Nadia Reid has announced her fourth album, Enter Now Brightness, out February 8th, reflecting on a decade of personal growth.
“You have points in life that when you look back you see were a time of almost cellular change,” Reid says, noting how many of the new songs emerged from these transformative periods.
Since her 2020 album Out of My Province, a lot has shifted for Reid. She paused her touring, moved to the UK, and became a mother to two daughters – Elliotte in 2021 and Goldie earlier this year. Now settled in Manchester, motherhood brought new inspiration for her songwriting, as reflected in her latest single, “Baby Bright.”
“When my first daughter was born she had these massive bright blue eyes – she still does. And when she was born I did have this really intense drive to create – I felt very invigorated. Everything felt sharper and accessible and it all came to the surface.” Reid explains.
Enter Now Brightness, made with guitarist Sam Taylor and producer Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Marlon Williams), marks a shift from her folk roots, exploring a new sound.
“I think for me, becoming a mother brought all of [the issues of] the inner child and all of my own mothering right back up to the surface,” she says. “A lot of women say that when they’ve had babies they’ve said to their own mums ‘Thank you so much!’ because they have this revelation of what their mother’s sacrificed for them. And I guess I had that in a different way.”
“Baby Bright” gently follows the album’s first single, the driving “Chained Unchained.”
“I still feel uncomfortable about the word folk and being a folk singer. It makes me sort of cringe. It’s too confining,” Reid said about “Chained Unchained” upon its release last month.
“‘Changed Unchained’ is a great example of me bringing lyrics and a melody into the studio, then Tom (Healy, producer) and the band letting the mojo/muse/spirit do its thing in the room. That was a really freeing feeling for me. The song begun in this delicate introspective way and formed into something quite powerful.”
Fans won’t have to wait for the album’s release to catch Reid live. She has pre-summer shows lined up throughout November, joined by her band, playing in towns across New Zealand like Dunedin and Christchurch, with one show in Melbourne. Tickets are available via Banished Music here.
Nadia Reid’s “Baby Bright” is out now via Slow Time Records/ Chrysalis Records. Pre-order/pre-save Enter Now Brightness here.
