Nikolai Celecia or the coastal cowboy style on stage

24-year-old Nikolai Celecia may not yet be a household name but, in our live music scene’d grapevine, he’s already well established as an artist who writes his own songs and delivers them with a keen eye to detail in his sound.

He’s known to be fastidious about how his music comes across.  Nikolai is a rising indie folk/country singer-songwriter hailing from the Rock and known for his heartfelt and honest lyrics delivered with a warm Americana sound.

His music blends storytelling with acoustic textures, drawing from his Mediterranean roots and the broader American music traditions.

When GMF organizer Owen Smith contacted him with the offer to appear on the big stage this September, he was totally unprepared to fully digest the good news.

“It was a random message on a random day, offering me a gig, which he suggested I would really like,” he said.

“Specifically, he said that it might be something that I might want to be a part of. I said yes quickly and couldn’t believe that I had been offered the opportunity to play on the same concert bill as James Morrison.”

“I was thrilled really, but I had no idea what was happening. All I knew was that I had this gig and had to prepare for it.”

I quickly interject by asking what he has been preparing for this festival, his first major exposure on a big stage.

“I’ve been focussing on getting different sounds and adding new instruments like cello and sax. I also want a violin but am not sure yet if that will happen, I’m still trying for that.”

“Honestly, for this show, I want it to be a new experience. It will be just me on vocals with everyone in the band playing around my vocals.”

“People look at Folk and Country music and at first, they think it’s going to be easy, but when they start playing it properly, they realize that there are many little details that need to be learned and ironed out in rehearsals.”

Rather than put Nikolai into a style box, I invited him to describe his music.

“I know that people call me country and that’s because they have put me there. I always think of it as Indie Americana Folk, but sometimes people also say it’s coastal cowboy style”.

If that sounds challenging it isn’t, because once you hear Nikolai you will be impressed by how his music lingers in your memory.

For starters, he sings well and has very good songs delivered with a pleasant, captivating stage presence.

His line-up of musicians for the GMF stage, although not yet fully confirmed, is as follows: Daryll Payas on drums; Ethan Herd on electric guitar; Nicky Borda on bass;
Jonathan Bugeya on slide guitar, banjo and occasional keyboards; William Menez on cello and sax, and Kristian Celecia on keyboards, acoustic guitar and supporting harmonies.

Checking out Nikolai’s music on his favourite platform Spotify, I heard bluegrass influences as well as balladeer/ folkie songs with a distinct Nashville connection which I wanted to explore further with him.

“I’ve been to Nashville twice and I’ve played two small gigs there and done a podcast there.”

“Layla Bugeja lives there and she’s my best friend. Simon Dumas also lives there and he’s also a friend, so there are two Nashville connections. To be fair, I’d like to have some more and be there again.”

“There is a plan to release an album at some point, and that will take time because I’ve always wanted my sound to be heard a certain way, which takes production away from me and into somebody else’s hands.”

“That’s difficult to achieve and expensive.”

“A producer has yet to see the vision for my songs and I have struggled to find one so far.”

“My project at the moment is to try to capture that vision on my own and record the songs my way.”

“Now I make a rehearsal room equipped to record on my own and perfectly produce my own demos exactly as I want them to sound.”

“That is the next step and it will give my songs the treatment which they deserve.”

“I don’t want to go too modern or too old, I want my music to sit comfortably somewhere in between.”

“I want to create a classic style rock album with a modern lo-fi vibe to it.”

“I have loads of songs which I have been writing for the past five years.”

“I am presently finishing a song which I want to release before GMF, It’s called Sixteen and I want to perform it on the big stage too.”

On a final note, I asked Nikolai whether he wanted to add anything to our chat and he said he  wanted to reach out to young people who suffer from mental health problems.

“Mental health is a big part of my journey. It’s a big part of my songs and of my life. I have struggled with anxiety and OCD and when I was growing up, it was not cool to talk about such struggles.”
“I want to be a voice to young people with those problems and say that ‘it’s ok to be on anti-depressants and it’s ok to reach out and talk about it’.”

“I think that music allowed me to see my problems clearer, as writing songs is about relating life experiences and reaching out to try to explain deep feelings.”

Nikolai will be on the big stage on the same bill as one of his heroes, James Morrison.