Singer-songwriter Nina Ricci keeps her footing in folk revival with her debut album Designs On Me. A storyteller by nature, each of the project's seven songs tell a tale revealing her sentimental side and sketching dream-like images that stay with the listener well after first listen. Here, Ricci kindly took the time to answer her Essential 8 and spoke about the album, songwriting, her dream venue, and more.
Why did you choose to anchor the album with these songs? When I started to get the idea it was time to record an album I was going through a reemergence of writing. My personal mode of writing is a little different. I don’t write all the time. I let time pass between my writing sessions so that I have something new and fresh to write about with new aesthetic influences. That way I am not writing the same song over and over. My reason for choosing these songs is simple, they were ripe for the picking. They were my newest and freshest works, the cream right off the top, and they carried that youthful vibrance a song has when it’s newly written. I looked back on my older songs as candidates, but I felt the new ones had a sort of connection to each other that I didn’t want to break up. I think that’s because my approach to writing songs changed around this time. I wanted to relate to my audience in a personal way. Whereas as a folksinger, I tend to act as an interpreter of narratives that are aesthetically old and difficult for people to grasp, I felt that these songs had a “right now” kind of relevance. For example, I was starting to bite the bitter end of the truths about being a performing musician when I wrote “Numbers Don’t Show.” The difference in a successful career and a mediocre one is based on the number of tickets sold at your concerts. Because we as musicians are all in this race together and we have the same struggles for our music to be heard, I wrote “Numbers Don’t Show” to them. “Folk City” was inspired by a day trip that took me to Greenwich Village. My dad lived there in his 20’s and some of my favorite folksingers played in the music venue Gerde’s Folk City, back in the day. I wasn’t able to write the song for a long time until I had one last wind of inspirational gusto when I learned about a theater group called “Folk City Musical” who is bringing to life the historicity of the Greenwich Village folk scene on stage. “I Never Deserve Any Good Thing I Got” was a clear contender because of it’s poetic lyricism and humanity. It’s me, looking at myself like I am, and that’s the design I had for the album: to show people who I am as a person, a writer, a performer, and an overall musical craftswoman.  Courtesy of Get Noticed Photography
Where do you draw inspiration from when writing?
To be honest, I don’t draw inspiration until I am ready for it. If I want to write, I open the flood gate and gather the ideas. Inspiration is there, but I don’t access it until I make myself available, then it comes rolling in. But in the case that I feel like writing and I don’t have it, I finish songs. In uninspirational moods, I get to be the analyst and surgically remove material that doesn’t benefit the songs. If the old idea I started with in another session is a little obscure or rusty, I rework my material and navigate to a new place, that way I am productive and practicing my creativity, so that when inspiration comes I am ready to write. Often, I start with a title. I will have a title in my head for a while. If the title remains in my mind, a song is also percolating and generally, an explosion happens and a new and different song comes from it. Generally, in instances like those, the song is written very fast. Sometimes I have a chorus or a melody in mind. If it’s a melody, I know that either the verses are going to drive the song or the chorus. The challenge happens if the melody of the verses is good enough to frighten the chance of an outstanding chorus away. Sometimes restructure and reconstruction is inevitable and you might get 2 songs from 1 idea, and 1 is stellar and the other is for posterity. “Designs On Me” came that way. I had the title as a refrain in a song I simply named, “Considerate and Kind.” I suddenly realized I wrote a very nice melody that was very tricky to sing and I felt that it wasn’t right for me, but I also felt the idea had not had it’s full benefit. So, I wrote another song based on the idea. It turned out that I was attracted to “Considerate and Kind” and I thought “Designs On Me” was a “throwaway,” but when it came to choosing the anchor songs, for some reason I not only chose it for the album but as the title track! Arranging is like putting clothes on a song, and when I arranged “Designs On Me,” something very beautiful happened. Do you write about personal experience, the experience of others, observations, made-up stories, something else or a combination? I’ve led a sheltered live, but not without experiences. I write from all of the above. It depends on what the inspiration is. If it is about a social subject, I may express my ideas through a character’s experience that is from my imagination or from the culture of the times. Sometimes I write directly from my own experience, which when you write subjectively you run the risk of writing in obscurity and sounding self-absorbed, but I ground myself in the main idea, so that I let my experience validate the theme, and I heighten the lyricism so that the story is more iconic, and anthemic. Sometimes I do write purely from imagination. My childhood was full of imagination, and I’ve spent much time in the daydream realm. As long as my imagination has grounding in reality, or in the correct setting, the songs are safe to become themselves. Let the songs be themselves. I don’t write purely from feelings because songs written directly from the heart feel unhinged. The head and the heart must be united for a purpose, but as is the saying goes, “if a man’s heart is in front of his head, he is a fool; if his head is in front of his heart, he is a king. There are times in my writing where I loosen the reigns of reason and let the heart have its way, but I keep it on a leash to a refrain, or something that brings it to a place of stability, as with “Designs On Me” or “If I Wear Blue.” What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten from another musician? “Whatever you do, be consistent.” “The best combattant against nervousness, is preparation.” “Work harder than anyone else.” Do you have a favorite concert you attended? John Paul White - Musicians Corner - Centennial Park - May 13th. I played on a side stage about 30 minutes before he went on. It was his return to Nashville concert, so to speak. He opened with an acapella piece that simultaneously stunned and lulled the crowd into absolute silence and submission. I’ll never forget that. His stage presence and musicianship held the audience in security and his songs fell on us like a returning trade wind. Neck and neck with this concert, is actually one I attended at my college with a lot students performing. It was a Caribbean concert with a lot of movement that introduced me in a live format to Reggae-based music. Best fun I’ve ever had at a concert. Song (of yours) you wish you would have released as a single and why? I wish I could release “Goodbye Sandals, Hello Boots” as a single. It’s a kitchy and honest folk pop song about the change of season with vignettes of the people who enjoy cold weather and the holidays. Additionally, I wish I had professionally released my song “Constant Sunshine,” because it is very uplifting and just fun to listen to! It’s a beachy, summertime song and has a lot of enthusiasm. What’s your dream venue and why? Newport Folk Festival in Fort Adams State Park, hands down. I was asked once what my goal to reach after college was. That was my answer. The Newport Folk Festival is pretty much the pinnacle gig for folksingers because of its history. I was watching the documentary, I think it was, “The Other Side Of The Mirror,” before college about Dylan’s premier at the festival. It was so iconic and mesmerizing, I knew then and there that was the place I wanted to go. My dad’s side of the family lives in Rhode Island, and I consider it the second most beautiful place to heaven. For all of these reasons, it would be my thrill and my honor to play the Newport Folk Festival. Is there a professional bucket list you would like to check off? Yes, from the ground up, I would like to play at Music City Roots at the Factory in Franklin, TN, coupled with a feature on WSM FM radio, followed by The Grand Ole Opry. I haven’t had the pleasure of touring, yet, so I would like to play every theater and every arena in every major city that will have me from Nashville to Nazareth. Is that asking too much? Website/Facebook/Twitter/Purchase
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