"Some of the most important lessons I have learned is to be consistent, persistent and to never stop trying to achieve your creative dreams. Music has great power and to choose to create from a place of authenticity is the most impactful and beautiful thing you can do."

Ndidi O: Songs for Complicated Times

Ndidi O has never been one to pull her punches. A true force of nature, her raw and powerful voice has breathed fire into her heart-on-the-sleeve songs for more than two decades now. For all of her many accomplishments over the years, Ndidi’s never given us a record quite like “Simple Songs for Complicated Times”, will be released on April 19th, 2024. Born and raised in Burns Lake, British Columbia, music has always been part of Ndidi’s life. As a young woman, she left her rural town for New York and Toronto to find her voice and develop her distinctive style.  Over the years, she’s recorded 5 solo albums, earning her 2 Juno nominations and WCMA Blues Artist of the Year accolades. In search of her musical holy grail, she’s experimented with roots, blues, soul, and trip-hop as a solo artist, and with Boga, Sankova, (featuring Allison Russell) and The Lightning 3 amongst others. Ndidi’s previous project, 2022’s The Blue and the Gold, with Trish Klein of The Be Good Tanyas, paid tribute to under-appreciated female creators in blues music, and laid the foundation for her new album, where with characteristic bravery, Ndidi O takes on a subject rarely covered in popular music. The deceptively titled Simple songs for Complicated Times is a thematic tour de force, a song cycle that illuminates the choices of women who neglected to follow ‘the plan,’ and missed the boat that picked up their peers to sail into the waters of domestic bliss.

(Photo: Ndidi O, hailing from the wilds of British Columbia)

If the territory sounds intimidating, Ndidi’s soulful, uplifting performances smooth over the rough edges and encourage her audience to listen deeply. With a voice that exudes the rawness of Etta James one moment, and Dionne Warwick’s delicate soul the next, listening to Ndidi O (Onukwulu) is a master class in phrasing. Every breath and nuance that comes from her serves the songs and brings them home. A truly masterful performer, this is the record Ndidi has been in training for a lifetime to make. Simple Songs for Complicated Times was primarily recorded live off the floor in the intimate confines of Steve Dawson’s Henhouse studio in Nashville. The whole band flows effortlessly with Ndidi’s electricity and unique delivery.

Interview by Michael Limnios                    Special Thanks: Sarah French Publicity

How has the music influenced your views of the world? What does the blues mean to you?

I am not sure how music has influenced my views on the world, because music for me, unless it is accompanying a visual medium, it's an emotional way of understanding the world. It hasn't shaped my view, but it has helped me to understand the human condition a bit better. The blues to me is the music of the earth. It is a form of storytelling and spiritualism when done right. It is just rooted in such soul that is why it has always been a genre I identify with.

What characterize your sound and music philosophy? How do you think that you have grown as an artist since you first started making music?

My sound is rootsy blues with a tinge of soul and country. My music philosophy is just to enjoy yourself and always write from a place of connection to your heart. I have grown exponentially as an artist, my vocal ability is much stronger, my performance and songwriting more intentional and my understanding of music and how to create it has deepened.

What moment changed your music life the most? What´s been the highlights in your life and career so far?

In music, what moment changed my life. Hmm there have been many, perhaps The Gap in the last fall denim campaign in 2019 they used one of my original songs, it was an amazing usage and a great ad. That has also been a highlight.

"I think music used to be important in terms of socio-cultural implications, it used to be used to protest injustice thus helping usher in change now it creates trends and not necessarily in a good way. I would like music to provide relief and energetic healing to listeners once again." (Photo: Ndidi O)

Where does your lyrics creative drive come from? Is there a message you are trying to convey with your music/songs?

My drive to write small stories comes from my heart and from my soul and from the experiences I am going through or have gone through. As a woman of middle age, I am trying to encourage other women in this very strange and often lonely, scary and dramatic time of life to remember their dreams and to start going for them step by step little by little. On my new album it is my love letter to the peri menopausal/menopausal women as it's a journey I am on and one we do not talk about enough. Hopefully the message of acceptance and love translates out through these new songs.

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

What I miss now is the attention to storytelling in songs that used to be the standard in the past is now oft, overlooked and not invested in. I hope that people do not start to rely on AI to create music and that people start to recognize the value in music and the value in the artists creating it.

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications? How do you want the music to affect people?

I think music used to be important in terms of socio-cultural implications, it used to be used to protest injustice thus helping usher in change now it creates trends and not necessarily in a good way. I would like music to provide relief and energetic healing to listeners once again.

What does to be a female artist in a Man’s World as James Brown says? What is the status of women in music?

As a woman in music that has been in the business for almost 20 years, it's been an interesting journey. One in which I had to learn to advocate for myself It's a slice of the entertainment world that is still quite misogynistic and racially biased in many ways. Women in music are slowly starting to get more recognition, support and respect but we have a way to go.

"I am not sure how music has influenced my views on the world, because music for me, unless it is accompanying a visual medium, it's an emotional way of understanding the world. It hasn't shaped my view, but it has helped me to understand the human condition a bit better. The blues to me is the music of the earth. It is a form of storytelling and spiritualism when done right. It is just rooted in such soul that is why it has always been a genre I identify with."

(Photo: Two-time Juno nominated Ndidi O is a larger than life figure, a force of nature with a voice that sounds and feels like a long lost friend.)

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Some of the most important lessons I have learned is to be consistent, persistent and to never stop trying to achieve your creative dreams. Music has great power and to choose to create from a place of authenticity is the most impactful and beautiful thing you can do.

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