Biography
A journey from north to south
Nadia Sardjoe takes her music, original and found, and nestles it in the heart of her listeners. Her music echoes the past, and heralds the future for her lucky audiences. Born in The Netherlands, she now makes her home in Paris, where she is roaming the traditional music and songwriting scene. She has been a member of upcoming bands like Half Way Station and French bluegrass bands Bronco and Ruby. She was also a co-founder of the Parisian based Carter Family Tribute band called Les Cartiers the Paris, alongside Steph Doe (Dear John, Pig Society) and Jordan Kay (Saelkie Folk).
Nadia is presently at work on a collection of her original songs, accompanied by mandolinist and flutist Félix Masson.
Like so many classical violin players, Nadia learned at an early age only to abandon the instrument during her studies. It wasn’t until 2009 that she started playing again, thanks to Half Way Station, and made her way back into music. She played three wonderful, intense years with the Indie folk band from Rotterdam and rocked the prettiest stages and festivals in The Netherlands (Oerol, Paradiso, Lantaren/Venster, Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, Verkadefabriek). With them, Nadia toured Belgium and France and connected so deeply with France that she moved to Paris in 2012 to start a new chapter. In France, Nadia found her place in the Parisian Oldtime and Bluegrass community where she became the fiddler of the band Bronco. At that time, Nadia worked full-time in international business while starting a family. When Bronco transitioned into Ruby (Laurent Amélineau, Benoit Rotger, Marie Clemence, Steph Doe and Bill Bayer), Nadia became their lead singer and played gigs at venues like the Candy Shop, Espace B (supporting Brother Dege and Monk Parker), Café Racer Motorcycle Festival Montlhéry and Le Réservoir. Ruby also recorded a Sardjoe original for Bold Design’s 3D printed OWA bluetooth speaker.
‘My songs come from the painful parts of myself, the parts that we like to avoid. But by facing those parts, we come closer to our core, to our truth.’
After Ruby, Nadia had a great time at Les Cartiers de Paris, (a tribute band to The Original Carter Family). The name is a word play on the Parisian arrondissements and the Carter name. Highly focused on being as close as possible to the original sound, she learned how to play the guitar (the Carter scratch and Sara’s old time backup style) and even played the autoharp (not for long). Her love for harmonies only grew thanks to singing with Steph, and Jordan’s eerie Maybelle sound, given by his perfect Scratch motivated her to learn how to accompany her singing on the guitar. Shortly after she left Les Cartiers, she got into full writing mode, finished her first original songs and started performing them from February 2022. Today, Nadia has a full set of original material that she performs solo.
Nadia spent the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 taking care of her daughter, learning guitar, writing more songs and working through a vocal transformation, guided by her vocal coach, Thomas Macfarlane. During this period, she found a songwriting mentor in North Carolina based singer, songwriter, guitar and clawhammer banjo player Joe Newberry (Missouri Borderland, Singing as we Rise) and a musical partner in mandolinist, flutist and bass player Félix Masson (The Doblo Mountain Boys, Byzance Nord) with whom she plays in duo setting.