For over 25 years California-born but Indiana-based drummer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Nick D’Virgilio (NDV) has been delighting music fans, first and foremost through his drumming. Having recorded with Genesis, Big Big Train, The Fringe and hundreds of other artists, toured extensively with Tears for Fears, played with Peter Gabriel, and been featured drummer in well over a thousand performances of Cirque du Soleil, NDV has already established an impressive legacy. While fronting Spock’s Beard, Nick also became known for his lead vocal talents over the course of four studio albums and several tours.
2020 sees the long-awaited release of “Invisible”, his first full-length solo album in nearly 20 years. D’Virgilio describes his new record as “a collection of songs that make up the story of a man who is unhappy with where his life has ended up. He finally decides to take the scary step of leaving everything behind so he can go and find the meaning of his life.”
Keen to establish that “this is not your typical drummer record,” D’Virgilio states that “‘Invisible’ is a rock album with various musical flavors thrown in because the songs were formed with the story in mind. A classical prelude that uses various themes from the whole piece sets the stage. From there comes a mellow ballad outlining the story and then it is on to the adventures of the central character. The main thing making this record did for me was to reaffirm my strong belief that we are all here for something. We all have a purpose.”
As he prepares for the album’s release on June 27th, Nick took some time to talk with Sonic Perspectives correspondent Scott Medina. Together they delve into the concept behind the album, recording at Abbey Road and Sweetwater studios, and discuss some of the incredible musicians involved. You can read the transcript of the interview, or stream the audio below, and remember that for more interviews and other great content, Sonic Perspectives is on Facebook, Flipboard, Twitter and YouTube, where you can be notified about new interviews and contents we publish on a daily basis.
“Invisible” can be pre-ordered in several configurations at https://www.nickdvirgilio.com/shop/
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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Today we get to talk with Nick D’Virgilio on the cusp of releasing his brand new solo album called “Invisible”. It’s coming out at the end of June and we really can’t wait to dig into this album with you, Nick, welcome.
Thank you very much for having me. Appreciate it.
So, this is a concept album, yes?
It is. It is a story record.
So tell us where this theme started germinating for you about the invisible man.
Well, it’s sort of a weird story, but the original impetus was when I got my gig with Cirque de Soleil. I started that gig and did about six or eight weeks of rehearsal and then when we actually went to go start rehearsing for the main show in the tent, I found out at that point that I was going to be in a booth behind the stage. No one was being able to see me play! [laughs]They’d hear me, but no one would see me. For the first little bit, it really irked me…I thought it was just like, I’m invisible. Anybody could be back here. You know, what’s going on? Now that has nothing to do with the story of the record. But that’s the first thing that came to my mind when that happened. So in my booth, I set up my drums – and I should say at the beginning that it ended up being one of the best experiences of my whole life – it was great. I got over that stupid feeling pretty quickly. But you know, at the beginning, it got to me. So basically I just set up my booth and while I was on downtime in there, I would just write songs. I set up my little room with a little recording interface and my acoustic guitar was there and I would just start writing songs and riffs and things like that. And that’s where the word “invisible” first came from. And then over time I started just getting some more tunes together. It wasn’t till way after Cirque…the first songs probably came about around 2012…so they’d been around for a while. And then after I got to Sweetwater [where Nick currently works]I started flushing out the idea more and my friend and co-producer of the record, Mark Hornsby, sort of kicked me in the butt and said, man, you need to finish this record. And that’s kind of where it all came from. Then I took the word “invisible” and sort of morphed it into more of a story about someone who is disgruntled with his life, not happy about where he ended up. He feels like an invisible person who could die tomorrow and no one would miss him, dead end job, that kind of thing. And he goes out to find the meaning of his life and in the end he finds it.
And would you say there’s aspects of this story that are somewhat autobiographical?
A little bit, but not really. It is more of a story that is more fiction, but I did sprinkle a little bit of some of my own adventures throughout.
Had you not seen the Cirque du Soleil before you signed on to play?
Yeah, I had seen a bunch of Cirque shows before, especially in Vegas and stuff. And you always see the band, but they’re not the focal point. The acrobats and the people on stage are the focus, and the music is there to support them. And I knew that going in for sure. But you usually do see the musicians either off to the side or somewhere in the show. And I was the only one in the band that you couldn’t see in this show! It’s not like the band was totally in plain sight the whole time, but you knew they were there and the band could see the stage directly. I had to watch the show through a TV monitor! That kind of thing. No one had told me that until the first day the real rehearsal started that that’s where I’d be playing.
