Pool Of Sound - Niki Kand

Iranian born Niki Kand is a singer-songwriter, producer and visual artist who emigrated to the UK and settled in Liverpool in 2014 and has a degree in fine art which she has studied all her life. She grew up in Tehran in a big and noisy family where there would be at least 10 people around the table for dinner every night. She began having piano lessons at 15 and learned to play mostly classical music. The first few songs she wrote were all short piano pieces before she went to university to study painting. However, soon after graduation, she realized music making suited her better as the process felt natural and effortless and that it was her secret passion, having been influenced by her parent's love of western pop music. However it was only after she moved to Kuala Lumpur that she was able to discover her own voice and express herself musically. After quickly learning to write music on the piano, she began the journey to becoming a self-produced singer/songwriter and both her art and music have a classic style, but with an edge. 

After attending music college she began making music of her own in 2016. She often records cross-legged on her bed, directly into her Macbook microphone, over whatever wild combination type of beat she comes up with, her main influences having been initially Kate Bush and 'The Beatles' and more recently  'Red Hot Chilli Peppers', Grimes and 'Muna'. Since releasing her music publicly Niki has received much support from the local music scene, such as BBC Introducing Merseyside, BBC6 and music magazine Bido Lito. Playing local festivals, Threshold and Sound City, her electronic dream-pop offers escapism and provides an insight into the therapeutic world she has constructed for herself. She creates and produces her own music, videos and visuals and her first two singles, 'Bleeding Hearts' and 'China Doll', released in July 2018, have been frequently played on BBC Introducing. They also saw her garner her first national radio play when she was featured on The Tom Robinson Show on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Niki was featured in the Liverpool new music, arts and culture magazine Bido Lito's September issue in 2018 where she revealed Liverpool to be the perfect match for her as a freewheeler, and she has nothing but good things to say about her four years here. "Liverpool is in my heart already. It's beautiful, and the music scene is great. I think the best thing about it is that it's good quality, but small enough for you to find your place – I like the fact that it's not massively big." Asked whether she would ever go to London, as the prophecy seems to go for Liverpool's talent all too often, she says, "No, I don't think so. I don't know why I should." With several of her musician friends moved to Liverpool specifically for its thriving scene she says, "It's definitely the place."

In October 2018 at Jacaranda Records Phase One, Seel Street, Liverpool, Niki and Alex, her guitarist who had only been working with her for a month, put on a 15/20 minute set which was remarkably well put together and managed to show off the cool and smooth sounds of Niki’s voice. December saw Niki performing in Constellations as part of the Merseyrail Sound Station Festival that took place as part of the nationwide BBC Music Day. 

January 2019 saw her again appearing at Jacaranda Phase One as the pop act of the bill, where she did well with a keyboard and backing tracks played through her phone. Her catchy, dancey performance was concluded with the single, 'Bleeding Hearts'. Getintothis' review states, "Tech difficulties meant she had to improvise and use the Jac's poor mobile reception to get the backing track from YouTube. And, it worked. Yay! It’s the kind of material that could and should get a wider audience. It’s not challenging, but that’s probably the point. It’s car radio music or the stuff you listen to while you’re getting ready to go out. It’s feel-good music. And it works." 

October 2019 saw her release 'Sexy But Sad', a song that talks about a bitter separation and how it's perceived as a positive incident later on as one's feelings and thoughts can change over time. Singles 'Naughty Boy' in May 2019 and 'Lush' in July added to her growing portfolio. Further singles were released in 2020, 'I Don't Care in February, 'It Ain't Cool' in August and 'Stupid' in October. Her debut EP 'Pinkish' was out in 2020 and was followed by further single releases in 2021 together with further support from Dave Monks on BBC Music Intoducing.

see also:- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2021/01/pool-of-sound-beija-flo.html