Jodie Nicholson

As she kicks off her north east headline tour, Jodie Nicholson discusses the music scene in her hometown of Darlington, how she’s evolving as an artist and what she’s wanting to do more of in the future.

When did you begin pursuing music as a career?

I think I made the decision at the beginning of 2019, to kind of see what it would be like if I put all my efforts towards music without anything else really taking my focus. Before that I’d done a design degree with music on the side, doing open mic nights, playing pubs since I was about 15 or 16 - the real grassroots circuit. I had a bunch of songs, and although I didn’t know if music was what I wanted to do full-time I decided to put all the songs I had so far into an album, Golden Hour, which came out in September 2019. I was really surprised by the response to it - it took me on this kind of wild journey, and I’ve been doing music ever since?

How did you navigate the Covid period as a new musician just launching their career? Did it stall things at all?

It did and it didn’t. It provided a lot of challenges we had to adapt to - I say “we” as I’d recently joined with management. For a lot of people the pandemic really put things on pause, but for me it turned out to be near enough my busiest time. We’d put in some funding applications around January/February time, and in May we found both we’d applied for had been successful! They were the Help Musicians’ Do It Differently fund, which helped with my single Move later that year, and PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music, which helped bring my EP out last year. It really was the busiest time, and one project led onto another, and it was really amazing having that support, being able to work with incredible people and bring those things together. In March 2020 I started a Kickstarter to bring my album out on vinyl, and that completely surpassed my expectations, went completely past being fully funded. But obviously you had to find ways to keep connecting with people out there, so I did some livestreams, like just going on Facebook and Instagram and playing music from my bedroom for an hour.

You’re based up in Darlington - have you found it a challenge being far away from the UK’s largest music scenes or has it helped?

It is a kind of preconception that there maybe isn’t a lot going on in the north east, but there’s actually a thriving music scene that’s incredibly supportive, there’s some really amazing organisations that are there to sort of give you a leg up or give advice on anything, and I think especially as I’ve been trying to find my feet they’ve been really key players and have provided opportunities for me to grow as a musician and a songwriter, and collaborate with other people. I think though where I’m at with my career now I’m beginning to notice that there are boundaries to being based where I am - travel becomes really frustrating, especially having a keyboard that is such a diva, you can’t take it on a train so have to drive! I think I’m starting to seek opportunities that will push me further afield, and I’ve spoken on panels before about how to make it more accessible, more inclusive. There are so many incredible artists coming out of our scene, and we’re so ready, we’re so eager to get to that next level, and the opportunities just aren’t that accessible as they might be for someone who doesn’t have a five-hour commute to London!

Do you see yourself staying in the north east?

A hundred percent. I have a lot of connections and friends here, and I’ve never really considered moving somewhere else to pursue this as a career, because I think with the pandemic I’ve realised that there’s so much you don’t need to travel for, to be able to make things work.

Has the path you’ve taken as an artist been what you imagined when you started out?

I never anticipated this is where I’d be when I made that decision back in 2019. To put it into perspective, when I released that album I thought “Right, that’s it, I’ll go and get a design job now!”, and that would be like that chapter of my life done. So everything that’s happened since then just feels a bit wild, and I just take every day as it comes! Things like touring the UK as a headline artist and people wanting to come and see me play, it’s really amazing. Even outside of that, like getting to speak at panels, my eyes have really been opened to what you can do as a musician, it’s not just writing and releasing music, there are plenty of opportunities to help other people, which is something I want to do more of. In terms of my writing, it’s definitely changed. I think my understanding of production has changed a lot, in terms of like my skillset. Listening to the demos I’m making now, then comparing them to just a few years ago, they’re miles apart in my eyes. The music I’m creating now is where I’ve always wanted to be, I’ve just never had the skills and the knowledge to get there in the past. It’s one of those things I think is completely evolving, and is influenced by what’s going on in your life, who you’re surrounded by, who you’re listening to. I think I’m more and more understanding who I am as a writer and what I want to say in my music. That sounds like kind of a pretentious thing to say and I feel like every artist says it, but it’s so true.

What are you listening to at the moment?

I’m listening to a lot of King Hannah, Wet Leg, and Warpaint released a new album and I’m obsessed with them.

You’re going on tour in the north east in December. How many shows are you playing?

Five, nice little run. They’re going to be a really nice set of shows as they’re going to be very stripped-back. The purpose of it really is to get out there and play as I haven’t really played a headline in a while, and also play a couple of new songs. One of them, The Forum, is my hometown, and I haven’t played there since the album launch. My band are joining me for the vast majority of the shows, there’s only one I’m doing solo. They’re all going to be very intimate shows, a nice way to round the year off.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m doing some writing for a project that probably isn’t going to see the light of day until later next year, but the really lovely thing about it is that a while ago I launched a Patreon, and I’ve been sharing the process of it on there, the demos and bits and pieces, and that’s been a good platform to share stuff with people who really want to support what I do. I’ve also been dropping in on some writing sessions with other musicians, which is a lot of fun, a great way to learn more about yourself as a writer.

Words: Scott Bates

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Buy tickets for Jodie’s tour at her website