Friday 16-10-2015 - 21:31

 

So, you’ve just began your Coffee House tour, in association with honour. Are you excited about visiting loads of different university’s and traveling the UK?
Well I kind of feel like a bit of a tourist.

It must be quite nice though?
Yeah

Getting to see loads of different things and traveling around everywhere. What’s the destination you are most looking forward to seeing?
Well I haven’t been to Ireland or Scotland.

Oh have you not? So that’s quite exciting, something new!
I will have to wrap up warm!

So, you’ve had an amazing career. Did it all kick off for you when you won Australian Idol in 2007, or have you been making music before that?
I was making music before that. I have been a musician/songwriter for a very long time. I did Australian Idol just to give myself a platform to come out. I never really showed my songs to anyone before that.

So you kept them to yourself?
I never played Piano in public either, I was always hiding in my bedroom. Australian Idol propelled me to get out there and start playing and performing and start doing all the things I thought I wanted to do at the time. And I did them all and I did them all really successfully. And that took me to the next destination which was to kind of, I guess, be a songwriter. That’s what I have always wanted to be.

To follow your dreams?
Exactly. So that’s why I came to the UK.

Amazing! So, where do you draw your inspiration from? To write your songs and sing your songs.
I grew up listening to Jazz. I love old, well not old singers, but I love Eric Debajo and Taylor Spark and I love Alicia Keys. And I love Danny Washington, Elle Fitzgerald, Amy Winehouse. I’m sole influenced all the way. Elle Green, I love Ell Green. Stevie Wonder, Oh My God.

He is amazing. So you’re from Australia but you have a Maltese’s surname, where would you say your home is?
Oh that’s a tough one. I grew up in Melbourne, my Dad’s Maltese and my Mum’s Italian and I live in the UK. I don’t have family here, and I do believe home is where the heart is so it’s where ever you feel comfortable. So I think I have a few different homes.

How long have you been in the UK for?
4 years now, I feel like a changed person since coming here and I love it.

So what are your musical plans for the rest of the year?
So I am developing my songs more and more, and developing a sound. The more I start writing new music I meet new producers and do new things. The thing which has really kicked started my career here is changing my name to separate me from my past. I became quite famous and I lost my identity so I created Nelly-Bell. So this gave me a whole new sense of life of what it’s like to start again, it was really liberating. But if I am going to back into it and get out there I think I need to honour my past and what I did before and not shut it out completely. There is something in appreciating in what you did in the past and who you are. So I met this company called honour and I told them my story and they told me to be an ambassador. So I gave them my music and licenced about 5 songs, so when you buy their phones my music is on there for ringtones etc. So basically they’re supporting me on this tour, so having them as a platform is giving me the opportunity to meet people in the industry which is helping to get record deals and publishing.

I’m learning that my voice is my sound, so I have to be true to that and I will be okay.

Find Natalie on Twitter: @ngauciofficial to keep up to date and hear more about her music and Coffee House Tour