Si Nicol makes soulful, genre-melting music rooted in feeling more than form. He didn’t come from a musical family. He found music as an escape—drums, guitar, cassette tape overdubs, teaching himself how to stack sounds to get through the noise.

At eighteen, he moved to the UK. New influences fundamentally transformed his creative DNA. Back in the States,  friends introduced him to his city’s underground club scene in the early 2000s, and a close-knit community of producers, inspiring him to crack versions of FL and Reason. He spent years making beats, writing songs, and just playing round.

His first brush with the music industry came on the West Coast, working as a studio rat in Seattle. Producing and mixing for many Seattle and LA artists, running sound at venues for money, and quietly building a name under the alias Leava. That run led to press from Big Takeover, Stereo Wire, Seattle Music News, Nada Mucho, and 107.7 The End—but it still didn’t feel like him.

In 2020, he wiped it clean. He removed his internet presence, stopped collaborations, and spent a couple years alone writing, rebuilding, and figuring out what he was trying to really do. In 2024, a year after his move to Chicago, he started showing up as Si Nicol with a set of singles.