Acclaimed U.K. Singer/Songwriter Nina Nesbitt Talks About Her Excellent New Album, Mountain Music, And Writing Her Songs

Scottish singer/songwriter Nina Nesbitt has been known as a talented artist in the U.K. and Europe for a decade, since she released her debut album (called Peroxide) in 2013 when she was 19. Then she had a larger success in 2019, when her second album (The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change) received critical acclaim and led to her receiving a billion streams for her music.

Now in 2024, Nesbitt appears poised to take her career to an even higher level. She’s just released her fourth album called Mountain Music (on Apple Tree Records), which is an excellent album that’s her best work to date. Impressively, Nesbitt wrote almost all the songs by herself, and this allowed her to show a more unique, personal side, with lyrical depth and a cohesive musical style and sound.

Mountain Music contains 12 songs, and it flows nicely from beginning to end. The songs range from the high-energy pop single, “Anger,” to beautiful, intimate piano-based ballads such as “Mansion” and “Painkiller.” Other highlights are the rollicking uptempo track “Big Things, Small Town,” the celebrative tune “I’m Coming Home,” and the heartfelt songs “Pages” and “Parachute.”

Nesbitt recorded this album with producer Peter Miles and a small group of musicians, which allowed her to tailor each song to fit the mood and emotion of the album. She and Miles also created unique interludes and subtle sound effects that accentuated the flow of the album. As a result, Mountain Music sounds like the distinct vision of an artist who is taking listeners on her own personal journey, rather than a collection of songs that feature many co-writers and collaborators.

Another key element is Nesbitt’s expressive lead vocals. On songs like “Anger” and “Parachute,” she sings powerfully and her voice soars into a higher range. On the ballads, Nesbitt sings in a softer, understated way that shows a more vulnerable, introspective side.

Nesbitt was born in the town of Livingston, Scotland, and she learned to play guitar, piano and flute. When she heard Taylor Swift’s Fearless album, she was inspired to start writing songs and she posted videos on YouTube. Then around 2011, she met pop star Ed Sheeran, who invited her to be the supporting act on his European tour.

Nesbitt eventually signed a label deal with Universal Music Group, and she released several EPs and her debut album, Peroxide (in 2014).  But despite some initial chart success in Scotland and the U.K., she was dropped by the label. This was major setback, and it led to her putting her artist career on hold. and focusing on writing songs for other artists.

Then five years following the release of her first album, she returned in 2019 as an artist with the release of her second album, The Sun Will Come Up, the Seasons Will Change. This album was a music streaming success, and it paved the way for her 2022 album, Alskar, and her new album, Mountain Music.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Nina Nesbitt. She discusses the making of her new album, and she talks about her earlier albums and her musical journey.

DK: I read that you’re from Scotland. How did you get started with singing and writing songs?

Nina Nesbitt: I grew up as an only child in a little village in Scotland, and singing was  something that I loved to do to pass the time. My parents had a lot of CDs in the house…my mum is Swedish and she was a huge pop lover. So she had a lot of ABBA, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears…all the pop divas, and the big songs from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Then she brought home this old Casio keyboard when I was 10, and that’s when I started putting these little poems that I was writing to music.

DK: Can you talk about your early years as an artist, leading up to making your first album, Peroxide?

Nesbitt: I started playing guitar at 15 after hearing Taylor Swift’s album, Fearless. So I started writing folky songs in my bedroom, and then I started a YouTube channel and posted cover songs and my original songs.

Over the years I built a following, and I was lucky enough to go on tour with other artists. The first EP that I released (The Apple Tree EP) ended up charting on iTunes, and that allowed me to sign to a label and get on the radio and create my first album.

My first album, Peroxide, was me trying to figure out who I was as an artist, what kind of style I was, and you can definitely hear that in the record. It was definitely a very teenage album, all the things that you go through when you were that age.

DK: In 2019, you had a breakthrough with your next album, The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change. Can you talk about making that album, and the impact it had on your career?

Nesbitt: I actually got dropped after my first album from a major label, and so I just started songwriting for other artists for about two years. I had success getting cuts with other artists, so I thought about giving the artist thing another go. In the evenings when I got home from my songwriting sessions, I started writing the album, The Sun Will Come Up. I was living in a flatshare in London and no one would really work with me as an artist after I got dropped. So I taught myself how to produce, and I created all these songs and demos. Then I ended up signing to an indie label and managed to get producers to finish it with me. I put out that album and it exceeded any of my expectations and it took me to over a billion streams, and I got to tour America which was amazing. So getting to see the U.S. and getting to see the world was amazing, and I feel like it took my career to a new level.