That was in the fine, fine, fine print of the contract that I guess you didn’t get to read…
Yeah, I could imagine that’s a big hurdle. Especially being someone who’s used to performing out on rock and roll stages and such. But hey, you made something out of it with the germ of the idea for “Invisible.” And there’s a really wide range of styles here on this album. How did you choose which direction to go stylistically? I mean, is this the kind of music that Nick D’Virgilio truly likes the most?
Well, I wouldn’t put it that way. Every song has a specific purpose and a vibe to fit the story. I wasn’t really thinking style as much as: does this particular vibe of the tune and the feel and the beat – and all of those kinds of things – go with what I’m trying to say? So that pulled me down certain directions. You know, I can’t get away from the prog-rock completely, and I don’t want to. I just call this record more of a rock record in the grand scheme of it all. It has its technical moments for sure, but it has some really straight ahead stuff, too. And ballads and the whole nine yards. I just wanted to fit the songs to the story no matter what style they kind of came to me. Now I don’t want people to get the wrong idea, that they’re so widely varied that it’s completely different from tune to tune. I mean it sort of is, but it’s not like you’re going to get like a polka next to a prog tune next to a country tune next to a jazz song. It’s all kind of based around rock and roll, I think.
I think of it as a rock album, too. But there are some wonderful ballads on there. I really love the opening first proper song of the title track “Invisible”. That’s just so beautifully done with the acoustic vibe and Jonas Reingold and the fretless bass…
Ohhhh yeah.
And then the way the strings just close that song out. You know, it’s just gorgeous in that moment. Let’s talk about that use of strings and brass. You recorded those at Abbey Road studio, correct?
I did! I was totally spoiled to be able to do something like that. The reason that happened was because we had a lot of great…well, I should say this record happened the way it did because of my job at Sweetwater. We had a bunch of great vendor partners come on board with this record, especially drum companies, but also the microphone company, DPA. And that gave us the ability to afford to be able to go to Abbey Road and record the strings and brass there. Mark had gone over there to do a bunch of other sessions, he had a good relationship with the people there, and DPA wanted to be involved as well. After we did that session at Abbey Road, we went to the DPA factory in Denmark afterwards and did a big factory tour and shot video of that. So there were reasons to go over there, but it was just an amazing experience to get those players in that room on my record. You know, it’s just incredible stuff.
I was listening to Mark Hornsby talk about it on that interview you did with DPA and he said that they didn’t have to add any reverb or anything from the strings on the recording in that room.
No, that room, it’s just amazing! Just the history in there, you know, you feel it as you walk in. It’s incredible.
Well, what’s really unique in this is that you’ve got a symphonic prelude that starts the album. But then throughout the album, in the majority of the songs, you’re weaving in those strings and brass, right alongside the rock instrumentation. So it really makes for unique arrangements.
Yeah. John Hinchey arranged some of the horn and string parts with me. He’s a friend of the band and friend of the prog world. He’s a trombone player by trade, but he’s been involved in a bunch of other projects that I’ve worked on over the years, Rewiring Genesis and all those kinds of things. And he gets this kind of music and he’s got a great ear for this and knows how to arrange for every instrument in the orchestra, which is a huge and amazing gift for anybody to have to know how instruments fit in a range, and where they’re gonna sound best in a song, and all that kind of stuff. And he helped out quite a bit to fit those parts into the songs.
So you’ve got those sessions happening in Abbey Road and then you’ve got the main recording happening at Sweetwater studios. I mean, it really sounds like just the ultimate recording package.
It’s pretty amazing. Yeah. Sweetwater‘s a great studio. Killer room. Russ Berger-designed. Sounds great. We do just about anything there, you know, so it’s a definitely a great combination sonically for sure.
Plus you’ve got all those drums at your disposal. I see you’re even releasing a drum booklet to accompany the album detailing exactly what you play and why you chose it for each track.
Right. Yeah, that’s how this record happened. We got most all the drum vendors that we work with at Sweetwater to come on board and to show how they can all play in the same sandbox, so to speak. And show the differences in the sound and the vibe and the feeling of each drum kit and how they’re made and how they fit into a sonic spectrum. So I was able to mold the sound of each tune to the exact drum sound I wanted. It was a really neat process ’cause I’ve been at Sweetwater for about five and a half to six years now and I’ve been really blessed to be able to get to know these drum vendors and the companies and how they make drums and their theory behind stuff and why they sound the way they do. And it was really neat to be able to mold that sound to real exact specifications to each song. Sort of like a mad scientist sort of thing in there! So people listening to it will really get to hear cool vibes and different changes sonically from tune to tune. And so yeah, the drum book was a necessary thing to basically give thanks to all of these companies for coming on board with this and to show off their great gear. They make amazing products. It’s the least we could do. Plus, there’s videos coming along with all the songs that have drums as well.
