Tyka Nelson, accomplished musician and sister of Prince, joins *Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley* for a revealing conversation about her life, music, and spiritual journey. Recorded in December 2008, this rare interview explores Tyka’s path from major label artist to independent creator, the inspiration behind her long-awaited album *A Brand New Me*, and the influence of her iconic family. With reflections on growing up in a musical household and candid stories of creative freedom, Tyka offers a deeply personal glimpse into her artistry and evolution.

📘 **What You’ll Hear in This Episode**

– How Tyka’s parents and brother Prince shaped her musical path

– The creative process behind *A Brand New Me*

– Her transition from major labels to independent artistry

– Spiritual themes woven into her lyrics and performances

– Her excitement for touring and reconnecting with fans

– Behind-the-scenes stories from Minneapolis’ vibrant music scene

⏱️ **Chapters**

00:14 – Introducing Our Next Guest

04:20 – Growing Up with Prince

07:55 – The Genesis of a Music Career

12:13 – The Journey to Self-Discovery

15:36 – Exploring the Music Scene in Minneapolis

18:22 – The Legacy of Prince: A Musical Journey

🔗 **Links & Mentions**

– [Visit MusiciansReveal.com](https://www.musiciansreveal.com)

– [YouTube – Musicians Reveal](https://www.youtube.com/@musiciansreveal)

– [Live365 – Musicians Reveal Radio](https://live365.com/station/Musicians-Reveal-Radio-a25049 )

📝 **Key Takeaways**

– Tyka began writing *A Brand New Me* in the early 1990s and brings decades of passion into its release

– She emphasizes the importance of authenticity in the evolving music industry

– Her parents and Prince played pivotal roles in shaping her musical identity

– Spirituality is central to her songwriting, aiming to uplift and connect

– Tyka's goal is to take her music around the world and inspire fans through live performance

– Her band, *The Word*, reflects the power of collaboration and shared vision

It is 6:31 here at WVOF, 88.5 FM in Fairfield, Connecticut.

The Upper Room with Joe Kelly with you until 10pm this evening.

And it's a true honor that we're going to be introducing our next guest to our radio show.

We wanted to have her on for quite a while and she's got a really nice project which is going to be released.

It's out now, but she has a CD release party up in the Twin Cities in a couple weeks.

She hails from musical royalty.

Her father, John L. Nelson, and her mother Maddie are musicians.

We're musicians back in the Twin Cities.

And her brother Prince, I think we've heard of that man.

And she is a very, very talented artist, vocalist and producer and songwriter.

We're gonna welcome right now Taika Nelson.

How are you doing, Taika?

I'm good.

How are you doing, Joe?

I'm doing pretty good.

And you got all that great lineage of music and you're really excited about the new record that is called A Brand New Me, right?

I am real excited.

How long have you been writing songs for this particular project?

A Brand New Me, I started in 90 90.

I'm sorry.

I started writing for this particular CD.

Now a brand New Me.

Of course, we know you from.

Signed with the major record label Chris List and now coming back into the musical game with your great new project as an independent artist.

What have you seen change since those days in the music business for you and where things are headed?

Wow.

A lot of things.

When I first went out, I just put three songs together.

Everybody said you had to have five.

Put three songs together and it just took off like a rocket.

Got signed to a six figure record deal and everything just kept going like dominoes.

It just kept falling with this.

It was totally different.

Everybody's going, no, you've got to do your own thing and you've got to come out with your own music.

And then you've got to get out there and have some numbers and everything before somebody will pick you up.

So this was totally different and I had to find somebody to do the music.

That was hard trying to find the time.

And so I said, oh, forget it, I'll just do it myself.

Well, you know, take us back to the time when you had that six figure deal and are you jumping around the house when you get inked?

And you know.

It was kind of like a daze because the phone calls constantly ring and it's.

They're saying now you've got to be here for this.

And you've got to go over there for that.

And then Prince's new.

Well, it was albums back then, I think Love Sexy was out, so.

And then he was on tour and just.

So it was my brain in my mind.

It was just, you know, between my kids.

They were smaller then.

It was just one thing after the other.

So it was a big fun whirlwind back then.

So did your brother Prince back then give you some tips on getting into the music industry?

Not getting into the music business, but he would say little things here and there, but it wasn't anything that I guess would steer me one way or the other.

He would kind of give me heads up on, I don't know, let's say, like, maybe some business aspects, maybe some of the different people to be connected with.

I'm trying to give you some examples here.

It has been a while, right?

Right.

Our special guest right now is Tyken Nelson and we invite you to go to her website, MySpace.com Nelfi Productions, N E L P H I Productions.

And the CD is also available where you can listen to tracks from the cd@cdbaby.com Tyka Nelson.

