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Nikisha Priest is a country rock artist from the Lake Macquarie area of New South Wales who, at twenty years old, is already drawing on a remarkably deep well of musical training. Her new single is ‘Ace of Spades’ – and no, it’s not a cover.
Priest began singing lessons at six, privately with a family friend who within a year concluded she couldn’t teach her anymore and referred her to the Conservatorium of Music in Gosford. She studied there from seven to fourteen, classically trained in voice. Through high school she attended a Big Picture Academy, a project-based learning programme that allowed her to structure her studies around music. At twenty, she has already attended the CMAA Academy of Country Music, appeared on Australian Idol – where she sang Pink’s ‘Trouble’ a capella outside her mother’s hair salon, without notice, for her audition – and released her most fully realised single to date.
‘Ace of Spades’ was sparked by a car park moment. Priest was thinking about the Motörhead song, wondering how other artists had approached the same title, when she noticed a playing card sticker on the car next to her. She took it as a sign, went home and wrote the song. Research into the card’s symbolism gave her the song’s backbone – the Ace of Spades as a death card on one side, new beginnings on the other – a theme of transformation, leaving behind what no longer fits, and stepping into something new.
‘The song kind of just wrote itself,’ she says in this new interview, which was recorded while Priest was at a SHE Songwriting Retreat, run by Lyn Bowtell.
The single was produced by Simon Johnson at Hillbilly Hut, with whom Priest has worked since a school-age work experience placement, and the video was shot in a single day at Full Throttle Ranch in Buttai near Newcastle by videographer Jeremy Minett of Eyes and Ears Creative.
When she’s not making music Priest is looking after her five pets – and I asked her about these, partly because I know so many people have cats and dogs and love a good animal story! And it turns out that Priest’s pets are thematically named – although you’ll have to watch or listen to the interview to find out what the theme is …
‘Ace of Spades’ is out now.
Listen to ‘Ace of Spades’ on Apple Music
Listen to ‘Ace of Spades’ on YouTube