DK: Two years ago you released your next album, Alskar. What was your creative process for that album?

Nesbitt: That album was honoring my Swedish heritage and exploring that side of things. I’d never made music in Sweden before…I’d just visited family. So getting to work with producers over there was exciting, and I instantly clicked with them all and it was really fun. But then the pandemic hit and I couldn’t finish it. So halfway through the album, I had to try and finish it on Zoom and at home and it was a tricky album to make. So yeah, that was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime album-making experience. I think it bridged between The Sum Will Come Up and Mountain Music quite well because it had the pop side but also had the more folky side.

DK: You’ve just released your new album, Mountain Music, which I like a lot. Can you talk about making your new album?

Nesbitt: With my new album Mountain Music, again I went back to songwriting for other people for about a year-and-a-half. I was doing all different genres and I came home in the evenings and I thought to myself…if I was to make another album, what would it be?

What genre should I be making? Because I feel with the pop music I love writing it, but I don’t necessarily love performing it. I’m quite shy and I can’t dance, so it doesn’t bode well (laughs). So I sat down with my guitar and piano and I thought this feels like home, and the songs started coming out. I initially thought it would be an EP, but the songs kept coming out and eventually I had an album within two months.

It was the fastest album I’ve written…the most enjoyable album to write. I wrote 10 of the 12 songs on my own here in this room, just looking out to a field. I had moved to the countryside and it felt very natural, very authentic, but also very personal and vulnerable. So I was nervous to release it, but it’s my favorite album yet and I’m glad that you’re liking it.

DK: How did you decide that the title would be Mountain Music?

Nesbitt: Well, I looked into the Appalachian Mountains, and some of the folk music that was coming out of there recently. I was seeing some videos come up of these new artists and also listening to a lot of folk and country from the U.S. over the years. And I was in a record shop under the folk section, and I saw a section called Mountain Music and I was like…that sounds cool, what is that? When I realized it was connected to the Appalachian Mountains and some of it originated from Irish and Scottish settlers, I found that interesting because I feel like growing up in Scotland, I was exposed to a lot of that music from the streets…people busking and telling stories. So I thought that would be an interesting title because I obviously come from a country where this music is so popular and you hear it everywhere.

I feel like it’s in our blood, so I thought it’d be interesting to take sonical inspiration from the U.S. folk music that I was listening to, and put it to a story of someone who grew up in Scotland, moved to the big city London and experienced all that. Because I think a lot of the American music I listen to, it tells the story of where they’re from in such detail, and I find that really interesting, But I’d never heard my own story or a story of someone where I’m from, so I try to do that with this record and make it different.

DK: You mentioned that you wrote almost all the songs on your new album by yourself. Do you like writing songs by yourself?

Nesbitt: Well I started out writing by myself because like I said, I’m quite introverted and I like being by myself, and it takes a lot to open up to other people. But I think over the years, I’ve been put in a lot of rooms with other writers and I do love collaborating, but I think when you write alone there’s a sense of vulnerability that you can’t get when you’re in front of strangers or other people. A lot of this album was written about difficult things that I was going through over the past few years, and I didn’t feel comfortable opening up to other people about it. So I wanted to write by myself, and because I’d co-written so much through songwriting for others. I wanted to learn to trust my own instincts again.

DK: I like your new song, “Anger,” and I think the video you created is excellent. What inspired you to write “Anger”?

Nesbitt: It was the feeling of having so much anger inside me and not knowing how to express it. I think being a woman who is quite soft and quiet and being raised to be polite and not cause a fuss, I don’t really know how to express my own anger. And this song was about failing to express my anger and trying to figure out a way. After I’d written the song I thought…Oh I feel so much better now. I think that might be how I express anger through writing. And I think so often, a lot of female artists especially express anger and rage in their music because it’s a positive thing you could turn it into something beautiful at the end of it. And yeah. it was a really cathartic experience.

DK: Two of the other songs that I like on your new album are “Mansion” and “Painkiller,” which are very personal, beautiful songs. Can you talk about writing these songs?

