Published: Monday - October 13, 2008
Words by Michael Mahon
Nina Sky (Photo: Polo Grounds Records)
Natalie and Nicole, or Nina Sky as they are known to the masses, exploded onto the music scene in 2004 with the monster hit "Move Your Body". From that song, they were able to gain the notoriety and exposure that most first time artists dream of when they start to put together their debut projects. It was hard to go anywhere without hearing the chorus of the song being played somewhere nearby. They had a successful debut album, were able to tour the world, and worked with numerous artists from all different genres of music.
But 2004 was a long time ago and since then it seems like Nina Sky has been on a hiatus from their fans. Four years is a long time no matter how you look at it, and in the music business that time off would kill most careers. The sounds and fads of popular culture change so quickly that it's hard to keep up with them unless you're constantly on the scene to stay with the changing times. However, for Nina Sky, the time off seems to be just what they needed.
Although the group hasn't been visible to the listening public during this time off, they've been busy behind the scene taking steps to get their musical careers in order. During their missing in action status from music, the girls have grown and matured to become two focused young women. They've gone through both struggles and good times. They went through a label change, shifting from Universal Records to upstart Polo Grounds Records, and now feel that they have right team and support around them to push the new album, The Musical, which is slated to come out early next year.
BallerStatus.com: Why has it been so long since the group has had a new album?
Nicole: Well it's been awhile since our first album. Our last album, Nina Sky self-titled, dropped on Universal Records like four years ago. We worked with Universal like two years after that, trying to work on creating the new album, The Musical, but we felt really disconnected from the label. We felt like they didn't understand our project. So after two years of going back and forth, trying to record this album, we decided to part ways with them and they let us go. So then, we met with Bryan Leech from Polo Grounds and it just seemed like he followed our project more. He understood Nina Sky more, he understood our music, he understood what we were trying to do, what we were trying to accomplish with this album, and we signed with them. So, in that time we been recording for the last four years, but it was just like a transition period from Universal to Polo Grounds, and now we're finally here ready to release The Musical. We have our new single, "Curtain Call" featuring Rick Ross, so it's exciting. It's been a while, but in the last four years, we been recording nonstop so it's cool.
BallerStatus.com: What exactly are you trying to accomplish with The Musical?
Nicole: You know in the last four years, we've grown a lot. We've matured as young women, we've been in relationships, and we've traveled the world. We're four years older, so we're a lot more mature. Our music is a lot more mature. I mean, we stay true to who we are -- we're an R&B, pop group with a hip-hop base and our music is influenced by all different genres from rock to soul to house music to hip-hop music to R&B music. There's no genre that it isn't influenced by. What we're trying to do on this album, we just wanna show people like how we've grown and like we're very much involved in the whole creative process. We both did the album, there's only a few songs on the album we haven't wrote. We didn't write, we pretty much co-wrote the entire album. We co-produced on some of the tracks, so we're just really excited to show people how we've grown, and how our music has grown and to finally be back out with an album that we feel like is a solid, solid album.
BallerStatus.com: Who do you have working with you on the new album?
Natalie: On this album, we worked with a lot of producers. We worked with Ryan Leslie, The Runners, Cool and Dre, Salaam Remi, Leon Matrix. We worked with so many incredible people and when you work with different producers, they make you exert different things that maybe you didn't with the last producer. Like some producers are more focused on the melody, while some producers are more focused on the writing. Everyone has a different method of putting together songs, so it helps you grow too, as a musician.
Nicole: That's cool. The whole album was like a learning experience too and we've grown a lot, even in creating this album. So we're excited about it.
BallerStatus.com: Is there a release date for it?
Nicole: The album slated to come out in the beginning of the year. We don't know if it's January or February. Right now, the single, "Curtain Call" featuring Rick Ross, is out. We're amped about that. So far, people have been really receptive to it and it's surprising because a lot of people know us for "Move Your Body," "Turn Me On," ... ya know some of our more pop or reggaeton songs or maybe Alchemist's "Hold You Down". This song is so different from that, but people have still been receiving it well, so that's dope.
BallerStatus.com: The single does have a different feel to it, so is that what the new album is gonna be like? Or are you gonna incorporate the older sound too?
Natalie: What the first album was is very similar to this album. It's an R&B, hip-hop, pop album. But our first single, "Move your Body", I guess people thought that the album was more dance hall driven with more dance songs in it, but it's the same thing. It's a statement to who we are. We're New York girls and New York is a melting pot of music, so we listened to everything growing up -- from rock to hip hop to R&B to jazz to pop music. There's no genre that we didn't listen to. So we used all those elements to create our album. The album is still an R&B and hip-hop album, pop album, but you're gonna hear all these different elements from all these other genres that we listened to growing up. That's who Nina Sky is: we're eclectic artists like that.
BallerStatus.com: The group had a big hit with "Move Your Body." Do you feel like you have to have that same type of success?