It’s just so unique. It’s such an unusual thing to do. It makes the album stand out in a really unique way. Like everyone knows, Oh yeah, Nick, he’s that killer drummer…but it’s not a drummer’s album per se. It’s a rock album but you get to really feature the drums in a very unique way.
Yeah, you bet. I’m really lucky to do so.
But in addition to drums, you’re playing a wide range of instruments throughout this album, including guitars, keys and bass as well. Like the song “Wrong place, Wrong time” is pretty much all you except the guitar solo from Randy McStine.
Right. I only wanted one tune where I played everything. I do play drums, I play rhythm guitar on a bunch of stuff and some bass on a bunch of it, and a few keyboard parts and I programmed some of the loops and different things like that throughout the record. But I definitely wanted to take advantage of some of these amazing guests and friends of mine to play on the record as well. So I just picked that one tune you mentioned to play everything and then, and had Randy come in to do this stupidly cool guitar solo. [laughs]The guy’s an amazing musician. He’s so good! So that was a lot of fun. I’m not really a soloist anyway, especially on guitar. I never studied it or really learned how to solo correctly. You know, there’s so many other people that do it incredibly well. Although I feel I’m a decent and very capable rhythm guitar player. I can play riffs and things like that. I kind of went with my strengths.
Absolutely. And the other killer Randy guitar solo – one of them – is on “Mercy” with Tony Levin playing his classic groove on the Stick and bass.
Ooh. Yeah. [grinning]I know!
It gives you the chills, huh?
[laughing]Yeah, it does, for sure!Was that the first time you’ve played with or recorded with Tony?
What happened was that a couple of the songs on the record, “Snake Oil Salesmen” and “In my Bones” and the first single “Where’s the Passion” all stemmed from these recording workshops that we’d have at Sweetwater. Like “Where’s the Passion” was a Jordan Rudess recording workshop and I was lucky enough to have him play my song for the recording workshop! Same for “In My Bones”, Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick was coming to do a recording workshop, and so we used one of my tunes. “Snake Oil Salesman” was a recording workshop that Tony Levin was on. So, I mean, I really lucked out to being in the right place at the right time for these certain things. And I’m lucky enough to have the guys come and teach people how to record and how they do their thing, and then I’d get a really great track out of it too! So it’s a win-win all the way around, for sure.
So “Snake Oil Salesman” was the first one that I got to play with Tony on, which was an amazing thing, you know. He’s just incredible, right? All the stuff he’s done, he could play anything and he’s got such a great feel, you know. “Snake” is pretty much just more of a straight-ahead tune. On “Mercy”…well, I’ll say this and I’m trying to be as humble as possible here. I sent him the whole tune to play on, ’cause I played bass on half of that song, like on the faster rockier parts. And he plays his Stick on the choruses and fretless on the sort of breakdown part. And I asked him to play the whole tune, of course. And… he writes back and he says that he couldn’t improve on the bass that’s already there! [laughs]
I go, come on man, you’re Tony Levin. Of course you can. Give me a break. But he said, Dude, just keep what you have. It’s great. I’ll play the other parts. And that’s how it worked. So we’re both playing bass on that tune. So when we first heard back what he sent us on the chorus, when I heard that Stick come in… Oh, man, I was through the roof with excitement, you know. THAT’S the Tony Levin sound! It’s just incredible. So those little touches added so much cool flavor to the record.
How did the choice to cover the song “Money” come about?
I’ve always dug that tune. The old, the original version by Barrett Strong. The Beatles did a great version. There were a couple of funky versions in the eighties. And then that song came along when I was starting to think about the story in general. Like, what’s this person going to be doing when they give up on their dead end job? The guy decides to just let it all go, forget it. He quits, just walks out the door one day from his job and decides to go find himself. So, as he’s walking around town, he starts meeting people and going through these sort of little adventures, as I’m calling them, and realizing that he’s not really the only one that feels the way he does. He finds that out rather quickly. So basically my thought process was that he’s walking down the street and decides maybe he’s thirsty or something. So he goes into a convenience store to grab something to drink and he sees the person behind the counter and they just look disheveled or depressed or don’t want to be there, That kind of thing. And he asks something like, Is everything okay? And then they spew out this whole thing of why they’re there, that they’re stuck there because of the money, and they can’t get out from underneath to what they want to do. Sort of the similar thing to what he was feeling. So that was my thought process behind it. It kind of stemmed from that opening little drum groove which was a loop I had found somewhere. It just slowly morphed out of that into the whole song.
