Interview: Band Of The Week — The Nick Black Band

Managing to blend many of the current trends in rock music with quite a bit of the sensibilities and, perhaps, stylized sound of 90s artists such as The Smashing Pumpkins or Stabbing Westward, Nick Black and his band, the Nick Black Band, don’t exactly reinvent the wheel — but they do manage to take it out for a damned decent spin.

Curious about the man and his music, I began to email Nick Black and inquire as to whether or not he might be willing to answer some of my questions, as well as allow me to review his current album, Hollow. Extremely polite and, I think, amused at the idea that someone would request such a thing out of the blue and from Arkansas no less, he graciously agreed.

The decision to name the band Nick Black; was it because you wanted there to be no separation between yourself and your music, or was it something else entirely?

A little of both I suppose, but mostly because it had a nice ring to it.

Fair enough. Who are the individual members of the Nick Black Band? How did you all meet and eventually come together to make music?

The band consists of Clay Davies, Jaedis, Robin, and Myself. The project was mostly Clay and I, as far as composing/arranging the songs, all the way up to the point when we went in the studio to record. Robin was a mutual friend and a great session drummer so we brought him in to track the drums. Jaedis wasn't added until later, when the full concept of the band was in place, and we decided on having a female bass player.

What was the first song that everyone played together? Was it an original or a cover? I think the reason I ask this, really, is that I've fallen in love with your version of Heart's "Barracuda" on your new album, and I was just wondering.

Actually I think the first song we played together was “Want You More,” a song that is on the album itself. Glad to hear you like Barracuda, though. 

Can you remember the first original song you wrote? Was it something you wrote with this band? If not, can you remember the first song that happened once everyone was together?

Article Author: Michael Jones

Visit Michael Jones's author page — Michael Jones's Blog