Nesbitt: With “Mansion,” I was getting very bored of my own chords. I think when I’m co-writing, I’m inspired by other people’s chords because I don’t know what they are when they’re playing them. But I felt I’d hit a wall with the guitar and the piano, so I asked to borrow my friend’s mandolin. I had no idea how to play it but he said to me, “If you repair it and restring it you can borrow it for a while.” So I did that, and the first four chords that I played on it I loved the sound. I had no idea what they were but I was moving my finger across the frets, and then I wrote “Mansion” over the top of that.

That was really fun and inspiring, and the song is about a letter to a best friend who was in a relationship that wasn’t quite a relationship, and it was a song about reminding her that she’s worth so much more. But I think in a way, a lot of this album is reflective and almost a letter to my younger self, and I think this song is also that. It’s definitely reminding my younger self to not settle, and know what you’re worth.

Then with “Painkiller,” it was very inspired by Bon Iver’s first album, For Emma, Forever Ago. I’m a huge fan of that album, and I was trying to think if Bon Iver was to write a piano ballad, what would it be like sonically? And I was very inspired by Joni Mitchell as well, the way she paints such pictures with her lyrics, and I tried to do my own version of that.

“Painkiller” is about all the men that I’ve been surrounded by in my life, whether it be relationships with family or whoever. I think growing up in a society where men aren’t encouraged to express how they feel, and so I feel like they often turn to drinking or drugs or whatever to suppress it. And I think for so long I’ve not really understood it, but as I get older and experience how difficult life can be at times, I understand it a lot more. It’s basically a song about that, saying everyone’s got their vices whatever it is. Some of them are healthy, some of them are not. And it’s saying, don’t be so hard on yourself. Sometimes we slip up and that’s okay

DK: Another one I like is “Big Things, Small Town,” which is a fun uptempo song. Was it fun to write and record that song?

Nesbitt: Thank you, I’m glad you like that song. I feel like it’s the most country-influenced song, and I wanted to make sure that people knew this record was a folk album and not a country album. I feel like coming from Scotland, it’s not as authentic for me trying to do country songs. I love the song and wanted to put it on the album, but I didn’t know how to record it. I didn’t know what kind of band set up it needed, so we tried a few different versions. In the end, I love how upbeat and fun and chaotic it sounds. It’s meant to sound like the whole village has turned up with an instrument, and we’re playing in a barn. I wanted it to have that live feeling, and to let the musicians show off what they can do. So that one was really fun, and it’s about celebrating those small towns and villages.

DK: Besides the songs on your new album that we’ve talked about, what are your other favorite songs on the album?

Nesbitt: One of my favorites is the song, “Parachute.” It’s the last song on the album, and it’s about being introverted and a little bit weird, and feeling like you can’t fully be yourself in front of people. And then it’s about meeting that one person that somehow has the key to unlock all the parts of you, and you can be yourself around them.

DK: I read that you and your manager (Vicky Dowdall) have formed a label called Apple Tree Records. Do you prefer now to be an independent artist and have your own label?

Nesbitt: Yeah I’ve done the major label thing, I’ve done the indie label thing, and I felt the next step was to start our own label together. Vicky Dowdall has managed me since 2012, so it’s been a long time. We’ve been through the ups and downs of the industry together, and we’re both so driven and we share the same vision. So it’s been really nice coming together and building something together. There’s definitely been a learning curve—it’s been a lot of hard work, and it definitely takes a village to run a label and it’s been really interesting. So I’ve enjoyed it and I’m excited to keep growing it.

DK: I want to ask you about your live shows and tour. This month you’re playing some shows in the U.K. Can you talk about your live show, and will you be coming to the U.S. for a tour?

Nesbitt: I’d definitely love to come back to the U.S. for a tour. I feel like this album is so inspired by touring the U.S. it’s only right that we come back. I’m actually going to my first band rehearsal this week for the live show, and I want to recreate the studio atmosphere because I recorded this album with a bunch of live musicians in a room to a ‘70s tape machine in Devon (in England). It was such a magical experience for me, that I’d love people in the audience to see that, and see how the album was made. So I want to bring that studio experience to the stage and let people know we’re not playing to a click, we’re not having a track. It’s very much a bunch of musicians together having a laugh, playing the songs and keeping it really live. So I’m excited for that.