Scout Niblett
Emma Louise Niblett was born in 1973 in Nottingham, UK, and grew up in Staffordshire. She studied the piano until the age of nine, but gave up because she’d no interest in learning other peoples’ songs. But lack of technical prowess has never been something to stand in the way of authoring excellent music, as the career of Scout Niblett (the moniker Emma adopted after becoming enamoured with the character Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch in ‘To Kill A Mocking Bird’) proves only too well.
By nineteen, Scout had fled to college to study performance art. Here she hooked up with drummer Kirstian Goddard to record the decidedly rare debut LP ‘Sweet Heart Fever’, which Secretly Canadian would release in 2001 in the US. The same fellows would also be behind the release of the live ‘I Conjure Series’ 10” and a split EP with the band Songs:Ohia, whose 2003 album ‘Magnolia Electric Co.’ would later feature Scout on inimitable vocal duties.
Her second album, and her first for the marvellous Too Pure imprint in the UK, was titled ‘I Am’. Recorded over four days at Steve Albini’s (chosen for his legendary ability to get the most colossal of drum sounds) Electrical Audio studios in Chicago, it featured musicians by the names of Chris Saligo and Pete Schreiner – all of whom would sleep on the studio’s bunk beds whilst not recording, Scout herself nursing a very sore throat. The same personnel would in 2005 be behind the release of the ‘Kidnapped By Neptune’ EP also.
Come 2007, and the hatching of the ‘Dinosaur Egg’ EP is upon us. Featuring an easily digestible three tracks of Scout-superbness, it’s as delightful place to start a journey if you’re not acquainted with the lass as of yet.
SCOUTNIBLETT.COM: Scout’s official site isn’t quite as minimal as her music, but it’s getting there…
SCOUT’S MYSPACE: Four tracks, and a collection of alarmingly weird photos. We don’t even wanna know, Scout…
SCOUT @ TOO PURE: Scout’s UK label offer the discography / news / tour dates / pics treatment
SCOUT @ SECRETLY CANADIAN: Her onetime US imprint provide a partial discography and an MP3 of the ‘Uptown Top Rankin’ single entirely for free.
SCOUT NIBLETT FANSITE: This charming little site has an admirable attempt at collecting lyrics to each and every one of Scout’s bizarrely comforting ditties.
I’LL BE A PRINCE: Sam Hall described it Scout as being somewhere between a woodland nymph and Marilyn Monroe…
DRUMMERBOY: ‘As inviting as the avant-garde rock scene can get’, thought Toby L…
UPTOWN TOP RANKING: …the same fellow who thought Scout’s take on the reggae classic was ‘quietly disarming in its raw simplicity’.
I CONJURE SERIES: ‘With some things, the word ‘minimal’ is just a little bit too big…’, remarked Mr. Hannan on this fine, fine release.
DINOSAUR EGG: