The Scotsman Sessions #323: Nicole Cassandra Smit with Toby Mottorshead
Welcome to the Scotsman Sessions. With the performing arts sector still impacted by the pandemic, we are commissioning a series of short video performances from artists all around the country and releasing them on scotsman.com, with introductions from our critics. Here, Edinburgh-based Nicole Cassandra Smit performs the song Wedding Gown, taken from her debut album, Third In Line
Edinburgh Fringe audiences may already be familiar with Nicole Cassandra Smit as the frontwoman of the Jazz Bar’s popular Queens of the Blues shows, set to return for a limited run this year. This Indonesian-Swedish singer has been based in Edinburgh for the past decade, gigging with a number of local outfits, including the Blueswater Band, with whom she conceived the Queens show, rockabilly group Cow Cow Boogie and alternative blues rock trio Smitten, as well as performing at the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival.
Like many jobbing musicians, Smit was temporarily blindsided by the pandemic lockdown but has emerged on the other side with a fresh musical perspective which finds expression in her own songwriting rather than her interpretation of standards.
“Aside from the general anxiety that it caused, the lockdown offered a welcome pause in my very busy performing life,” she says. “The quiet it brought allowed me to go back to creating and writing in a way that I never had time to do before. It really oiled the writing cogs and opened up many new collaborations that will continue in the future and it inspired me to seriously pursue making an album.”