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Nicki Jaine is a rapidly rising star in the Gothic night sky, and little wonder. Her unique velvety, sultry vocals cast a hypnotic spell, whether with a full band or against stark accompaniment of a lone piano or guitar. Her artistry absolutely shines on her first solo album, Of Pigeons And Other Curiosities (Shaman Records).
She has been singing since the tender age of 7, but began her career performing at open mike nights. Of course, people stood up and took notice, booking her for other shows in New Jersey and Philadelphia. The band Carfax Abbey saw one of these shows, and invited her to open for them. She has since been appearing at many Gothic events.
Nicki was recently invited to join the touring band for Black Tape For A Blue Girl, which she readily accepted; she'll be handling keyboards and guitars. She will also be opening for them as a solo act at some shows.
What were some of your inspirations for your first solo album?
I wouldn't know where to start!
Let's start with "A Pigeon Named Crow". That one caught my attention immediately.
That one is a very literal song. I lived with some very eccentric roommates for awhile, and they had a pet pigeon named Crow. Living with a pigeon is as interesting, bizarre, and unsanitary as you would imagine. It was fun, but you would be eating breakfast, and the pigeon would fly by and shit on you. He was really friendly, you could pick him up, play with him and stuff. The song was all about the experience of living with a pigeon.
He was loose all the time and not in a cage?
Yes, and there were No restrictions on what he did. He loved spaghetti, and he would throw it everywhere. He was a character!
What songs on the album are your favorites?
I was pretty happy with how "Sound of Girls" turned out. That song is about how things look in retrospect and how much your view of things changes as time goes by; how drastically things change. "Antarctica" is a pretty bitter song about somebody who was not so good to me; it's probably the angriest song on the album.
"Animals Crawling" is about strange thing that happened to me; you think you see an animal out of the corner of your eye, you turn and there's nothing there. I had happened to come across an article in a local newspaper about exorcisms and how priests today go about weeding out the people who are just looking for attention, and the people who they believe really need to be exorcised. One of the main "symptoms" of someone who really needed to be exorcised was that they saw animals everywhere, which I wouldn't have thought of. It kind-of brought some interesting imagery to mind.
"One More Show" is about a friend of mine who used to take me to the Rocky Horror Picture Show all the time. I had been out of touch with him for a little while, and I found out that he had passed away and was buried on my mother's birthday; so that song is a little ode to him.
Why did you decide to just use simple piano and guitar on the album instead of adding bass, drums, the whole nine yards?
Some of the songs we did with a full band - it was half and half. I think I was coming from a place where I had done a really good amount of solo performances and more recently had done a good amount of band performances. I really liked the connection with how the music sounded both ways. So, instead of choosing one or the other, I incorporated both into the album. I'm not really sure on my second album how I want everything to be orchestrated, but that's something I'm sure that as the songs are completed, hopefully I'll be able to envision that more clearly.
You're also in the touring band for Black Tape. How did that come about?
In December, I went to a Middle Pillar Christmas party. I went there to play a song, and I'm friends with Jen and cEvin, who run the label, so I went to say "Hi" to them, and I met Sam there. I had not met him before, and we got to talking a bit. He ended up coming out to one of my shows. He enjoyed what I was doing, and we stayed in touch. When the time came for him to put together the touring band, he asked me if I'd like to be part of it. I was absolutely thrilled, and very happily said "yes" right away.
Do you have all their songs down?
Yes. Bret flew out from Phoenix a couple of weeks ago to New York, and the three of us practiced. This is the first time the three of us had all been together, and it went really, really well. I was happy with how it went. It was really enjoyable to play the songs with Bret singing instead of home in my living room. I'm really looking forward to playing everything live.
Were you a fan of Black Tape before you actually met them?
You know, it's funny. I had always heard of them, and always heard really great things about them. But I had never seen them live and I hadn't really heard much of their music. So, I knew them by name, but I wasn't really too familiar with them. Which is kind-of odd considering that we're in a lot of the same circles. So, I guess I'm really getting to know the band in an interesting way; from the inside out, sort-of, which is a great opportunity that I'm very much enjoying. I'm a big fan now.
Do you have any designers you work with for your onstage look?
You know what? I don't. I would love to work with someone, I hope in the future to meet up with someone who's interested in doing that with me. Right now I'm just grabbing stuff out of my closet.
Do you think about wearing certain clothes onstage when you're out shopping for them?
Sometimes. I don't really have a huge wardrobe. It always seems like I have a few things that I really, really, really like - no matter how much stuff I buy, the favorites are what I feel like wearing. I have a few outfits that I like to wear while I'm performing; usually it kind-of rotates.
Do you keep stage comfort in mind while picking them out?
Definitely. The last thing you want to be worrying about while you're performing is if something's going very visibly wrong with what you're wearing. Then you have to either A. adjust it onstage in front of everyone or B. going on with the rest of the show knowing that you're looking completely disheveled and wrong. I definitely take comfort, functionality, and all those things under consideration.
Interview by Athena Schaffer
Gothic Beauty Magazine
January 2005