Singer with local roots searches for soul within her voice
You may have known her as Jenifer Douros if you were in school with her at Creekview Elementary or Carbon High back in the day.
But as of April 4—the release date of Nadia Gold’s debut single recording, “Fool,”—she adopted her new stage name.
Finding the name was easy, a piece of cake, or as a Greek might say, a piece of baclava. “I went through a ton of ideas, but I settled on Gold because my ya-ya’s name was Goldie,” she explains. So she decided to honor her grandma with the last name.
The date of the release is also significant. April 4 is when Goldie passed away, the birthday of the late Maya Angelou, “…and the date when my ex-boyfriend took his own life. I wanted to turn the day into something positive to remember,” she says.
Finding a stage name and release date may have been easy, the real challenge that has confronted her—and she admits still faces her—is finding a voice of her own.
“I don’t know if people know what’s involved. You really have to start digging into yourself. You have to decide what’s inside of you that you want to expose,” she says. “It’s really scary.”
In addition to melody, harmony and rhythm, she says the art of singing is in story telling. Her style is something called “Americana Soul.”
Nadia – Jenifer – began with the basics when she was in fourth grade at Creekview. In addition to singing lessons, she also spent time learning guitar, piano and dancing. She composed her own patriotic song after 9-11 that earned a modest amount of fame.
She also spent a year and half in Thailand, where she was studying and practicing natural healing and Thai massage. It was there that she discovered something else about herself. “I didn’t know I had a big voice, but I found out.”
Friends advised her to get serious about music, so she continued studying and performing. The need for polishing was no surprise. “I grew up dating artists, producers, writers. They tweak this and that constantly.”
Eventually she met Dane Diamond Errisson, producer at Diamondmine Recording in Los Angeles, where she signed on. The pace accelerated.
“On my last visit to LA we did 11 songs in one week. I didn’t think I’d ever have my voice again,” she quips. Studio recording is a far cry from singing in the shower. Not only does the vocalist have to record take after take, but there are complex harmonies that have to be painstakingly mixed in with just the right volume.
Douros says that for now, those recordings will be released as singles on various sites on the Internet, eventually leading to extended play offerings. She says she’s not sure where the road will take her, but she’s willing to take it a step at a time.
You can listen to her Nadia Gold release, “Fool,” at youtube.com.