INTERVIEW: Nina Nesbitt talks 'Life's a Bitch' and her upcoming third album: "It's a cliche, but you need the bad times to appreciate the good ones. This is just a little journey that we're all on"
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Image: Wolf James
Scotland’s Nina Nesbitt released her first music in 2012 and has steadily evolved to be one of her country’s most successful musical exports. Initially releasing indie leaning pop with shades of folk and guitar rock, her 2016 EP Modern Love saw her change her sound into glistening, electronic based pop.
By the time her second album The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change was released in 2019, Nesbitt had climbed into the top 500 most streamed artists in the world on Spotify and was name-checked by Taylor Swift when she accepted her Billboard Woman of the Decade award.
This year she has taken her sound further down the pop route adding a delicious 1980s throwback feel to her music, with July’s ‘Summer Fling’ carrying a laid back, summery ABBA-esque soundscape and in September she released ‘Life’s a Bitch (L.A.B.)’. With shimmering synths as its foundation, an insistent beat and vocals which swing from robotic to impassioned, like any great 1980s track it has a heart of melancholy running through its joyful melodies. “‘Life’s A Bitch’ is an ‘80s inspired, post-2020, driving-your-car-through-a tunnel-at-night song. A ‘dancing while crying, and smiling through the tears’ moment,” Nesbitt says. “It’s about the unpredictability of life, the ups and downs, being your own worst enemy and your own best friend. The chorus is an empowering mantra for powering through the turbulence of life.”
Nesbitt is the type of artist whose growth as an artist is apparent with every release. Constantly evolving her sound as well as her craft (she taught herself to produce her own work several years ago), she is a joy to listen to and her upcoming third album promises to be a highlight. We recently caught up with Nina to chat more about ‘Life’s a Bitch’ and her career to date.
Nina, you glorious creature of sound and vision it is such a delight to talk with you. How are you keeping?
I'm good. I'm missing the sun of Australia, that's for sure.
That's a perfect song title for you, it will fit very nicely on the new album. Let's talk about 'Life's A Bitch', which is a gloriously 80s inspired soundtrack of just crying and dancing and smiling. Can you talk me through the creation of this incredible creature?
Thank you. So 'Life's A Bitch' was written during lockdown…we've had a lot of lockdowns here in the UK. And I was just bummed out, like I'm missing life. I was having a bit of a bad time and then I was like, it's a cliche, but you need the bad times to appreciate the good ones. This is all just a little journey that we're all on. It's a song about everything's falling apart around me but it's okay, I'm just going to ride through it. I wrote it with my favourite Swedish production duo Jack & Coke, we wrote over Zoom, obviously, because I haven't been able to go there. That was a new experience writing over Zoom, but it was a very quick song to write, it just kind of came out. You can kind of hear in the verses, it's just a stream of consciousness. We didn't really like tweak it too much, they sent me an instrumental and then I wrote the melody and lyrics and we were like, ‘okay, that's it, done.’
It's really fun. And what I love as well is 80s pop instantly has us collectively thinking about privilege and yachts and stilettos and carefree late nights that only ever really end in romance, possibly under a waterfall. Never in regret. You've done this gorgeous, beautiful melody but you've teamed it with lyrics that have moments of ‘Oh shit…’ Was that always the idea to have that beautiful juxtaposition?
Yeah, I think so. I wanted it to sound like driving, moving if that makes sense. I wanted to sound like things were keeping going even though the lyrics are quite dark. I feel like that was to represent just trying to get through life. I've got enough sad ballads so I wanted to get a bit of a dance vibe in it, I wanted something that people could cry dance to or smile through the tears to that was still positive. Everyone's had a bit of a tough time and they don't need a sad depressing ballad from me so I wanted to make it a dance floor anthem.
Beautiful and there's nothing like crying on a dance floor, it shits all over crying in the shower! It's euphoric. ‘Life’s a Bitch (L.A.B.) follows the equally cinematic 'Summer Fling' which was such a delicious shift, to hear that song coming from you and I loved hearing your beautiful vocals paired with such a tune. You were even more than usual heavily involved with the creation of some 'Summer Fling' and produced it by yourself. Can you talk me through a little bit about your desire and and possibly even reservations about doing that entirely yourself?
I've been learning production for quite a while but I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with such great producers that it kind of puts me off because unless it's on that level I don't even want to try it. I'd never want the quality to suffer just because I was doing it myself you know what I mean? It’s something that I've put off and then during lockdown because I had so much time and I was making a lot of songs for TikTok, just funny short jingles for a laugh basically and they did really well and it inspired me to learn my production a bit more and I wanted to be able to do that for the first song. I did the same for the last album The Sun Will Come Up… the first song we released 'Moments Are Missing' I produced that as well. It's just a nice way to start a campaign. It was like a little ‘hello, I'm coming back. I made this in my mum's cats room!’ It had a nice story to it and it sounded good. I did have a few producers try it and I was like, it shouldn't be a polished pop song it's more just a vibey, sitting on the beach chill pop song. It was fun.
It was gorgeous. I also read that one of the main drivers you wanting to do it was to set an example for young girls out there to get them mixing and sampling and recording themselves, as it's still very much a boys club in the industry particularly behind the scenes with songwriting and producing.
Definitely. It’s getting better because there's so much encouragement for female producers and engineers at the moment, it's definitely being talked about a lot. I've always been mainly working with male producers who are all amazing, but I haven't had that role model of a female producer until the past few years. I actually worked with an Australian girl called Kito who I love and she's absolutely smashing it now she's in LA and producing. It's just pushed me to do my own thing and hopefully encourage other people. A lot of younger artists who are in lockdown were like ‘oh, what's what's your vocal setup?’ Or ‘how do you use Logic?’ Because obviously they couldn't go to the studio in lockdown, it's so easy once you get your head around it and it just gives you more control as well over your music.
