Nik West is a solo recording artist, bassist, and producer. She has worked with Prince, Glee, Quincy Jones, and Dave Stewart (Eurythmics). She also works with ESPN, Disney, and others as a music composer.
Nik came from a musical family in Phoenix, Arizona. Her Father taught her to play the guitar as a teenager, her sisters were her first band mates and she has an older brother with whom she still makes music. It was through listening to Michael Jackson’s music that Nik became interested in putting down the guitar and picking up a bass, a switch which was to set her on a path towards the higher echelons of the music business – not that she planned things that way…
“I got into the music industry completely by accident. I played bass as a ‘sometimey’ hobby. Something to do when I was completely bored.”
It was 2009, and Nik’s first cover video, playing a ‘super simple bassline’ from Jill Scott’s song The Way that opened the first significant door for the young bassist and singer, with guitar giants Fender noticing her performance and giving Nik her first endorsement. This, in turn, helped bring her to the attention of some of the biggest names in the industry.
“Dave Stewart heard about me as he wanted a young new bass player and contacted me. At that point, I decided I would actually practice lol!!! I knew only a couple songs (but the ones I knew, I killed em...)”
There followed the aforementioned collaborations with Prince, Glee and Quincy Jones plus jams and accompaniments with a variety of top artists such as John Mayer, Marcus Miller among others.