Originally from the Bay Area, Nicole has been singing since the 1st grade and grew up singing in choir and rock bands all the way through her senior year of high school. Coming from a musically gifted family where her grandfather was a concert pianist and great grandmother was a Russian opera singer, there was music in her blood. Her main influences as a child ranged from orchestral and operatic music to punk rock and heavy metal. She started playing piano and electric guitar when she was in middle school, but then realized singing was what she truly loved. She enrolled in an opera institute and started to attend opera school and high school simultaneously. She held multiple recitals and performances while in Opera School, and auditioned for scholarships at many schools in Southern California, where she knew she wanted to be to pursue her love for music.
In 2005 she moved to Southern California on a vocal scholarship and attended California State Long Beach for 2 years before realizing as much as she loved opera, she wanted to focus more on contemporary vocal styles such as punk rock, hard rock & metal. She then moved to Hollywood to attend Musicians Institute where she studied vocal performance and music business. She graduated in 2009 and immediately was the front woman in a symphonic metal band “Tortured Souls”, a studio singer, and rock vocal instructor for a music school called Rock Nation. With her symphonic metal band, they won numerous film festival awards such as Best Music Video and Best Song of the Year. Nicole was teaching music lessons at Rock’ n’ Roll Summer camps, different music schools in LA, and gigging with her original band as well as working hired sessions. Nicole worked for indie record labels such as The Militia Group and SideCho Records, and also was freelancing at local music venues to get familiar with live production and network with other industry professionals.
Over the last 15 years while living in LA, she has fronted multiple original bands and cover/tribute bands such as her current band The Flannels. She has performed in venues all around LA such as the Canyon Club, The Whisky, The Viper Room, The Standing Room, Chain Reaction, House Of Blues, The Roxy, Lucky Strike, The Satellite, and had the opportunity to play shows all around the country sharing stages with some amazing musicians. Nicole brands herself as a hard rock/metal singer with wailing powerful vocals that have made her a force to be reckoned with as a female hard rock singer and screamer. Her main vocal influences are Bruce Dickenson (Iron Maiden), Chris Cornell (Soundgarden), Maria Brink (In This Moment), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), & Marc Hudson (Dragonforce).
“I love being able to combine my operatic and classical training with my passion and love for punk rock, heavy metal, and power metal. When you need to belt super high notes with breath control and stamina, I thank all that intense training and can conquer songs with ease. I find it also extremely important to keep up with ear training, when I go into the studio I am able to read music and make up multi-part harmonies on the spot it makes me invaluable and builds my clientele. Having that foundation has really helped me produce some amazing work.”
Currently, she is focusing on a handful of collaborations and projects with different musicians and producers from all over the country and overseas to create videos and write music for TV/movie scores and rock projects. She continues to get hired for studio sessions and front different bands and projects in the Hollywood & LA area. She is focusing on managing and fronting her band The Flannels as well as fronting a new rock mashup project, The WikiBeatz.
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwU3wAPTomJ57vFaJRAWKBg
IG:
https://www.instagram.com/nicolecarson_/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/nicolecarsonvox
