Interview: Riding The Success Of ‘The Fatalist’, Buffalo Nichols Performs at Askew
The blues is one of the timeless musical artforms in the American cultural lexicon. Like any style of music, it’s always able to be pushed in different directions as long as the foundation is being respected. A modern example of this is Buffalo Nichols, a fantastic musician from Wisconsin who exhibits an exemplary approach to his craft. Folks around Providence will get the chance to witness this for themselves when Nichols performs at Askew on 150 Chestnut Street on June 28. Hudson Valley country-folk duo The Glass Hours are going to be starting off the show at 9pm.
Nicholas was originally supposed to play at the venue back on October 20 of last year, but he had to reschedule due to personal reasons. We had a chat ahead of the original date about the making of his latest album The Fatalist that came out during the same time period and his thoughts on headlining in Providence for the first time.
The Fatalist has you blending your approach to blues music in peculiar ways by incorporating synths and samples. How did you go about crafting this vision during the songwriting and recording process?
I just used the same method that I’ve always used to make music. For my own personal enjoyment, I’ve made synth-based and sample-based music, which is a lot easier than just sitting down with a guitar all the time. While picking up different instruments, different songs came together in different ways.
When it comes to the production side of your music, do you find yourself getting into a different headspace and separating yourself from your art to form a different perspective? How do you approach producing your records versus performing on them?
To me, there’s no difference. The main reason why I self-produced this one is because when you work with a producer, they can help you get a different performance and different ideas, but it’s not necessarily better or worse. I prefer to trust my own intuition and let the music I’m making dictate the album more than someone else. I have my own ideas and everything, so I know what I’m trying to do. I just have to have faith in that and in my music.
Do you have your own studio, or did you make The Fatalist by renting out a studio somewhere else? Did you record it at home?
I actually rented an artist studio, which was this bare warehouse space with concrete floors and everything. I just set up a little vocal recording station there with mics, preamps and stuff. It was basically a home studio type of situation, but I did it outside of my home.
Ok, very cool. While hashing out ideas for new material, do you consider your approach to be very forward-thinking? Do you consciously make an effort to get out of your comfort zone making new songs or do you consider it to be more natural for you to go outside the box and explore?
It’s both. In the writing process, I naturally gravitate towards things that are different and things that I haven’t done or heard, but sometimes the familiar stuff comes out too. When that occurs, I have to make an effort to reject those ideas and turn them into something that’s different.
That’s a very intriguing mindset to have. Is this going to be your first time playing Providence when you come to Askew? I know you played the Newport Folk Festival last year.
It’ll be my first time headlining there, I think I previously opened for Drive-By Truckers in that city before.
Awesome. What are your thoughts on coming to the city?
I don’t know, to be honest. I’m not really familiar with that part of the country, so it’ll definitely feel like a new experience when I come to perform there.
I can understand why you’d feel that way. We talked about how The Fatalist has some electronic elements present with the synths and samples, so how have you gone about conveying these characteristics into your live performance?
Those elements have already been a part of my live show before my first album came out, so people who’ve seen me before will know what to expect. I have these electronic instruments that I play with along with my guitar, they’re not quite like loops but they’re pretty close.
In order to make Culture Beat’s content available to everyone, we decided to stop utilizing a paywall. With this being said, we are utilizing the crowdfunding service Buy Me A Coffee in order to have our readers support our endeavors, which they can do so right here.
