WRITTEN BY SADIE BELL PHOTOGRAPHY BY HANIFAH MOHAMMAD
The lotus flower is known for its sheer grace, rising up from the mud of its surrounding, only to bloom and radiate beauty on its own. It is a symbol for overcoming adversity, a token to represent the gratification in facing life’s trials and tribulations, and an analogy wrapped up dearly in the Scottish singer/songwriter NINA NESBITT who is on the verge of blossoming in her own right as an artist.
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With support behind her and her personal creative drive, Nesbitt had found the lyrics that she needed to sing, the song that she felt compelled to write, or her recent lead single “The Moments I’m Missing.” Nesbitt said as she was writing for other artists,
“i wanted to be the one singing the
Though Nesbitt was thrust into the pop music industry at just 17 following a chance discovery from Ed Sheeran that helped the recording artist’s infectious bedroom-penned songs see the light of the U.K. charts, her forthcoming record is an effort to lay her soul bare– a project deduced from personal growth and self-discovery that is eager to be shared with the world.
songs at the end of the day, but i
Nesbitt explained that while she has released a number of EPs and worked with other artists in the studio since her 2014 full-length debut Peroxide, for much of last year she suffered from depression before she heard the music inside herself that became her upcoming album and inspired her to release new solo work. “I pretty much sat in my bedroom with the curtains shut for about four months,” she said. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. Luckily, I had really supportive people around me that encouraged me to get back to music, and then I actually became the happiest and most creative I’ve been for a while because I was so determined to get out of the horrible place I was in.”
Eventually, though, this became the haunting, deeply autobiography ballad she created– a divergence in her career to embrace a minimalistic pop sound wholly immersed in the complex, multifaceted artist she has proven to be. She said, “I think I was just trying to figure out who I was and where my strengths were [with my debut], and I think the record reflects that. So, in some ways, it’s very true to who I was at the time. But this new record is a lot more cohesive and literally makes me want to cry every time I hear it because it’s the closest thing to having some sort of child. I personally just [wanted] to make the record version of me,” she said.
knew if i were to do that, the song had to come from me and my life.”
