标题：Nicole Atkins
基本信息
Nicole Atkins（妮可·阿肯金斯）
出生日期：1978年10月1日
出生地：美国新泽西州Neptune
音乐风格：Psychedelic, alternative, folk rock
活跃时间：2002年至今
维基百科Nicole Atkins网页地址http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Atkins 
Atkins被评为2007滚石杂志推荐10大值得关注新人之一
个人介绍
Nicole Atkins在1978年10月1日 出生于美国新泽西州的Neptune，她9岁开始学钢琴，13岁开始自学吉他。她高中就读于附近城镇Belmar的St.Rose High School。她常常会去在当地的咖啡屋与一些乐队演出。高中毕业后她搬去北卡罗来纳州在北卡罗来纳大学学习Illustration （插画？）。她开始写作原创歌曲并与本地的音乐家结交朋友。大三的时候她去了澳大利亚，回来之后她加入了 Los Parasols乐队，并在2002年和他们一起发布了一张EP，名叫 The Summer of Love 。同年她搬去了纽约，并开始在曼哈顿的东区的一些咖啡馆里公开演出。受一些音乐家影响，她的音乐风格开始有了改变。不久她回到夏洛特，参与一些乐队演出，并开始写歌，灌制自己的EP《Bleeding Diamonds》。2004年她又搬回新泽西的父母家，在那段时间她往返于家乡和纽约之间，参加纽约的一些地下乐队演出。2004年中时，她与David Muller，一个曾与Fischerspooner 和The Fiery Furnaces一起合作过的鼓手，开始埋首于一张名叫《Party's Over》的专辑的录制工作中，其中大半是在Nicole的父母家中完成的。2005年，Nicole以前认识的键盘手陈丹（Dan Chen）有意与她组建一支乐队，并介绍她认识了鼓手Dan Mintzer，在他们初次坐下来正式见面的时候Nicole Atkins的两个伙伴已经会演奏她放在自己的网页上的歌曲了。之后，又有两位朋友加入她的乐队，分别是吉他手David Hollinghurst和贝司手Derek Layes 。他们五人便组成了现在我们所知道的乐队Nicole Atkins & The Sea。之后乐队开始演出并获得关注。她的专辑《Party's Over》很受好评，她也成了唱片公司争相邀约的歌手，2006年1月Nicole Atkins与哥伦比亚唱片公司签约。2006年下半年乐队前往瑞典录制唱片《Neptune City》，由于某些原因，原定于2007年7月发行的专辑却借故推迟到10月底，但这并没有影响到它大受欢迎的程度。这张专辑在Billboard为新进艺人设立的热门潜力榜(Heatseekers)中排名20，在2007年11月，它一举登上 the Heatseekers Middle Atlantic Chart的第六位。
Neptune City，一个过去曾经繁华的New Jersey城市。在Neptune City长大的Nicole Atkins从小就开始收集这个城市中所有的故事，不管是她身边的人或是活在那个她所向往的过去的人们所经过的状况与生活。
13岁那一年，Nicole Atkins拿起了已经过世的叔叔所留下的吉他，自己摸索学会了一首Grateful Dead的歌。她的父亲也带她认识了一些玩音乐的朋友，她也在到North Carolina念艺术时加入了另类乡村乐团Los Parasols。直到她在纽约的anti-folk圈找到了自己的音乐，Nicole开始了自己早已累积多年的创作。
Nicole Atkins时而迷幻，又带一点乡村而且又很怀旧的音乐就像是从一集Six Feet Under里所选出来的，在制作人Tore Johansson(Franz Ferdinand， OK Go， Saint Etienne， New Order)的协助下，Neptune City听来完全不像是现在的New Jersey的声音，而是过去那个辉煌历史的原声带。
Nicole Atkins的歌经常都是讲述了某个美丽的悲剧，这位神秘的说故事者用她温暖又力道十足的深厚嗓音将我们拉回到过去的时空;听着故事中主角的情绪，自己的心情也无法自拔的随之波动。点此收缩专辑介绍

专辑发布情况

获奖情况
2002    Asbury 音乐奖winner: Top Female Vocalist 
Asbury 音乐奖Winner: Best Solo Act 
Asbury 音乐奖Winner: Song of the Year – "Neptune City" 
2005    ASCAP（美国作曲家、填词人、出版商协会） Foundation winner: Sammy Cahn Award – "Neptune City" 
English Introduction
Nicole Atkins (born October 1, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her work with the band Nicole Atkins & the Sea. Her sound is known for its mix of traditional vocal styles and introspective lyrics. She has been compared to Roy Orbison and singers from the Brill Building era, as well as more contemporary artists like Jenny Lewis. Atkins has called her work "pop-noir."
