One half of beloved jazz-pop duo, Zrazy, Carole Nelson has branched out to write an album sumptuously steeped in the country life she and her partner, ex-GCN editor Deborah Ballard, let Dublin for 16 years ago. Mindfulness and meditation helped her step into her own, she says.

I was a middle child. I grew up in Southeast London and I had an older brother who I emulated. He would rescue me if I got stuck up a tree, but otherwise tolerated me at best. I had a younger sister, and that brought out more of the protective side of me.

Photo by Babs Daly.

We were like the Family von Nelson, all five of us in the car going somewhere, singing harmonies, forming little pop groups at holiday camps. I started playing the piano when I was seven and I had a classical training up until age 18, all paid for by the state, which was great because my family wasn’t very well off.

My first real band was called The Spoilsports. We played Gay Pride in Hyde Park in 1980, I wore tiny John Lennon glasses, a leather jacket and a beret – my best revolutionary look. I’d made the decision that I was going to be a musician, and as long as I didn’t starve or freeze, my object wasn’t going to be money.