Nikkie – I just have to say how stoked I am that you folks are interested in our music. As a youngster, I was often found zipping around town on my Powell Peralta deck. I was one of the early folks involved in getting our indoor skatepark, Generation XX Youth Club, off the ground back in 1996, and I’ve been involved with the spot for long periods over the years, as a board member, volunteer, and even as a staff member at one point. I played a bunch there, and the first real show I ever played was there. My band at the time and I slid one of my original songs into the set without introducing it, since I was tentative about sharing. That show gave me the confidence to share more. Gen X is still serving local skate-kids (and skate-adjacent kids) all these years later.
Oh! And hot tip: Kylie and I also wrote a song that features skateboarding!
Can you talk a bit about your new single “Girls’ Room” and how it came together?
Nikkie – Kylie and I were chosen to be part of the Canadian Song Challenge program that was part of the Canadian Song Conference in PEI. We were paired up with each other as a co-writing duo, and we were assigned Daniel Ledwell to produce the things we wrote. We were meeting up online, and I think we had a couple of short sessions for this song. In between sessions, I remembered a poem I’d written a few months earlier that fit within the theme, and we harvested a few bits from it.
Kylie – And co-writing is a lot like improv! The song is a result of saying yes to ideas and steering each other towards the story.
This song sounds unlike anything either of you have released before. What (or who) do you credit for the new sonic elements you’ve added?
N – We left it wide open when we were writing. Sometimes you go in with a plan for who you’re writing for, but we really didn’t. I feel like that made it easier to try new things, without having to overthink it.
K – We also didn’t feel confined to our own brands in the collaboration of it, which liberated us to explore something new! We also had a brilliant producer with a propensity for pop music
Is collaboration something either/both of you have done a lot of? Was this one tricky or did things just fall into place?
N – I taken part in the Song Challenge program the year before and have had a bunch of co-writing sessions since then. It’s been a goal of mine to do more co-writing. I love the process of creating and sharing those moments with others. I really love learning from other songwriters, too, and sharing the tools I’ve found. For so many of us, songwriting is such a solitary task that we wind up developing different approaches, and these collaborative sessions are a fantastic way to really see how someone else does it. It’s such a combination of magic and skill.
K – It’s nice to the share the “ah-ha!” moments with someone. They are the addictive part of songwriting, the little lines and melodies that work, and working with that excitement reflected back is a lot of fun.
Listening back to the song now that it’s finished and released, what are the biggest musical influences you hear coming through?
N – We’d given Dan some ideas about production, Lana Del Ray for sure, and I think stuff like St. Vincent, too, that sort of thing. Maybe I’ve just heard it tooimes, but I don’t hear that stuff now. It just sounds like us to me, at this point.
If “Girls’ Room” could leave fans with one thought or feeling, what would it be?
N – I just really like that it depicts bisexual desire in a way that’s not performative, not about the male gaze. It’s just two gals who have history and are into each other.
K – To go make out with their best gal. The colour pinks.
What have you both been listening to lately?
N – I tend to get stuck on a song, listening to it over and over and over, until eventually I get sick of it, or it winds up inspiring some element of a new song, and then another song will take its place. Sometimes it’ll be a song by the same artist, but often not. I listen to all kinds of music, just whatever hits me at the time.
Honestly, I’ve been devouring Dua Lipa’s music recently. It’s so unapologetically pop, and I love that. How much fun would Dua Lipa’s Levitating be to skate to? A lot, that’s how much. I feel like it’s been my self-appointed role to take the stigma away from pop music in the Atlantic provinces. Pops had a bad rap around here. Songs about love, lust, heartache, love again, give me all of that.
They’re not all new, but these are some songs that have hit lately:
Dual Lipa – Break my heart
Mark Ronson – Late Night Feelings
Julia Jaklin – Don’t know how to keep loving you
Nathan Wiley – Moneymaker (Disclaimer: This is my friend, and frequent collaborator. I also sing on this, but I’m not biased. I love this song, and zillions of his other songs, one of which appears on my new album that came out in January.)
