Before even reading the accompanying press release for the news that Nadia Reid is to release a new album in March next year, a listen to lead single ‘Best Thing’ should be enough to convince you, if her soulful 2017 Preservation album hasn’t already done so, that she is an artist in ascendance who just keeps digging deeper.
I sat in on a fascinating interview with Nadia and Julie Byrne at Sea Change festival in 2017, and although I knew she was from New Zealand, I’d never fully grasped the touring commitment she’d undergone. Shortly after that interview there she was on the TV performing on Later…with Jools Holland…the tide was changing alright.
A few years on, Nadia is no stranger to travelling away from home. However, leaving her beloved New Zealand for America to record her third album with strangers, what she didn’t expect was a family awaiting her; teaming up with Spacebomb, her evocative travel tales push explorations of love, personal growth and deep reflection beyond boundaries she ever thought possible.
“Out of My Province is definitely a travelling album; they are road songs,” tells Nadia, of the album, written during a period of intensive touring following the release of her critically acclaimed LP, Preservation. “I felt inspired while I was moving and playing most nights. Sometimes good. Sometimes hard – there was this term I came up with called ‘digging for gold’ where some nights, you’d need to dig deeper for that feeling. During that time I felt really alive and useful.”
Out of My Province is the sound of a young artist growing in profile and dexterity before international audiences and whose world has changed before her eyes. Further travelling ensued when, sparked by the enthusiasm of Spacebomb’s Ben Baldwin after catching her set at Green Man Festival, Nadia found herself on a long transatlantic phone call with co-producer Matthew E. White. “After that, I had a good feeling in my gut,” she recalls. “We got along really well. To know a group of people in Richmond, Virginia, felt so passionately about working with me was so crucial.” Finding herself halfway across the world and only a nearby Kiwi pie shop with its Kiwiana-themed delicacies and flat whites to combat any threatening signs of homesickness, Nadia took to Spacebomb studios with long-term “musical rock” and guitarist Sam Taylor. They joined Cameron Ralston (electric and upright bass), Brian Wolfe (drums) Daniel Clarke (organ, piano, and keys), and producer Trey Pollard, who would arrange strings, horns, piano, and Rhodes to give the album a depth in sound Nadia had always imagined; “When we arrived it felt natural and good. Trey had a strong vision. At times, stronger than my own. I sort of blindly ambled in. I wrote the songs and believed in them. That’s all I really knew. Everyone was extremely welcoming and positive.”
Watch her video for lead single ‘Best Thing’ which was completed in her hometown, Dunedin, recalling PJ Harvey’s tender moments.
The album takes its title from an interview with one of Nadia’s favourite New Zealand authors, the late Janet Frame, in which the interviewer asks if she has considered the supposition that she is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, to which Frame uncomfortably replies, “That question doesn’t reach me. It’s out of my province.” Explains Nadia, “I was so moved by her response for some reason. I am enamoured by her books. I can re-read them at any time and take such comfort from them. So ever since… out of my province. That phrase has never left me.”
Out of My Province is released 6th March 2020 on Spacebomb
Pre-order: https://smarturl.it/
Live Dates
10.04.2020 Brighton (UK), The Hope & Ruin
11.04.2020 Bristol (UK), The Louisiana
13.04.2020 Glasgow (UK), The Old Hairdressers
14.04.2020 Manchester (UK), Band on The Wall
15.04.2020 Leeds (UK), Brudenell Social Club
16.04.2020 London (UK), Oslo
18.04.2020 Rotterdam (NL), Motel Mozaique Festival
20.04.2020 Hamburg (DE), Aalhaus
21.04.2020 Berlin (DE), Roter Salon
22.04.2020 Jena (DE), Trafo
24.04.2020 Vienna (AT), Haus der Musik
26.04.2020 Munich (DE), Glockenbachwerkstatt
27.04.2020 Zürich (CH), El Lokal
28.04.2020 Bern (CH), ISC Club
30.04.2020 Paris (FR), Le Pop-Up du Label
Photo Credit: Alex Lovell-Smith