T Y K A Tell us about the meaning of your name, Taika, because really, really a cool name.

Any background to the name your parents gave you?

Unfortunately not.

It's a really dull story.

My mom just wanted to name me something different and she made it up.

There was a show called the Tiki on and she named me kind of after that.

And so I was dubbed Taika.

Right.

So you guys are kind of the forerunners of original names, Prince and yourself.

Right?

Yeah.

That's probably most people will ask the question, so what was it like growing up with Prince?

And normally I would say, well, it's no different.

And so I thought about that question today and it's funny you did not ask, but you did ask about the name.

Right?

Right.

That was the really, probably the only difference that we had besides my mother and my father were into music.

Other than that, our names were different than anybody in the neighborhood.

Right.

Right.

Everybody else was Jane or Karen or Mary, and we were Prince and Taika.

So Taika Nelson is with us and I'm sure her family's real proud.

Prince proud of her new project, which is called Brand New Me.

And we're going to get into some music right now.

This is called Rock and Roll.

And give us a little taste of what it was like in the studio recording this and the genesis of it.

I wanted to come from a younger Girl's idea about wonder if a guy approached you and would you?

Because everything at the end of each song leads to God.

And that's who I believe is our creator.

And so with rock and roll, is it just a guy in a car and he wants to know does she, this girl, want to come down to the seedier side with him and have fun with him or does she want to choose God?

And at the end she chooses God, of course.

All right, right on.

Taika Nelson is with us here on the Upper room with Joe Kelly and wvof.

We'll be back and speak more with our special guest Taika Nelson.

All right, that's great music.

New music from the brand new me.

And the song is entitled Rock and Roll.

And it's from our special guest right now.

Tyke Nelson joins us once again.

Yes.

Hi everybody.

Now we saw you performing on TV show at CARE or K A R E. I'm not from your area, but great performance.

You're out there.

Tell us about the band you're working with and the fellows that were performing with you that day.

The band's called the Word.

And I'm really excited because these fellows that have so graciously come together to help me out on this project are some of the the best players in the area and of course in my heart, the whole wide world.

We've got Victor on drums and we call him the drummer.

We've got Truth, he plays the keyboard.

Got another Joe like you, Joe Kelly.

Got a Joe on rhythm and lead guitar.

We've got Shade on rhythm and lead guitar and we've got Dan on the bass and of course all of them sing vocals except for Vic.

So you're working them real hard in rehearsals.

Yeah, a lot of hard work trying to put the show together for December 12th down at Bunkers Minneapolis.

Yeah, that's right.

Right in downtown Minneapolis.

Bunkers, December 12th.

You told me off air there's going to be an opening act.

What time should people head on over to the venue?

Nine o'.

Clock.

And the opening act is another great bunch of guys.

It's.

They're called Arc, Flash, Hazard and that's my good friends Jeff and Nick.

And opening for us, the two bands, we also have a wonderful guy from Minneapolis area and his name is Chemist.

Okay, so you get 3x for the price of one, right.

On a Friday night.

Make sure you bring some extra money to.

To pick up a brand new me.

Sure, that's right.

Two or three.

Yeah, that's right.

Christmas is coming up, right?

Yeah, that's right.

You gotta have it ready.

A brand new me Taika will be there as well, and she is guaranteed to put on a great show.

Now tell us about your family, your parents heavily involved in music.

And I'm sure.

When did you get your first taste of music and to recognize, like, hey, I would want to do something like this.

Well, when I was younger and growing up, I.

You know, because I'm two and I'm one and, you know, just like you learn to walk because everybody around you is walking.

The only other female in the house was my mother.

And besides cooking and things like that, I also saw her sing.

And so that's what I kind of really thought women did.

They sang at the piano next to their husbands.

And so I just kind of mimicked her.

And so they tell me I was singing it too.

And that's what I do.

Walk around the house singing.

I guess my dad thought I was cute.

Yeah.

So your mom great singer as well?

Yeah, she was a jazz singer.

That's how her and my dad met.

Your dad keep a piano in the home?

Yes, he had a baby grand piano.

So what was the punishment if you wound up messing with it?

Or could you guys tinker with it?

No, you were not allowed to touch the piano.

Right, right.

So you grew up.

You know, actually the title for our show, Upper Room was taken from Mahalia Jackson somewhere along the line.

So you grew up listening to Mahalia Jackson records, right?

Yeah, that's right.

My mom liked Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole, so I got to hear a lot of that.

You remember the first record you ever bought?

I do not remember the first one I bought.

I have an older brother named Alfred and he would bring music, the 45s back from Kansas City.

And so I sometimes go in there and sneak them and slip them on.

But that was James Brown, the Temptation, Smokey Robinson.

Yeah, some great music.

How about the first concert that you ever attended?

You recall that?

