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ProfilesMcKay (pronounced "Mc-EYE") was born in London, England to a Scottish writer/director, Malcolm McKay, and an American actress, Robin Pappas. At the age of two, after her parents split, she moved with her mother to New York City, where they stayed until 1994. After one year in Olympia, Washington, the two returned back East and lived in the Poconos, where McKay spent her high-school years.
In 2000, McKay started attending the Manhattan School of Music, but, bored and unsatisfied, dropped out after two years. She started performing as a stand-up comic in Manhattan clubs, and eventually Greenwich Village's gay bars.
She eventually signed with Columbia/Sony and started producing her first record in the late summer of 2003.
Her music has showcased different genres from jazz to rap and disco to funk. Her eclectic style and sharp lyrics distinguish her as an original voice. Her songs sometimes have a political tinge; she "is a proud member of PETA" (album notes), wrote a song ("Columbia Is Bleeding") dealing with the issue of Columbia University's cruelty to animals, and ("John John") about her feelings in favor of political candidate Ralph Nader as well as performing concerts as benefits for WBAI.
Her critically acclaimed first CD, Get Away from Me, was released by Columbia/Sony Records in February 2004. The title is a play on Norah Jones' Come Away with Me and expresses her dissatisfaction with modern jazz. McKay is said to be the first woman to release a double album as her first release. Originally, her contract with Columbia called for 13 songs, but McKay aggressively lobbied her label for a double album, including bottles of wine, a PowerPoint slideshow, and a mock photo of her threatening Emerick with a gun. The studio agreed, but McKay had to underwrite production costs of the five additional tracks with $25,000 of her own money. Although all the music would fit on a single disc, McKay insisted on a double disc debut to "reclaim the feeling of flipping over a record" (All Music Guide).
Nellie's second cd, Pretty Little Head, which features duets with k.d. lang and McKay's co-star in 'Threepenny Opera', Cyndi Lauper, was originally slated for an October 18, 2005 release. However, McKay announced on December 19, 2005, that she had left Columbia/Sony Records after a dispute over the length of the upcoming album. Just over two weeks following this announcement, a New York Times article surfaced stating McKay said she had been dropped by Columbia Records.
McKay wanted the full 65 minute, 23 track version of Pretty Little Head to be released, but Columbia was only willing to support a 16-track version that ran 48 minutes. (Columbia/Sony was so adamant about the abbreviated version that it sent copies of this version out as promotional copies to critics.) Executives at Columbia insist McKay understood the label wanted an album consisting of 15 or 16 songs.
After nearly nine months of ironing out the legalities between labels, Pretty Little Head was released in the United States on October 31st on McKay's own label, Hungry Mouse, and was marketed by SpinART Records.] Like its predecessor, the album was divided in two discs and included a 44-page color booklet. The album included the intended 23 tracks as originally planned.
