Biography
Nicole Atkins shaped a self-described "pop noir" aesthetic through her throaty vibrato and dense pop orchestrations, issuing her first full-length album Neptune City in 2007. Blues and psychedelia surfaced on the 2011 successor Mondo Amore, while her initial Billboard 200 entry arrived via the wide-ranging third album Slow Phaser in 2014. Goodnight Rhonda Lee embraced a pronounced retro stance in 2017 that carried forward to the fifth studio effort Italian Ice in 2020, tracked at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio alongside alumni of the classic Rhythm Section. Memphis Ice appeared the following year as a lean acoustic-trio version captured live at Memphis Magnetic Recording Co.
Raised in Neptune, New Jersey, Atkins moved to North Carolina in her late teens to pursue illustration studies at UNC Charlotte. After forming connections with members of the Avett Brothers and spending several years in the alt-country outfit Los Parasols, she returned briefly to the tri-state region, where open-mike appearances throughout Manhattan’s East Village sharpened a style leaning more heavily toward pop than her Los Parasols work had.
In subsequent years the singer-songwriter shuttled between North Carolina and the Northeast before settling once more in New Jersey at her parents’ residence. New York City performances drew notice from area musicians, prompting her to assemble a backing group of guitarist Dave Hollinghurst, bassist John Flaugher, drummer Dan Mintzer, and keyboardist Daniel Chen. Under the name Nicole Atkins & the Sea, the ensemble secured a residency at the Lower East Side venue Piano’s and landed a Columbia Records contract on the basis of demo recordings and strong live showings. The Bleeding Diamonds EP surfaced in 2006, after which the band traveled to Sweden later that year to record a full album; Neptune City emerged in late 2007 and was followed by a covers EP in 2008.
Following guest vocals on A.C. Newman’s Get Guilty, Atkins navigated multiple changes while preparing her second album, parting from her original band, ending a long-term relationship, and parting ways with Columbia. Consequently Mondo Amore reached listeners only in early 2011 through Razor & Tie, revealing fresh influences drawn from blues and vintage psychedelia. Extensive touring in support of that record stretched nearly a year before she began shaping a third album alongside producer and percussionist Jim Sclavunos. Hurricane Sandy struck her New Jersey home in 2012 while she was in Memphis, leaving her temporarily cut off from the coast. Producer Tore Johansson, who had previously worked on Neptune City, learned of the situation and invited her to his residential studio in Sweden, where she assembled scattered lyric ideas and fragments stored on her iPhone into the ambitious, eclectic Slow Phaser. Opting to bypass further label arrangements, Atkins issued the album on her own Oh Mercy! Records after a successful crowdfunding campaign, with the release appearing in January 2014.
She later aligned with the Florence, Alabama-based Single Lock Records for the fourth studio album Goodnight Rhonda Lee. Recorded in Fort Worth, Texas, under production trio Niles City Sound (Leon Bridges), the set reached number 18 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart and number 21 on the Americana/folk chart after its 2017 release. Strengthening the retro direction, she tracked the next album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, enlisting Spooner Oldham and David Hood of the classic Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Additional contributors to 2020’s Italian Ice included members of the Dap-Kings, the Bad Seeds, and the Avett Brothers along with John Paul White and Spoon’s Britt Daniel. When the COVID-19 pandemic prevented touring, Atkins launched a subscription-based variety show broadcast from her attic, later episodes originating from the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and featuring guests such as Ween and Kurt Vile. She booked a day at Memphis Magnetic Recording Co. to capture 2021’s Memphis Ice, an acoustic rendering of Italian Ice material performed live with the trio of Chen on piano, Laura Epling on violin, and Maggie Chaffee on cello and augmented by the previously unreleased track “Promised Land,” a leftover from the Italian Ice sessions.
Raised in Neptune, New Jersey, Atkins moved to North Carolina in her late teens to pursue illustration studies at UNC Charlotte. After forming connections with members of the Avett Brothers and spending several years in the alt-country outfit Los Parasols, she returned briefly to the tri-state region, where open-mike appearances throughout Manhattan’s East Village sharpened a style leaning more heavily toward pop than her Los Parasols work had.
In subsequent years the singer-songwriter shuttled between North Carolina and the Northeast before settling once more in New Jersey at her parents’ residence. New York City performances drew notice from area musicians, prompting her to assemble a backing group of guitarist Dave Hollinghurst, bassist John Flaugher, drummer Dan Mintzer, and keyboardist Daniel Chen. Under the name Nicole Atkins & the Sea, the ensemble secured a residency at the Lower East Side venue Piano’s and landed a Columbia Records contract on the basis of demo recordings and strong live showings. The Bleeding Diamonds EP surfaced in 2006, after which the band traveled to Sweden later that year to record a full album; Neptune City emerged in late 2007 and was followed by a covers EP in 2008.
Following guest vocals on A.C. Newman’s Get Guilty, Atkins navigated multiple changes while preparing her second album, parting from her original band, ending a long-term relationship, and parting ways with Columbia. Consequently Mondo Amore reached listeners only in early 2011 through Razor & Tie, revealing fresh influences drawn from blues and vintage psychedelia. Extensive touring in support of that record stretched nearly a year before she began shaping a third album alongside producer and percussionist Jim Sclavunos. Hurricane Sandy struck her New Jersey home in 2012 while she was in Memphis, leaving her temporarily cut off from the coast. Producer Tore Johansson, who had previously worked on Neptune City, learned of the situation and invited her to his residential studio in Sweden, where she assembled scattered lyric ideas and fragments stored on her iPhone into the ambitious, eclectic Slow Phaser. Opting to bypass further label arrangements, Atkins issued the album on her own Oh Mercy! Records after a successful crowdfunding campaign, with the release appearing in January 2014.
She later aligned with the Florence, Alabama-based Single Lock Records for the fourth studio album Goodnight Rhonda Lee. Recorded in Fort Worth, Texas, under production trio Niles City Sound (Leon Bridges), the set reached number 18 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart and number 21 on the Americana/folk chart after its 2017 release. Strengthening the retro direction, she tracked the next album at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, Alabama, enlisting Spooner Oldham and David Hood of the classic Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Additional contributors to 2020’s Italian Ice included members of the Dap-Kings, the Bad Seeds, and the Avett Brothers along with John Paul White and Spoon’s Britt Daniel. When the COVID-19 pandemic prevented touring, Atkins launched a subscription-based variety show broadcast from her attic, later episodes originating from the Paramount Theater in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and featuring guests such as Ween and Kurt Vile. She booked a day at Memphis Magnetic Recording Co. to capture 2021’s Memphis Ice, an acoustic rendering of Italian Ice material performed live with the trio of Chen on piano, Laura Epling on violin, and Maggie Chaffee on cello and augmented by the previously unreleased track “Promised Land,” a leftover from the Italian Ice sessions.
Albums
Memphis Ice
2021
Italian Ice
2020
Goodnight Rhonda Lee
2017
Slow Phaser (Deluxe Edition)
2014
The Singles (Remixes)
2014
Slow Phaser
2014
Mondo Amore
2011
Digs Other People's Songs
2008
Neptune City
2007
Party's Over
2007
Bleeding Diamonds EP
2006
Singles
Live
