About That Song: Nikki Lemire
About That Song #62
In our special series, singer-songwriter Sarah Morris interviews artists about the songs that shaped them.
Hi! I’m Sarah Morris. I’m wildly in love with songs and the people who write them. There have been a few songs in my life that have been total gamechangers—songs that made me want to be a songwriter and songs I’ve written that made me feel like I am a songwriter. About That Song is a space where I can learn more about those pivotal songs in other writers’ lives.
In the 62nd installment of this series, I was excited to chat with Nikki Lemire, a Minnesota singer-songwriter known for her gorgeous harp playing and a multitude of collaborative efforts as a singer and keyboardist. I asked her to tell me about THAT song(s) that made all the difference in her musical journey, leading to the spellbinding original songs we hear from her today.
Nikki Lemire. Photo credit: Rae Marie Photography ( @RaeMarieMN ).
Sarah: Hello, Nikki Lemire! You recently released your DEBUT album, Live at Lakewood Cemetery—congratulations! You’re about to embark on a tour of northern Minnesota, then you’re traveling south to Lisle, IL, where you’re an Official Showcase Artist at Folk Alliance Regional Midwest (FARM). What joyful reasons to steal a moment to talk with you! Do you remember the song that you heard that made you want to be a songwriter? Tell us about that song.
Nikki: I think the song would have to be “Songbird” by Christine McVie. I heard the song a few times as a kid, and then I remember the first time I listened to it on vinyl as an adult. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors was my first vinyl record purchase, and side one ends with “Songbird.” I’d never listened to full albums with intention before and I didn’t expect to hear that song then. It caught me up—such a tone shift, and then so vulnerable and raw, and then silence. It just lingers there. So impactful. It really affected me. I have always felt music, but I think I hadn’t always felt words until that moment. I remember the tears came with power, too.
Sarah: OH GOSH YESSS! And now I very selfishly want to hear the Nikki Lemire cover of “Songbird.” It is a truly gorgeous song—such a perfect marriage of music and lyric. I tend to gravitate toward lyrically dense songs (as a listener, as a writer) but when I heard this song with my adult ears, I was struck by the just-right-ness of it. I don’t know that I’ve ever listened in its album context (I probably shouldn’t admit this), and I can imagine how the placement you mention would bring an extra level of poignancy to the listening.
Once you began writing, did you feel like a writer immediately? It took me years of writing before I somewhat believed it—was there a song that gave you that “a-HA! I AM a songwriter!” moment? Tell us about that song.
Nikki: I only added the songwriter tag to my name recently. Not sure why I finally did that? I guess someone else likely said it first. I’d written songs for a while before I shared any. But I remember the first time I shared one and it was a song called “Home.” I sang it for Kent when we were dating. I went on the hunt to find someone to play guitar on it, because at that time I felt all popular music needed a guitar and it wouldn’t be complete to me until I heard it with guitar!
That was a song that meant a lot to me in the beginning so I think it’s where I started to realize that was something I could do: attach some of these poems to music. I think you’re a painter whether you paint walls or paint canvas. I guess I feel you’re a songwriter whether you sing your songs alone or play them to a crowded room. I think it’s all beauty. It’s all art. I put my songs into the air, so I guess I’m a songwriter now. What I didn't want was my kids to be the only ones who knew I wrote songs. So I guess I decided to get out and be a little louder into the world. Take up a bit more of that wide open space.
Sarah: It IS all beauty. I’m of a similar mind—do you write songs? You’re a songwriter. Let’s have as many people as possible BE songwriters. As for that “next step” in the process, being a little louder in the world, giving your songs wings beyond your living room—I’m so very glad you decided to do that!
Let’s talk about your debut single “Mend It.” I’ve been lucky enough to hear that song live a few times and was still blown away by the combination of the harp with the loop pedal and your glorious voice on the recording. With all the music you’ve been a part of, in so many genres and projects, you chose this song to introduce Nikki Lemire’s solo work to the world—can you tell me about it?
Nikki: Yes, “Mend It” has a lot of layers, physically and emotionally, for me. I wrote the song in the midst of a difficult time in my life I was trying to untangle. My kids had an (unintentionally) kind of destructive week. They needed book pages taped, the head fell off a doll, a watch band broke … It all needed fixing.
Sarah: I know this type of week.
Nikki: As we were sitting there with glue and tape, I realized it was a moment to reflect. There are things you can fix, but it’ll never be the same as before the mistake. The head of that doll will always be a little weird, that page will always have tape on it as hard as we try to line it up … and yet the watch band looks completely fine. There will be moments you make mistakes you can't undo, you can't cover up. There will be words you say that you can't take back. If you’ve built a solid relationship with someone it may be mendable, but if you keep repeating those same mistakes, you will reach a point beyond repair.
