Rich background goes into Radon’s first album

By Neil Schulman

Long Branch — Nicole Radon was in the city a few weeks ago, taking publicity photos for debut EP, Surrender, which was recently released.

Nicole Radon has just released her first album, “Surrender.” (Melissa Hernandez photo)

Radon has always loved music — “I sang my entire life growing up,” she recalled. But she put her musical plans on hold when she went to college, since she got in on a gymnastics scholarship. For four years she competed in championships, but promised herself she “would get right back into singing.”

And music is in her family. Her brother is a prizewinning professional ballroom dancer. Her uncle was known as the Polka King.

Entering the music industry has been an exciting and fast experience.

“It was last March that I had signed with Totally Square Records,” she recalled. She’d gone to an audition and both sides thought they’d be great with each other.

“It was great. We clicked. It felt right,” she said.

She spent the time writing, and getting music together.

While she auditioned as an “Indy Blues” singer, Surrender is filled with the sounds of Electronic Dance Music and Pop. Radon says she’s very happy with the sound.

“It’s a fun beat. They can play that anywhere,” she said.

But there’s a much deeper influence to it. Radon says that the songs of Nora Jones, Karen Dalton and others inform her work.

“I still keep a little Billie Holiday in me when I sing,” she said.

Her new album is being well received. A&R Factory (Artist and Repetoir) called Surrender “The New Face of Pop.”

“Solid beats, intricate soundscapes and a vibrant verse build the anticipation before a truly monumental chorus delivers everything you want from a pop record. When it hits the pay-off it is big, bombastic, infectious and memorable,” it says of the album.

Surrender is available at CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and other sites. For more information, and to hear her songs, visit www.totallysquare.com/­nicole-radon.