CityLife

Nikki Garnett prepares to make her Pride debut

Nikki Garnett

Manchester songstress Nikki Garnett is speculating, as one does, on the possibility of her replacing Jeremy Kyle were he ever to vacate his TV talk show host role.

Although the 23-year-old singer thinks she has the requisite agony aunt skills, she isn’t quite sure if she shares Kyles rather unique non-diplomacy.

“I definitely couldn’t shout at people like Kyle does!” she says, over drinks in a Deansgate bar, her sombre all-black outfit lent some added glam-factor on account of sparkling designer heels and golden blonde locks.

“I’d probably be a bit more subtle than that. I’ve always thought I’m good at giving out advice; I’m always the one who’s sorting my friends problems.”

What has led us down this particular path of conversation is the forthcoming release of Garnett’s debut single, Soulless X, a fabulous opening salvo that should make the current Manc urban-pop fraternity sit up and take serious notice.

A strutting, strident slice of pop-R&B brilliance, like a Manchester Jessie J – minus all the irksome jazz-scat vocals – the track announces Garnett as a no-nonsense, defiant voice of the sisterhood, imploring a dissatisfied girl pal to wise up and dropkick that selfish, good-for-nothing man in her life.

A prolific social networker, addressing her followers with tweets, Facebook updates and YouTube videos, Garnett has thought of the bigger audience ever since her emergence around two years ago.

Indeed, even at this nascent stage of her career, Garnett seems all too aware of her role model responsibilities; if her music really is acting as a sort of aural balm for the emotional traumas of her young listeners, she wants to ensure that the 24-hour advice line is always open for further counselling.

“I get a lot of messages from people telling me how much they relate to my music,” she reveals.

“It makes it all worthwhile. You see some pop stars on TV and there’s something too polished about them; it’s all too perfect, as if they’re not real human beings.

"It was Amy Winehouse who made me want to be a singer and what made her special is how she never held back, she showed you all her faults, and that’s why so many people fell in love with her and her music.

That’s the thing I want to get across in my songs; that we’re all imperfect, and let’s not pretend to be anything else. It’s the best thing when people write back to me saying I’ve heard your song and that’s exactly how I feel.”

If Nikki Garnett seems unusually focussed on her wider audience appeal, then there’s a very good reason.

Although based out in leafy Bramhall and a regular performer on the Manchester gig circuit, Garnett has been managed for the past year by Lil Gary, a music biz heavyweight based in Los Angeles who has previously worked with the likes of Christina Aguilera and Morrissey.

Not long after hooking up with her manager, Garnett was booked on a flight to Los Angeles for what she thought was a small acoustic gig.

What she didn’t realise until she arrived, however, was that the gig was at the legendary House Of Blues Hollywood in front of a select crowd of LA’s music biz elite. “That was just mad,” she exclaims.

“I was really jetlagged and I had just two hours to rehearse my songs with this guitarist who I’d never met. And then we turn up at this famous theatre on Sunset Strip which is huge...talk about pressure!”

The Hollywood hills are a far cry from Garnett’s home for the past 23 years.

Raised by her private banker father and hairdresser mother, the younger, pre-teen Garnett was already showing a love for the spotlight, staging pop shows in the family living room. By her early-teens, Garnett’s pop interests were growing ever more expansive, Beyonce and Destiny’s Child in particular, turning her ear towards more R&B-laced pop sounds.

She was also becoming proficient on the keyboards, performing and singing at school talent contests whenever the opportunity arose.

Despite this obvious musical aptitude, though, what’s most unusual is how Garnett, despite growing up an era where pop stardom seems so within easy reach thanks to the TV talent show route, never once considered music as a career option. The reason, it soon emerges, reveals an unexpectedly self-lacerating side to her personality.

“I always thought pop stars had to have these massive, flawless voices,” she reasons.

“You watch X Factor and the contestants would belt out these incredible songs by Whitney and Mariah. I would think ‘I can’t do that!’ I never thought I was that good a singer so the idea of it becoming my career choice didn’t seem real.”

Thankfully, Garnett realised, over time, that she could forge her own idiosyncratic path.

Discovering the music of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, her whole perspective changed as she realised how these British female artists were doing things their own way.

“It wasn’t airbrushed, manufactured pop. These were girls just like me.”

Aged 18, she enrolled at Manchester City College on a music performance course.

“Before I was in my own little Bramhall bubble, and until college, I didn’t really come into Manchester that much. At college it was great to mix with all these people from all walks of life and we had one thing in common: a real love of music.”

College opened up many doors for the newly enlightened Nikki Garnett: she began to perform solo gigs in Manchester, including a high-profile showcase at last year’s In The City; while a friendship with Manc favourites Kid British resulted in the collaboration We’ve Been Far.

Teaming up with her LA management last year, Garnett’s upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing, with that debut single release on Monday, preceded by this weekend’s appearance at Pride Festival.

A complete stranger to the festival experience, Garnett will be looking to channel the star-power of one of her own all-time pop heroines for this weekend’s Pride gig.

“Beyonce’s set at Glastonbury was the most inspiring thing ever,” she beams. “I sat at home watching it on TV and I had goosebumps.

“She knows how to put on a big, glitzy show which is totally true to who she is. That’s what I’m working towards.”

Nikki Garnett plays Manchester Pride tomorrow. The single Soulless X is available to download from iTunes from Monday. For more info visit nikkigarnett.com