Nina Nastasia
Nina Nastasia
In October 1999, Nina Nastasia recorded the album that would finally document her well-seeded career as a local singer-songwriter in New York City, which began in the early ’nineties. It was exemplary of Nastasia’s style, delicate string arrangements, the restrained, understated beauty of her live band, the deceptive simplicity of her voice, and poignant, life-wise lyrics. The recording necessitated that Nastasia and partner Kennan Gudjonsson establish their own vehicle for its advance, and the following year, Dogs was released on micro-indie label Socialist Records.
Fans of Nina Nastasia’s live show quickly bought up copies of the CD, which came in a lush, classic package - letterpress lyrics, hand-mounted photo - that made it irresistible to the fetishist collector. By the end of 2000, Dogs was out of print. The costly package and the tiny infrastructure of Socialist put it’s release on indefinite delay as Nina Nastasia prepared to record her second album, The Blackened Air, in 2001. But Dogs had a special grassroots effect on Nina Nastasia’s music career, as fans of the record would correspond across internet message boards and zines, discussing songs and soliciting copies of the rare edition.
The album would also mark the beginning of a lasting peer-relationship with noted recording engineer Steve Albini, who said of the record in an interview for Mojo magazine: "There are cruel ironies in making albums for a living. In the process of making a record, you hear it so many times that the charms of even the best of them can wear off through over-exposure. On rare occasions, records I've worked on have withstood this scrutiny and ended up being personal favourites. Of these, a good handful are beautiful and sublime, and I listen to them for pleasure. Nina Nastasia's Dogs is a record so simultaneously unassuming and grandiose that I can't really describe it, except in terms that would make it (and me) sound silly. Of the couple thousand records I've been involved with, this is one of my favourites, and one that I'm proud to be associated with."
Veteran BBC DJ John Peel got hold of a copy of Dogs and became enamored with it. In an interview with Harper’s and Queen, he characterized the record as "astonishing" and described her music thus, in a subsequent interview for Mojo: "[Nina’s] songs are very direct without being posy or too clever. There’s an attractive air of melancholy without self-pity." He gave the then unavailable record constant spin on his Radio 1 program, which helped to garner an international demand for Dogs - a bittersweet success for Nina Nastasia, who had long since sold her last copy. In April 2002, Nina Nastasia released her well-received sophomore LP The Blackened Air on Chicago indie label Touch and Go and began an extensive international touring career.
The Blackened Air was followed up the next year by it’s darker sister Run to Ruin. Both records have enjoyed high praise, but at every concert, in every city, someone would come up to the merchandise table and ask, "Do you have any dogs with you?" It is with great satisfaction that, at long last, yes is the reply.