Most people will know that song obviously from The Beatles. And so it has that nice tie-in to the Abbey Road sessions and the Beatles…
Oh yeah.
Is there any other tie-in to the Beatles for you or anything else from the Abbey Road recording?
Well, just, just BEING there and all the amazing music that they recorded in that room! You know, there’s the old pianos that they all played on. There’s still cigarette burns from cigarettes that John Lennon would put on the side of the upright piano, all the stuff is there. They haven’t changed the room at all since they recorded there in the sixties! The control room and the technology’s obviously upgraded since then and all that stuff. But the actual main room is exactly the same. They haven’t painted it, they haven’t taken out any of the diffusers or all those kinds of things. So the vibe is still exactly that.
[chuckling]What a thrill. I also love the backup vocals on this album. You do backup vocals as well, but you’ve got some women, including your daughter, singing and it’s just particularly strong backup singing. On one track it’s kind of a Steely Dan thing and on another one it kind of sounds like Pink Floyd backup singers a bit. Did you work out all of those parts or how did that come about?
Yeah, most of the parts I had made up, you know, and kind of sussed out before we got the girls – and boys – in there to help sing. So I kind of knew what was going on there ahead of time. But once we were in the studio working on the songs, a few things morphed here and there and we tried to go with whoever’s strengths were singing. But yeah, it was cool. It was great to have my daughter Sophia. My son Anthony sang on one song as well. So it was really great to have them involved in any way I could. And I’m a huge fan of background vocals, too. So the more the merrier.
Exactly. I think it was the last Cruise to the Edge, when UniKuE was playing and you had your daughter come out and sing. And I remember that really blew everybody away.
Yeah. That’s cool, she’s got a really great voice.
With the storyline in Invisible, with this kind of story of disillusion with life and redemption, is there any connection there from your history with Neal Morse and the way that he’s worked similar terrain in his storylines? For example, I was really sensing in the track “I Know the Way” that closes the album, almost a sense of revelation.
Yeah. I mean, I don’t think it comes directly out of that. My guy sort of goes through a near death experience. That’s what “Wrong Place, Wrong Time” is about. And so I did a bunch of research and studied up on those things and found that a lot of people that come back from those things have the same feeling that, you know, they saw the light. Somebody – say it’s God, or however you want to describe it – says that your time on earth is not over yet. You haven’t achieved…you know, I’m not done with you yet, so to speak. And that’s where that came from. So, it’s about realizing that you’re not alone. That was the biggest thing I wanted. The biggest sort of moral of the story I wanted to come out of this thing is that we all have some worth. I’ve believed that forever and that’s sort of what I wanted to get across: that no matter how small it is, you know, we’re all here for something. We grew up believing that if you’re not a huge star or famous or rich or something like that, that your life wasn’t necessarily worth it or you’re not as good as someone else. But it doesn’t matter what it is…we’re all here to touch someone else in some way. And you don’t know how you doing the smallest thing, how that could help somebody down the line or how much you’ve touched a person by just doing the littlest thing. That’s what life’s all about. So we all have worth, whether it’s big or small or in the middle.
And so voicing this story of Invisible at this point, it’s been about 10 years since your last EP came out, “Pieces”, and then about 10 years additional before your first full length solo album, “Karma”. Where are you in terms of your songwriting now? Is this really energizing for you having put this whole album together and you’d like to write more in the future? I see you’ve gotten some writing credits started with Big Big Train as well. So do you think there’ll be more solo material in the near future, or is this kind of a good thing only for whenever the inspiration strikes?
