Nicole Willis
The new-soul diva goes back to old-school and art school
By Lori Finkel
Published: October 4th, 2007 | 11:56am
While you’re sleeping off a Friday night, Nicole Willis will be in school.
The front woman of Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators enrolled in art classes at Lahti University of Applied Sciences in Finland, where she lives with her two daughters and husband. She began attending classes Saturday, September 1, 2007, and has since decided upon painting as her major. Two more years and she’ll have a degree, which she may just use to design her next album cover. “That would be nice,” Willis said via phone, fresh from a summer European tour in support of the new album, “I would like that.”
Keep Reachin’ Up, was released in the United States July 24, 2007, on Light in the Attic Records, and is unlike the bubbly, synth-filled strains Willis is known for in her collaborations with new soul groups like Repercussions and electronic duos like England’s Leftfield. “I wanted to look outside of myself and write some kind of message that was reaching out to people,” Willis said of the goals for her newest endeavor. “In a way, I wanted to speak to everyone and not exclude anyone. That was a big part of my exploration.”
Keep Reachin’ Up paints a ‘70s funkadelic vibe, evident from the hustling horns throughout to Willis’ softly-lit, mock-vintage portrait on the album cover. Though it’s different than what she’s done before, she doesn’t see it as diverging from the way she’s approached projects in the past. “I’ve always tried to be a part of some new movement, but do something unique,” Willis explained.
Her desire to obtain a degree in fine arts is not unexpected. The Brooklyn-born songstress was always painting and making art as a child, later attending the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan. The two mediums have always simultaneously held her attention, and after the band’s summer tour finished, she couldn’t wait to get back to painting.
Fans shouldn’t be worried; she isn’t giving up music in the process. In fact, she’s working on a second album with the Soul Investigators and hopes to tour with new material in the States by the spring. “They have a certain quality that I like,” the ever-changing vocalist said of the Soul Investigators, “I wouldn’t change much about the way we play.”
Issue #35
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