9th IMA Submission Spotlight: Nive Nielsen

ARTIST NAME: Nive Nielsen & Deer Children

HOMETOWN/CURRENTLY BASED: Nuuk, Greenland

WEB SITE: www.myspace.com/nivenielsen

INFLUENCES: Giant Sand, Cat Power, Tom Waits, Arthur Russell, The Clean, dusty old 78s folk records, Cardinal, Neko Case, M. Ward, PJ Harvey...

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
*Just played for the Queen of Denmark - that was exciting (and very very weird, grin).
*National Independence Day in Greenland (we just became self-governing!) where I was the main act - totally thrilling!
*Recording with my heroes (almost all of 'em!! Howe Gelb, John Parish, Ralph Carney, people from Godspeed You!, Black Emperor, Cardinal, Black Keys, Tom Waits' band... so so wicked!)
*Selling out my debut record in my home town in exactly half a day.
*Having my songs featured in indie films and documentaries
*... hihi I *only* have career highlights :)

I SUBMITTED TO THE INDEPENDENT MUSIC AWARDS BECAUSE:
...many reasons really. Greenland's really really far away from everything else, music wise - and I am pretty curious to see how what I 'm doing would be received. Also, I need input, feedback and what not. Since I'm totally new to all this music stuff (I tend to just sit and make songs, not to try and make people listen to them -haven't really figured that part out just yet), I wanted to see if through submitting some songs to the IMA I could maybe get in touch with people in the big wide world who might be interested in collaborating or something. Yup yup...

9TH ANNUAL IMA JUDGE YOU'RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT:
Pretty much everybody, really. But especially:
* Zooey Deschannel and M. Ward (I love his work, and hers too!!)
* Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney (they rock!!)
* Suzanne Vega (I listened to her a lot when I was little)


IM PROUD TO BE AN INDEPENDENT ARTIST BECAUSE:
It takes a lot of effort and determination. Being from such a remote place as Greenland doesn't help. (There's no roads between towns - you can take a plane or helicopter, which is crazy expensive so very few people can afford it. There's no CD stores, no underground scene, no musician or artist-run venues. Internet's so slow that up until recently, it took forever to download just 1 song. Very, very few foreign musicians ever come to play. Basically, Greenland's absolutely amazing and I love it so so so much but if you wanna be an independent musician it takes a lot) Anyways, I got to travel, learn, listen, meet awesome people - and got to make the record I wanted to, piece by piece, with a lot of help from people I look up to, with a lot of encouragement along the way. I'm doing precisely what I 've been dreaming of doing! I make the songs I want to make, make 'em sound the way I want them to sound, make the artwork, the videos, play when I want, do the promo myself... and I have fun along the way, too - so yup I'm pretty proud.

WHAT'S NEXT (UPCOMING TOURS, ALBUMS. ETC):
* Just finished mastering my debut, Nive Sings. I'm really excited about the result. There's a few songs on iTunes as preview and I released the record on my own label back home in Greenland. Now, I'm gonna have to look at how to get other people to hear it. There's going to be a limited 7" run, too, and I 'm recording some new songs for a soundtrack I'm scoring.
* I will play a couple of nice concerts in the UK this summer, some festivals, a short tour in Quebec & Ontario, and a bigger Scandinavian tour in late fall.

SUCCESS = Having fun!

WHAT MAKES YOU STAND OUT: Well, I guess there's not many little red ukulele-wielding Inuit girls singing about coffee and ghosts and bugs and ghost bugs out there, right? That, and the fact that I'm an indie musician from the north pole who just managed to make a real cool album with a lot of amazing musicians on it, with no financial help whatsoever. I'm real proud of that.

WHERE DO YOU TOUR?
Anywhere I 'm invited! I 've been playing in the US, Canada, and Europe, mainly solo or duo -until a couple months ago when my band was ready to go out there - so now we do that and it's just so much fun!

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE VENUE TO PLAY AND WHY?
*Katuaq, in Greenland. I 've hosted TV shows there (I used to make culture programs for tv up here), saw a lot of gigs there, met my best friend there and then I got to play there, too!
*I also liked the series of living room concerts in Europe I did last summer - so many nice people in so many wonderful houses with so many excellent sofas.
*This summer, I'm gonna play in Union Chapel in London and that's a venue I'm in awe with, so that's gonna be fun, too I reckon.