Yeah, I’m going to be doing a lot more. This is sort of my time to get this part of my career happening, although I’m doing it way late. I just, I was always in bands and doing the band thing for so long and raising a family, and doing those kinds of things. It just never took precedent to do the solo artist thing, as much as I’ve always really wanted to. I also don’t think that I was at a level where I felt confident enough to do the solo artist thing. It just took me a while to get here. So now that this record’s done and I’ve done the concept record, you know, double- LP sort of long thing, I’m definitely going to be writing a lot more. And the plan is to put out a lot more of my own music over the next 5 to 10 years or so. You’re gonna see and hear a lot more of me on my own as time goes on. I’ve got a ton of music in the can, lots of song ideas and you’re right, I’m writing for Big Big Train a bit here and there, which is fantastic. I love that band so much. And I’m talking to Randy McStine about doing some other stuff on the side there. So I’m really starting to dive into writing a lot more and just sort of bring my voice out like I just haven’t done before.
With that being your main focus, does that mean you’re not looking out to being a touring drummer with another band in the future, if that came up?
Well, I’m not going to say I’m not going to do anything in specific. Everything’s open, especially in this time with all this coronavirus and all the crazy stuff going on and the way life is. Thankfully I still have a job at Sweetwater. I’m very blessed to have that in this particular moment. But if an opportunity comes that’s going to be worth it…sure, I’m not going to turn anything down. But Big Big Train is a huge focus for me. The band is really achieving a certain level now and we’ve been working really hard for a long time, so I’m in for the long haul with them for sure. As well as my solo stuff. So, I got a bunch of irons in the fire for sure.
I know Big Big Train was going to make their debut in the US this spring. And it sounds like they just officially canceled the summer UK and Europe gigs. And I know it’s been a long time coming to get them over to the States. So do you think if the Coronavirus issues lift in the next few months or latter part of this year, do you think the Train will give it another go next spring?
Oh, we’re definitely gonna do it for sure. When that happens and when the shows get booked, I can’t really say because I don’t know. But we’re not stopping here for sure. But it took us a long time and it was a lot of hard work just to get that little tour booked. And everybody was hugely disappointed when it didn’t happen. So, it’s just postponed.
And you mentioned working with Randy a little more. Would that be in the context of The Fringe or…
Maybe, yeah! We’re talking to Jonas. Yeah, exactly. So maybe another Fringe record coming down the pipe and Randy and I are always sending stuff back and forth with all kinds of different ideas in mind. So any chance to play with Randy and Jonas again, I’ll jump at.
And of course both Randy and Jonas play some killer parts on your new album too, which is really cool.
Yeah. Those two guys are two of my favorite musicians of all time and I had to have them as much as I can get them for sure.
When you were with Cirque, how many shows approximately did you end up doing with them?
My tally at the end was 1,426. Now that’s just the shows! That doesn’t include all the dress rehearsals and rehearsals and everything else. So you’d probably add at least another couple of hundred on top of that. The amount of times we actually rehearsed and did the show, that wasn’t an official count, you know, where there was audience in the seats, that kind of thing. So yeah, a lot. Definitely a lot.
And what’s it like for you doing that many performances of the same show compared to being in a touring band? How do you keep that from getting stale?
Well, you know, it’s kind of tough but you just go with it. You’re part of a huge production every day and then you definitely have to stay on your toes with a show like that, too. Because you’re playing to the performers on stage. So if they make a mistake and have to redo a trick, you have to skip back and do that part of music again and you’re all locked to computers and everything like that. So you have to manipulate the computers in real time to follow the people on stage. So there’s a lot to it. So you gotta be on your toes. And thankfully for me, as much as I said at the beginning that I was pissed about playing in the booth and all that kind of stuff, the show that I was in, Totem, was a very drum-heavy show. It’s based around sort of native, Indian, native American, Canadian sort of themes, so it was lots of drums and percussion. And I got to play pretty hard. I was in the best shape of my life after a couple of years of being in that show, playing 10 shows a week and exercising all the time and being around all these amazing athletes. It ended up being a really super cool thing. And, you know, some nights you play great, some nights you didn’t play as great and, but it’s part of the whole thing. It becomes a job, but you’re still playing music every night, so it’s a better job than some.
And what’s the vibe like behind the curtain? Is it an inspiring atmosphere?
Oh yeah, it’s an incredible atmosphere. I mean, cause you’re, well, I mean we were traveling with 160 people touring in just our team. And that includes everybody from people who sell the tickets to sell the merch and the refreshments, to all the administration and our catering staff and our trainers and wardrobe people and plus all the entertainers, crew, all of that stuff. So there were people from 19 countries, all those different languages. My kids got to travel the world with us and learn these different languages, these different cultures and just become friends with all these people. And these are serious athletes that are on stage doing these incredible things. You know, like these are like full-on Olympic athletes. They were formally on the Olympic team of their country and now they’re doing these things for a Cirque show! So that atmosphere…there’s nothing else that I know of quite like it. And then put that together with all the music and the smoke and the pomp and circumstance and the technology that goes into it. It’s an amazing thing.
