10. Nina NastasiaRun To Ruin
Nina Nastasia is my favourite songwriter, hands down. I think I heard recently that she lost her partner, which is awful. But I love it when artists are like, ‘yeah I’m not releasing music, but I’m not telling anyone why’. I just love that, but I’m also worried. There was a period of time where in quick succession she was putting out really incredible work, and then she just stopped, a decade ago. When I first discovered her I had no idea I would ever become a musician and I’m still surprised that I am. But when I first heard her there was a part of me that thought if I were a musician this is the person I would want to be because she yells beautifully as she sings and she sort of says nothing and everything all at once. I feel like she’s very close and very far, very protective and very insulated. She sort of incubates inside her own songs, so she’s right there in your ear but you can never quite grasp her. The arrangements on her records are so fantastic. There’ll be a song and then there’ll be two minutes of this wild cello duel, there are these pretty little hooks and then it gets noisy and riley. I guess you could say it’s gothic folk music, but at the time I first heard it I’d never heard anything like her and I still don’t know where she fits. Do you?
