Nicole Logan is the Executive Producer of Spotify Original vodcast Nailing It …
Brought to you by award-winning podcast production company Reduced Listening, Nailing It sees comedic trio Adesayo ‘Sayo’ Talabi (simplysayo), Priscilla Anyabu (Love Island) and Wunmi Bello (The Wunmi Bello Show) offering a refreshing take on being a woman in modern day society.
Spearheading the show, Nicole has worked with some of the UK’s leading arts institutions including ATG, BBC 1, ITV, BBC 1Xtra, BBC Sounds, Spotify and Roundhouse London. Breaking down cultural and institutional barriers has always been a part of Nicole’s professional journey and she is currently serving on the boards of diversity and inclusion media charity Multitrack and Bloomsbury Arts Festival. Nicole is utilising her experience as Head of Development at Reduced Listening and founder of Dutchie Club.
We caught up with Nicole to talk about all things podcast and how she coined herself the Shonda Rhimes of the podcasting world …
Please tell us who you are and what you do, and where you’re from [heritage / area] …
Hey I’m Nicole Logan, but my loved ones call me Niccy, I’m a self confessed audio entertainment nerd & a podcast producer/showrunner, I’m Jamaican and a West Indian aunty in training. I’m London born and based but Birmingham raised so will rep 0208 and 0121 forever!
Describe your life right now in a word or one sentence …
Hectic, creative & humorous.
Tell us about your current job and latest project …
I’m currently Head of Development at award winning production company Reduced Listening, as well as the creator and Executive Producer of the brand new Spotify original Nailing It, hosted by the hilarious Adesayo Talabi, glamorous Priscilla Anyabu and the ever witty Wunmi Bello. It’s a show all about the ups and downs of life in your twenties, whether that be work, romance or family.
What’s your role in it?
I’m the creator and Executive Producer but I often describe myself as a showrunner because it best encapsulates the wide variety of my job which is basically creating, casting, crewing and running a podcast production. It is more similar to TV than linear radio and most people understand what someone like Shonda Rhimes or Issa Rae does, so it is a helpful comparison.
How did Nailing It come about?
I developed this show in lockdown, super inspired by all the black women creating brilliant content during a really rubbish time. I also really missed going to the nail salon, it is after all the glamorous babes beauty temple, and I wanted to capture that.
Highs, lows, solutions …
Highs – Launching the show was amazing, Priscilla rented a party bus to do a tour of the billboards across London. All the core production team went and it was such a lovely afternoon.
Lows – The sirens on the road of the salon are always a low light. They are so loud!
Solutions – Various very geeking microphone solutions to kill the ambient noise. Some stunning plugins and an adaptive workflow… Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
What’s your current plan B? (if it all goes wrong what’s the plan?)
What do you mean by Plan B? I don’t know her… (Swishes in Mariah)
What’s made you Sad, Mad, Glad this week …
Sad – Being on what feels like our 50th prime minister this month.
Mad – The rising cost of living in the UK and how black women will often bear the brunt of it.
Glad – My family listened to Nailing It for the first time and may understand what I do for a living … yay!
What are you watching right now?
A League Of Their Own on Amazon Prime – it’s about a women’s baseball team in 1940s America, based on the film – which I love. It stars one of my favourite actresses, Chanté Adams. Such a fun and uplifting series which showcases women chasing their dreams.
What are you reading right now?
Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart. It’s a fantasy novel set in an island very much inspired by Jamaica! Two rival witch queens fight for power and cross loyalty lines. The perfect book.
What are you listening to right now?
Podcasts – Nailing It – Obviously! I made this show because I wanted to listen to a show like this, so it’s a massive perk of the job to get to make something you think is great!
Archetypes, the new podcast series from Megan, Duchess of Sussex, is great as well. The episode with Issa Rae & Ziwe is a particular highlight!
Music wise – All Eyes On U – the mixtape from vocalist Jaz Karis is wonderful. I saw her recently at the Laylow and that was such a lovely evening!
The last thing you saw on stage?
The Dylema Collective @ Somerset House, it was part theatre, part art installation, part jazz gig. Really immersive and an uplifting experience from one of my favourite poet and performer’s Dylema.
What’s on your bucket list?
To write a children’s book series, there is honestly nothing I would like to do more! And to visit every Island in the Caribbean, I have spent a lot of time in Jamaica, Cuba & Barbados with my family but would love to explore more.
Celebrate someone else (who do you rate right now?)
Leanne Alie, the podcasting queen herself and the Exec/Presenter of Coiled Podcast – which if you haven’t listened to yet you should. It’s a brilliant multi-award winning documentary on black hair. It’s so entertaining and informative, while revisiting a well trodden subject matter but from an original & entirely British perspective.
She also spearheaded the BBC Audio Lab programme which enabled several emerging audio makers to get their first commissioned podcast series from the BBC, so she manages to uplift others while making fantastic content herself. She is just great!
Celebrate yourself … (make us proud of you)
I am really proud of what I have achieved with this show, this is one of the first brand new /original formats that Spotify UK have commissioned in recent times, and to anchor the show with 3 black women of African heritage I think is a real milestone. It is definitely historic, and we have black women both in front of the camera and behind the scenes, in all editorial and gatekeeping roles from our series producer to the owner of the salon. Black women are at the very heart of this show, it’s made for them, they are our priority and I am so proud that I was able to spearhead it.
I am also incredibly proud of myself for being Head of Development and an Executive Producer in my early thirties. Creative careers are so hard to gain headway in, especially as a black woman. I feel very lucky to be at a production company like Reduced Listening, that is so supportive of creativity and shining a light on overlooked subjects. I feel incredibly privileged and so it’s not something I take for granted
Where can we find listen to Nailing It?
Nailing It is out now on Spotify! You can watch and listen to the podcast for free on your Spotify app.
You can follow us at Nailing it podcast on IG and TikTok. The company is @Reducedlistening – we have other great shows coming over the next couple months and I am on @Niccyniss.