Nina Nesbitt had hardly spent any time in the United States before her face got plastered on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard. After being asked to work on Spotify’s first-ever single program, “Louder Together,” Nesbitt spent six hours in a room with fellow songstresses Sasha Sloan and Charlotte Lawrence penning the ideal power-pop anthem. And thus “Psychopath” was born.
“I just got an email from Spotify one day asking if I wanted to be part of it and of course I was keen,” Nesbitt tells Vanyaland. “I loved how it was the first ever collab to be released and was a big fan of Sasha and Charlotte after listening. We had about six hours to meet, write a song and be happy with it which was kinda nerve wracking but we were all really happy with how it came out. We wanted to make sure it was a song we’d actually like to release and not feel forced. Sasha is such a lyrical genius and Charlotte has a really cool style of writing so we all brought our own thing to the table.”
The single presents just the tip of 2018 for Nesbitt, however; after wrapping up a North American tour with Jake Bugg, the Scottish singer has pushed off into her own headline tour in preparation for her forthcoming debut album, rolling into Great Scott on April 30.
The record, the vast majority of which Nesbitt produced herself, is neither a concept album not a hodgepodge of tracks, but rather what Nesbitt calls “a proper journey and body of work start to finish.”
“I don’t produce it all; I love collaborating with producers, but I also like to have the ability to make strong demos to bring in and have the option of producing if I ever needed to,” she says. “I produced one song called ‘The Moments I’m Missing,’ mostly in my bedroom. It’s a lot to try and be your best at lyrics, melody, chords, production all at the same time so I like to just produce when I have ideas.”
The three new tracks she has out right now stitch together remnants of her life in Scotland, from her assertive, ex-in-the-rearview song “The Best You Had,” to the inward-looking sparse pop bop “Somebody Special.” Maybe the lovelorn themes are aren’t anything new, but that’s the beauty of them — they’re just all the more relatable.
“It’s not a concept album but it’s also not just a collection of songs,” she adds. “I’m hoping people will be able to take my stories and relate them to their own lives.”
NINA NESBITT + WHITNEY WOERZ :: Monday, April 30 at Great Scott, 1222 Commonwealth Ave. in Allston, MA :: 8:30 p.m., 18-plus, $12 in advance and $14 day of show :: Advance tickets :: Bowery Boston event page :: Featured photo courtesy of High Rise PR.
Nina Nesbitt North American Tour Dates 2018
April 23: Club Café @ Pittsburgh, PA
April 24: DC9 @ Washington, DC
April 25: Baby’s All Right @ Brooklyn, NY
April 26: Space Ballroom @ Hamden, CT
April 29: Town Ballroom @ Buffalo, NY
April 30: Great Scott @ Allston, MA
May 1: World Café Live @ Philadelphia, PA
June 22: 93.3 FLZ’s Summer Jump Off @ Tampa, FL
