Following last month’s release of “Pages” and “On The Run,” acclaimed Scottish singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, Nina Nesbitt returns today with “Mansion,” a spectral, gossamer track that pleads with a close friend to see the beauty within themselves. The song will appear on Nina’s forthcoming fourth studio album, Mountain Music, which is due to be released on September 27, via her own record label—Apple Tree Records.
Speaking about the new song, Nina reveals, “I wrote it for a friend of mine after finding out how she saw herself. To me, she’s like a beautiful mansion in the middle of a dreary city. She’s covered in wisteria vines and roses. Everyone that passes her stops and stares, but she’s had her curtains drawn. She hasn’t let the light in for years. Dust has been gathering inside and things have been falling into disrepair. She’s been in the dark so long, she’s forgotten her own magic. People have treated her like a transient hallway. Temporary accommodation. A place to store their baggage. She was too afraid to let people in that no one got to see the grand ballroom or the beautiful lake view from the window in the library, full of lives lived. This song is for anyone who has struggled to realize their own worth - or had others devalue it. Sometimes you just need a friend to remind you, you are a Mansion.”
“Mansion” serves as the follow up to “Pages”, on which we hear the ache of experience as Nina sings over tenderly picked guitar and soft piano chords: “Cause I’m ‘bout two years from 30/ and life scares me more each day/ I’ve got a man that swears he loves me/ But I’m afraid that he won’t stay…”
Speaking about “Pages,” Nina explains, “Pages was the first song that I wrote for the new project. It reignited my love of folk music and storytelling. It’s an autobiographical account of my 20s. The chaos, the heartbreak, and the golden days. We recorded the track live in Devon with 5 wonderful musicians, it was my first time recording like this which was so fun.”
Alongside the release of “Pages,” Nina surprised fans with a second new track, “On The Run.” “This song is about an escape from the mundane,” she says. “It was inspired by a lot of the US folk music I was listening to.”
“Mansion,” “Pages” and “On The Run” all feature on Nina’s fourth studio album, Mountain Music, out September 27. This is Nesbitt as fans have never heard her before. Having risen to fame at a young age with her disarming, candid pop – championed by stars including Taylor Swift and Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon – the Scottish musician is now found in an entirely new realm. It is inspired in part by the two years she spent touring the States in support of her second studio album: the critically acclaimed Top 40, The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change, which has now accrued over a billion streams.
The songs on Mountain Music are permeated with gorgeous nods to US folk and Americana. It’s made all the more extraordinary by the fact that, not long ago, Nesbitt was considering quitting music altogether.
“A lot changed as I reached my late-twenties,” Nina says. “There was a lot going on in my life that changed the way I see things. In all honesty, I quit being an artist last year.” Struggling with the demand on musicians to be “present” on social media, along with the detrimental impact that had on her songwriting, Nesbitt decided to take a step back. “I was missing the thing that set me on fire, at the same time feeling like I was just getting worse at the craft I’d worked so hard on,” she says. “So, I decided to stop moaning about it, and actually just go and write.”
And write she did. For herself as well as for other artists, including K-Pop giants IVE, in turn helping them score a No 1 in Japan with their EP Wave. Gradually, the superficial pressures of the music industry began to fall away and Nina’s creativity flourished. She moved out of London and found a new home in the countryside with her long-term partner. It was there that Mountain Music was born. The new album was produced by Peter Miles and Nesbitt, and mixed and mastered by Miles at his studio MiddleFarm in South Devon, in the UK. It will be released via her own label, Apple Tree Records, which Nina launched las month with her longtime manager, Vicky Dowdall. The name, a playful nod to her 2012 debut EP, The Apple Tree, this marks the start of an exciting new era for Nina Nesbitt, both personally and creatively.
Talking about her new body of work, Nina says, “I’m beyond excited to be releasing my new album, Mountain Music, on 27th September. To me, it feels like the most authentic and honest piece of work I’ve created so far. I was inspired by a lot of the American folk music I grew up listening to, and revisiting it made me fall back in love with writing music again. I knew I wanted to take inspiration but to also write my own story. That being, someone with a female perspective who grew up in a Scottish village and spent her turbulent twenties in London. This album celebrates that small town girl, puts an arm around the big city twenty-something and looks back at the view with me now from the calm and the quiet.
It’ll be the first release on my own record label, Apple Tree Records, which I’m delighted about.
It feels like the perfect time to take full control of my career and put my stake in the ground as the artist I’ve always dreamed of being. Mountain Music held my hand through some of my hardest moments and I hope it can hold yours too.”
Stay tuned for more news and music from Nina Nesbitt, coming soon.