The first one, I think it was James Brown and Aretha Franklin.

It was a free concert in the.

Park out in Minneapolis.

In Minneapolis.

It's the same place right now where there's a cherry sitting on a spoon.

They used to have concerts there for black people back then.

Right, right.

So great times were reminiscing with Taika Nelson.

But of course, present day, here she's got a brand new CD called A Brand New Me, which you can go to her website, MySpace.com Nelfie Productions, N E L P H I Productions.

It's also available@cdbaby.com and Tyka's first name, T Y K A Nelson.

It's also available in Minneapolis at a store that has records called Electric Theater.

Right.

That you can like spend your paycheck and spend, you know, a few hours shopping around, right?

That's right.

Christmas is coming.

Yeah, that's right.

Christmas is coming and you got cold weather up there.

We're headed up to Montreal in the middle of the week, so we're gonna get a taste of that Minneapolis weather, probably.

That sounds fun, right?

So she'll be performing December 12th at Bunkers in downtown Minneapolis, a really great club.

I think Monday.

They still have the combo out there, Mambo's Combo.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they're a great band, Right.

If you haven't heard them, definitely go and check them out because they're really good.

We're going to get into another track from a brand new me.

This is called Butay.

And what is the meaning of this particular track?

That we shouldn't be so superficial.

That we all come in different sizes and colors and beauty comes from the inside.

All right, well said.

And this is sung beautifully from our special guest, Taika Nelson, right here at WVOF in Fairfield, Connecticut.

We'll get into it and come back and speak more with our special guest, Taika Nelson.

That is from our special guest, Taika Nelson from a brand new me that is called Butay.

And we're enjoying talking off air about the brand new record and upcoming things.

So Taika is with us.

Thanks for the honor to grace our airwaves.

Thank you so much, Joe, for having me on.

You know, obviously from the lyrics of the new record and you know, the way the messages on your website are very spiritual and life changing.

When do you reach a point in your life where you know, you want to go in that direction and being positive and as you said, off air, backing it up.

I think I was always kind of looking for that because kind of like Dorothy and the wizard of Oz, you know, it's there inside of yourself, but you've got to find it.

You've got to connect with it.

Maybe that's it because it's always there.

You don't have to find it.

You just got to connect with it.

Right, right.

And once you like I have joy and peace.

And that's exactly what I was looking for.

Right.

And it definitely exudes from your music and just talking with you.

So I'm sure you get a lot of people coming up to you for maybe some coaching, some uplifting, you know, in between songs when you're performing, right?

Yeah.

When we just performed on Carrie Levin, a guy came up and he said, one of the guys that worked in the studio and he said, you guys look like you're having a lot of fun.

And I said, we are.

And it is genuine.

And that's exactly what I want people to do, is to look at my life and look at me and say, there's something different, there's something there.

I want.

What you have, you've got.

I'm looking at your schedule.

You've got another TV showcase on December 10th.

Right.

Minnesota showcase on December 10th, and then again the Bunker Show.

And that's December 12th.

Right.

Nine o', clock, three acts and prestigious place in Minneapolis to see live music.

Minneapolis still has bands, live music, so that's encouraging.

Right.

That's what Bunkers is known for too.

Just hearing some really good bands and coming down to hear some live music.

And that's what you're going to get that night.

All three of us, we touched a little bit about your spiritual, where you are today.

And you're involved with Faith Pentecostals service.

Tell us about what that's all about and where people can go for more information.

It's a friend of mine, his name is Bishop James and I've known him for about 25 years.

I met him when I was 18, so we go way back.

And him and his wife, Pastor Bruna, they have a church that's called Faith Pentecostal.

Everyone's welcome.

You don't have to worry about what you have on that type of thing.

The main thing is, you know, just coming out and trying to find what you're looking for.

If you're missing anything, feeling that hole.

Because a lot of people are, they, you know, they're frustrated and they're upset and you don't need to be, you don't have to be.

It wasn't the way God designed life supposed to be happy?

I think Joyce Meyers says I'm enjoying everyday life.

And that's what I think life's all about, is to enjoy it.

And so that's where my song Joy comes from.

Tyken Nelson's with us here at wvof.

Another interesting.

There's a gravestone without Jesus, this could be your last stop.

Any significance with the dates?

The thing is that you just want to find whatever it is that you're looking for and have.

And enjoy it while you're looking for it or finding it on that journey.

So that maybe you leave something behind other than maybe some bills.

Right, right.

And we all got plenty of those these days.

Right.

So tell us about the Twin Cities these days, music wise.

And, you know, we all know it from Purple Rain days.

And, you know, you know, our friends out in the Twin Cities have stopped by our show, but what's it like up there in the land of cold and, you know, music wise and are things still cracking up at Paisley Park?

