“I wanted to be Stevie Nicks but I had no idea how to start playing music out in public, and I still didn’t play an instrument with any degree of skill. So I put that dream up on a shelf and said ‘well that’s probably a thing I’m not going to get to do,” admits Nichole Wagner about her early yearnings in the music realm.
While Stevie may very well be the go-to influence for most young singer-songwriters, it’s a difficult musical benchmark, yet many actually do reach their inner “gypsy,” including Wagner who tried her hands in different musical climates.
Born and raised in the small town of Louviers, Colorado, Wagner grew up with a love of music and an extraordinary voice, but she had no way to really share her passion with the world. At eighteen Nichole moved to Arizona to study journalism at Arizona State University, a career path that would offer a steady paycheck while also allowing her to indulge her love of photography. But she found that it’s not so easy to let go of a dream.
“After college, she moved to Austin, where she photographed the music scene and wrote articles from the sidelines. But the dream refused to die, and one day she found herself onstage at an open mic. She started writing new songs, learned to play guitar, and like wildfire the long-buried dream flared back to life.
In 2018 Nichole’s first album, And the Sky Caught Fire, was released, a terrific collection of country-rock that balances commerciality and integrity. Her more recent EP, Dance Songs for the Apocalypse, is another great leap forward where she takes on Talking Heads’ “Life During Wartime,” and a delicate eight-minute take on Neil Young’s “Ambulance Blues” amongst stellar cover choices.
Glide is premiering the song & video for the twangy “Monsters” to be released from an upcoming full-length due in early 2022. Wagner delivers a lonesome earnest melodic touch that incorporates the storybook musings of Neko Case and Jenny Lewis atop an engaging singer-songwriter vulnerability. Wagner takes on the isolating theme of depression valiantly, using her lyrical and musical chops as her pull through.
“I started writing ‘Monsters’ with the second verse during one of the worst bouts of depression I experienced during the pandemic. During that time, I was struggling to hold on – feeling very isolated from my communities and family. Just as the fog started to lift, so to speak, a friend of mine lost their mother and I just didn’t have it in me to reach out, as much as I wanted to. I knew nothing I could say would help, and that even opening that discussion would send me back spiraling. The first verse came last, as I started to reckon with the clean-up and the broken parts. I am ever grateful to the SIMS Foundation here in Austin, for making mental health services available to musicians and industry folk,” describes Wagner.
One Response
This is great! If Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow had a musical child, it would be Nichole!