On the 23rd of April Nina released her EP ‘The Apple Tree’
with five original tracks which fans went mad for. She reached number 6 in the
album chart on iTunes and is still, one month later, number 5 in the
Singer/Songwriter chart. I asked how she reacted to it’s success, “I thought it
was quite funny to be honest, I didn’t really expect it to do that well, I was
just putting it out there for fans to hear the music. Then, it charted. It’s
just weird, but I’m really grateful that loads of people have bought it, it’s
cool.”
The talented 17 year old now has over 16,000 twitter followers and Sold
Out her own headline mini-UK tour. “It’s a bit crazy,” she smiles, “a year ago
I played my first gig in Manchester. Since then it’s escalated really fast but
it’s great, I’m really grateful that I’ve got loads of followers and people
coming to see the gigs.”
Along with the positive, there is also the negative. There’s lots of
internet ‘trolls’ out there, sending hate for no apparent reason. After
supporting Ed Sheeran on tour a rumour spread that they were an item, promting
abuse from many of his young fans. Nina tells me, “I think I’ve been quite
fortunate with the number of people that send me abuse, I get about 1 or 2
every month but it can be pretty deep, they don’t know me at all. If they knew
me, I don’t mind them not liking me but I find it quite odd when people say ‘I
hate you’ or make up things like ‘you’ve stolen my boyfriend’ because I’m not
dating Ed Sheeran. I don’t know why anyone would hate me if they don’t know me,
it’s weird. Fair enough not
liking my music but when they send me stuff I do get quite angry and have to
laugh at them, my fans are really supportive as well.” Her fans don’t let the
trolls off lightly and as Nina says herself, it’s better just to ignore it.
I asked Nina her highlight gig to date, “I had a really good gig in
Denmark supporting Ed Sheeran and usually as a support act you get about 50%
listening and then the rest coming in and chatting away, in Denmark it was like
pin drop silence. For The Apple Tree they were all singing along and I loved
that gig, it was nice to know that there are actually people that don’t know
you that do listen because most people aren't bothered if they don't know your name. Or in September last year I had my tenth
gig at the Glasgow SECC, it was Jim Gellatly from Clyde1 that had asked me to
play and it was just two songs at this arena, just me and my
guitar. It was crazy, but the crowd were really good there.” Although, after her sold out gig in King Tuts, Glasgow, that night, she
posted on her Facebook, “That was
my favourite gig I've played, thank you GLASGOW! It was crazy to hear you all
singing back the songs word for word that I wrote in my room a few months
back.”
I first met Nina at the Young Scot Awards last month when I was
reporting and she won an award in the Entertainment category. She told me how
much it meant to win as other stories were so inspirational. “I’m so grateful
to have won an award like that. It’s so important that I’ve got support from
Scotland and it’s great I think because that’s where I’m from.”
For her tour she plays an acoustic set with either piano or guitar, “I’ve
brought in a trigger pedal which triggers beats off behind me and I think when
my album comes out I would think about getting a band, I’m not really wanting
to get the standard four piece band though, I’d like something a bit
different.”
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“I think quite a lot of people’s parents would hope they’d go to uni but
I’ve always been quite a strong willed child “, she laughs, “and my parents
know that once my mind made up about something, it’s what I’m going to do.
They’re great and really supportive, it’s good that they understand music is a
career because some people don’t think it is.”
“I’m writing with Elliot aka Example, over the summer. We need to find a
date that we’re both free but I’m really looking forward to writing with him.
At the moment I have a lot of tracks for the album but I’d like some cool
co-writes on it. I think our song-writing style is quite similar even though
our music is quite different.”
A couple of times I asked Nina about designers or coveted items but she
seems to have little interest in the latest designer must have but much prefers
to mooch about in vintage shops.
“A mansion and a swimming pool,” she chooses as something she’d love to
buy but couldn’t justify spending the money on, “but I couldn’t afford that
anyway!” she laughs. (Although she will be able to soon as her success
continues!)
Nina’s had an immense amount of airplay for an unsigned artist. Jim
Gellatly plays her single ‘The Apple Tree’ every Sunday and Radio Scotland have
added it to their playlist, in fact my granny was telling me the other day how
she’d heard Nina’s “lovely voice” on the radio. She has also found herself a
big fan in Fearne Cotton and is in fact her ‘Big Thing This Week’ which means
she’ll be played on Radio1 everyday. “It’s definitely a really important part
of music, radio play, it’s really weird to hear it on the radio. All of the
Scottish stations have been really supportive as well, it’s amazing.”
When I ask how she came to song-writing she tells me she loved to write
stories when she was 5, when she was 10 she picked up keyboard and started
putting the stories to music. Two years ago she taught herself guitar and that’s
when her songs developed.
I asked about her music video influences but she struggles to tell me
one she wishes was hers. “To be honest I don’t watch a lot of music videos but
most these days seem to be girls dancing around with no clothes on,” she sighs.
Nina has spoken out before about her disapproval for people stripping off to
sell records, The Guardian were supposed to be writing about the ‘Up and coming
star Nina Nesbitt’ but instead decided a porn pop star was more important,
proving her point perhaps.
Just like me Nina is not a fan of camping and mud, which would explain why
she hasn’t been an avid festival goer. However, as a playing artist it’s a
different story. “I’m excited to be doing some pretty big festivals this year.”
The interview concluded with Nina and I posing for photographs which took
longer than anticipated as the camera was on video setting. Luckily, Nina isn’t
the diva type and laughed about it.
You can purchase both the 'Live Take EP' and 'The Apple Tree' from iTunes now!
