Sometimes the song is the easy part. Listening to Nadia Reid it seems that way, they appear (on stage and on record) fully formed, alive in the world, born and crafted with a weight that belies their authors young age. Maybe it’s because Nadia sounds more than a singer, more than a songwriter. She sounds like a worker, one who cares about her craft and the path on which she intends to take it.
Her songs shape and turn and lie carved in the air, they carry your ear and lift your eye to the back of the room, the corner of your heart and the world outside your window but sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes the song is the easy part. To make them live you have to give them out, send or carry them into the world. That's the hard work, and that's where you find a writer's gift, their true worth. Nadia carries those songs and the moments they create, like water from a well, like a thing to care about. If you’re a listener then you can trust her, it helps to know she refuses to take it lightly and will work as hard as she wants you listen.
In 2011, Reid released her debut EP Letters I Wrote And Never Sent, ventured out on her first national tour, and had her song ‘Rise and Fall’ feature in Gerard Smythes’ film When a City Falls. The documentary film of the Christchurch earthquakes was shown in over 40 cinemas nationwide throughout the summer and is now due for international release. A pretty big year by all accounts, for someone only twenty years of age. After a two-year stint in Christchurch, the Dunedin-raised musician is now based in Auckland and is set for the next stage in her career.
“Nadia Reid possesses a measured melancholia that speaks eloquently of the smoldering embers of life's firestorms.” Jeff Harford, (source).
“Self-styled “New folk” singer Nadia Reid has a rich sultry voice, which on her Letters I Wrote And Never Sent EP, she drapes languidly over ornate folk and alt-country instrumentation. Reid sings about relationships, but not strictly relationships of romantic love, also relationships with friends, places, events and ideas.” Martyn Pepperell, (source).
“’Rise and Fall’ has already etched itself into many people's hearts and that's in no small part to its hushed cadence, beautiful vocal performance and glistening acoustics; a gorgeous song on its own.” Music Hype.
