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It had been six years since her last album, *Italian Ice*, and Atkins admits she had some self-doubt. Enter another Nashville pal, Patrick Sansone. The producer and Wilco multi-instrumentalist proved to be the perfect foil for *Drama*.
“Pat knows so much about that chamber pop style of music, and that's my North Star and home base,” Atkins says. “I write like I write—sometimes it sounds '80s, sometimes it sounds '60s, sometimes it sounds '50s. And Pat always gets it. He was able to help me sprinkle that baroque sound throughout the whole record, so it all made sense together.”
Accompanied by her touring band (John Paul Keith on guitar, Danny Banks on drums, plus guests Eric Slick of Dr. Dog, Dan Creamer of The Texas Gentlemen, and Scottish troubadour Davey Horne), rhythm tracks were cut over four days, capturing a live sound.
“For me, it's always about how the song will translate on stage,” Atkins says.
Then she and Sansone hunkered down in his home studio for overdubs.
“I've never worked with somebody who I trust that much to add arrangement touches and parts to my songs,” Atkins says. “And even occasionally if I didn't love some part he did, he wouldn't be hurt. Pat's such a pro, and a positive force.”
With a summertime release and touring planned for early 2027, Atkins feels optimistic about the album, noting a change in the music world at large.
“When I first came out, I was kind of on an island,” she says. “Nobody other than Richard Hawley was doing new takes on past love for melodies. There's more of a scene now. Lemon Twigs, Steven Sanchez, The Last Dinner Party, Haute & Freddy. I felt like they gave me permission to just be myself.”
And as on previous albums, she ups the ante by aiming to “write modern songs that could be part of the Great American Songbook.” But in her own way.
“I'm not trying to rehash or celebrate some bygone era,” she says. “I'm just taking what I like melodically from the past and channeling it into my songs. I like to make them deeply personal. The question I come back to is—how do I make this sound exactly like me?”
*Drama* sounds exactly like Nicole Atkins.