by hilary johnson hilary_a_johnson@yahoo.com
WHO: Nickel Creek
WHERE: Florida Theatre
WHEN: Monday, November 12th
Nickel Creek, a band notorious for it's rock-infused bluegrass sound, a sound almost impossible to define but wonderful to experience, is coming to Jacksonville's Florida Theatre on November 12. As the band prepares to go on an indefinite hiatus after performing together for the past eighteen years, the Farewell (for now) Tour will end just weeks after they come through the First Coast. EU got on the phone with the three-piece's violinist, Sarah Watkins, to discuss their music, their lives, and how they are saying goodbye.
EU: How do you think the band's approach to music has morphed and progressed over the years?
Sarah Watkins: Our musical understandings when we were eight were not the broadest. As we've gotten older we have tried to identify, listen to and be excited by a much broader spectrum. It's almost impossible for that not to come through when we're playing. We grew up imitating songs we really enjoyed. Sometimes they were Radiohead songs, sometimes blues songs, sometimes Irish songs. I think that has made us a little more capable and expanded our range of writing, playing, soloing… everything.
EU: At this point in such a long career, how did the band find the inspiration to reinvent itself? To write new, fresh music?
SW: I don't know that we have ever tried to reinvent ourselves. I think that listening to different things, and also just being older, your perspective changes. [That] tends to come through.
EU: Why did the band decide to go on hiatus?
SW: We have been a band for 18 years. I'm only 26, so since I was eight and Chris was eight and Sean was twelve. The way the band works is all or nothing. So, we have to work really hard to write a record, record a record, and then tour a record. For doing 120 shows a year in addition to writing and recording, that keeps us very busy. It's a nervous breakdown waiting to happen. After Watching the Fire Die, a record we really identify with and are really proud of, we all agreed this was the perfect place to put it down for a while. It could be forever or it could be for ten or fifteen years.
EU: How has this last tour been, knowing it's your final one?
SW: Really great, really fun. It's getting more and more fun too. We are two and half weeks from the end [of the tour]. It's getting more and more fun every night. There is a little bit of a relief from pressure, touring with people we love. The guy who will be out for your show is a comedian friend of ours from Los Angeles. He's great. So this whole tour has been a really wonderful experience.
EU: What do you (each) plan to do after the tour ends?
SW: I'm going to make a record this winter. I haven't made a record before and I'm really excited about it. John Paul Jones is going to produce it. Hopefully that will be out by the end of the summer. That will be my main focus, but I really want to be actively involved in a couple main projects. Immediately, my brother is doing a record. He just finished it with a friend of ours, John Foreman, who is a singer and songwriter. But he's a friend and lives really close by so they just started collaborating for fun. They decided they really enjoyed working together and so they've made a proper record. It's really great. I will probably be touring with them, opening for them and playing with them. And Chris has his record with Punch Brothers, his new band. It's amazing. I listened to it last night. I am really excited to see where each of us is going.
EU: Do you think the three of you will stay really close after this?
SW: We won't talk everyday, but yes, I think that after sharing so much life together, it's the kind of thing that even if you don't talk all the time it doesn't really effect your relationship. It's there no matter what. Whenever you do come together it's a wonderful thing.
EU: What's your favorite thing on your iPod right now?
SW: I'm actually without my iPod right now. I am listening to my boyfriend's and so I've been going through all these bands I haven't heard of, or whose names have been there for a while but I haven't really given too much attention to. You know who I really love right now is Of Montreal.
EU: How do you entertain yourself on the road?
SW: Oh there are all kinds of things to do. Sometimes it's harder to entertain yourself than others. We go to museums, see what each town has to offer. But sometimes the towns are closed up or it's a Sunday and nothing is going on, depending on what part of the country you're in. And our work day starts at four o'clock so we usually stay up pretty late and sleep in and that leaves us about four hours to do stuff. So you can walk around, get some breakfast, find a bookstore, set up a little destination of something you want to see or do or get. And a lot of times you're either working on songs or writing and it's a good time to focus on being creative.
EU: What is one of your most memorable moments with Nickel Creek?
SW: There are a couple moments where we have been on stage lately, at the end of the set, standing there and receiving the applause, that is a little more meaningful. All the people are kind of signing us off really really wonderfully. Or the moments when the songs are really just magical. And then there were also those moments when we were ten and playing a stupid game or waking up really early to go to festivals and our dad put on Beatles records. There are tons of memories.
EU: When playing live do you have any special rituals you have to do before taking the stage?
SW: We don't have to do them, but yeah. We have little rituals. But those are for us.
EU: What will you miss most about Nickel Creek?
SW: It's a really great lifestyle. It keeps me away from home, but I feel like I've been in college all these years, and I'm finally graduating. You will miss the gang. You miss living on a bus and driving down a road to a town where you know you sold enough tickets to help keep you alive for another day. But on the other hand, I think it's a really good thing for us to get out of. In terms of a musician's life and what is required to be creative. Being outside of this particular band has sparked a new flame under our butts to produce more and to be more individual.
EU: What is the last thought you want to leave in your fans minds?
SW: I don't really know. I don't know about thought, but we always want people to leave the show having been lifted up a little bit, having been inspired in some part of their life, whether its musically or just their spirit being lifted if they are going through a hard time. Just getting some kind of relief from us. That's a very big privilege, if coming to one of our shows could provide that. I think that's about all you could want.
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