Meet the Writer: Nicole Poirier

Nicole Poirier is a student and writer from Standish, Michigan who is also a talented alto sax and piano player. She is studying Music and Entertainment Business Management, with the goal of becoming a music producer or an audio engineer.

Currently a writer on her school’s blog, Poirier thinks making writing a career choice is a possibility — in the unlikely event her career in the music industry does not take off as planned. With a minor in Film Studies, she not only plans to work directly with music artists but possibly in the film industry as well.

Now that the basics are out of the way, who is Nicole Poirier?

Around the age of seven, she remembers “jamming out” to Maroon 5’s “This Love.” Along with Fall Out Boy, Adam Levine’s band became favorites during her preteen and teen years. She saw Fall Out Boy in concert a whooping nine times. Another favorite is the Wicked soundtrack, which her sisters helped her fall in love with during early morning rides to middle school. This soundtrack really shaped her love for musicals and acting.

Growing up in a small town on her family’s dairy farm, her environment also influenced her music choices: her mom was very open and lenient with her and her sibling’s listening preferences. Poirier and her older sisters — eight, six and three years older — were able to pick whatever they wanted to listen to. Her mom and sister’s openness went a long way in shaping her music tastes.

Once her siblings left for college, she started listening to more artists and genres that we never really played at her family home such as rap. This allowed her to have an eclectic ear for music and may have helped with her writing as well.

When asked how she believes her writing background and music preferences relate to her music criticism style, Poirier says, “I think because I have such an open mind about most genres, it helps me like a lot of songs and form a critical approach to their styles.” 

Poirier went on to say how growing up in a small town with minimum opportunities “shouldn’t hold you back.” She even admits she was afraid it would hinder her due to the pressures of being a great student, and that she once lost sight of what she really wanted to do in her early high school years.  

As a solution she stated that getting out of her comfort zone and going to college really shaped her into who she is today and she “couldn’t be more grateful.”

In regards to adding any new talents to her already impressive list Poirier says, “I never got the chance to play the guitar and I would love to learn … that’s next on my list of things to do.”

You can read all of Nicole’s work for CMN here.