Nikki & Rich – Soulful, Hip and Uber-Talented
by bill biss
In the history of popular music, sometimes “it takes two, baby, to make a dream come true.” Such is the case with the magical and very musical duo of Nikki and Rich.The combination of Rich Skillz’s musicianship, production and music writing combined with Nikki Leonti’s amazingly powerful, sensual and chameleon-like voice and lyrical skills create major sparks on their Reprise debut CD called Everything.
The Rage Monthly spoke with the two of them just weeks before their release drops on August 17. Let’s find out more about this dynamic duo, shall we?
The Rage Monthly: You two have been compared to a lot of musical duos of the past. No one has ever compared you to Captain and Tennille though.
Nikki and Rich: (laughter)
Nikki: I like that.
Rage: The music is so wonderful.
Nikki and Rich: Thank you.
Rage: Rich, a question for you. Please tell me about the experience of the first time you heard Nikki sing?
Rich: It was amazing. I just heard this power in this voice. I think the first thing that hit me was not so much how I was blown away…that was an instant. But, the fact that I was excited to get something. The music that she had played me, I felt she wasn’t using what she had in her.
She had acoustic and country and all that. It was all great, but I really thought with her voice and us doing this kind of soul and pop thing that we do, would really work with her. I completely changed my whole production style accordingly. She was just this raw talent that came in and I was just blown away.
Rage: Nikki, your voice really is incredible. I wanted to ask you about the song called, “Take the Lead.” Did you write the lyrics for that?
Nikki: Yes, but that was definitely a collaboration with Rich and myself. It’s a subject matter that maybe strays a little differently from what a lot of people speak of when they talk about relationships. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.
Rage: The lyrics might not be construed as feminist. Though, a portion of the lyrics clearly state, “I’m going to be my own person and be as strong as you.” It’s stunning.
Rich: That’s the funny thing about that song is the false sense of “this is the woman allowing the guy to take the lead.” It’s not like: you can take the lead…you’re being allowed to (laughter).
Rage: How much time did you two spend deciding on the order of the songs on Everything?
Nikki: Wow. We had a few different orders on the record before we determined how it would be done.
Rich: We got some input from our A&R person, Watts Russell. He was very intricate in helping with that. We had our original order and then the new order kind of changed very lightly.
Rage: It was very creative of you Rich to weave in a touch of the 1960s girl groups in a couple of songs. Then, lyrically, to do something, which is modern in tone, which counterbalances that classic sound in the beginning of the album. But then, with the song, “Same Kind of Man” Nikki goes all “Leona Lewis, Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey” with her voice on that.
Nikki and Rich: (laughter)
Rage: Listening to Nikki sing, it was like, “this woman has a voice that can do pretty much anything!”
Rich: I agree with you there.
Rage: Nikki, you were raised in a very religious household. You have commented that you only listened to Christian music growing up. When you were able to buy an album on your own, what was one of the first albums you remember buying?Nikki: I was 16 at the time. At the church we were going to, somebody snuck me a copy of Mariah Carey’s Music Box and her Christmas album. So, when my parents would leave, I would play that record.
That was my first exposure to anything non-Christian. I was blown away by the vocals and everything she did.
That was the first. Later, when I was 18 and out of the house, I was listening to James Taylor and Chicago.
Rage: “Yellow Brick Road” onEverything is such an amazing song. Will you tell me about the background on writing the song?
Nikki: The whole Wizard of Oz movie has been like my life-obsession. I always wanted to infuse something of that into a song lyrically. The well-known concept of the yellow brick road was something that meant something to me.
I have an “Over the Rainbow” tattoo on my arm. I’m pretty crazy. For me, that song was an opportunity to be a little more poetic and to not be as pop with the lyrics.
I’m such a daydreamer and you want to believe that there is this happy road that leads you exactly where you need to be. Sometimes, it’s not that way.
Rage: Whose idea was it to put the gospel choir behind it?
Nikki: Richard here. Mr. Rich Skillz’s music is so exciting for me to hear. The music is what always inspires me when I’m going to write something. It got me completely excited and I knew it was something that could really go there, and indeed Rich took it there (laughter).
Rich: Awww.
Rage: Another song that was trippy for me in your ability to transform vocally into these different styles was the song, “December.” The way your voice comes across, I was like, “Wait. Is this the same person?”
Rich: It’s funny. That song was particularly inspired by Barbra Streisand. We were listening to her and Barry Gibb’s record when we were outside while we were making this record. We both kind of caught on to how effortlessly she sings and how beautifully she hits everything.
Nikki: And lazily sometimes, she just flows completely with the rhythm of a song. Rich was telling me to try something like that and to really relax on the vocals.
Rage: What are your plans for August? I know you’ve had several songs used in television and film. What’s happening now?
Rich: Absolutely. We’re jumping right back on the road. We’re just going to be doing a ton of shows. We also have a couple of big album release shows that we’re going to do.
We have Jimmy Kimmel Live set up and a bunch of other things set up right around the album release time.
Rage: You really have to listen to the whole album before you form an opinion. Some have said that music lately is harking back to the 1960s sound too much and that some new artists are jumping on that bandwagon. I think though with Nikki’s ability to shift gears vocally and with the lyrics and Rich’s production on this makes it a hybrid and unique in all aspects.
Rich: We appreciate that. We definitely love that era and we incorporated that into our record. We like it. But…we definitely made sure that we got everything that we loved. That’s true R&B, true Soul. Even like a Lauren Hill-type of music to even having Hip-Hop in there, we tried to blend all the things we like.
Nikki: Yeah. It’s not a throwback record. If you listen to “Next Best Thing” it’s obvious it’s using part of the sounds of the 1960s but like you said, there is a common thread. It all fits but it’s not a throwback-stylized record.
Rage: Totally. It was a pleasure.
Nikki and Rich: No problem. Thanks so much.
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Category: INTERVIEWS, SPOTLIGHTS
