NikNaks Bio is this.
An Oram Award-winning and history making storyteller in her own right, Nicole Raymond (NikNak) is devoted to developing her unique practice as a DJ & Turntablist, sound artist/composer, producer, tutor, sound engineer and radio presenter.
She is also a strong advocate for diverse representation in the music industry, especially within DJ/Turntablism culture and music production realms, and for musician wellbeing/mental health.
Based in the UK, you’ll find Nicole digging for vinyl or comic books, gigging, experimenting and sharing her music tastes to diverse audiences, delivering engaging sessions with students to develop their DJ skills, and running/curating events such as “Dub Sirens” and “Melanin”.
Nicole has also performed at festivals such as Wilderness Festival with Live Art Bistro, Handmade Festival, Chin Up Festival, We Out Here Festival, Leeds International Festival, World Island Festival, Algorave Festival, Brighton Fringe Festival with House of Verse, Leeds Digital Festival, Bradford Literature Festival, Marsden Jazz Festival and Tor Fest.
To date, she has supported DJ Format, Jon 1st, Akala, Chynna, MJ Cole, Dan Kye, Bradley Zero, Cakes Da Killa, Jungle Brown, J-Live, Grandmaster Flash (twice), SEED Ensemble, Abstract Orchestra, Madlib, Lady Leshurr, Saul Williams, King Midas Sound, LayFullStop, Children of Zeus, Awate, TY, Project Hilts, Lowkey, Moses Boyd, Necktr, Commodo, Object Blue, Bambooman, Boe&LX, Pye Corner Audio, Tommy Cash, Yves Tumor, Karnage Kills, Harleighblu, Agama and Princess Nokia.
NikNak is also a member of The Belgrave House Band and TC and the Groove Family. She has also presented on radio stations such as Demon FM, Sable Radio, Worldwide FM, Balamii Radio, BBC Radio Leeds and KMAH Radio.
Bashi
The first project I looked into was called Bashi. Bashi meaning peace in Turkish is a collection of sounds she recorded in turkey. She then went on to manipulate the project with her turntablism techniques and effects, such as echo dub and the original soundscape material. She wanted to retell her experience in Turkey through this album of ten tracks.
I listened to a few songs of the album and found the turntablism element captivating. In the song Compass, she uses scratching to introduce and cut out elements of the soundscape. The rain is falling and the scratching is almost emulating lightning. She cuts out parts of the soundscapes and reintroduces them with the scratching. I wonder how she recorded the sounds or what the process was, this will be one of the questions I’ll ask her during the lecture. Also, I wonder what program she used to edit the sounds and what the process was of creating them. How did she decide on the composition and what the meanings behind each song or piece were? Whether it was something predetermined or actualised in the process.
NikNak Live @ Crossed Wires 21 May 2021
I watched her perform Bashi live and found the set design and performance intuitive. I thought she was going to DJ the already recorded album and just fade and balance the songs into each other. She does all the turntablism live and super accurately and really captivates you into the performance. The projections behind her as well help to grab you into the sound and immerse the listener into the world she’s created with the soundscapes. I’ve always thought of creating and using projections for performance and this has inspired me to follow up on that idea. I want to ask her about the set design and if she was involved in that and if so what the equipment was and how it’s being controlled/ran with.
NikNak | We Out Here: Online & On Air | July
I listened to her DJ set on We Out Here and her song selection is incredible. She says in her bio about crate-digging a lot which is something I take part in. Her song selections ranged from soul to jazz & hip hop even some world music in there. I want to know her process of digging and finding these gems and how to curate them with the right approach. I’ve only ever DJ for one radio show my friend invited me for but it’s been an idea for a while as I crate dig a lot. I want to ask her opinion on online crate digging and how it changes and differentiates the song selection process and her thoughts on this.
Post Lecture Reflection
I found NikNak to be very much relatable. The way she spoke and presented herself made me feel comfortable and attentive to what she was saying. She began speaking about her background, from studying at leeds for undergraduate to speaking about Bashi.
She said she felt foggy just before she recorded Bashi in Turkey and was at the time facing horrible anxiety and depression and felt she needed to leave the UK. she took a short trip to Turkey and something told her to take her microphone. She recorded lots of field recordings but had no intentions of actually using them. It was more of a practice. Then returning home she decided to do a show and improvise over the recordings she’d made. Using turntablism and scratching to use her techniques over the recordings. A very much bottom up approach that even Darsha Hewitt spoke about in another lecture from last year.
She also touched on her thoughts about spaces. She spoke that at one point she was figuring out how to use spacial/surround sound systems after locating a venue that would allow her to do this. She said she’d rather use a venue that people normally go to for music or other events. As she felt a university or art gallery would bring in a specific crowd that it caters to. She wanted to use another space that was more inclusive for people.
She also spoke on some of her processes including for a piece she worked on called Voices of Black Britain. She said she didn’t have a lot of control on this piece but felt she didn’t want to go and destroy the recordings she’d been allowed to use. More that she felt she was being taught/learning from the recordings and wanted more to enhance them than take away. It resonated with her personally and beautiful she spoke.
Someone also asked the same question I was going to ask as I stated earlier on my research stage about how she choose the songs in her set. I found her set in We Out Here to be super varied and thought she did an excellent job at showcasing a very broud range of songs and genres without it sounding out of touch. She also spoke on improvisation and how she really doesn’t think or choose her songs before the sets. Unless it’s a radio or a pre recorded thing she always feels the vibe. She’ll get to the venue and see what the people want or who shes supporting on the show. And think how can I elevate or add to this specific situation and then caters through her song selection. But she says it’s never a consous decision or perhaps its more of an unconsous decision.
I found this to be really good insight into her ritual of performing. Improvisation can really have benefits in certain situations. I think her not picking all her setlist and seeing and reading the room when choosing songs can allow her to manipulate or more so adjust her song selection to the room on the fly. Sometimes when we pre decide the setlist and the outcome before we’ve even had a chance to realise what were working with can not allow us to be maluiable. Which for someone like her as she says works really well.
I also asked her my question which was about wether she thinks online crate digging or physical crate digging is better or her thoughts on it. She actually gave me a really deep insight that I never would of thought of. She started by speaking about the lockdown and how it separated us from the physical world for a while. And that shes sure online crate digging went up, with such platforms as Bandcamp pushing an artist first mentalitlty taking no fees on the first friday of every month. But she also elaberated on the fact that its also more accessible. Some people might have anxiety or don’t have a decent shop near them to go buy records and listen to new music and she thinks it really doesn’t matter.