'Goth Lee and Nancy' Nicole Atkins and The Bad Seeds' Jim Sclavunos bring their duet project to The Wedgewood Rooms | Interview

Singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins and multi-instrumentalist/producer Jim Sclavunos started working on an album of duets back in 2015.

​Nicole has carved herself a career as an acclaimed performer with half a dozen solo albums under her belt, while Jim’s career goes back to the 1980s’ underground No Wave scene in New York, and is perhaps best known now as long-term drummer with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and Grinderman.

The pair first met more than a decade ago when Nicole’s then manager suggested they try writing together for her next album.

‘This was 2011/12, and I was very intimidated by him at first,’ recalls Nicole, ‘probably just because of his size’ Jim is 6ft 7in, ‘and sharp dressing. But then we got together and ended up writing three songs in a day – it's crazy.

‘We write really fast together, so we started getting together all the time. I was going through a breakup too, and he kind of helped me out with that. He just gives me really good life advice, particularly on the music business. I was 34 years old and I told him I felt too old (for the music business), but he told me: you're never too old – you need to think of your work as your life's work, it's a body of work. In the music industry, no one tells you that, everybody tells you: “Oh you're 27? You're an old bag!”

‘With any craft – it's something you get better at over time, stick with it. I don't think there's enough people telling younger artists that, or even middle-aged artists that.

NOW READ: Mike Peters of The Alarm on beating leukaemia and returning to the road | Interview

‘It's crazy to say because I wouldn't say it to his face – I should – but meeting Jim was really one of the most important meetings of my life.’

The resulting album, 2014’s Slow Phaser featured a couple of their co-writes and he has been a presence on both her successive studio albums.

After Slow Phaser’s release, Nicole recalls she was at dinner with Jim’s wife.

‘We had so many surplus songs we'd written together and there's only a certain number of songs that thematically fit on the album, and I was saying to Sarah really want to find another person to sing with, duet-style. I didn't want these songs to go to waste. She said: “Have you asked Jim?” I didn't even know he sang!

‘So I asked him and he said he would love it.’

They convened at a studio in Asbury Park, in Nicole’s home state of New Jersey, and gathered a team of musicians around them, including Mickey, aka Dean Ween of cult-rockers Ween, who gave his fee as ‘a pizza, a case of beer, and a chicken masala.’

During this time Nicole had a moment of clarity with regards to her drinking.

‘We just dug into it and started recording. It was a pivotal time for me because during those sessions it's when I decided to go into rehab for drinking.

‘I remember doing the sessions and drinking while I was recording and thinking why am I drinking a bottle of wine every day here?’

While she admits it wasn’t what ultimately ‘did the trick for me’, she now been sober for six years.

There were further sessions later at Electric Lady Studios in New York, where jack Lawrence from The Dead Weather joined them and also included guitar from Jon Spencer of The Blues Explosion, who Nicole happened to bump into on the street during the sessions – so she invited him to come to the studio.

With Nicole now based in Nashville and Jim in London, progress has been slow, but as Nicole adds:

‘The record's come together over a really long time, we're both so busy. He's busy with The Bad Seeds and his production stuff, and I've been busy with my solo records. He lives in London and I live here.

‘It's been a really luxurious way to work because we've got to really perfect it.’

Aside from a festival date pre-pandemic, this tour is the project’s grand unveiling.

‘We did a couple of shows at Willie Nelson's ranch right before the pandemic. He has this festival called Luck Reunion at his ranch.

‘I told the person booking it that we sound like a goth Lee and Nancy. I think she misheard and thought that I said we do Lee and Nancy covers, so she booked us into this church – he has this little chapel there.

‘When we played nobody spoke – everyone's mouths were kind of open, and were like, “What is this?!”’ she laughs at the memory. ‘But it was so much fun.’

So far they have only released a 7in single – a cover of Tom Wait’s Strange Weather, with the B-side their original song, A Man Like Me. The album is due for release later this year.

While Nicole went for ‘goth Lee and Nancy’, Jim opts for ‘psychedelic folk tunes written by lonely Martians’ to describe their creations.

Hear for yourself at The Edge of The Wedge in Southsea on Monday, June 5. Tickets £16. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.