Come on a journey with me through nearly 20 years of lyrics, melodies, and an evolution of vocals and styles of music I have loved and enjoyed creating. My styles over the years have been influenced by my years growing up on the West Coast, in Wine Country and on Southern California beaches, creating unique, haunting acoustic, folk, pop, and country songs with a dash of R&B. In my more recent years in Texas, I’ve been creating my own style of blues, pop rock, and swamp rock country anthems.

I hope—and I think—there’s a little bit of everything for you to enjoy on Dark Horse Pegasus. I hope my years of songwriting reach and touch everyone in a very real and relatable way.

It’s taken me years to find the courage and focus to complete this album. Self-doubt ruins more dreams than anything. Though this is far from all of my work, this is a bucket-list album of my favorites that I want to leave and share with the world. I have never pursued music professionally, and it’s not my intention to do so.

Music has been therapy for me for many years: both listening and singing along to artists who have reached me and gotten me through hard, pivotal moments in life, and creating my own songs to navigate loss, anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and the wonders of life. My wish in all of this is to be known for my lyrics as a songwriter more than anything else. I hope everyone listening hears every word. Melodies reach the heart, but lyrics reach the soul.

I believe, and I am confident, that there is more than the physical experience. I believe this because of a horse accident I had when I was very young. Though I was only briefly unconscious and unresponsive, I could see everything that was happening around me, including myself. Call it what you will, but I share this because, after that, I was able to sense things from a deeper perspective and connect with things deeply, often in my dreams. Maybe it was inherited; maybe it was a gift of clairvoyance from my accident. Sometimes I would hear beautiful melodies and harmonies in my dreams. I would wake up with lyrics and melodies in my head and hurry to write them down. I would hum the melodies enough times to remember them, then hurry to get them on a recorder to finish later. Some call it an ability to connect with my higher self or something beyond; others call it “woo-woo.” But the point is, that’s what music is to me. Music has been a gift, both in listening to other people’s music and in creating my own. I don’t mean “a gift” in an arrogant way, but in the sense that it’s my purpose to write, create, and now share—not for personal gain, but as a form of self-medication and a sense of purpose. Maybe it will reach and touch others as music has done for me.

Dark Horse Pegasus was always the plan. I have taken the long way around it, but the truth is that my passions have always been horses and music. I’ve had horses my whole life and spent years participating in an event called barrel racing. My fascination with the winged horse has been a constant for as long as I can remember. I’ve also been a vocal chameleon, always singing along to my favorite artists and enjoying many different genres and vocal variations. Now, it has all come to fruition together. As a little girl, I remember making alfalfa and grain offerings to the powers that be, asking them to please send me a black Pegasus. So it was fitting that my horse business would be Pegasus Performance Horses, with predominantly black horses, and that my album would be Dark Horse Pegasus, that is also the name of the first song I sat down and recorded as an adult, much in the tone and style of that little girl who used to wish every night for a winged horse to come sweep her away for a midnight ride.

Please take the time to listen to every word and melody. I hope you sing along. I hope this motivates you to wake up and remember who you are. It’s time. I hope it reminds you to be your best self and to do the things for yourself that you’ve set aside for too long because life got in the way—even if it’s hard, even if it takes everything you’ve got, and a reminder that you’re not alone in your struggles. Mostly, I hope you love and feel my gift and can relate to it or that it helps you remember or get through whatever it is you’re getting through and to keep on going and feeling all the way through it. “This to shall pass”. Be kind to yourself, life is the hardest school to get through, but it’s worth it and be kind to others, especially those who cannot defend themselves, animals included. These are my wishes. —Nikki