Nicole Ariana is finding silver linings in peculiar circumstances. Hot on the tail of releasing a sleek new music video for her single, “Costs A Lot,” comes a live performance video for the same song and she says it’s already opening doors for her.
The official music video for “Costs A Lot,” co-directed by Nicole Ariana alongside award-winning director Gavin MacLean, was released just back in November and premiered with a bit of fanfare. It wasn’t entirely a linear path between recording and release, however. Prior to filming the video in Truro, Nova Scotia over a couple of days in August and September, there was already another video that had been put into gear all the way back in February.
As part of Nova Scotia Music Week’s Sessions series, Nicola Ariana was able to record a live performance video at the Lunenburg Academy of Music.
“It’s a super bonus,” laughs Nicole. “Jeff Miller and Charlie Benoit filmed it and Nick Iwaskow (Wasko AV) brought the amazing projected visuals. Tanner Gillis and Trevor DeSouza did sound and the audio was mixed by Trevor DeSouza. There were five different locations throughout Nova Scotia and three bands played at each one.”
The NSMW Sessions were recorded in lieu of the standard 2020 Nova Scotia Music Week. Being able to showcase in front of a live audience, including conference delegates, always come with certain advantages, but a live performance video has the benefit of travelling much further. As most musicians are already well aware, it’s a handy little tool to keep in your back pocket for when someone wants to book you for their festival but isn’t quite sure what you sound like when performing live.
“It was definitely different but really cool in a new way. NSMW is so great because you get to attend everyone else’s shows and conferences and meet people face to face, but being selected as one of fifteen acts and getting to have one on one zoom meetings with delegates after they’ve watched the recorded performance has other great advantages,” says Nicole. “Instead of meeting people and hoping they make it to the show, everyone who participated had their video seen by all delegates attending online and you get feedback from each person because they’ve already seen what you can do.
“Having this lasting piece of high quality footage was an amazing idea because it can be used in so many ways – to apply for other festivals, to share with bookers and agents, and to release during an album campaign as an extra asset to show not only the song or curated video but the live show.”
As a result of this year’s Nova Scotia Music Week, Nicola Ariana was offered a showcase in Sweden: Future Echoes in Norrköping, coming up in February—or potentially its online equivalent.