The Hour

There’s something different about rising American singer-songwriter Nell Bryden. She possesses something unique and refreshing, both in her music and in her personality.

Not wanting her music to be categorised under one catch-all genre, she embarks on a lengthy explanation about where her musical roots are from. She also dreamt of being an opera singer in her childhood, having toured with her classical singer mother as an infant, before classic rock crept into her life and changed her perspectives on life and music.

“There are so many different elements in there that it is very difficult to come up with the one catchphrase, especially because the songs vary as well,” said Bryden. “I think for me the blues is definitely in there and so much of rock and roll comes from the blues.

“I also think Americana Rockabilly, there’s a huge resurgence of Rockabilly just now and I feel like I fit right into that.

“For me that’s always been my biggest challenge to figure out what style of music it is. I just like to play what I want to play.”

For Bryden, her music is all about her personality rather than her technical ability. Not that her musical talent is lacking, of course. It is a trait inherited from her early idols, the likes of Hendrix and Joplin, who she explains came through on tape offering so much more than just their music.

“I started really getting into some classic rock people,” she explained. “Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, I think even some jazz singers like Billie Holiday, any person whose personality would come through on tape.

“You’d hear them and even if they had been gone for years and years and years, you could still hear exactly who they were on that tape. It was like a real person coming across and I just loved that idea that you could get that real soul across on tape like that.

“I think rock and roll was in my heart. It’s one of those things you can’t take it out. It’s either there or it’s not.”

Bryden isn’t one to rest on her laurels either. Many musicians would tour to raise their profile, release an album, do a bit more touring and then take a rest from the life of music. Not Bryden though, who treats her ability to entertain people as a full-time job and tours constantly around the world to raise her profile and to keep in touch with reality.

“I think one of the biggest challenges in this business is for musicians to see it’s a real job. You can apply yourself, you can go out there and you can tour non-stop.

“You can see results come from that. A lot of the times it just seems like this free-for-all, bohemian existence and it doesn’t always have to be like that.

“It’s a big thing for me. I realised about five or six years ago that the best way to survive in this industry, both psychologically and as a professional musician, was to be out there playing in front of people every single night.

“There’s no better way to gauge where you are as an artist than to bounce it off an audience. I think that sometimes when you are in your bedroom and recording songs, you can lose a little bit of touch with the style of music, particularly that I am trying to do. It’s so based on people’s reaction and on having fun and going out for a good night.”

Nell Bryden is currently supporting Ben Taylor on tour. She returns to Scotland on her own headline tour in November, playing at Glasgow’s Oran Mor on November 9. For more information, visit her website at http://www.nellbryden.com/.

Watch Nell Bryden give an exclusive performance of her track What Does It Take?

See Nell perform Second Time Around.