HOLY GRAIL OF RADIO VOL. THREE:
NICOLE ATKINS
BARBARA FG
In this That Thing You Do! inspired article series from State House Sessions,
artists talk about their life, career & where they were when they first heard themselves on the radio
At its core, it’s always been a little bit of everything. Classic components revived and rewired into something refreshingly original, new and complex. On Italian Ice, the latest record from Nicole Atkins, the surreal, lush, unconventional and unexpected dovetail into something innovative and free – her very own kind of rock and roll. Like past collections, it’s big and bold and cinematic in nature. An album in wide screen. A world to get lost in.
“Having lots of styles is style,” she says.
Though that sound – a sprawling, stormy sixties dream – is destined to be driven everywhere it goes by her voice. It’s not often you hear an audience audibly gasp when a musician starts to sing, but I’ve been in the crowd and sensed the shift in the room when attentions were stolen by a vocal that is both familiar and distinct.
Rewind a few lifetimes ago, and Atkins is back in her native New Jersey. She had just graduated from UNC Charolette with a degree in illustration and was dividing her days between local gigs and her own mural business. One night, she opened for Adam Franklin of Swervedriver, who wasn’t shy in encouraging one of the then gatekeepers of regional rock radio – who she had been trying to give her demos to forever – to feature her songs. “I was like, ‘Here play my stuff, I’m a local, blah blah blah,’ and then Adam’s like, ‘You should play her music, it’s really good.’”
A week later, she heard from a friend and fellow artist who messed up while faux finishing a house, and was hoping she would draw a fern to cover up the mistake. Once there, Atkins dirtied her brushes with color and painted along to the radio like she had one thousand times before. But at some point, her attentions were abruptly stolen by a vocal that was instantly, startlingly familiar. “I was painting this fern in the corner,” she says. “And then my song comes on the radio and I was like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’” The home owner, a recently retired police officer named Eugene, was seemingly left scrambling for some way to celebrate what must have been a strangely surreal moment for each of them. “I was like, ‘This is me!’ and he’s like, ‘Oh my God!’ and he like freaked out and he made me take a photo posing with his car – he had a Cadillac for sale and I thought it was cool and he was like, ‘Let’s take a picture of you next to the Cadillac,’” she laughs at the absurdity of it all as the memory fades – a hectic, once in a lifetime moment that bore an instant, unlikely link. “Then he ended up becoming a music scene volunteer,” she says. “So he spent all of his retirement volunteering for all the shows and festivals in Asbury Park.” The song, “Billy Baloo,” has never seen official release, though it did earn her an Asbury Park Music Award that same year.
For a while after college, Atkins was everywhere – bouncing between New Jersey, New York and North Carolina, bound only by the twin passions she’s always carried: music and illustration. I suppose the only permanent address a touring musician can hope for is the songs they make, though back then, she was largely unknown outside of the small clubs where she performed. But music was always the constant, and as she remembers, little by little things kept happening. “I started doing these open mics up in the city at The Sidewalk Cafe and playing, and then people started liking my songs up there and just getting in a scene – I just loved the scene so much,” she remembers of the East Village haunt and the tight knit community of artists who played there. “It was like Regina Spektor and Langhorne Slim and The Moldy Peaches. It was just so much fun. It was just something I just kept doing because it was so much fun.”
Even now, that sense of connection still inspires. Recorded at Alabama’s Muscle Shoals Sound and produced by Atkins and Ben Tanner, Italian Ice features a slew of her close friends within an unbelievable core band consisting of Dave Sherman and Nick Sculvanos of The Bad Seeds, Binky Griptite of The Dap Kings, Spooner Oldham and David Hood of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and McKenzie Smith of Midlake, with additional appearances by John Paul White, Erin Rae, Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers and Britt Daniel of Spoon – all of which ensures that the album’s outtakes alone are bound to have more magic than half the entries on the Billboard chart. But what must have been an incredible atmosphere behind the scenes filters through, providing a foundation that’s just as exciting and varied as its unprecedented combination of players. For Atkins, it represents where she’s been and where she’s at. “I don’t know,” she says. “Theres a lot of different styles happening and they’re all styles that I’ve done throughout my career, but I feel like I’m actually getting good at them.”
From the beginning, the scope of that sound could be boiled down to one simple ethos. “Do what the song needs,” she says. It’s a philosophy that has resulted in an acclaimed discography that’s only gotten more ambitious as the years have passed. It’s also made her an artist who, five records in, can still conjure up the feeling that anything can happen. But perhaps most importantly, when everything does happen – the freewheeling chaos tumbling through “Never Going Home Again,” the soul spiked groove anchoring “Am Gold,” the gleam that lights up “These Old Roses” and “Far From Home” – it all fits together perfectly.
For the creative voice behind the records, it’s an artistic path that started for the same reason it continues.
“I remember sitting after work once, on the boardwalk, like having oyster shots with my friend that I painted with, and being like, ‘This is my life,’ you know?’ Party, play music, paint. I remember thinking, ‘What if the music thing doesn’t keep going?’ and then I was like, ‘Banish the thought.’ I just always banished the thought. I was like, ‘Am I having fun doing this?’ and that’s all that mattered.”
Italian Ice is available now
By Caitlin Phillips
08.19.2020