Wow ! Guys finally we get to have a conversation about the single and the E.P…and you know what I’m excited about it! I’ve listened to it, I’ve danced to it…I won’t lie. It is an absolute work of art!
But before we get into that lets introduce you guys to my readers, so you are a Rock and Soul duo based in LA, which is amazing because we’ve never had an American artist or band on the blog before and I am very excited about it. So Nicky Davey is formed of the talented Nick Green and Dave Rosser so let’s get to it…
So how long have you guys been Nicky Davey for? We have been Nicky Davey for about 5 years we think. Nick Green and I (Dave Rosser) have been working together on music since we were probably 22. We had a couple different projects under various aliases and eventually wound up as Nicky Davey. We just kept it simple, I suppose?
Okay so you have had experience with working together for quite a while then, so what enticed you to get out there and start showing the world what you can do? Yea, I think we were after the pursuit of perfection too much when we were younger. We just kept making records and making records but never showed them to anyone except our personal friends and family. I definitely think in hindsight that it was suffocating to try and wait for the “perfect” record. I think that concept eventually triggered us to just break the ice last year…and start releasing what we work so hard on! That pursuit to perfection at least taught us a lot along the way and made us way better songwriters. Nonetheless, we have a vast catalogue of unreleased material now.
What have been your musical influences over the years that may be evident in ‘Nicky Davey’ today? In no particular order: Michael Jackson, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Jamiroquai, Jimi Hendrix, Lauryn Hill, D’angelo,
So lets get into the motherboard of the situation, the songwriting! How do you guys go about that? Because with various artists and bands out there it can vary from someone being more of a lyricist to the other being more of the arranger. How does the songwriting work for you? It has varied over the years. I used to kind of bring the musical ideas to the table and then Nick would start hunting for a melody. Then we would both contribute lyrically once the melody has gotten going. As of recently, it’s been kind of working in a HIP HOP type of environment. I’ll come up with an idea and Nick will program a beat and take samples from my original performance on guitar or keys. I usually just try to give him cool chords to jumpstart the inspiration. Sometimes we both really hash out the arrangement and lyrics together…and sometimes I leave and just let Nick act as the producer on it. I have learned as I’ve gotten older that sometimes it’s best to not be involved in every aspect of a song. I think it is really important when you write songs with someone else to know when to bow out and drop your ego. I use to be a complete control freak in the past but that is leaving me more and more everyday. Nick and I are learning to trust each other independently more and more.
Been Lovin You is the single from the E.P , when writing the single what was important for you to capture?
That song has been through about 10 different versions…so it was really just finally settling on what we thought was the best groove for it! We just wanted it to feel fun and also be weird at the same time. We had a brilliant Brazilian percussionist come in and play some crazy rad pandeiro on it. We knew that would put it in a crazy place. We always our pushing boundaries.
There are definitely strong hooks and mesmerising vocals in this track, was the production and recording stage easy or did it take a lot of time to perfect the sound you were after?
Well, we can always get a great sound at Noise Alchemy (our label’s studio we work out of), so that’s never an issue. It took time to finally settle on the instrumentation of the track as we tried so many of these. That was the hard part.
The E.P is comprised of five tracks, can you tell us briefly about each track…
Been Lovin’ You is just a clever love song. It’s light and pretty easy. It has that summertime feel. DREAMGIRL is our sexiest track. We wanted this to take people back to some of those great Prince records. We just wanted to make something epic and all out! Gonna Love Ya is probably our most modern track on the EP. It isn’t very deep conceptually and more just like audio candy. Rainbows is really a heartfelt song. Nick wrote it about being born to two gay parents. It was his way saying he is proud of who he is with all the people that have tried to knock him down in life. I love that song. Lastly, Hollywood is really a day in the life of Nick growing up. He was born and raised in Hollywood and wanted to point out that it isn’t exactly what people think it is. He talks about the grime against the glam in this track.
Where have you been touring or gigging in order to promote the E.P?
We did a national tour as direct support for the INTERNET in the fall, and that really helped put us on the map.
Do you have plans to visit the UK anytime soon?
We would love to get a tour over there if we can get the funds to make it happen! Fingers crossed!
How have people been responding to the E.P so far? Well, we have over 9,000 monthly listener’s on SPOTIFY….so that has to be good, right?
What is next for ‘Nicky Davey’…an album? Yes. We plan on dropping an album called XXX sometime this year.
If you could describe your music by using just three words what would they be? ROCK AND SOUL
For more information on Nicky Davey, keep yourselves informed by clicking on the links below to get the latest information about gigs, releases and news on the band!
treblewiththebass@outlook.com