Dundee singer-songwriter Nicola Madill resigned from her Dundee University job to pursue a career in music.
Now she returns to play a hometown gig for the first time since before lockdown when she supports JJ Gilmour at Dundee Rep this weekend.
Once a regular on the city’s gigging scene alongside writing and releasing her own material with some beautiful accompanying videos, Covid’s intervention saw Nicola’s gigging activity grind to a full stop.
Still, she continued writing songs throughout that period.
Working at the Dundee University paid the bills, but Nicola yearned for a career in music, so she quit her job to focus solely on her music career.
Nicola explains: “I was working at the university and although I was still writing songs I felt unsatisfied and really craved to perform again.
“So I decided in March last year to give up my job and go full time as a musician and it’s been such a great move for me, so many amazing things have happened since that I’m really grateful for
“I just feel everything’s just naturally falling into place.”
Kudos to Martin Stephenson for leg-up
Now back performing live, she acknowledges her debt to the UK singer-songwriter Martin Stephenson for providing an opportunity to support him on tour, while she has also nearly completed a new album for release soon.
“I had met him before because I supported him at the King’s in Kirkcaldy and after he watched my set, he invited me to support him in London and Newcastle.
“Playing in bigger venues was a brilliant experience for me and after that he invited me down to a songwriting workshop that he runs to be part of that.
“I met some really inspiring songwriters there and one of them invited me to perform at Celtic Connections this year which was another great experience.
“I’ve never done anything on that scale before so it was really exciting.”
New album was 7 years in the making
Having released her last album in 2017, the next thing she produced was a solo EP at the Tolbooth in Stirling in 2024, again through Martin who had been laying down stuff at the studio and who introduced her to engineer Mark Lough.
“But I have been working on an album since 2018,” Nicola reveals.
“I was working with (Dundee musician and producer) John Curran then lockdown happened.
“We had all the guitar parts for the album down but lockdown scuppered the plans.
“I then moved out to Errol so I tried to do some parts of it remotely with John, I was renovating the house and created a home studio and bought myself a good mic and did some vocal parts there.
“That worked OK but I felt we had to be in the same room together to capture the energy of our working relationship.
“So we picked it back up when lockdown ended but then loads of personal stuff happened, and it just didn’t feel that it was the right time to finish it.
“We picked up the album again last summer and now it’s almost complete. I’m thinking about a spring release, which feels nice and in sync with the natural seasons.”
Excitement ahead of JJ Gilmour gig
Looking ahead to Saturday’s show at the Rep, Nicola says she really admires JJ Gilmour despite not having been aware of him before being asked to support him.
“I didn’t know JJ Gilmour before, the opportunity to support him came about through Kit Clark, but I’ve been listening to his stuff and I think he’s great – I love his voice.
“I’m also following him on social media now too and he seems like a really nice guy.
“I played the Rep with Big Country before, I think in 2015, it’s a really nice place to play, the sound there is always really good.
“It’s great to be playing in Dundee because I haven’t played here for a long time, so that feels really special and I’m looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces and to hearing JJ as well.”
Nicola Madill supports JJ Gilmour at Dundee Rep on Saturday February 15 2025.
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