SYDNEY, N.S. — Nicole Ariana has been on Drake's OVOSound Radio three times, co-wrote and sang on American artist Russ' album, “Shake The Snowglobe,” which reached No. 1 in sales on the US Billboard charts last February, and she has written a major-label song, “Call Me Now,” featuring Romanian singer INNA and DJ Michael Calfan, that reached 500,000 streams on Spotify within just one week.
But for the Sydney native, who may be better known to Sydney and Truro residents as Nicole Curry, the best is yet to come.
“I’m working on it for sure,” Ariana, now based in Halifax, told The Cape Breton Post in a recent interview. “This is like a new beginning for me.”
Ariana along with director Stephanie Joline and producer Melani Wood have just been selected as grant recipients from the Music Video Production Project which allows emerging Canadian artists to improve their music video production skills. The grants, which run between $5,000 and $15,000, allow artists to produce work that will allow them to stay connected to their fans during a time of disruption caused by the pandemic.
The grant will go towards Ariana’s upcoming video for her second single, “Crybaby.”
“We’re super excited about it,” says Ariana, adding the song was produced by Dylan Guthro of Port Cities as well as co-written with him, his sister Jodi Guthro, Kyle Mischiek and Kayleigh O’Connor.
The group involved in the writing of the song met during the Gordie Sampson Songcamps over a period of six years. Ariana plans to release “Crybaby” later this year with several other songs on an EP. Work on the video has already begun.
“We actually just come back from scouting the locations from where we’re going to shoot the video so it’s been an exciting day.”
Ariana was 15 when her family moved from Sydney to Truro but she returned to complete her Grade 12 at Sydney Academy. She did her first year of university at Cape Breton University and then finished her degree at St. Francis Xavier. After that, she majored in voice at Nova Scotia Community College’s music arts program in Dartmouth. She’s released two EPs, one in 2013 that was nominated for a Nova Scotia Music Award and her most recent, “Strand,” in 2017. In 2018, she received a publishing deal and since then has been focusing on songwriting for artists and publishers.
“I’m what they call a top-line writer - I write lyrics and melody with producers over instrumental beats and music and my publisher will place those,” Ariana says, adding she also writes with other friends who are musicians as well.
“I’ve been really focused on that for that last few years and got a couple of cuts on international artists’ projects - one would be Inna. She is a Romanian pop star so I’ve written three songs of hers in 2020 and with other writers as well and then I was featured on a major artist from the U.S. named Russ on his project last year. I sang and co-wrote the hook on a song called “Patience” and that was really cool because he actually performed it on Jimmy Kimmel Live last February. And it was No. 1 on the Billboard Charts for sales two weeks last February so that was my big breakthrough as a songwriter. It was really cool.”
However, the pandemic and its effects on the music industry has been downright chilly with several music writing sessions cut short, including a trip to London, Paris and Berlin last spring and a planned trip to L.A. But like everyone else, she’s adapted.
“It’s a bit more difficult to write on Zoom and feel the same energy when you’re writing during a Zoom session,” she says. “But I am lucky to be able to continue to write and the publisher is really good in setting me up with a lot of people internationally - I’ve been able to work with people … I have two sessions with producers in Romania next week and I wouldn’t have gone to Romania so it’s kind of neat to be able to write.”
Ariana describes her music as alternative R&B pop with a darker, more sensual feel. She’s confident the video will help her to reach more people and expand her music career horizons.
“I feel super privileged to be a recipient of this grant program because it’s allowing me to create something that I would otherwise would not have the means to create with a team that is super-talented and professional in their industry. So for us to be able to collaborate it’s going to be a new experience for me too, to be able to make something of this stature, I’m definitely really excited.
“It’s going to be really cool.”
Elizabeth Patterson is a culture and health reporter at the Cape Breton Post.