Musician Nikki Brooks’s project 5 years in the making
By Erik Buchinger
Nikki Brooks called it a “dream come true” to publish the first album of her musical career.
Brooks, whose real name is Nikki Schmidt (maiden name Benbrooks), released an album in February titled “Good Luck Woman” with her co-writer and producer Bo Stottlemyer.
She was born and raised in Clintonville and is a 1997 Clintonville High School graduate.
“I have a lot of good memories being raised in Clintonville,” Brooks said. “When you’re younger, you always think your town is boring, but after being out and living elsewhere, you realize it was a really good place to be raised. It’s a good, safe community with good schools and good people.”
Brooks said she discovered her passion for music as a first-grade student in Clintonville.
“I recently found this book I wrote in first grade for our class,” Brooks said. “In the book, there was a picture of me with a microphone on stage, and I said that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. I knew in first grade I had the desire to do this. I used to have notebooks at home where I would write poems or write songs. This was something I knew I wanted to do.”
Brooks took piano lessons as a child and was involved in choir during school. She attended college at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where she was involved with concert choir and a female a capella group.
Additional music endeavors included singing during church events and weddings, and she occasionally sang at bars on the weekends.
Brooks and her husband Mark Schmidt moved to Nashville in 2008, and they had their first child in 2009.
In 2013, Brooks started working alongside Stottlemyer, who is a retired engineer with a passion for music.
“I really do feel like this is a miracle,” Brooks said. “It’s this destiny thing where Bo and I were brought together. We work so well together and respect each other.”
The two first reached success with their song “Christmas Doesn’t Have to be White,” which was well-received on YouTube and received airplay on the radio.
After that, Brooks and Stottlemyer decided to record an album.
“It took several years to get the album out because both of us are very busy with our families and everything in life,” Brooks said. “We have lots of responsibilities.”
Starting in 2014, Brooks and Stottlemyer got together weekly to work on the album for approximately five years until it was published in February.
“We created our album out of a basement home studio because it’s so difficult now to get anyone to listen to the songs you’ve written unless you know somebody ahead of time,” Brooks said. “People are starting to create music out of homes now, and that’s what we did.”
There were many obstacles to overcome, Brooks said, with Stottlemyer in recovery from leukemia, and his wife had breast cancer. Both are in remission.
Brooks struggled herself with a blood-clotting issue. She now uses blood thinners.
“We had a lot of things we had to get around to accomplish all of this, so it took a while,” Brooks said.
Brooks said she is glad the album has finally been released.
“It’s worth it, and I’m really glad we did this even though it’s not always easy,” Brooks said. “It’s not easy to get people to listen to your music. To me, I’m excited that we did it. It’s almost a miracle we’re still going because we worked on it for five years.”
Brooks and her family returned to Wisconsin in October 2017 after Schmidt went back to college for his MBA. The family of four currently resides in Milwaukee.
Brooks said she now spends her time trying to promote the album and get others to listen to her music.
“It’s almost like a part-time business in a way, and I’m not really as much as a business person as I am a musician,” Brooks said. “Now we’re in the promoting and advertising stage, and that’s all new to me.”
Brooks had planned to perform songs in Nashville during songwriter nights, but with the move, her plans have changed.
Instead of performing or touring, Brooks focuses on reaching out to different media outlets to get her message out in addition to focusing on social media.
People can purchase the album online at CDBaby.com, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and Napster.
Her songs can be enjoyed by anyone having been inspired by a variety of different genres, including easy listening, soft rock, jazz, country, gospel, Christmas and ’50s and ’60s tunes, she said.
“You have to really love it because if you’re in it just to be rich or try to get attention or be famous, it’s probably not going to work,” Brooks said. “But if you’re writing and making music because you love it, you’ll do it no matter what.”
Brooks said she is not sure what the future holds for her musical career.
“I would love to say what’s going to happen, but it’s really just one day at a time,” Brooks said. “There’s time I think I’m 40 years old now and I’m probably done and Bo is in his 70s, but then I think we keep having interest. People are writing me to say they love the album and love a song, so that’s really encouraging and keeps us going.
“Right now, I’m taking care of my kids, my home, being with my husband and using music as a hobby. You never know what could possibly happen. I’d like to keep writing and singing and perform more. It might never turn into more than just a hobby, but you never know.”