Eastbourne singer and rapper tackles anxiety with debut single

Available on YouTube, Spotify and all the major platforms, it offers a positive message about dealing with the anxiety Nicki has grappled with since being hideously bullied at school. She performed it at a competition in Brighton called Sussex Superstars.

“After the event Chris Goodman, the founder, approached me and we spoke about doing something with my music as he liked the message I was sending out. Chris wanted to sponsor me to go to the studio and release my song Anxiety In The Brain as he felt it would relate to a lot of people.”

All proceeds from its release will be going to Heads On, the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust charity which helps people living with mental health problems to feel supported, stay active and be more involved in their communities. Eastbourne’s Music Fest and GPF Productions are also supporting the single and the charity, as is Daddy Goo. Thanks also to Andy Parker and Tenpin.

“Basically the song is about what I deal with,” Nicki says. “It's about my battles with anxiety and the ways that I've learned to deal with it. I got bullied horrendously when I was at school and I suffer from PTSD because of that. It's just really bad anxiety and I think that a lot of people can relate to that especially after Covid and all that we all went through. But by day there are little things that I do that enable me to cope, like a checklist that I go through. I also do breathing exercises but I've also been incredibly well supported by my friends and family. I haven't actually been diagnosed with PTSD but I know the signs. And the ways of coping include the breathing exercises and also drinking water. I get all hot and sweaty and just don't feel well and feel like my energy is being drained so it is about recognising the triggers. It can be certain things on TV like seeing people being bullied or violence and obviously it is not always easy to avoid violence on TV which is another reason why I do my music. I focus more on my lyrics. My music is my diary.

“I started writing in my 20s but I've been singing since I was a little girl. My nan used to take me to the old musical theatres and she used to record all the old musicals for me growing up. I've always wanted to be on stage and in my 20s I started writing lyrics but it was not until I got the music app StarMaker that I started being able to put it together. This is my debut single and it is doing really, really well. It is basically my message to people to say that no one should ever need to suffer in silence. Just waking up in the morning and making a cup of tea and getting out of bed is an achievement. You should never push yourself too much. You should always take it one stage at the at a time. I'm really good at the moment. Things have been going really well. I've got my focus on the music and I've got another song that I'm going to be ready to drop in a couple of months which is more about being a warrior, being a survivor. It's the battles that you fight daily that make you stronger. The more you grow, the more you learn and the more you accept. And the more you accept the better you find ways of controlling things.”