Nicole: We're always trying to top ourselves. We feel like with "Move Your Body," it enabled us, it put us in a position where we can make this next album and make more music. It got our foot in the door, but at the end of the day, we still have way more to accomplish. So, I mean that's just one of many things we want to accomplish and we hope this album is even more successful than the last and the next one is more successful than this one. We're always trying to top ourselves, ya know? We still have steps to go.
BallerStatus.com: A lot artists, even some of the more established ones, are having trouble pushing a lot of units recently. Do you think that will be a problem for you?
Nicole: When we're making music, we're not even thinking about that. We're thinking about making music that people are gonna respond to, that people are gonna embrace, and hopefully the outcome of that is people are purchasing it. It's like we're not saying, "Oh this song is not gonna make us sale a million records." Nah, that's not our mindset. Our mindset is let's make great music and people will love it and people will buy it. We're not thinking about numbers, we're artists, so we're thinking making the music that people are gonna receive. Of course you wanna sell lots of records and be successful, that's the ultimate goal, but when we're making the music, we're not thinking about the numbers. We're thinking about making some dope sh** that people are gonna embrace and people are gonna love. Hopefully that translates into sales and people are gonna buy it.
BallerStatus.com: How is Polo Grounds working out for you compared to Universal?
Nicole: From the beginning, when we came to Polo Grounds, we just felt like Bryan Leech understood the Nina Sky project a lot more. He understood that we were artists, but we're also very much involved in the business aspect, very much involved in the creative process, and he encouraged that. From when we were at Universal, we felt like we were really disconnected, we felt didn't have a point person. We didn't know who was handling our project, we just felt lost. Here we feel like we're actually working as a team. They're encouraging us to get involved, they're pushing the project. We've gone in with so many great producers and we're finally at the point where the album is almost done and ready to be received. We didn't reach that point with Universal when we were working on our album. So it's exciting for us and where excited to be somewhere where we feel like they really understand our project and what we're trying to do.
BallerStatus.com: How do you feel about how the last album was received?
Nicole: We think it was received well with us being a new group. We're young and a lot of people put out albums and they don't sell half as many albums as we did and they don't have the success that we did. We put out one single, one video and from that video, we worked with N.O.R.E. on "Oye Mi Canto," we worked with the Alchemist, we wrote on Sean Paul's album, we did songs with Latin artists ... we worked with so many artists. That album enabled us to do that. We're happy with the success of that album.
Natalie: And it wasn't only successful in the U.S., we got to travel the whole world and work with other artists in other places as well.
Nicole: And it's a blessing. It's prepared us for what is to come right now. We feel like a hundred times more ready this time around and we feel like we know what we're doing even more this time around and prepared for everything to come. We really, really strongly feel that this album is the album that's gonna take us where we wanna be, as far as like our careers musically. It's just another step to accomplishing what we ultimately want to.
BallerStatus.com: Is there going to be a tour to promote the new album?
Nicole: Of course, we're gonna be touring everywhere. Right now we're in full fledged tour promo mode. We will be in every state and at every station doing everything we have to do. What a lot of people don't know about Nina Sky is we grind hard. We're two girls and we go on the road and we're on the road for days at a time. We hustle like unsigned artists and we're signed artists. Sometimes we're not even supposed to be at stations and we're at stations. We're going to meetings we're not supposed to be at. We're those types of artists. We're very proactive and very much involved in everything, so we'll definitely be everywhere.
BallerStatus.com: Besides The Musical, do you have anything else that you're working on as a group or individually?
Nicole: Well me, I tour a lot as a DJ, and I DJ in a lot of clubs.
Natalie: Yea I've actually started to design clothing, so I'm doing a collaboration t-shirt with line called Made Me Clothing, and you can check out MadeMeColthing.com to get it for the holiday collection. I'm excited about that. And, also we got a New Era fitted. We designed a fitted for New Era, which is cool because people associate New Era with males and we're females doing our own take on that, so it's dope. We're excited about that too. It's supposed to be coming out when our album comes out, so hopefully at the top of year.
BallerStatus.com: Are there any new artists that you two would like to work with?
Nicole: I mean there's a lot of new artists that we check for that we think are incredibly talented. Someone that we think is super dope is Jazmine Sullivan, we think her music is crazy. As far as artists that we'd love to collaborate with, there's so many because we haven't collaborated with many yet. Our favorite duo of all time is Outkast, that'd be crazy. But, besides from that, we're always listening to new artists like Kenna or Jazmine Sullivan. I mean there's a lot of people.
BallerStatus.com: Let people know what they can expect from The Musical.
Nicole: What people can expect from The Musical? That's a good question. I mean, our album is very personal; a lot of the content is stuff that people can relate to. Like I said, in the past four years and we've been going through so much -- traveling the world, in relationships, and maturing as women. So a lot of it reflects that. We also have the fun joints, the party joints, so there's a little something for everyone. It's a pop, R&B album with a hip-hop base and that's what Nina Sky essentially is. If you like our first album, you'll love this album. If you didn't get the first album, you'll still love this album. There's something for everyone. If you heard "Curtain Call," that's just a taste of what this album has to offer.
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