Nikki Jenson, or Nikki J as she’s known on stage, is the latest young hopeful on the way to country music stardom with the help of the Telstra Road to Tamworth competition. I recently caught up with the Queensland girl who’s just taken out the Cairns heat to chat about the competition, her love of country music, and the dreams she has for her musical career.
You just won the Cairns heat of the Telstra Road to Tamworth. What was it like to be part of that competition?
It was a bit of a whirlwind on the day. The wet weather meant a last minute venue change from the lovely esplanade to a little hotel conference room, which made the process a lot more intimate and daunting. But it was such a great experience to see how much talent there is in North Queensland and see what Telstra are doing for the development of music in Australia. It ended up being a very fun day win or lose, and obviously I was incredibly stoked to win.
I hear that you were stunned to win the Cairns competition. Why was it such a surprise to you?
Well I am only very new to performing my own songs and the songwriting game. So as each person got up I became more nervous because they were just SO good, and I was just thinking the whole thing would at least be really good experience for me. I thought one of the others would win it for sure. So when they announced my name I was just genuinely shocked, but very very happy. This is one of the first serious steps I’ve taken with my own music and I was really excited to that I was successful.
I believe you’ve only just returned to performing and songwriting. What inspired you to get back to it?
All the time while I was at university I was singing on and off but all my other music fell away as I was busy pursuing my “real job.” All that time I felt a massive void and longing for music, so I promised myself that when I moved away for work that I would pick up a guitar and try to start writing. I moved into a gorgeous one-bedroom apartment right on the water at Clifton Beach, and I have to say that location combined with the big life change was very conducive to creativity.
After your break from music, what inspired you to get back out in front of people in this competition?
There is a guy named Terry Doyle who runs a singer/songwriter night at a place called Mondo’s here in Cairns. I had heard about him, so went along to watch and he made me play him one of my songs, and he immediately made me get up on stage and play. I have been going back every week since pretty much and and every time you learn something different, he is very good with feedback and encouraging, so I suppose that along with some pushing from friends helped me get in front of people.
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