Nina Nastasia
Nina Nastasia lives in New York with a cat without a name. She’s a singer songwriter, two words which would cause many people (a vast number of which would be in their right minds) to stop reading her biography right here. Here are a few more words which might convince such people to read on – Steve Albini. John Peel. Touch and Go. The fact that she’s one of the few people whose name can be turned in to an adjective. We’re baffled and amazed by ‘On Leaving’, Nina’s new record, to the fact that one of the few things we can confidently describe it as is ‘Nastasian’.
Though now a resident of NYC, she was born and raised in Hollywood. Moving to the Big Apple in the early nineties, it wasn’t until 1999 that she recorded her first self funded album, ‘Dogs’, which was released on the truly tiny Socialist Records on a run of one thousand, and soon snapped up by anyone who’d witnessed Nina and was clued up enough to notice how special it was. It was sold mainly at her shows, and packaging with letterpress lyrics and hand mounted photographs only helped the remarkable thing sell out within the space of twelve months.
A repress was mooted, but put on the backburner as Nina started to work on her second LP, ‘The Blackened Air’ - the first of her music to be housed on the Touch & Go imprint. ‘Dogs’ during this time gained a sort of mystical status, finding itself swapped on internet message boards and discussed at length in underground zines. It was also the first of her four albums to date on which Steve Albini would act as engineer. To Mojo magazine, he had this to say about it:
“There are cruel ironies in making albums for a living. In the process of making a record, you hear it so many times that the charms of even the best of them can wear off through over-exposure. On rare occasions, records I\'ve worked on have withstood this scrutiny and ended up being personal favourites. Of these, a good handful are beautiful and sublime, and I listen to them for pleasure. Nina Nastasia\'s \'Dogs\' is a record so simultaneously unassuming and grandiose that I can\'t really describe it, except in terms that would make it (and me) sound silly. Of the couple thousand records I\'ve been involved with, this is one of my favourites, and one that I\'m proud to be associated with.”
Another celebrity seal of approval came from John Peel, who would give a record that was now completely unavailable (even Nina didn’t have a copy) heavy airplay on his Radio One show, generating huge excitement for its follow up ‘The Blackened Air’ and the international tour in support of it. She recorded six sessions for the Peel show before the legendary man’s untimely death.
Even more sombre than its hardly jaunty predecessor, ‘Road To Ruin’ became Nastasia’s third LP released in four years when it hit the shelves in 2003, a year before ‘Dogs’ would finally be granted a re-release via Touch and Go. 2004 would also see her collaborate with friends Sayan Bapa and Kaigal-Ool Khovalyg, performing with their band Huun-Huur-Tu (a Turvan throat singing group) in Iceland.
Now in 2006 and on a new label we reach ‘On Leaving’, Nina’s most recent LP. Though the label has changed, the personnel remain largely the same, collaborations with Albini and ‘musical organiser’ Kennan Gudjonsson appearing for the fourth time in a row.
ROCKFEEDBACK MEETS NINA NASTASIA: Michael Lewin takes Nina Nastasia to a North London boozer and somehow gets her to talk about bums...
NINA ON SOUTHERN: If your favourite alternative artists aren’t actually signed themselves to Southern records, they’re almost definitely on Southern distro. Nina’s no exception.
NINA AT TOUCH & GO: Home for the first two of her albums (three if you count their long overdue re-release of cult classic ‘Dogs’), here’s probably the best place to find out about the ins and outs and personnel responsible for that trio of LPs.
NINA’S MYSPACE: Some press cuttings (all positive, naturally), and the most extensive list of her tour dates you’re likely to find, along with four tracks to stream for free.
NINA NASTASIA LYRICS: I’m getting bloody bored of the standard material performed at open mics around the country at the minute. If you’re brave enough to think you can do them justice, here are lyrics to every single one of Nina’s songs (even the rarer ones). Learn ‘em, sing ‘em, get that bloke who insists on playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ (one of the most racist songs ever, don’t you know) to shut the mother f**k up, won’t you.
ON LEAVING: We couldn\'t help it. Five stars. Yep.
We\'ll also be catching Nina when she plays the Scala in November. Seeya there. I\'ll be wearing...jeans.