Eastbourne singer, rapper and songwriter Nicki Timms has released an important debut single Anxiety In The Brain under her stage name Nicki Vibes.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor for Sussex Newspapers. It's a
00:06 real pleasure this morning to speak to Nicola Timms from Eastbourne, who's got a really
00:10 important single out, debut single no less, Anxiety in the Brain. And this is your message,
00:17 your way of coping with anxiety. You know where that anxiety came from, don't you? What
00:24 happened?
00:25 Yes, yes I do. I suffered a lot when I was younger. I was horrendously bullied, really,
00:33 really badly to the point that it made me suffer with PTSD and anxiety.
00:38 But the point is you found ways of coping, haven't you?
00:41 And I have found, yeah, I have. I found ways of controlling it and dealing with it. And
00:46 yeah, I'm a survivor.
00:49 Yeah, well done you. But what are the principal ways of coping with anxiety, would you say?
00:55 Because it can be so crippling, can't it? How do you get through it?
00:59 It can, it can. It can be very energy draining as well. So the best ways that I deal with
01:05 it is drinking water, doing breathing exercises, and the huge support network that I have with
01:11 my friends and family too. I mean, I wouldn't be able to do it without any of them either.
01:16 So it's the people around you, isn't it?
01:18 Yeah, definitely.
01:19 And the breathing, tell me more about the breathing. How does that work? Is it slowing
01:22 your breath down?
01:23 Yeah, literally, just start breathing really calmly in and out, really calm, and then just
01:31 take it and then sips of water. Don't dangle, just sips of it. And then it calms down.
01:35 Why the water? Because I know most of us don't drink anywhere near enough water, anything
01:40 near the amount that we should. But why water? Why does that work for you?
01:45 Do you know what? I don't even know, actually. It was weird, but when it first started happening,
01:51 it just, yeah, just drinking the water seemed to help.
01:55 Yeah, that's good. Maybe it's possible to overthink these things. It doesn't matter
01:59 why if it is, isn't it? But on top of this is also the music. And so the single is out.
02:08 Tell me about the thinking behind the single. What are you wanting to say in the single?
02:13 So my mantra is no one should suffer in silence. So what I say is about, you know, just getting
02:20 out of bed in the morning, making yourself a cup of tea, go for a walk. That is all an
02:27 achievement in itself, because that means you've done something that day. You know,
02:31 no matter what it is, big or small, you've done something. So that is my mantra for it.
02:36 And the crucial thing is to recognise the achievement, isn't it?
02:39 I reckon, yeah, 100%. And that's what I put in my lyrics and in my song as well. You know,
02:45 that message that I want to get out to everyone, that you can achieve it. You can do it. Just
02:51 believe in yourself and, you know, it will happen.
02:54 And you've done a fabulous thing insofar as you are really accepting of the way you are.
02:59 You're not resentful of the bullying, are you? This is just who you are now, isn't it?
03:05 Yeah. And once you accept that, then that's where you can control it more as well and
03:11 deal with it, you know, in the best possible ways that you can.
03:15 Yeah. So with the debut single, of which congratulations, where are you hoping to go with all this?
03:21 Where do you want the music to take you?
03:25 The most important thing to me is the message that I'm getting out. This all started because
03:30 of the competition that I was in called Sussex Superstars in Brighton with Chris Goodman,
03:36 the Focus Foundation. And they was actually, it was a fundraiser for mental health. And
03:43 when I entered it, I didn't actually know this. And then, yeah, I performed and I got
03:48 put through to the semi-finals for it. And then Chris come and approached me and he liked
03:53 the message that I was sending out, you know, in my music, because he deals with it himself.
03:58 He deals with anxiety a lot of himself. And that's when he wanted to pay for me to go
04:04 to London to record it and release it and get my message and my music out there and
04:09 basically go for my dream.
04:11 Fantastic.
04:12 Yeah. And where can people hear the song?
04:17 It is on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram. It's on all major platforms.
04:25 And just look for Nicola Thames.
04:29 Yeah. No, Nicky Vibes. That's my stage name.
04:33 Fantastic. Nicky, spelt?
04:35 Yeah. N-I-C-K-I-V-I-B-E-S.
04:38 Fantastic. Good. Well, really nice to speak to you. Congratulations on the song. Thank
04:43 you ever so much.