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PHOTO CREDIT: DANNY CLINCH
Nickel Creek
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PHOTO CREDIT: ADAM BRIMER
Chris Thile
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PHOTO CREDIT: JOHN PEETS
Sara Watkins
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PHOTO CREDIT: DANNY CLINCH
Nickel Creek
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PHOTO CREDIT: ADAM BRIMER
Sean Watkins
I know the beginnings of Nickel Creek go way far back – you heard bluegrass at a young age, but not anywhere close to the Appalachian mountains. I wondered if you could tell me about that first experience with bluegrass.
Yeah, it was kind of... let’s see – well, I was taking piano lessons when I was about nine or so, and ... actually, I was six or seven. My piano teacher’s son was playing bluegrass at a pizza place in Carlsbad, California, and that was the first time I’d ever heard it. She invited us to come one night, my piano teacher … So we went, and that’s the first time I can remember hearing it. My parents didn’t listen to it before that, and it was very sort of a – it was not traditional bluegrass, it was traditional bluegrass instruments, they were playing traditional tunes but they were sort of expanding on them a little bit. So… that sort of fed our tastes for modernizing bluegrass, kind of mixing it with other things.
All three of you met there and heard that music?
Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. Chris started taking mandolin lessons from a mandolin teacher, and so, yeah, they were going there on Saturday nights also.
Why did you like what you heard?
Um, well, it’s – I don’t know – I think at the time I was thinking, these piano lessons, I was having to kind of adhere to strict rules, you know, about reading music and stuff like that, which was – it’s good for me to learn, I’m glad I did, but I also kinda saw a great –
You know, it was really fun, it was really fun music, there was lots of improvising involved, and you’re learning by ear, more than by reading. As a kid, it was just a lot more fun, and I took to it a lot more.
Now you all were in your early teens when you started Nickel Creek, am I correct?
Actually, well, I was 12 and both Sarah and Chris were 8 when we started the band.
Wow, even younger than I realized. What are the biggest ways you’ve had to adjust, getting older, changing how you work together and communicate?
I think – we definitely learned a lot in the last year, I’d say the last five or six years – you learn how to communicate and how to ... how to say things in the right way. But we’ve also just been able to be really honest with each other – we’re really able to be painfully honest with each other about everything, so it’s pretty easy. We’re sort of like – well, my sister and I are family, obviously, but … all three of us together are very much like a family in that way, so it makes things a lot easier.
How did the name for the band come about?
The name? Is that what you said?
Yes.
It was the name of a fiddle tune that a friend of ours, Byron Berline, wrote, and at the time we were a much more traditional–sounding bluegrass band, and Nickel Creek sounded like the right kind of name. So that’s what we named it. It’s not really that much of a cool story, unfortunately. [laughs]
Alison Krauss calls your sound “just Nickel Creek music.” What do you think she means by that?
I think she just means that – it was sort of her nice way of saying that we don’t really sound like anybody else, I guess. A lot of people ask us what we categorize it as, and we don’t really try or worry about it. It doesn’t really matter. [laughs]
If you can’t categorize yourselves, how do you categorize the differences, if that makes sense?
I really don’t think – we just don’t worry about categorizing it at all – we just try to make the best music we can…every time we write a song or go on a tour or play a show, we just try to play better than the time we did before. That’s really all we think about. We don’t think about how what we’re playing fits into any sort of category at all.
Who does most of the songwriting, the music-writing, in the group?
It’s been kinda split between me and Chris, though lately, like on this new record that’s coming out, we did a lot of writing, the three of us did, which is a definitely a new thing for us… it’s really, really fun and kind of a new thing for us.
When you write, does it start with words, does it start with a jam, or what?
Not really. I mean, sometimes one of us will have an idea for a melody, and we’ll bring it to each other, and we’ll have ideas to make the melody better, and somebody’ll have a word idea, and kinda start there. Or sometimes I’ll bring a song that’s mostly done, and they’ll kinda finish it and kinda change, make little edits to make it better. Sometimes – it’s different every time, but it has started where, started completely from scratch, just a couple chords, and we’ve turned it into a song.
I know that with this recording you’re moving away from your bluegrass roots – I wondered why, and what are you doing differently?
Well, actually, I think this record that we’re doing, it’s not moving farther away from bluegrass, I mean – we’ve always been far away from our bluegrass roots, I don’t think this record is much farther away than the last one. It’s just different.
This record – I think it sounds more like we do I think than anything we’ve ever done. It’s a lot more rock I think than our first two, and there’s some stuff that’s farther out than we’ve gone, and there’s some stuff that’s very, that’s more roots–oriented. So I wouldn’t say that the whole thing is farther away.
What other musicians are influencing what you do?
It’s [such] a huge list that it would be hard to name musicians, but in general… there’s certain aspects of certain kinds of music that we, that we kind of include. Like the arrangement counterpoint of classical – formal classical music – the harmonic complexities of that kind of music.
There’s also the joy of soloing, like jazz soloing, that we really have a lot of fun with. And I don’t mean we try to include some jazz, I just mean that idea and that feeling of freedom.... And there’s a lot of Celtic music that we grew up listening to also, that sort of energy, and there’s a lot of songwriters and the modern rock stuff that we grew up listening to also, that kinda comes out.
