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| Nic Nassuet |
We recently
interviewed Nic Nassuet, a Multi-Instrumentalist and a rocker. A current Grammy Nominee.
What Passion do you
have for Music as a Multi-instrumentalist and a rocker?
I don't know that it is a passion so much as it is a possession. The music comes to me in dreams most of the time. I can't read or write music, and I don't have any formal training on most of the instruments that I play, so I just try to play what I hear in my dreams.
Some instruments just make their own music. It sounds crazy, but sometimes you pick up an instrument and it just sings its own song. One of our most critically acclaimed songs "She Rides Moonlight" came about because I picked up a mandolin one day. I had never played a mandolin before, but that song was there in the instrument.
Sometimes I don't want to make the music, but eventually the music forces me to give it life. When I resist the music I become very agitated and depressed.
Again, it is more of a possession than a passion.
I don't know that it is a passion so much as it is a possession. The music comes to me in dreams most of the time. I can't read or write music, and I don't have any formal training on most of the instruments that I play, so I just try to play what I hear in my dreams.
Some instruments just make their own music. It sounds crazy, but sometimes you pick up an instrument and it just sings its own song. One of our most critically acclaimed songs "She Rides Moonlight" came about because I picked up a mandolin one day. I had never played a mandolin before, but that song was there in the instrument.
Sometimes I don't want to make the music, but eventually the music forces me to give it life. When I resist the music I become very agitated and depressed.
Again, it is more of a possession than a passion.
How do you manage
your time with your instrument and Music?
I'm pretty bad at time management, to be honest. It also causes a lot of pain to play a stringed instrument for too long due to a botched wrist surgery at the VA. I play whichever instrument I feel compelled to when the sensation arises. Some very strange sounds have come out of my steel tongue drum and my Greek lyres. I hope that the compulsion to experiment with them arises soon because I enjoy their otherworldly sounds.
Tell us about your up coming shows and what are to expect from you?
We've got a cool tour coming up, "The Harvest Moon Tour" in September that encompasses Southern California, the Central Coast, Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado. This will be our first time touring as a headlining act, so we hope to have a really vibrant and dramatic stage production for this. A couple of venues are pretty great - a Tijuana dive bar and a gay leather club in Denver. I'm not sure how those audiences will respond to an acoustic act, but it is going to be a great time either way.
I'm pretty bad at time management, to be honest. It also causes a lot of pain to play a stringed instrument for too long due to a botched wrist surgery at the VA. I play whichever instrument I feel compelled to when the sensation arises. Some very strange sounds have come out of my steel tongue drum and my Greek lyres. I hope that the compulsion to experiment with them arises soon because I enjoy their otherworldly sounds.
Tell us about your up coming shows and what are to expect from you?
We've got a cool tour coming up, "The Harvest Moon Tour" in September that encompasses Southern California, the Central Coast, Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado. This will be our first time touring as a headlining act, so we hope to have a really vibrant and dramatic stage production for this. A couple of venues are pretty great - a Tijuana dive bar and a gay leather club in Denver. I'm not sure how those audiences will respond to an acoustic act, but it is going to be a great time either way.
What is your
interesting moment as a Multi-instrumentalist?
I think that the realization that you don't need years of training or even knowledge of an instrument in order to make music that people like was a huge wake up call for me. There are so many wannabe gatekeepers out there who think that you have to "earn your stripes" or whatever and for years I believed them. I also deal with a lot of physical and psychological barriers, so I often feel as though I can't do what I want to do. The truth of the matter is that the only reason you can't do something is because you tell yourself that you can't. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that you can take off and fly like an eagle is you just wish for it, but you can go up in a plane and see the world from that perspective. Adapt, modify, adjust, and succeed.
In my experience, all of those gatekeepers are people who tried, and failed, and resent anyone who finds success without suffering as they have. Those voices in your head telling you that you aren't good enough, or that you can't do something, aren't yours. Somebody put those there when you were really young. Defy then once, and they go away forever.
I think that the realization that you don't need years of training or even knowledge of an instrument in order to make music that people like was a huge wake up call for me. There are so many wannabe gatekeepers out there who think that you have to "earn your stripes" or whatever and for years I believed them. I also deal with a lot of physical and psychological barriers, so I often feel as though I can't do what I want to do. The truth of the matter is that the only reason you can't do something is because you tell yourself that you can't. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that you can take off and fly like an eagle is you just wish for it, but you can go up in a plane and see the world from that perspective. Adapt, modify, adjust, and succeed.
In my experience, all of those gatekeepers are people who tried, and failed, and resent anyone who finds success without suffering as they have. Those voices in your head telling you that you aren't good enough, or that you can't do something, aren't yours. Somebody put those there when you were really young. Defy then once, and they go away forever.
Do you. There is absolutely no reason to pursue anything else except what sets your soul on fire. Society is designed to mold you into a tiny cog in a grand machine that serves no real purpose, don't get lost in it. That isn't who you are. It is what others want you to be. Screw them. Money isn't real, culture isn't real, language isn't real, morals and values aren't real, none of these things have inherent value, they are just hallucinations that we are trained to participate in from the day we exit the womb. Don't lose yourself in the illusion. Break though it all and just do you.
Awesome musician/artist...
ReplyDelete"Do you. There is absolutely no reason to pursue anything else except what sets your soul on fire. Society is designed to mold you into a tiny cog in a grand machine that serves no real purpose, don't get lost in it. That isn't who you are. It is what others want you to be. Screw them. Money isn't real, culture isn't real, language isn't real, morals and values aren't real, none of these things have inherent value, they are just hallucinations that we are trained to participate in from the day we exit the womb. Don't lose yourself in the illusion. Break though it all and just do you."
ReplyDeleteI'm going to frame this. No one really listens to me when I say culture isn't real. I just got told to take an anthropology class, haha. No way Jose. That shit is legit imaginary.