What do you get when you take fabulous R&B / Soul rhythms, sprinkle in some pop vocals, and apply a liberal does of business savvy, and just for good measure mix in the tiniest amount of Japanese? Give up yet? You get Nikkole, a Los Angeles native who just happens to be one of today’s most musically and commercially successful independent artists. By the way, she is not Japanese, but more about that later.
Nikkole’s
current single
“Breathe,” from her CD A Girl Like Me is receiving
airplay in most regions across America. Radio stations such as the Clear
Channel network and regional markets liked what they heard from the singer
when her album Appearances debuted in 2001, and now are hooked
on the energy infused vibes.
Although many artists will record a couple of alternate mixes for some of their songs, seldom does an artist such as Nikkole do five different mixes for a song, as she did with “Breathe.” Nikkole talks about one of those mixes, “We did a poll at my shows, asking concertgoers what type of mixes they wanted to hear. The feedback that we got included people wanting to hear a neo soul type of (vibe), so we decided to try it. So far, with the release that came out on September 4, radio has been scooping it up. They are really into the mix called “Breathe Inhale-Exhale.” It is a neo soul kind of a vibe. We just decided to do something different, and as an Indie artist, you have that choice. No one is standing over your back saying, ‘You can’t do that, you have to stick to this format.’ This is the third single, and I am still getting the support from the same urban AC commercial stations.”
For her sophomore project, A Girl Like Me Nikkole dipped into another talent pool comprised of the ladies who make up the vocal trio The Emotions, best known for their hit song “Best Of My Love.” She had worked with The Emotions on some of their previous projects, and now the group returned the favour. “On the album A Girl Like Me, I had a song that I wanted them to sing on, and they were gracious enough to do it. That was the first single which was released from A Girl Like Me, titled “It’s Too Late.” I couldn’t have asked for a better group of ladies to work with. It was a little unnerving at first, to give direction to Grammy Award winners and legends. It turned out the song did really well on commercial radio.”
When I contacted Wanda Vaughn of The Emotions, I discovered that she is just as much a fan of Nikkole as the singer is of the vocal trio, “I think Nikkole’s biggest asset is her heart. You hear Nikkole’s heart and soul in everything that she sings and writes about. Nikkole is magnificent, and I treasure the moments that I have spent with her both as a professional singer and as a friend.”
There are a lot of ways for independent artists to get noticed by music fans, other than MTV or commercial broadcasting networks, such as through American Idol Underground Radio, where the urban tune “Gon’ Bounce,” has received a lot of play. “My second single “Gon’ Bounce,” debuted at # 1 on American Idol Underground Radio. It is a radio program for independent artists, and it debuted at # 1 on the R&B charts. That was wonderful too. It had such success that it has crossed over into world markets such as the UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. It has been a slow process but it has been steady,” she says.
Nikkole’s music has so powerfully impacted the world stage, something almost unheard of for an independent artist, that there was a strong demand from Japanese fans for her to translate “Over It,” from the CD Appearances, into Japanese. “When I would go over to Japan, I would be asked to sing in Japanese and I do not even speak Japanese. I thought, ‘Am I up for this challenge?’ I decided since there was a demand for it, I would do it. By then I had met Ken Yasuda (her fiancé) who was originally from Japan. He and his mother translated the song into Japanese, then, they wrote it out phonetically so I could pronounce it while I was singing. I practiced it a few times before recording it. Within three takes we had what you hear (the Japanese version of “Over It”). I have been told by Japanese people that they understand exactly what I am saying, love it (the song) and can feel it.”
September 2007