I’m really glad for you and your family to have that experience. It sounds incredible.
It was pretty neat, man.
So you’ve played drums on hundreds or if not thousands of recordings over the past few decades. What are a couple of your favorites that our listeners may not be aware of?
Hmm. Hmm. That’s… I wonder. Let me see. I always go back and really enjoy listening to the Mike Keneally record “Dog”. If anybody’s never heard of Mike Keneally or they don’t know who he is, he’s one of the greatest guitar player, keyboard player, musicians ever! Amazing guy. He’s so prolific of a songwriter. Talk about a guy who just has music oozing out of him all the time. I knew all those guys for quite a long time. I met Mike through Kevin Gilbert way back when and always wanted the opportunity to try and play with him because he always has the best musicians surrounding him. You have to be at a certain level to be able to even play with Mike. Although he can play any style of music, but you gotta be up there. And so I’ve always tried to make my myself – or think of myself – as that higher echelon sort of player that can play in any situation, or at least try to. And the opportunity came to join his band one time. And I jumped at it with my friend Rick Musallam and Bryan Beller and Mike and we toured for the “Dancing” record and then the time came to make a new record and it’s called “Dog”. There’s a bunch of really cool moments on that record for me that I really enjoy. Especially, I think it’s the first track called “Louie” is one of my favorite tunes we ever did, really heavy. And it was always a real challenge to play for Mike. He comes from that Frank Zappa school and you just gotta know your stuff when you’re playing with him. And try to make it groovy and fun and all of those kinds of things. So that was a great experience, very educational, lots of fun, great guys, became really good friends with everybody. And so that’s one of my cool drumming experiences that I really enjoy.
So I know with the current situation, obviously you don’t have any gigs on the books right now, but the album is coming out nonetheless at the end of June. What else do you have planned hopefully to happen on your calendar in the coming year or so, or what ideas do you have to be bringing this album out more?
Well, first just building up to getting the record released. There’s a lot into putting out records these days, you know, just by keeping up with all the bells and whistles of social media and trying to engage everybody and you know, there’s a lot of competition for people’s attention. It’s just tough to stay on top of it all. Thankfully I’ve got some really good friends and people helping me out with this, so I’m trying to learn as I go with that and do the best I can just to get the record out first. But then I don’t want to put the record out and never perform it. So I’ve got to see how the next few months come together and then I’m going to try and figure out a way to get out there and actually play this, whether I have to stream it online or do it in front of people hopefully, which is what I want to do, obviously. So figure out a way to do this live and see how that goes. Big Big Train is going to be in the studio since all the touring stuff got canceled. We’re gonna start working on a new record to put out sometime next year, I think, but we’re going to start recording in November. So that’s coming up. Plus the gig at Sweetwater still, full time with that as well.
And are you doing okay on the home front through this COVID era?
Oh yeah. Thankfully I got a place to play drums here and the family’s all doing well. The kids finished school for the year. Tiffany‘s working at the hospital and she staying healthy thankfully through all of that. So yeah, it’s all good.
Well, Nick, thanks so much for taking some time to explain it all to us and we’re going to close with a track off the new album and offer it actually to you if there’s any song that you’d like us to pick out for that?
Hmm. Well, what are you in the mood for? [laughs]
Some of my favorites are a couple of the really upbeat songs where you have the horn section coming in there, like “I’m Gone” and “In My Bones” with its sax section is really cool. Those kinds of funky grooves are great. But sometimes you shine the most in the ballad category. I think the title track is going to really move people.
Alright, well go for that one then. That sounds good. There’s some beautiful fret-less bass from Jonas on there. The strings from Abbey Road. Carl Verheyen, the guitar player from Supertramp. He’s the one playing the acoustic and just an incredible feel and talent that guy has. It’s amazing. So, yeah, let’s go for the title track.
Right. And this is really setting up the whole concept of the album, with our main character.
It sure is, yeah. Exactly.
I just love those lines, “I should have thought it out” and “I should have listened to my heart.” You know, it’ll definitely tug on you. So Nick, thanks so much. And we look forward to seeing you back out there and good luck on the release of this album.
All right, buddy. Thank you so much for the time
