind trip. ‘‘The most beautiful thing to me was that those songs have become so meaningful to people and I don’t know how and that’s amazing.’’
Preservation was about ‘‘universal stuff’’. Yes, the relationship she had, and its ending, inspired much of the 10 songs, helping her heal from it. ‘‘When you go through a break-up and you have to deal with yourself and see the worst of yourself, that’s confronting. I feel lucky that I can turn that into music.
‘‘I was processing it and writing about it and it’s just a bonus that people want to listen to it.’’
Making the latest album in Lyttelton, there were moments when the magic happened. One of those was the title track, Preservation, when they recorded the first take of it. Beautiful to listen to, Reid sings of staying in a relationship too long.
She says: ‘‘It was the most meaningful to me. It comes from a really truthful place.
‘‘I remember recording the track, it was about 11pm at night, and I felt almost transcendental, as if I was out of my body, singing these words to myself.’’
It was while recording the album and during the touring that she stopped drinking alcohol. Not that Reid had a drinking problem. She didn’t want to lean on alcohol to de-stress, and sought to dig deep and become truly authentic.
‘‘I just decided to sit with all my bulls ..... And it was just me deciding to be the healthiest I could be.’’
For a long time she envied her happy friends, until she realised that the dark depths she can plunge to help her write. ‘‘I’m learning to live with the fact I’m a person who operates differently to others. I’m richer for the fact I am a musician. Without this way of being, I couldn’t write songs,’’ she reflects. ‘‘I began to look at this as a blessing rather than a curse. I wanted to go into places of realness and vulnerability. Things can be dark but they’re real.’’
Reid points to the folk music festivals her solo mother – jazz singer Karin Reid – dragged her to as a child as the genesis of where she is today. Teaching herself to play the guitar and to write songs, the teen was rarely without her instrument. ‘‘It was an outlet, especially when I was going through those teen years, which were so hard. I have a 17-year-old sister. I wouldn’t want to go through it again.’’
And while her album is selfreflective, Reid says the music is also joyous. As she packs up her guitar and heads on the road, she says: ‘‘I love the time when I’m with myself and I can hide away writing in Dunedin, and then I love performing, and seeing the audience respond to my music.’’
Nadia Reid starts her Preservation tour tomorrow in Dunedin, playing in Christchurch on Saturday, and Wellington on April 6 and 7. nadiareid.com.