Cardiff-born and Fallowfield-based, Henry Nicholls is a student at the University of Manchester, and one of its most promising musicians right now. After debuting the catchy feel-good ode to his first year at university ‘Turtle Shell’ just last July, Nicholls has gone from sound-checking to the green breeze block walls of Oak House, or "Oak Home", if you will, to performing his first headline show at the beginning of March: it's clear to see that the red velvet curtain of Fuel Café Bar in Withington is a much more fitting background for the Welshman.
Hailing from Wales as a self-described "melodic over-sharer", Nicholls has always been open to "baring his soul" in his work, using it as a means to express how he feels about the people he loves. Having played the guitar since around the age of eleven, Nicholls confesses to having briefly lost confidence in his ability around the age of sixteen, leaving the instrument sat in the corner of a room collecting dust. Fast-forward to 2024, a period of travelling reignited his musical spark, and by the end of his stay he had pieced together a song using a series of hostel guitars, each slightly broken, by working around their faults to formulate a product of his travels. Since then, through encouragement from those closest to him to release them officially, writing and releasing songs has become a path he has quickly "fallen more and more in love with", as evidenced through his ever-growing catalogue of work.
Despite having played his first gig just last year, Nicholls currently has under his belt the brilliantly titled EP Carrot Top, released last August following the overwhelmingly positive reception of his debut single. His body of work, alongside breath-of-fresh-air vocals and his signature twangy folk guitar, also features backing piano by musical collaborator and one of his "closest friends", Leo Chiappi, also a student in Manchester. The duo sparked a friendship initially after discovering they were first-year flat neighbours, with Nicholls saying he got "extremely lucky really" with their meeting, and describing Chiappi as "such a talented man". From the get-go, a collaboration was on the cards after the former shared songs with the latter, who immediately started adding to them with his keyboard. Ever since, it’s been a case of Nicholls "sprinting" to Chiappi’s room and "borderline banging down the door" to share new ideas, and he "wouldn’t have it any other way".
Growth had been steady for Nicholls following the release of his EP and TikTok debut, when he decided to write a song a day in the month of December, to "fall back in love with writing". On day 24, he was surprised to see that one had reached a wider audience than ever before. Now with over 100,000 views, 15,000 likes, and 2400 saves, the snippet heard would later become ‘Simple & Clean’, Nicholls’ most recent single. He explains his surprise and gratitude for the love shown, with floods of comments begging him to release it and comparisons to the likes of Hozier, Charlie Noordewier, and Declan McKenna to name a few. Released in February and already racking up 7000 streams, reception was exceedingly positive, with comparisons to the likes of Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues.
Talking of his own musical inspirations, Nicholls credits his biggest influence at the moment as Billie Marten, stating "I adore absolutely everything she does, and I think that influence is evident in a lot of what I write sonically", as well as Way Dynamic, whose album Massive Shoe he’s had "on repeat for a long old time". In lyrical terms, whilst the two may be sonically varied, he dedicates a lot of his formative years as having been spent listening to Loyle Carner: "hearing a man be so openly vulnerable on the microphone was very important to a younger me, and still is today".
In terms of growth and prospects, the future is sure to hold even more exciting opportunities for Nicholls after headlining Fuel alongside Chiappi. Despite initially feeling "terrified" to reach out to a venue, admitting "I don’t think I’ve ever written an email so formal", the process was such an "easy and streamlined one" due to Fuel’s notorious championing of grassroots music and promotion of supporting both local artists and venues, a promising insight following Wolf Alice’s speech at the BRIT Awards.
Talking of the show, Nicholls reminisces that "the night itself was insane" and "unlike anything [he’d] seen before", despite having previously played open mic gigs at Manchester’s Peaky Blinders bar and other smaller venues. With a setlist composed of all EP tracks, a handful of unreleased songs, as well as his newest single, the atmosphere was one full of love, laughter, friendship, and centred on a collective admiration, support, and pure excitement for the pair and how far they have come in such a short space of time. The crowd was even treated to a taste of what Nicholls has currently up his sleeve, with a rendition of his recently announced upcoming single ‘The White Rabbit’.
In a reflective moment before performing it for the first time live, Nicholls spoke of where the idea came from: "after a pretty tough two weeks, I kept getting served this idea on social media of some karmic creature called ‘The White Rabbit’; a symbol that is said to visit you towards the end of an important connection". Despite having always been "very sceptical of that sort of thing", after seeing it so frequently, to the point where it became "comically frustrating", he decided to use it as the key theme of the song.
Credit: Henry Nicholls @ The Mancunion
After a few brief interludes, the set continued through released and, currently, unreleased tracks as well as an effortless cover of Olivia Dean’s ‘A Couple Minutes’, the set concluded with aptly titled ‘Encore’, before a replay of ‘Turtle Shell’, as enthusiastically requested by the crowd and happily obliged by the two. Nicholls describes it as "a tribute to my first year of university, and all my lovely housemates", and since its release in July 2025, it has very much become a staple of the set; a song that playing live for them was "such a wonderful and nostalgic experience". The atmosphere the second time round was even livelier and more full of love, if possible, with dancing, clapping, and the audience screaming lyrics about "Oak Home" and "flat 83" back to the smiling duo on stage.
Headlining Fuel was a feeling that Nicholls doesn’t think either him or Chiappi "will ever forget". If the show was a taste of what the future holds, it can be said in confidence that Henry Nicholls is a name you won’t want to forget any time soon.
https://open.spotify.com/album/6ncSfPlXQO3nLYUK4j0t5j?si=92dsSFHwT-mgs0TLCsPM-g
Comments
Powered by DisqusComments are provided by Disqus.