Nicolas (musician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nicolas | ||
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 A promotional shot for his new single Love & Harmony.
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Nicolas Rixon | |
| Also known as | Nico, Nick, Nic, Chico Nico | |
| Born | August 28, 1983 | |
| Origin | London, England | |
| Genre(s) | Pop, Eclectic, Abstract | |
| Years active | 2003–Present | |
| Label(s) | StarWest Records | |
| Website | http://www.starwest.dyndns.tv | |
Nicolas, born Nicolas Dawud Rixon August 28, 1983 in Chiswick, West London, is an English solo pop singer of part English and Lebanese descent. Although Nicolas debuted in 2003 with his debut single "connection", success didn't come until early 2004 with the release of his first album "Dreamtime" and his trilogy of singles, collectively entitled “Soliloquy”. By the time his second album "Then You" was released at the end of 2004, he had amassed many listeners. Nicolas produces and or co-produces all of his own music and seems to have an unofficial policy of writing all of his lyrics entirely alone.
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[edit] Biography
Nicolas was the second and last child born to the Rixon family. He began an interest in the arts at an early age with the support of his mother. Nicolas started practicing dance and drama formally at junior school which sparked his interest in performing, especially acting. In high school Nicolas continued to study drama and received several awards from “LAMDA” (London Academy Of Dramatic Arts). Not long after leaving school Nicolas became active within Voice acting, providing the voice to a handful of roles. When asked to record a theme song for a radio drama, Nicolas discovered music. From the year 2000 onwards Nicolas began to focus on creating music for radio dramas, eventually retiring from voice acting in late 2004. In early 2001 Nicolas began to work on songs for a debut album. Three years later, in January 2004, his debut album titled "Dreamtime" was released.
In early 2002 Nicolas was signed to the Voice acting related record label “StarWest Records”. He began to refine songs he had begun working on for his first album, as well as writing new material. Finally, Nicolas made his debut as a professional singer on April 12, 2003 with his debut single titled "connection". When released, the single had poor sales and charted badly in the Voice Acting music charts and didn’t even enter the main internet music charts. Nicolas was bitterly disappointed by this failure.
The follow-up single was "Why I Care", in June and went to number one in the Voice Acting chart, validating Nicolas as an artist with ability and wiping the slate clean from the disappointing performance of his debut. Another reason for the success of this single may be due to the fact that StarWest Records began to market him as a mainstream pop artist around this time. For the promotion of "Why I Care" Nicolas appeared on numerous local TV and radio shows in the UK and was featured in several regional magazines. This exposure is believed to have boosted his profile and encouraged interest from casual listeners which boosted his sales and popularity.
After releasing those 2 singles, Nicolas released his debut studio album, Dreamtime, on January 29, 2004. In March 2004 he announced his “Soliloquy” trilogy. Three singles were to be released in April “VOGUE’”, May “From here” and “SECRETS” June of 2004 with the collective theme of time & existential anxiety. These singles were also the first to start the trend of heavy remix culture within “StarWest Records”, the “VOGUE” single containing no more than 8 remixes.
The trilogy was popular. “VOGUE”, in particular, becoming one of his most popular songs. After the busy spring time release schedule Nicolas began working on a double-a side single “EMOTION”. It was released on the October 1, 2004 containing two new songs; “VISTA” and “Labyrinth”.
On 29 October 2004, only 10 months after the release of his debut album “Dreamtime” came his softmore effort “Then Yo]”. The album was a success both critically and commercially. The album was a considerably superior production, thanks to the use of co-producers on almost every track. The central themes of the album were unrequited love and existential anxiety. A notable theme of the album was its heavy use of dance beats on several tracks which seems to emphasise the sense of urgency and intensity of the emotions expressed in his lyrics since the trilogy.
On January 1 2005 the song “tempest” was released from the album as a single. The single was a moderate success.
On March 23 2005 Nicolas released his first mini-album entitled “Saudade”. Although issued as a mini-album in its own right, fans thought of it more like an unofficial remix album for “Then you” as it contained no new songs. "Saudade" revolved heavily around "Jewel” a hidden secret track from “Then you” in an unrecognizably remixed form.
If “Saudade” was something of an unofficial mini remix album for “Then You” it was soon superseded by the real thing. On 22 April 2005 a 4 volume remix series was released called “Nic-Mix-1”. The first three albums contained remixes of existing tracks, many lifted from previous singles, with a few new remixes included. Each disk contained a brand new song “Intuition” ,”out of reach” and “AMBITION”. Apparently on the insistence of Nicolas, who wanted to add some value to the releases. Each volume was named after each album accordingly. ”Nic-Mix-1: Disk#1 “Intuition””, and so on.. The forth volume was an orchestral arrangement album "Nic-Mix Orchestra", containing a mixture of songs from his first and second albums.
In June a brand new single was released called “WISH KEY”. The b-side “First Time” was popular and, unusually for a b-side, received equal amounts of airplay. In September followed "before ever after", an emotional up-beat song with a no less than 14-tracks included. "before ever after" would be Nicolas' last single for 10 months.
Nicolas' most recent single is called "Love & Harmony". Released on the 28th July 2006, 10 months since his last single. The song is abstract, artistic and very different from the bulk of his previous work. It performed extremely well on internet music charts.
Nicolas is due to release his third album, entitled "The Sensual World" but no release date has been specified.
[edit] Producer
Nicolas has produced a number of songs for artists such as Tiffa Lei, Zoe and Amanda. They have all released songs Nicolas has either produced the music, written the lyrics or arranged the vocal melodies for. In the case of Zoe's releases he has written, produced and arranged almost all of her songs apart from the b-side of her second single "Destiny" entitled "You Look At Me" and "calling" from her second single "Fragile" in May 2003 and February 2004 respectively. Zoe co-wrote "You Look At Me" and co-arranged the vocal melody for "calling" with him. Nicolas appears as himself on the credits for all other artist's releases apart from Zoe's post February 2004. Since then he has appeared on her release credits as "GAIA".
[edit] Radio host
Nicolas had a 5 month internet radio show hosted by StarWest from March 2004 until July of the same year entitled "Nicolas StarWest Count Down" ("Nicolas no StarWest Oukoku!" / Nicolas' StarWest Kingdom! in Japanese). The show included airplay of StarWest artist's songs, world chart news and contact from fans who could mail in to the show. Nicolas' show and role as radio host was superseded by "Night Flash" ("Rococo no StarWest Oukoku!" / Rococo's StarWest Kingdom! in Japanese) in August 2004. The show featured similar content but was hosted by a fictional character "Rococo", who had a digitally synthesised voice. "Night Flash" ran until October of that year. Nicolas yet to host another show.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Albums
| # | Cover | Information |
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| 1st / Debut Album |
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Dreamtime
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| 2nd |
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Then You
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[edit] Singles
| # | Cover | Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1st / Debut Single |
connection
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| 2nd |
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Why I Care
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| 3rd | VOGUE
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| 4th | From here
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| 5th | SECRETS
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| 5th | EMOTION
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| 6th |
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tempest
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| 7th |
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WISH KEY
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| 8th |
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before ever after
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| 9th | Love & Harmony
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[edit] Mini-albums
| # | Cover | Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1st / Debut Mini album |
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Saudade
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[edit] Remix albums
| # | Cover | Information |
|---|---|---|
| 1st |
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Nic-Mix-1 Disc #1: "Intuition"|
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| # | Cover | Information |
| 2nd |
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Nic-Mix-1 Disc #2: "out of reach"|
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| # | Cover | Information |
| 3rd |
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Nic-Mix-1 Disc #3: "AMBITION"|
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