Nico Rattray
Teaching has been a central gift to my life. I have great relationships with my students, with most of my young students staying with me for years, and many of my adult students describing it as being “like therapy.” In December 2024 I was Certified as a Trauma-Informed Nervous System in the Arts teacher by Ruby Rose Fox at Muscle Music.
I’ve been making music ever since I can remember. Songwriting and singing are my first loves: Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, and Ella Fitzgerald were my faves. I earned a bachelor of music from UC Santa Cruz, where I earned the 2007 Hortense Zuckermann Prize for Excellence in Music Scholarship and Performance (yah!) After that I sang classical music professionally for a number of years, but always kept writing songs. In 2011 I was blown away by the expressive power of James Blake’s first vocal record, and decided to throw myself into electronic music production. But in the end, acoustic music is my first and deepest love.
I moved to LA from the SF Bay Area in 2019.
Collaboration is at the center of my life, and I love to challenge myself by exploring and creating new genres. I have been blessed to work with brilliant, established artists, but often find that music lovers with unusual backgrounds or minimal training are also fantastic collaborators.
I’ve been teaching voice, piano, and guitar since 2006. I also love to teach songwriting and audio production (with Ableton Live). I have been practicing Buddhist meditation, mindfulness, and yoga since the late 2000s, and integrate it into my work with students and clients every day. If you’re interested, please drop me a line!
Nico’s Studio —
125 S Ave 52
Los Angeles, CA
(805) 448-3814
