BIO
I started playing piano at the ripe young age of 4. My step mother, before she passed away, told me that she had taught me for the first year or so which surprised me since I always thought I went straight to classical training, which entails learning certain techniques that I believe now to be regressive methods to intuitively learn an instrument.
It was after playing classical music for 8 years that I started to play the popular rock tunes of the day and the first song I remember playing was "hey Jude". The chords on the outro played over and over mesmerized my 11 year old mind. My parents of course had other ideas and forbade the use of their piano for anything but classical music and I was eventually given an ultimatum, classical or nothing. I chose the latter and upon leaving home a few years later at the age of 15 I took up the harmonica and became a disciple of little Walter. Eventually I got back into playing keyboards and started jamming with punk and new wave bands in early eighties Vancouver. My keyboard at the time was a farfisa organ bought for 70 dollars at BC pawnbrokers on Hastings st on the downtown Eastside. I played in numerous local bands and even broke onto the national stage with the bands, the beverly sisters and rhythm mission. I recorded albums with both bands that went to number one on the Canadian college charts and subsequent Canadian tours.
After moving east to t.o. and nyc I got more interested in recording and between 1989 and 2005 released 2 cassettes and 2 cd’s of original material ranging from funk rock to electronic and singer songwriter rock to the blues under different monikers and alias' depending on the genre. These years were spent setting up a studio and further exploration into creating a singular sound to back up my lyrical content and in the process creating a unique voice in service to song.
After moving back to BC in the mid oughts I decided to try producing a stripped down project with just voice, piano and drums, which became the first nik tee ep’s. I released three between 2012 and 2015. the spare sounds highlighted my songwriting skills but I still longed for the big band sound I first explored on my 2005 cd “one9nik and the mfb”.
The bc boy cd came about over a few years. Around 2012 I had started writing new material and the first song would be “before the last call”. It's funny because it seemed mostly finished way back then but after rerecording vocals and horns it turned out to be the last to be mixed. The rest of the songs came to me from 2013-2015 though I added 'fresh cut’(from my 1995 cassette release"going’ back to school")since it fit into the bcboy vibe and crazy crazy(for the same reason).
Things really got going after meeting up with alita dupray who I’d found online. She had a couple of videos of her fronting a led zeppelin tribute band and I could see and hear the strength in her voice but it wasn’t till she sang one of they’re mellower numbers that I could hear her versatility and how it could really compliment my voice on this project. Anyways the rest is history, our voices mesh so seamlessly, like brother and sister at times.once the tracks were mostly arranged I gave the songs to brian harding who arranged the horn parts.i made some changes but the “hard horns” are mostly Brians arrangements.
In the summer of 2017 we went into the warehouse studios in vancouver for recording vocal tracks with myself, alita, nicole brown and kimona smith barr on backups. I think the room really brought out the warmth in our voices.
I did the production on the album (except for”sisters”which was co produced by Braeden Rangno) at rain city studios.a lot of the production was also done at my home and i also spent time in nelson,kaslo and gibsons working on production in motels with my computer.i tried to keep production fairly simple and leave my electronic ideas for future cd’s,instead focusing on the songs and trying to best showcase the lyrical content.
After the production was done I sat on the tracks for a few months just to let the songs marinate before mastering. I traveled to Paris and spent the 3 months there working on an electronic project I plan on releasing soon and singing with a gospel choir. When I got back to Vancouver I redid some mixes and finally got the cd in for mastering in feb 2018.
The album is a tribute to the place I call home while at the same time trying to answer some of the questions I have around my reasons for leaving the west coast for larger cities like Paris and nyc. The standout track for me is “sisters”. It is a reimagining of the Pauline Johnson story about the mountain peaks seen from Vancouver, previously known as the lions. This story comes from her book, stories of vancouver, which she wrote from legends told to her by chief Capilano. Ancient tales that had been told down thru the centuries on the west coast of Canada. Other standout songs are "bc boy” which chronicles the absurd advertising campaigns of the tourism industry and “before the last call”, an ode to maintaining inner strength in the face of adversity.
For the most part, these are uptempo, danceable and funky songs that will provide the listener with an upbeat,conscious vibe and played live will undoubtedly fill dance floors.
What’s up next? Apart from some electronic side projects, I have the start of a new album I hatched while hanging out in Havana last year.a little mellower and softer in tone. I’m hoping to record this at egrem studios in Havana with mostly cuban musicians.
Having not had major distribution my music has gone under the radar but that hasn’t stopped me from continuing writing new material and it won’t stop me in the future though I seem to have struck a nerve with this new album which is one of the more mainstream music projects I have produced. ever forward.
