Picked up a guitar in July 2005. Hasn't looked back yet...
With the rumbling of construction and the click-clacking of heels on pavement above, Nikki Schultz is in her basement studio in Cedar-Riverside quietly writing music that swells with an emotional intensity and intellectual depth uncommon for a self-taught singer/songwriter who's only been at it for three short years.
Combining elements of folk rock, jazz and soul, Nikki contributes her authentically smart songwriting style to the Twin Cities urban folk scene with her debut cd Lost and Found {and lost again}. Her stories illustrate delicate losses and personal victories, addressing the heavier issues of gentrification, death and unrequited love while incorporating more buoyant references to Hanna Barbera cartoons and the maker of that righteous triangle formula we all learned in high school.
A Minneapolis transplant by way of Milwaukee, Nikki grew up surrounded by music and singing along to the radio. It wasn't until 3 years ago, after a brief stint singing backing vocals for Minneapolis/Milwaukee group The Orin Project that she picked up a guitar and a pen to create her own work. Countless trials by fire at local open mic nights and several small gigs in friends' apartments later, Nikki's first collection of songs is ready to be heard.
Breathing life into these stories through her fervent and expressive singing voice, Nikki has enlisted the help of fellow musicians Sarah Woolever (percussion), Andrew Lynch (bass/keys/melodica/electric guitar) and John Kerns (lap steel) in creating a live recording that offers the texture of simple overdubbing while retaining the rawness and intimacy of live performance.
Relationships - to self, to others, to surroundings, to the past, to intellect and emotion – provide the inspiration for her work. Nikki's raw, upfront writing style is widely apparent in Oasis, which offers tribute to long time friend who was the victim of a collision with a drunken driver. I, Pythagoras (The Math Song), is a swinging sea ballad invoking square roots and irrational numbers/feelings. The disc's final track, Ruins, was recorded without the band by Marc Zavala (aka DJ Peru) in Milwaukee and is a rumination on love falling silent in world of collapsing towers and crumbling bridges.
Copies of the debut EP Lost and Found (and Lost Again) are available for purchase!Buy them at shows or on CDBaby .
Nikki also sings with Andrew Lynch .
Sarah is a singer/songwriter as well.
Adri plays bass in this awesome band .
