An Interview with Nick 13
By Groovey
Nick 13 is the guitarist and vocalist for the psychobilly/punk trio TIGER ARMY (which is hitting their 15-year anniversary this month). He has done some serious work with AFI on their albums and has recently launched a solo project in the Americana and country style. His solo project does not have an old school sound– it has an original school sound, and finds Nick going back the better part of a century for inspiration. Here’s what Nick 13 had to say about his new album and what’s going on with TIGER ARMY.
Your solo album just dropped yesterday what did it feel like at the moment when you decided the project was complete?
I don’t know if there was ever a point where there was a huge sense of relief because the recording actually happened over the period of a year in bits and pieces. The main reason for that was the schedules of the producers who are both musicians and are constantly touring and doing sessions and they brought so much to the recording and that was just kind of the way it worked out. The end of the recording was really hectic. I was wrapping up the vocals and then we went out and did South by Southwest and then literally the day I got back it was mixing, mastering for the record, and then getting stuff ready for the tour. I guess right now I can sit back and say, “Wow, it’s really out there and that’s really cool,” but it’s really just been one thing to the next. I’m glad that it’s all happening but that is what it takes.
How was this different from writing a TIGER ARMY album?
I guess in certain cases the songs are a little more autobiographical and where TIGER ARMY songs tend to be a little more abstract or more metaphorical at times, but the biggest difference in the writing process of this record versus any of my other records was that for the first time I went somewhere specifically to write, which was Nashville. I rented a place and I lived there for a while. I have always been against the idea of sitting down and trying to write a song because I feel that it is better to let the creativity find you. With that being said going to Nashville and the amazing vibrancy of the music scene there and the fact that you can hear live true country music any night of the week, not the pop stuff but the real deal, I found that very inspirational. I didn’t have to break that rule of not sitting down and have to write a song right now. Just being there and absorbing that energy and watching live music every night made me want to pick up the acoustic and some good stuff came out of that.
You worked with some pretty amazing players on this album. I mean Lloyd Green is legend. What was that like?
Yeah, it was a great experience to be able to play with some of these guys and gals on this album. You know with TIGER ARMY there’s a rhythm section, obviously, but I don’t play with another guitarist, for example. So to get to play with so many different types of musicians, each of whom you can learn something from and each of whom have their own approach to their own style, was a great thing for me as a musician. You mentioned Lloyd Green, and if you haven’t heard the early Johnny Paycheck stuff from the sixties, that is some of the best pedal steel in the history of country music and that’s Lloyd Green. He is legend. I mean he cut a song on lap steel with George Jones in the fifties, so to have him play on my record was just an amazing thing.
Vocally did you work on anything to have a different sound from a TIGER ARMY album?
I definitely took a different vocal approach than I would with TIGER ARMY in some of the keys. I would say the keys are a little bit more traditional and I actually worked with a vocal coach for the first time during the recording of this album. That was really cool actually. All these years of singing basically being my profession and I had never done that so there’s some natural techniques that I have, but I learned some really cool tricks and improved what I do, which is definitely a good thing. I probably should have done that earlier.
Are their any new bands that you are listening to that you would like to turn people on to?
That’s a tough question because I haven’t really been listening to anything new. I’m actually just starting to listen to new music again. For a couple years while I was writing this record I started listening to almost entirely roots music and generally stuff that was no more recent than the sixties. I wasn’t really listening to any rock, any punk, it was all just old hillbilly and blue grass stuff from the twenties through the sixties. I think it served the album and served my writing to immerse myself like that. So I’m kind of just reintegrating into what’s going on right now.
How is the balance between TIGER ARMY and your solo project looking?
Right now my focus is definitely on the solo thing. There’s not anything for sure planned beyond those two TIGER ARMY shows we are playing this summer, one of which is actually going to be our fifteenth anniversary show. I can’t believe it, but we played our first show at Gilman Street in Berkeley in ’96. It doesn’t seem like it, but time flies. There’s definitely going to be a point where my inspiration and my attention return to TIGER ARMY and I absolutely plan on making a fifth TIGER ARMY record and when that happens we will be hitting the road hard touring the country and touring the world. As far as when that is going to happen I can’t say. Depending on what’s making me inspired it’s possible that there could be another Nick 13 record before the next TIGER ARMY record or there could be a TIGER ARMY record next. It’s all just up in the air right now.
Popularity: unranked
