We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicky Corbett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicky, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
Music and Singing make me happy. There’s something about opening the mouth and hearing things come out – words, emotions and of course the voice itself – these are such visceral, human and connective things that I cannot live without. For me, the soul is expressed through music and art and a part of what brings all humanity together. Music and songs cross language barriers and time – they are the ultimate universal language. It makes me happy to be a part of this as a creator of music in a career, but also as a listener and audience to others.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I began my official music career with a signing to EMI Music Publishing. Before that time I bounced around Los Angeles building a following while doing what I love. The experience of playing three shows a week at a young age built my skills and helped connect me with some amazing established musicians and artists. It wasn’t always easy but it was always a joy – I think that’s what I feel the most – just sheer joy when I play music. I am proud of the amount of music I continue to release – an album every year or two and of the wonderful collaboration projects with other talented artists (Cellar Floor with drummer Blair Sinta), (SOPH with Celia Chavez), (and a new project coming soon with Erica Canales.) In the past five years I have also explored the hat of Producer – producing several albums for myself and a few for others and I am finding that I have a keen ear and a love for it. I have learned along the way to always be myself – I know in my gut if something doesn’t feel right either musically or personally and I think I navigated a lot of mistakes by listening to that intuition. If a music lover follows my career or story they will be consistently exposed to new things as I stretch and grow as an artist (as evidenced by my last album Pink and Blue where I leaned a little to the jazz side). My favorite part of being an artist is the stretching and growing. Art is not only a reflection of where we’ve been or where we’re going – but it’s also a reflection of where we are and that is always changing from our interactions in the world, our history and our wondrous dreaming..

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Los Angeles is such a vast and spread out city so we would have to cover a few things: the beaches from Malibu up to Santa Barbara, a long drive north up the coast on Highway 1 hugging the ocean on the left with purple mountains on the right and a stop at Pismo Beach, Bob’s Big Boy on car hop night, Larry’s Chili Dog in Burbank, The Chinese Theater with all the movie star handprints, Griffith Park Observatory with the Tesla Coil, the Santa Monica mountains and Will Rogers state park polo matches, the Vista theater in Los Feliz, The Nuart Theater in Santa Monica, The La Brea Tar Pits, The Natural History Museum, The Getty, LACMA, The Autry Museum, Kart racing, The Blue Whale music venue, Chinatown, Castaway restaurant on the mountain top, Descanso Gardens, Huntington Gardens, I could go on and on…

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I wouldn’t be here without each and every one of the amazing players and writers I have had the good fortune to know and share a stage with. Two of my oldest and dearest friends and musical colleagues are Benmont Tench and Carl Byron – both are amazing keyboardists, but also lovely humans. Thanks to them I got a good footing when I started out in music at the age of 16.

Website: http://www.nickycorbett.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corbettnicky/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJOT-h3zoi1xIWI3m5O7SEw

Image Credits
Asia Mechikoff

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