joe nickerson's Blog

Current mood:creative

interview from last year on songramp..

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This week's Artist Spotlight is on "Rapster" - Joe Nickerson! Please take a moment to read his interview and check out his music!

3. HOW AND WHEN DID YOU BEGIN YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY?

I started playing guitar before i turned 15 cause my dad played a blond f-hole acoustic Sherwood guitar... "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue"... "Whispering"... and he played with a friend who was mean with the brushes on his snare drum... they'd sing and play... I knew right away.. what would be my way... sorry Mom, no doctors from our side of the family... so I got a solid-body electric guitar - must have been from Sears... it came with a 2-twelve silvertone amp - later a cult classic - the poor man's Fender twin... you just cranked all the knobs up to 10 and you had a Marshall tone... miked through a good PA on stage... awesome... so I grew up first with the ventures, then surf music/Beachboys, then the Beatles hit and the whole English wave... the English led us yanks back to the blues because they lovingly gave credit where credit is due... when I heard BB and Albert and Freddy, the KINGS... whoa! Then, James Brown and just all black music in general... Motown... played in blues, rock and soul bands all through high school... by '66 we were already playing weekends on the base for marines and sailors going off to Nam... man did they love those sad slow blues... and that wild funky dance music - and so did I. I... played as the Steve Cropper of California for several years... the first white guitarist in a black soul band... my friend Michael cooper later founded Confunktion and is still touring with the reformed band today... quite successfully if you follow their tour schedule... I'll leave out 69-71... then off to university starting in 73 and I had music theory 2 hours every morning - 5 days a week... couldn't read anything... but all the other instruments could... lol... by that time Sly Stone had become very big and he was from my hometown... had the same JC music teacher - David Frohlich - Sly mentioned him once on the Dick Cavett show - I was so proud... anyway then came jazz guitar... at UC Sonoma I majored in psychology and jazz ! I became a professional student because how many years does it take to learn everything there is to know music? So then I got into classical guirar... played for my diploma recital all 4 Bach lute suites! Then I became a composer... modern classical chamber music... won 3 awards... but my music was too tame for the Avante-Gardists, and too radical for the Neo-Classicals so my career ended at about 40 compositions, a few of which got recorded and published here in Europe... so musically... been there, done that...

4. WHO (OR WHAT [EVENTS]) WERE SOME OF YOUR EARLIEST MUSICAL INFLUENCES, AND HOW HAVE THEY SHAPED YOUR SONGWRITING?

I already gave that away in the previous question... but I could have gone into much greater detail of course... lol... I grew up going to filmore west and winterland in SF on the weekends... let's say, being a guitarist, I was never happy with my songwriting from the lyrics side of things... I've always been a songwriter... wrote songs all the time for my bands, etc... but, after a couple weeks I'd think my lyrics were embarrassing... later i realized what to me genius is... simplicity... Dylan.. he could take 3 chords that we'd all be afraid to use cause they been used so many times already, and make a masterpiece out of them... "Knocking on Heaven's Door", still the first chords I show to my beginning students... the idea that less is more... feel me? Anyway, influences? Beatles, Stones, Who, Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Fleetwood Mac (the original blues band), Yardbirds, Jerry and the Pace Makers, John Mayall, Paul Butterfield, James Brown, Sly Stone, Hendrix, Zepplin, Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Thirteenth Floor Elevators, Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messeanger Service, Janis Joplin, Buffalo Springfield, Laura Nyro, sons of Champlin, all the blues men and women, later all the jazz men and women, finally all the composer from renaissance to modern... and all along the entire journey, black music, including rap and hip-hop from their birth...

5. WHAT HAS BEEN THE TOUGHEST CRITICISM YOU'VE HAD TO TAKE? DID IT COME FROM AN INDUSTRY 'INSIDER,' A PEER OR FROM A CASUAL LISTENER? ANY ADVICE FOR OTHER SONGWRITERS REGARDING CRITICISM?

For me to have hobby musicians tell me I couldn't rap was tough... but I guess I've gotten better... haven't heard that in a while... the pros have always shown me love on the net... we hear each other... that said... I'm the biggest lover, fan, and supporter of home made music - I like it grass roots without the big high end production talk.. you know, money talk... call me a pure musician and music lover... it's the soul that counts... and we got to fight the music industry if they don't want to change... show them that good songs don't have to be "commercial"... that non-commercial can also sell because people want to hear real songwriters singing and playing real songs.... that's what FM radio was all about... letting the underground have a voice... now we got the internet... we can say whatever we feel to be the truth in our songs here... unless we are fear that no one will ever hear.. without that record deal... that know one wants to feel... we just want to be entertained... music and entertainment... not mutually exclusive but also not mutually binding... music can exist without the show... as pure music... to be listened to and felt - and responded to...

6. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO ADD OR SHARE WITH US?

The lyrics to the songs I write now, as opposed to when I was younger,I'd have to say I'm very proud of... I got my flow happening after all these years... it was worth waiting for... glad I never stopped being a musician, my dreams did come true... writing my own songs... working together with so many talented musicians... I love collaborating... interacting with my partners... interpreting their music... creating a whole together that's more than the sum of it's parts... I live for that actually... I don't need or want to do it all myself... together we change the world, not alone...

BONUS QUESTION - THIS OR THAT? SNOOZE BUTTON or JUMP-RIGHT-OUT-OF-BED?

If I have to get up to work or be somewhere I never hit snooze - I'm awake before the alarm sounds!... If I'm free and can chill... I don't set the alarm... :-)) Sunday morning Rapster style...