I know that with this recording you’re moving away from your bluegrass roots – I wondered why, and what are you doing differently?
Well, actually, I think this record that we’re doing, it’s not moving farther away from bluegrass, I mean – we’ve always been far away from our bluegrass roots, I don’t think this record is much farther away than the last one. It’s just different.
This record – I think it sounds more like we do I think than anything we’ve ever done. It’s a lot more rock I think than our first two, and there’s some stuff that’s farther out than we’ve gone, and there’s some stuff that’s very, that’s more roots–oriented. So I wouldn’t say that the whole thing is farther away.
What other musicians are influencing what you do?
It’s [such] a huge list that it would be hard to name musicians, but in general… there’s certain aspects of certain kinds of music that we, that we kind of include. Like the arrangement counterpoint of classical – formal classical music – the harmonic complexities of that kind of music.
There’s also the joy of soloing, like jazz soloing, that we really have a lot of fun with. And I don’t mean we try to include some jazz, I just mean that idea and that feeling of freedom.... And there’s a lot of Celtic music that we grew up listening to also, that sort of energy, and there’s a lot of songwriters and the modern rock stuff that we grew up listening to also, that kinda comes out.
I was wondering where you all love performing best – what kinds of venues?
In general – any venue can be good, depending on the crowd and how it sounds and how much the crowd cares, really. In general, standing, not small clubs, but clubs where people can kind of stand at the front, you know, sit in the balcony, whatever, those are kind of fun, because the standing aspect keeps people really focused on thing… [gives] it a good kind of give and take you know, during the show, from the audience and the band.
Who are some of the most exciting musicians you’ve been able to play with?
I don’t know – it’s hard to say. I mean, I really – it’s kind of hard, actually. I’ve played with tons and tons of my heroes, and it’s – every time you step on stage with somebody like that, you learn something, or you remember something you forgot, and that’s one of the really great benefits of success as a band. It’s just awesome. You get to share a stage with your heroes. Really, really cool.
Who are some of those heroes?
There’s just – countless – I mean growing up, when we got to the point where we could get onstage with bluegrass guys I was tellin’ you about, like Jerry Douglas, and Bela Fleck, and Mark O’Connor, and you know, Tim O’Brien. Those were sort of the biggest deals, because you know, they happened early on, and where they might not be as famous in the grand scheme of things as some other people we’ve gotten to play with, they were more famous to us in our [area]. [We] just, respect them so much and their abilities to play, and you know, when we started getting up to play with them, years back, that really had a profound influence. It’s really inspiring if you wanna practice more, and it also feels really good that you’ve gotten to a place where you get to share the stage and make music with them.
There seems to be a strong community among bluegrass musicians, perhaps more than in other areas. Have you found that to be true, and is it different as you’ve moved into other musical [fields]?
Yeah, I think bluegrass in general is more family-oriented and community-oriented, but you know, it can be found in other area, it just depends on kind of the right pocket. If you find the right pocket of musicians that are into, you know, anything else, you’ll find that there’s nurturing in a situation in another kind of music. But bluegrass certainly has a long tradition of that, and it’s a big part of music, just by nature, so I’m really glad we got started in it for that reason.
How often are you out on the road?
We haven’t been out on the road that much lately ’cause our record’s three years old, and mostly because we’ve been recording a new record, which just got done, took about six months, and before then touring was kinda tapering off. But when a CD comes out we’ll definitely hit the road and we’ll be out a lot, probably be out a month at a time, you know, come back for a week, go out for two months, come back for two weeks, or...
You sound like you’re tired now. Is this early for you?
Oh yeah, well, I’m not, I’m – I woke up not too long ago. We’ve been on a late schedule.
You’re a guitarist, primarily, and you have two solo albums out yourself. What’s different about recording solo than recording with the band?
Well, it’s just kind of nice, I think it’s healthy for the band, it’s healthy for musicians to have an outlet and to be able to put extra music out, musical ideas somewhere. A lot of people – well, in bluegrass, and in jazz too, there’ll be a band, and every member of the band will have their own solo record. I think it’s really good, it’s great to always have something to work on, you know, if we’re not workin’ on band stuff. [When] I’m off the road, [I] definitely like to have a creative outlet, and that’s sorta the purpose they serve.
Why guitar?
No, I don’t know – I just started with it. I actually started playing mandolin when I was nine, because my hands were too small for guitar, then I just kinda switched over to guitar when I was 13. Er, yeah, like 13, 12 – 13. And so you know, it’s nice to be a chordal instrument, also a little part of the rhythm – it’s sorta cool to be in a solo section and in a rhythm section. [laughs]
I don’t know how often you’re able to get to the Appalachian mountains, but (and this is my question for everyone) what do you think it is about the mountains and mountain geography that makes mountain music – whether it’s bluegrass, old-time, string band, country – what it is?
I mean, you know there’s something about mountains that – it just developed, I don’t know the exact reasons for why it developed. I guess… people, you know, before there was the amount of entertainment that there is now, people had to actually do things with their lives, like play music and read and stuff like that...
I also think it had a lot to do with the mix of people that were in the mountains – sort of a hodgepodge of immigrants and it was the mix of these different kinds of music, Irish immigrants… I can understand – there’s something about – a connection that can be made, between the way the music feels and the topography, I guess. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but... Yeah.
[laughs]