So the song that you've created in your mind you can actually get it out into the ears of everybody else.
Yeah, and I also think the music industry is very up and down. When I got dropped from a major label, I didn't have any money to pay for productions for a while, so that's when I learned production. I didn’t want that to stop me putting music out so I'll just learn how to do it myself. It's a good skill to have because you never know.
All your videos have this wonderful cinematic quality to it also clean the dance floor. 'Summer Fling' is a nod to your childhood as a gymnast and it is so beautiful to watch. You started out as a physical performer, when you're recording or writing now do you always have movement attached to it, in a visual sense?
Not at all, because I literally cannot dance, I can't dance to save myself! I can do a bit of gymnastic stuff because I used to be good at it when I was younger, but I had to train really hard for that video with the aerial hoop. I did like eight weeks intensive training. And that was more like a ‘I want to learn a new skill’ type of thing. It definitely does not start there, that's for sure but it's definitely something I'm thinking about more in terms of how we move to music, because it's not something I've ever considered. Probably because I'm not a mover. I'm not a dancer. I don't dance on stage or anything but it's definitely something I'd like to explore. I would love to be able to do the aerial hoop at my live shows. I just need the venues. I’d love it, that'd be great!
Oh, you definitely pull it off in all your videos. You move, you dance very cool! Now you have been singing, writing, performing, releasing incredibly diverse sounds, and pairing them with these beautiful visuals since you were 15. Can you hear your growth, your confidence as an artist as a writer, producer, listening back to those earlier releases when you play those songs now? Can you hear it in your voice?
Definitely. I was very shy when I started. I started a YouTube channel at 15 because I didn't know if I could sing and I wanted to get like an outsider's opinion. Which is kind of silly. I've definitely grown in confidence and especially with music videos, in front of a camera I used to be really camera shy. I've definitely become better at that expressing my movement, and vocals as well. It's something that I've had to work. Songwriting has always come naturally and sitting in a room by myself writing songs, but the rest of it has definitely been a growth process.
Beautiful. And can you hear that in your voice when you sing, and you reading it in your lyrics now? I mean, it must be amazing to have a catalogue to look back on, particularly as you started when you were 15.
Yeah, it is mad. I look back at my songs at 15 and I do write completely differently. But there's something quite magical about when an artist starts before they know too much. The songs just come really easily. I used to write a song every day, whereas now when I write a song, I'll be like, ‘oh, but it's not as good as the one that had this many streams’. I'll question everything. I do miss that..not ignorance, but just naivety of when I first started.
It must be really hard to get out of your head and I guess take the fear out of things. It must be a very fine line to walk of wanting a song to do well, but at the same time running at it with complete integrity. There's always that little demon going ‘but what if, but what if’.
Yeah, because I've written so many songs now I rarely finish a song these days, because I feel like the standards in my head…I'm a bit of a perfectionist. And if the song doesn't immediately meet the standard that I want it to meet, I'm not going to finish it. I get halfway through any song now and just be like, ‘no, it's not good enough, start again’. And then there's all these half finished song! When you do get one finished, it's usually a good one and I'm excited about it. It's just a different way of writing I guess but it can be annoying because I should just write the song anyway. It's harder as you get older.
You said that 'Life's A Bitch' came I mean came together quite quickly was that one of those ones that got you excited? You just went ‘this is it’?
Yeah, I just think you shouldn't have to force it. I love a song that just comes out and every song on the new album that's coming next year they just came out just naturally, kind of wrote themselves. I need to just try and chase that more than sitting down and like overanalysing things.
You are a great advocate for communication. You’ve got this wonderful tongue in cheek way of looking at some very sometimes dark things you're going through or things the world's going through, and it shines so beautifully through your music. Has music and songwriting always been a catharsis and has it helped you develop in your personal life?
Yes, it's so helpful for processing things because I'm not one of those people that talk about how I feel very easily. I like to just keep things inside. Writing songs is definitely the way that I process things and get things out. But I do feel that when I'm going through something, I can't write about it till after. I don't know why, I think it's just you need to process it a bit before you write about it. But it's definitely very helpful. I like to document everything because you can look back and be like, ‘Oh, I felt like that, that's so mad because now I feel like this’. That was definitely a big thing for the last album, The Sun Will Come Up… because that was a whole journey of being a bit lost, being depressed. The whole journey to finding yourself and coming out the other end was to remind people whatever you're going through, is temporary. Songwriting is like a diary. It’s like looking back at your diary.
You mentioned the album’s on the way and obviously we've got these beautiful nostalgic cinematic fantasy elements already with the singles released - is that the kind of feeling we're heading towards, or is it all just going to be a surprise and you can't say anything?
Well, it's all a surprise! There's definitely a theme to the album but I haven't really announced it yet. But there's definitely little clues that have been dropped in the videos. So keep looking out for the clues is what I would say…!
Beautiful and lastly Nina what is coming up for you? How's the rest of the year looking for you?
I’m finishing the album this year. I'm promoting 'Life's A Bitch', I have another two singles coming before Christmas. And then next year, I'll be hopefully touring.
Amazing. Well hopefully borders will be open and we'll be able to see you.
I really, really want to come back. I’ll hopefully see you all soon.
‘Life’s a Bitch (L.A.B.)’ is out now via Cooking Vinyl Australia/Sony Music Australia. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Nina Nesbitt you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
