Introducing: Nina Baker

SONY DSC
SONY DSC

At first glance you might think Nina Baker is just your average piano-playing singer. Dig a little deeper though and you discover she’s much more than that. A classically trained pianist who combines classical score with blues, pop, skiffle, rock, folk, jazz & country to express her emotions, Nina Baker will make you smile, make you cry and keep you hanging on every word.

The singer-songwriter has recently returned from her first U.S tour at the end of a year that saw her warming up for Robbie Williams and Monty Python at the London O2 and supporting Mark Morriss, Foxes, Henrik Freischlader, Jill and Kate, Mick Flannery and Ella Eyre on their UK and European tours.

It was only just over a year ago when Nina was hand-picked by BBC Introducing to attend their Master Class and she came runner-up in MTV’s Brand New for 2013 unsigned competition, impressing the MTV select panel who stated that “Nina brought something really unique to the competition, a mixture of light and dark makes her songs stand out”. Her debut track, ‘Single Bed’, released last year, won Best Song in the 2014 Best of British Unsigned Awards, and she came runner up in the ‘Best Female’ category. Her follow-up single ‘Bruising’ has also received extensive global airplay, including BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music.

Releasing her debut album, ‘Quite Frankly’ at the end of 2014, Nina very proudly wrote and produced all the tracks, as well as funded it herself. Recorded at Rockfield, The Church & Abbey Road Studios, ‘Quite Frankly’ is sweet on the outside & bitter in the middle, it is very much an album of two halves.

“With elements of pop, rock, jazz, blues, folk and classical feeding the musical heart of her self-penned debut, Baker has cut a great, difficult to pigeonhole record. The attention she pays to arrangements ensures that each of her thirteen songs is superbly textured and structured…..This is fine stuff.” (R2 Magazine, UK)

Dedicated to her late grandfather, Frank Baker, ‘Quite Frankly’ is a big-scale, uncompromising production. A roller-coaster of rhythm, it’s widely regarded as one of the best albums of 2014 by an independent artist, with its soaring highs and wallowing lows.

Check out Nina online at her official homepage, on Facebook, on YouTube and on Twitter. ‘Quite Frankly’ is available on iTunes.

Nina Baker - Bruising [Official Video]

 

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com

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