Nadia Reid - Musician

Nadia Reid is a New Zealand singer-songwriter whose fourth album, Enter Now Brightness, marks a clear evolution in her decade-long career. Following the release of Out of My Province in 2020 and the disruptions of the pandemic Reid adjusted her creative approach, taking more time in the studio and developing ideas collaboratively with longtime guitarist Sam Taylor and producer Tom Healy. Stepping away from the acoustic, folk-leaning sound of her earlier work, she sought greater musical range and flexibility, including a shift toward focusing primarily on her voice rather than guitar-led performance. Now based in Manchester, Reid sees her first three albums as a completed chapter, with Enter Now Brightness representing a new phase in her craft—one defined by broader experimentation, refined songwriting, and a deliberate move toward a more expansive artistic direction.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:34):
Good Day, Welcome to Real Life.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
One of New Zealand's best musicians is back home briefly,
and I'm so glad she's made time to speak with us.
Welcome Nadia Reid, Welcome back to New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Thank you. Thanks.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Okay, living in the UK, but now touring of your
fourth album, how's it going for you?

Speaker 4 (00:53):
Yeah, well, it's it's it's all a little emotional really,
and you know, I've been living overseas for two years
and arriving back home last Saturday, it was Yeah, it
was certainly quite a special arrival. My little family, we

(01:17):
were all hanging out for a bit of sunshine and
so it's come at a well needed time. But certainly
I think we've made a home in Manchester and two
years later it's it feels like home for now.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, but coming back here, what are the things that
you're sort of noticing that, oh yeah, this really plucks
at my heart here now that I'm back here, I
see this, I feel this, and what are the things
about coming back to New Zealand that you that are
ahead of It's.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
The sky is it looks different, it smells different, it
sounds different, that there is this sort of slow pace.
Caught the bus and to Stretch CBD the other day
and like the bus was late and the bus was
the bus doesn't move until everybody sat down and the

(02:18):
bus driver bless. So she was like saying goodbye to
every person that got off. And I mean, I loved it,
but I'm where I live. It's just like you get
on the bus and boom, you just hold on for
your life, you know. So it was just, yeah, this
kind of being among sort of New Zealanders because it's

(02:43):
hard to you know, there are so many similarities between
the Brits and Kiwi's, but there are sometimes it would
something will just catch me and I certainly feel a
little sort of not out of place, but a bit
just like oh, you know, but I think people and

(03:04):
manuged to find us very relaxed and chill, even though
I don't always feel like that, but I think Keways
do have that kind of lass, a fair sort of.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
It's interesting that you're reflecting on this moving to christ
Church where I read an interview with you when you
were eighteen years old that they printed in the press
where you'd moved from Port Charmers to christ Church and
you were finding it a buzzy big town experience after
moving from moving from Dunedin.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
So it's interesting perspective changes.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Well, this is it. I was just saying before in
an interview, like, I have this kind of restlessness that
I've had since a teenager, and so I packed up
my little Honda SIBK the minute I was I'd finished
high school and packed it up with all my things
and drove to christ Church and the rest was history. Really,

(04:05):
but that was quite a big deal for me at
the time.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, it would be a huge thing. Yeah yeah, And.

Speaker 4 (04:15):
You know, I feel like I was just a baby really,
I was eighteen years old.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
But yeah, So what did Christ Judge give you? Because
it's an epicenter of music, Dunedin is itself, I mean
that's where be your musical genes, so it's got flourished
and watered and nurtured. But what did Christ Judge give
you when you shifted there at eighteen?

Speaker 4 (04:37):
Well, I found the sort of gaggle of people through
my friend Hannah and I mean Adam from the Eastern
and Marlon Williams and Delaney Davidson and I sort of
I sort of felt like this world that was so

(04:58):
exciting to me, you know, people that played music, and
you know, I wanted to know about it. I opened
for a band.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
And they lived.

Speaker 4 (05:13):
They were from christ Church and to More and his
brother Johnny Moore at this bar on High Street called
Goodbye Blue Monday that would have live music every day
of the week. You know, you get two hundred dollars cash.
Well it was almost this was after doing a lot

(05:33):
of busking, so I'd go busking down cash or Mall,
or I'd go outside the countdown on more House ev
and it would you know, sometimes be very like, you know,
I'd get my groceries with it or something. And it
was also just kind of.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Felt great prcticship perform exactly.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Yeah, and it was kind of scary and uh, I
mean yeah, so.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
I loved it.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
It gave me a real sense flat purpose.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
Yeah, so you were playing at the opening at this
gig two hundred dollars. I think your flat was right
over the road, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Did you.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Yeah, yeah, so I had my own, my own flat
years old.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
You must have felt, wow, this is the big world
that I've broken into. Now you come back to christ
Church and think, gee, it's slow, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
And also I lived through the earthquake there too, which
still feels you know, but I had a meet up
with a friend who I was living with when the
earthquake happened the other day and there were four girls
all living in this flat and Shirley, and I think
it's taken a long long time to really properly digest

(06:56):
that whole period of time, and when the pandemic was happening,
a lot of this sort of.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Similar emotional records.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Yeah, like that, you know, collective stress or collective trauma
sort of, because I just think people just got on
with it, you know, like you just sort of just
carried on.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
With the earthquakes and some others are still getting over it.
But as you say that, there's still probably sort of
a bit of a layer down there in the basement. Yeah,
you know, it was knocked about by that, and.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
I think because I left quite quickly, I sort of
just placed it in this part of my mind that
you know, I mean, every time I touched down in
christ Church and the plane always I just think about
it because it's so different now. The city is just

(07:58):
it's awesome, Like it looks amazing all these new buildings,
but so much of it has just gone.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's so different.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
I always always wonder whether they should change the name,
you know, can new christ Church or something.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
I mean it feels a little like that. Yeah, so yeah,
so it's a special place for me.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Yeah. Anyhow, back to your album.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
It's called Internew Internew Brightness, and it has a feel
of and the title itself sort of speaks of something
new happening.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Actually, let's listen to a little bit.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Of I can be for more from News Talks at
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