Ramrock Selectahs: Nicole Cassandra Smit

Ramrock Selectahs: Nicole Cassandra Smit

RRRLP004 - Till Sunday - Steven Christie ft. Joseph Malik

The incredible 'Till Sunday' recordings are a result of Steven Christie and Joseph Malik writing music together with no pre-planned agenda. The first day of recording lead to the demo track 'Till Sunday', and with Joseph's stunning lyrics and melody, the pair quickly arranged another session which produced the final set of songs - ‘Tired On My Own', 'Justify Me', ' Everybody Seems To Want Something From You' and 'Girl Everything'. The songs also showcase the outstanding vocal skills of Nicole Cassandra Smit and the multi-talented Christina Robertson who also designed the beautiful album sleeve. Instrumentally, the guitar playing of Chris Hall and Jay Robertson (a.k.a 'Aqua Bassino') along with trombonist/arranger, Chris Greive, Alistair Mckenzie on Cello and drummer, Daniel Walls (a.k.a ‘Digital Liquid’) led to the completion of the ‘Till Sunday’ LP recordings. Both Christie and Malik felt the songs had captured a pure, emotional honesty and they presented the whole project to Jo Wallace at Ramrock Records who was deeply moved by the remarkable combination of music and vocals and signed it without any hesitation.Friends for nearly 30 years, Steven and Joseph first worked together in the 90's Hip-Hop outfit ‘Blacka'nized’, also collaborating at that time on the 'East Coast Project' compilation and later on Malik's broad ranging 'Diverse' trilogy of albums. Over the years, they’ve been busy on different projects – Steven has been touring and recording extensively with Scottish super group, The Proclaimers whilst Joseph expanded his song writing/production skills, resulting in a huge catalogue of tracks plus collaborations with international artists including Marc Mac (4Hero), Niki King and Black Science Orchestra. As well as this, Joseph signed his ‘Diverse Pt.2’ and ‘Diverse Pt.3’ LPs with Ramrock Records as well as a plethora of EPs including the ‘Stranger Things Have Happened’ soundtrack with Scottish hivemind, ‘Out of the Ordinary’.

RRR023 – Steven Christie ft. Joseph Malik – Justify Me EP

Taken from Steven Christie’s stunning debut solo LP, 'Till Sunday', Steven Christie and Joseph Malik, with guest vocals from Nicole Cassandra Smit, continue to make musical magic with their achingly soulful release, 'Justify Me'. On their 'Take 1 Re-Rub' of ‘Justify Me’, the North Street West production team of Ashley Beedle, Darren Morris and Jo Wallace give a generous nod to the magnificent STAX recording artists + musicians with swirling strings, muted trumpets and handclaps plus additional country soul piano and keyboards from Darren Morris.'Justify Me' will have you under its spell from the very first note.

RRR024 – Nicole Cassandra Smit – Strong Woman EP

The story behind ‘Strong Woman’ is a long and winding road. Originally submitted to the label by Joseph Malik as a demo about a man getting ready to go out to meet his girl, the song was put in front of Nicole who rewrote the lyrics and flipped the idea to reflect a woman doing the same thing. With Joseph Malik on production and co-writer along with long time musical partner and arranger David Donnelly, ‘Strong Woman’ is a positive affirmation of confident womanhood. The original version was first featured on The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on 6Music by Ashley Beedle during his ‘Trunk of Funk’ interview. When the North Street West production crew got hold of the track, they gave a nod in the direction of Muscle Shoals emphasising the County Soul elements, underpinning Nicole’s effortless vocals with upright piano, muted horns and Hammond B3.Born and raised to Indo/Swedish/Dutch parents in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nicole Cassandra Smit is an Edinburgh based singer/songwriter who blends her smoky voice and country ballad lyrics with RnB hooks and soulful harmonies. Both parents were avid music fans and her father was a performer and sound engineer, so Nicole grew up surrounded by influences and singing was a natural part of her life. From the age of 8, she started inventing her own songs and never stopped. In 2014, she started out as a backing singer for the show ‘Blues! ‘and for the following years, one of its featured artists. In 2016, this blossomed into helming a spin off show of her own ‘Queens of The Blues’. The sell-out show was performed at Edinburgh Fringe and Jazz & Blues Festivals in Scotland, England and Germany and the line-up of the show would perform all year round under the name ‘Nicole & The Back Up Crew’. At the same time, Nicole formed SMITTEN with Charlie Wild & Alex Palmer, an original lo-fi alternative trio, that started in 2016 and to date have released 2 EPs, a live album and were invited by a national promoter to tour Italy in 2018 & 2019. Currently Nicole is working on an album of original solo material and will be releasing independently in 2022.