Please introduce yourself. What do you do? Why? What do you want people to know about you?
We are Nicole & Scotty; a musical sibling duo based in Southern California. We are recording/performing artists, songwriters, musicians, audio engineers, and producers.
We first got our start in music by establishing a YouTube channel in August of 2013. We were later discovered by Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and invited to support her on tour that same year. It was quite the surreal way to officially start our music career!
Our first single, (an out-and-proud female empowerment song titled “#Queen”) has been streamed over 90k times on Spotify since its release on October 5th, 2018. Our follow-up single (a softer track titled “Can Be Beautiful”) was released on December 21st, 2018, and has since had the honor of being featured on Billboard Sound and AXS.
Now as of 2021, we have played hundreds of shows, have thousands of streams on Spotify and views on YouTube, and have met countless incredible people; fellow artists, fans of our music, inspiring people who work on the business side of things.
Getting to where we are today was no easy task. We began our journey at ages 12 and 16 and thus ran into a lot of judgment or limitations relating to how young we were. We remained persistent, grounded, and levelheaded thanks to our Mom, and we both feel as though we’ve grown steadily into our identities as artists these past 8 years.
We want the world to know that we’re two kids with a story to tell; a story of self-discovery, emotional recovery, and family. We love what we do, and we intend to spend our whole lives making music together.
What qualities make you different and unique from everyone else in the industry?
We feel that our approach to songwriting and sound design uniquely sets us apart. Every artist or group is defined by what drives them, and raw emotion consistently drives us.
We write life stories into music, processing emotions of every kind, be it joy or grief or boredom, into song form. We’re not afraid of rejection and we’re undeterred by how hard it is to make your mark in this industry. We’re up for the challenge and ready to adventure when adventure calls.
We also firmly believe that there IS room for every talent in this business. As an artist or band on the up and up, or regardless of status, really, supporting your fellow musicians is everything. This isn’t a race or a competition. No one is competing against us, nor do we have any desire to “beat” any musicians to anything.
“There is room for all of us, I hope we all make it” are some of the truest words we’ve ever heard. We’ve found such love and community in befriending our fellow artists, on tour, and at shows, and it’s our desire to lend our support to them in any way we can.
Describe THAT moment when you realized you’re doing what you were born to do.
We’ll never forget what it was like to look out over our first REAL crowd – performing with Lisa Marie Presley and her band onstage at El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles.
A microphone was thrust into my (Nicole’s) hands as I shook from head to toe with nerves. I was 16, and music had always been a great love of my life. But at that moment, as I looked out over a sea of people before I began to sing, all eyes on me and supportive energy sparking everywhere in the room, I mouthed the word “wow” to myself and truly fell in love with being a performer.
That was the defining moment where I knew I wanted to be a musician for the rest of my life. Scotty – onstage beside me with a Gretsch guitar twice his size at the time, strapped over his shoulder – experienced the same moment of just knowing we were exactly where we were always meant to be.
What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve had to go through and how did you grow through it?
Oof, where do we even begin?! As previously mentioned, starting our journey in music at such young ages was our first real challenge. It was hard to find places to perform, being under 18 or 21.
People accused our Mom of forcing us to perform; she will absolutely cringe if you attempt to call her a stage mom. We dragged her into this, not the other way around, lol. We weren’t taken seriously and our talents were altogether underestimated, time and time again.
But the biggest challenges we’ve found breaking our way through this industry have been internal. The industry is inherently designed against people without enormous financial backing, and no, we’re not afraid to acknowledge that.
Cynical and jaded inner industry people who deem numbers and stats more relevant and worthy of opportunity than talent or potential gatekeep and guard resources from indie talents trying to align themselves with a label in hopes of reaching a wider audience.
We want to see change brought in. More opportunities should be made available to musicians from all walks of life. Labels and management and publishers should be more accessible to everyone. The elitist bias in the industry needs to be challenged in a way that affects change.
Who are the TOP 3 people you’d want to meet that could elevate your career or business? Why these specific individuals?
Oh dang, that is so hard to say! We feel like every time we’re asked a question similar to this, everyone we’ve always had in mind instantly flies out of our memories, haha. Let’s see here…
Taylor Swift has been a major inspiration to both of us since we were both very young. Not only is she an incredible artist, but she’s also a major industry figurehead and phenomenally intelligent businesswoman. We know that she fosters new talent she finds and admires (i.e. Lorde, Olivia Rodrigo, Haim) and we would be so honored to be taken under her wing, if ever possible.
Jack Antonoff is one of the sharpest producers on the scene today, and meeting or getting to work with him in any capacity would be a dream come true for sure.
Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas remind us a lot of ourselves; our sibling relationship, and our work ethic. We know they’ve had great success with Justin Lubliner, who founded the label Darkroom Records, and meeting him or either sibling would be amazing!
Drop your social media links.
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6UcYXJ6KXerIZv14lGrwCy?si=7ME3dJO6TWKqFLi6x-Tjgw
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicoleandscotty/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicoleandscotty/
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nicoleandscotty
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcgKFMzFYClUX-VjpZJHJ-g