Early life
Atkins was born in Neptune, New Jersey to Arthur “Dutch” Atkins and Constance Atkins. Her family is of Sicilian heritage. She grew up in Shark River Hills, a middle class enclave within Neptune overlooking the Shark River. Atkins has cited the river (technically a bay) as a major inspiration for her music, particularly the imagery of “the river in the rain” found in the title track on her album Neptune City. She started playing piano when she was 9 and taught herself to play guitar at 13. Her first music purchase, at the suggestion of an uncle, was a cassette of Traffic’s John Barleycorn Must Die. She eschewed more popular acts of the day for musical groups her parents listened to, such as The Ronettes and Johnny Cash. She has also cited The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler as a major early influence on her own singing style and claims to have once built a shrine to vocalist Robert Plant. She began playing in pick-up bands around this time and continued to do so, often at local coffeehouses, while attending St. Rose High School in the nearby town of Belmar.
 North Carolina and New York
After high school, Atkins moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to study illustration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She ingrained herself within the city’s independent music scene, discovering bands like Superchunk and Uncle Tupelo. She also started writing original songs and making friends with other local musicians. Among other bands, she joined a supergroup in the city called Nitehawk that, at one point, had almost 30 members. Atkins spent her junior year abroad in Australia. After she returned, she joined the band Los Parasols, releasing an EP with them entitled The Summer of Love in 2002. That same year, Atkins moved to the neighborhood of Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, New York. She began performing at open mic night at the Sidewalk Café in Manhattan’s East Village. Influenced by the artists on Rainbow Quartz, the independent record label specializing in guitar heavy pop music and traditional songwriting for which she worked, she moved away from the louder rock music she’d played in North Carolina and toward the songcraft style of Wilco and Roy Orbison. She returned briefly to Charlotte, living in a wood shop and playing with several bands, most notably a group called Virginia Reel. At this time, she started writing what she termed “a mix of Americana, 60s and indie rock.” She also recorded her EP Bleeding Diamonds.
In 2004, she moved back to her parents’ house in New Jersey, working odd jobs and playing local gigs. During a regular Friday night stand at Kelly’s Tavern in nearby Neptune City the audience kept requesting cover songs by local favorites Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. In response, Atkins got drunk and played a tongue-in-cheek version of Bon Jovi’s “Livin' on a Prayer”. She was not asked back.
During this time, she commuted into New York by train to play gigs and maintain a connection to the city’s underground music scene. In mid-2004, Atkins and David Muller, who had played drums with Fischerspooner and The Fiery Furnaces, started working on a demo CD entitled Party’s Over. They recorded most of the album in Atkins’ parents’ house using a Casio keyboard, a ProTools rig and a mini recorder. Drum parts were recorded at Muller’s apartment in Manhattan, with further tracks recorded at the Dietch Projects gallery in Brooklyn.
 The Sea and Neptune City
In early 2005, keyboardist Dan Chen, whom Atkins knew from her days at The Sidewalk Café, approached Atkins about forming a new group. Chen told Atkins he knew of a drummer, Dan Mintzer, who might also be interested in playing with her. When the three sat down together for the first time, Chen and Mintzer already knew how to play the songs they’d heard on Atkins' MySpace page. Eventually David Hollinghurst, another friend from The Sidewalk Café, joined the band on guitar and Derek Layes was brought on as bassist. The band, now known as Nicole Atkins & The Sea, was given a residency at the small showcase bar, Piano's, and won the attention of music industry attorney Gillian Bar. Her Party’s Over demo had stirred interest from heavy metal label Roadrunner Records, among others.Atkins soon found herself in the midst of a bidding war between record labels and signed with Columbia Records in January 2006.In late-2006, Atkins and the Sea traveled to Sweden to record her debut album, Neptune City, at Varispeed Studios in Kalgerup and Gula Studion in Malm&ouml; with producer Tore Johansson. The album was originally scheduled for a July 2007 release, but at the behest of Columbia co-chairman Rick Rubin, it was pushed back until October 30, 2007 to accommodate re-mastering the album. It debuted at number 20 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart and, as of December 2007, had reached number 6 on the Heatseekers Middle Atlantic Chart.
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