I haven't been out to Paisley Park.

I know they're doing some renovations.

And so as far as the Minneapolis music scene, again, Bunkers is a wonderful place to go.

I've got another group of guys that are really good, and they play at Arnella's.

They play every Friday night.

And that's the Max band.

Off and on.

You'll get to see different bands like Ovation and things like that that are up and coming again.

Chemist, if you like rap, if you like Christian rap, he's the guy to go to either on MySpace or come out and see us again on December 12th.

We've got on the other Spectrum Arc, Flash, Hazard, and they're more rock, so definitely check them out.

They play, too, every Wednesday and Thursday nights around the Twin City area.

Yeah.

And you guys aren't too shy about promoting each other's projects, which is nice sometimes.

Definitely not, because there's love there for everybody.

There's enough of people in different types of music and genre for everybody.

Yeah, Mr. Jyt up in up in Canada, he just instant messaged us and said hello, and he's enjoying your music.

So we're looking on our AOL instant messenger.

I want to thank our friends@prince.org and housequake.com they've been showing you a lot of love over there as well.

Hi, everybody.

Love you, too, I'm sure.

After the CD release party, are you looking to do some dates coming out and promotion of the record?

Yeah.

Talking to management and trying to get some other dates.

Also trying to go abroad.

London and Tokyo and some other places where people are digging the music.

Now.

You just want to stay out of that cold, right?

Yeah.

And that too.

Right, right.

So you can.

Actually, there's a.

Let me ask you about Nel5 Productions, Nelfi Productions.

What is the meaning of that name?

It's a production company that me and my fiance Reese came up with.

Okay.

And it's part of my name and part of his name productions.

So there's the explanation that.

That's really nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's kind of easy MySpace.com backslash no.5 productions and also cd baby.com Tyka Nelson and her first name T Y K A Nelson.

N E L S O N And you know, everybody knows Prince is Prince, but yes, his name's Prince Nelson.

Prince Rogers Nelson.

So how about your dad?

We heard some of the semi autobiographical musical stuff from Purple Rain, but what was it like listening to him play piano and perform?

Daddy was awesome.

But then I think his spirit just kind of came out when he would start to play, kind of Get Lost.

And I'm praying that you see some of that when I perform.

Because he kind of went to another planet when he would perform and his fingers would just let loose on that keyboard and you could just feel it.

It was like something, just an energy coming from him when he would play.

And he wasn't much of a singer, but what he did say, and he even did that when he would talk to you.

He didn't talk a lot.

He'd make jokes.

But when he did speak, he kind of spoke volumes as a man.

A few words.

But what he said, it was just something to hold onto and listen to.

How about your own listening habits these days?

Besides the tracks off your new record, who have you been getting into?

I'm sorry, Joe, you broke up a little bit there.

Besides your own music and listening to your own new record, how about.

Who else have you been listening to and really enjoying?

Besides my stuff, I've listened to J. Moss.

I love Dietrich Haddon.

That's really been about it lately because we've been rehearsing so much.

Yeah, but I do put on a lot of inspirational music and I'll even take it way back with some Mary Mary and Shackles.

And that's what I'd like to do with this CD is crossover like Shackles did and get on, you know, the more R and B pop radio stations.

There's a big CD release party we should mention one more time at Bunkers, and that is in downtown Minneapolis and three acts on Washington.

What's that?

It's on Washington, everybody.

Okay.

Yeah, on Washington.

December 12th, 9 o', clock, showtime.

Three acts and a bill.

Of course.

The.

The star of the night is Taika Nelson.

Her band the Word.

And you're rehearsing the band and they look great on.

On tv.

On Care Care tv.

Is it called.

Yes, Carrie Levin.

Okay, Carrie Levin.

And go to her MySpace page.com Nelfi Productions cd baby.com.

you can download tracks off of MySpace or CD Baby.

Or just buy the CD record Electric Fetus they have records there.

You can go there and shop around and just spread the word about Tyke and Nelson.

And we hope you can make it out here to Connecticut.

I know you got.

I would love to come back out there.

Joe, I want to thank you so much for having me on.

Yeah, we have bands in the studio all the time, so you can come by and just kick it in the studio.

That would be great.

Just not in a blizzard.

Last time I was there, you guys had a blizzard.

Yeah, yeah.

But you got all that.

You know, you're tough out there in the Twin Cities.

Yeah, that's right.

Right, right.

So it's an honor and we'll be re airing this if you missed it in its entirety with additional songs from a brand new me and maybe dip back into the earlier CDs from Tyke and Nelson.

You can go to our website upper room with joecelly.com and sign up for the mailing list and we'll keep you posted on the re airing.

Within a week, we'll go out with joy.

You're full of joy and so are we.

So I want to thank you, Taika.

Thank you again, Joe.