I was improvising inspired by a recent collaboration and writing a lot more minimalistic at the time. This song just kind of flowed through. Since it’s improvised, I still don't think that song is done, but that’s where it landed that day at Lakewood Cemetery, so there it has lived for a while. I almost didn’t play it! Ha!
Nikki Lemire. Photo credit: Rae Marie Photography ( @RaeMarieMN ).
Sarah: In recent years I’ve read a bit about the Japanese art of kintsugi—repairing broken pottery using a golden lacquer, making something beautiful from the broken. “Mend It” speaks to taking whatever you’ve mended and accepting its changed form. It seems fitting that the song might not be finished somehow.
As a harpist, you’ve played with several symphonic orchestras—a realm where composing looks a bit different than songwriting. I’m wondering if you recall the first song that you wrote that veered toward the folk/pop/blues style you inhabit with your solo work.
Nikki: That was a song I wrote called “Paris.” I sometimes end shows with it because it feels flashy and theatrical. I was watching a movie set in Paris one winter that was LONG and HARD. I just wanted to escape. It was really late at night and I was just ripping away on the harp in our apartment! I realized I could meld all of the orchestral harp techniques like arpeggios and harmonics in my own songs. This was also a time when I felt that harp parts needed to be complicated to be acceptable, and now I don’t feel that way at all! Singing while doing these techniques is challenging for me and so I have to make compromises depending on what I think the song needs emotionally and physically.
“Paris” was the first song where I really feel like I represented all sides of myself. I did that song for the first time with a trio girl band called The Lovely Larks. I remember thinking “this song is kind of weird” and them saying they loved it.
Sarah: That is such a singularly gorgeous song. So if it’s weird, it’s for sure my kind of weird!
I was first introduced to your music through a songwriting group that we both belong to, where the commitment is to write a song a week based on a writing prompt. I’m wondering if you recall your first song for that group? How did it feel to jump into those waters?
Nikki: I do remember my first song. UFFDA! I can feel it in my chest as I think about it! It was a song for the word “tidal.” I was in a fragile place—I was pretty exhausted emotionally, fried from the Covid quarantine, and feeling insecure about my writing. I realized I needed a new space where I could work on my craft, and even though I’d haunted the group for a while and knew the folks would be kind and welcoming, I was still convinced that everyone would think it was weird and unfinished.
In the song I improvised a little theme that came to me with a very clear image in my mind and then wrote the story to that image. It was a woman walking into the home of someone and realizing she’s the other woman. The theme is the feeling she has in her chest when she sees her reflection. She is looking at herself and is trying to rectify the person she knows she is inside with the situation she finds herself in. It was heavy!
I leaned on my friend Breanne Marie who had recently submitted a song and we chatted back and forth about our feelings about sharing and the tech details of how to do it. She really held my emotional hand through the whole process and I am forever grateful for her cheering! I was shaking, even wore makeup, and barely whispered my lyrics in my video … and everyone gave me the exact thing I didn’t know I needed—to be seen as another human being making some art that mattered. Someone with feelings deserving of care and kindness.
I don’t think I’ve ever played that song live. What I do remember is what a turnaround it was for me in my life, in my music. I wonder how many of us came there in the same place? The power of community is so real. I feel we are on this planet to be with and connect with others. To build relationships. So we write songs there, and it’s great, but for me it’s about so much more than the songs. It’s about the love.
Sarah: I couldn’t agree with this more—that group has been such a gift, and I do think it’s populated by people who just want to look at other writers and say “you are making art that matters, you are deserving of care and kindness.” Also—thank goodness for friends who will hold our hand when we go to make that leap.
As you set off into our colder months, can you tell us where you might be singing any of these songs?
Nikki: I am so excited to be going north on a short run-out tour this fall. I’m headed to Grand Rapids, Aitkin, Henning, and Duluth! My father’s family settled in Aitkin in the 1800s after immigrating from French Canada. My husband’s family settled in Henning in the 1800s after immigrating from Norway. I grew up in Duluth and my folks still live there! I guess I’m bringing all of my music home to where pieces of my heart come from!
I’m most excited about Sacred Heart Music Center in Duluth on Oct 18. I remember the first time I saw my Mom play in that space—Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols”—I thought it was absolute magic. The harp sounds so exquisite in that space. I can't believe I’m going to get to play there with you and Sarah Elstran (The Nunnery). Is this a dream? I feel so lucky to get to do this life.
Sarah: I feel that same sense of being incredibly lucky! Thank you so much for talking with me today, Nikki. I look forward to seeing you soon.
Listen to “Mend It”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Morris. Photo credit: Tom Smouse.
Sarah Morris is a superfan of songs and the people who write them, and a believer that certain songs can change your life. A singer-songwriter / mama / bread maker / coffee drinker who recently released her fifth album of original material, she’s been known to joyfully sing with people in her Big Green Bathroom.