Jenny Lewis – Redbull & Hennessey
Buddy & Julie Miller – Dirty Water
Jessie Reyez – Figures
Catherine MacLellan – True Love
B-52s – Give me Back My Man
Morgan Wade – Wilder Days
Wynona Carr – Please, Mr. Jailer
Damien Rice – Accidental Babies
Rose Cousins – The Shell
K – I just finished Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, the artist behind Japanese Breakfast. She’s the coolest thing to me right now.
You live in separate provinces within the small Maritime region on Canada’s East Coast. What is the Maritimes music community like?
N – It is amazing, honestly. A lot of Atlantic Canadian musicians have done well on the international scene for traditional and folk music, so sometimes there’s a misconception that that’s all there is here, but there’s such a wide variety of really awesome music coming out of here. And there are all kinds of great little scenes happening within the bigger scene. We’re really lucky, too, to have the East Coast Music Awards conference that happens every year, so we can all gather together and celebrate each other, learn, and network. It’s funny, I’ve lived in a bigger centre before, and it’s just so different here. It’s not like everyone knows everyone or anything, but it’s still like a big family reunion every time.
K – It is very connected. Nikkie and I actually met when we happened to share a hotel room at the ECMAs in 2019 because of a mutual friend and artist in the scene, so when we were matched in the Song Challenge we thought it was serendipitous but it’s really no coincidence we were both at the ECMA’s that year, every artist tries to go! There’s a lot of “knowing of” each other and keeping everyone’s work on your radar
Is there a consistent “sound” that runs through most of the acts in your area?
N – I think there are pockets, and sometimes waves of a certain thing, like back in the early 90s when Atlantic Canadian bands that were connected with the Halifax scene were doing big things, getting attention from labels like Sub Pop (bands like Sloan, Jale, and Eric’s Trip). In my city, Summerside, there have been a bunch of waves of things. When I was coming up, there were a ton of all ages shows with mostly heavier bands. Later there was a folk club scene with acoustic songwriter-style stuff. A bunch of other stuff, too. It’s a small city, but lots of great music has come from it. I mentioned these cats earlier, but Catherine MacLelIan and Nathan Wiley are both amazing artists and songwriters from Summerside. I’d say Catherine’s songs are in the contemporary folk vein, and Nathan’s known for having an edgier rock sound, though he writes some super beautiful songs, too (I recorded one of these for my new album).
K – I feel a bit out of touch with what sound I could classify such a wide array of musical acts here in Fredericton. That could be because there have been less shows to see lately due to stupid Covid. We don’t all play fiddles and mandalins!
What are your favorite haunts in your respective cities?
N – The Trailside Music Hall, and Baba’s Lounge are two suitable places to hang out and catch shows in the nearby city Charlottetown. Summerside is smaller. There’s not a huge bar scene right now, but it seems to fluctuate. There are a few spots with live music, and some spots to play trivia, and for some reason our area has an unreasonable number of places to go for ice cream, including an old school ice cream parlour. There’s a harbour, too, all along the south side of the city, with a super long boardwalk. Great spot to zip around on foot, or on wheels. There’s also an outdoor skatepark, too, besides Generation XX, the indoor one I mentioned. I’m on an Island, and in the summer, there are beaches all over the place that are great spots to go. All kinds of festivals and things, too. We have backyard fires in the summer and watch a lot of movies in the winter months.
K – The Cap in Fredericton. It smells like home, and it continues to be my favourite place to perform, as well as to watch live shows, or even go for a game of crib. It’s a place you can confidently go to alone and know you’ll have a table that will welcome you.
What are you most looking forward to in 2022?
N – I’m hoping things will be safe enough to get out there and tour my new album. Looking forward to playing a show with Kylie at a festival in the spring. Hoping, too, to get back into the studio to record the next album. I’ve got a zillion songs that want to be recorded.
K – Festival’s baby. Buckle up!
Nikkie – Here are some pics from the Generation XX Youth Club skatepark!
N – Playing solo at the 20th anniversary (Photo by Rose Razavet.)
N – A view of the park (at some point in time).
