Sheila Nicholls - Songs From the Bardo

"Sheila Nicholls has a battery-acid wit, a fierce fuck-off rebellious streak and a drop-dead gorgeous mug....." -Michael Simmons, LA Weekly

... I made my first record in 96-97, after a demo of my NYC band Sheila Nicholls and the Splendidfrock reached producer John Boylan who provided a studio for me in LA to record. Hollywood Records then released this first album Brief Strop in 1999. It hit top ten in US college charts and the song Fallen for You was featured in the film and on the soundtrack of the 2000 movie High Fidelity. Hollywood used the euphemism “radio friendly” when they asked me to record a second, Wake (it’s a triple entendre). I partially obliged by having a number of songs produced by Glen Ballard. This turned out to be a very interesting experience, that later empowered me to learn protools, so to become more of a producer myself.

I toured extensively and one of the tunes Faith made US billboard top 40. I got to play the tonight show with Jay Leno and open for KD lang in Europe.

I liked the life, but I was always a bit of an introspective hippie. The years before NYC, I had been living in my car wandering the U.S. and digging anonymity. I had always preferred writing so I decided to settle and ground out a bit. In the last few years I built my own studio and have improved my skills from being a piano singer/songwriter to midi-software queen. Oh yeah and I had a baby. Amazing thing uteruses, so glad to have one. She’s outstanding.

Now I have a new record Songs from the Bardo. It’s collection of tunes focused around making the personal infinite and the infinite personal. I looked in the spaces between the spaces and this is what I found. I love it. I hope you do too.

Other interesting Sheila fact: I grew up in England, where all my family still live. My mum runs the Little Bentley village pub. In 1989 I streaked at Lords live on TV at the Ashes. (It’s like the super bowl of cricket for you Americans!) I made all the British and Australian tabloid front pages doing naked cart wheels. Yeah Baby... I still crack myself up about that one.