Nick Harrison

小简介 Nick Harrison is about to give the laid back beach life of Folkstone a beat to be proud of, with the breath of fresh air that British guitar pop surely needs. His new album sounds like a fierce, feel-good, punk pop band that has an addiction to killer reggae drops. According to Q magazine it's not a million miles away from The Arctic Monkeys doing The Police (without the northern accents). But these rather pleasing sounds are all from one fellow – Nick Harrison, along with some help from his friends – Paul Epworth and Salaam Remi who produced it and Jimmy Douglas (Dr Dre's mixer) who mixed it. Nick plays most of the instruments and wrote the majority of most of the songs. Music fans across the country will very soon be privy to this young man's sunshine-flecked, ska-splattered delights of pop songs; his debut single 'Oi Rude Boy' and album 'One Drop' will both see the light of day this summer. So prepare yourself for his readily seductive vocals, set over a tight bunch of velcro melodies which will be the soundtrack to summer 2008. But before that you might want to know some of these things… Born in 1985 in Folkstone, Nick had music in his spirit from a startlingly young age, but the road to becoming a talented singer and songwriter didn’t start the conventional way. Like Dave Grohl, Phil Collins and Madonna, his initial passion was the drums. "I was always a drummer and never looked at anything else. Then one day my mate down the road got a guitar, but he’d never let me play it. He would make me watch him play it – it affected me pretty deeply for some reason. I was banging on about it at home and my old man suddenly presented me with this old acoustic that he used to play. It was in the family blood, who am I to deny that! Then on my 15th birthday I got a guitar, an Esquire Strat. It was my first electric guitar." Folkstone had an electric underground live music scene, and as Nick immersed himself within it, the ska followed Nick around like some kind of special destiny. He'd been an unashamed fan of The Police from a young age, but he would find it searing through him during his teenage years, where he would play around Folkestone's thriving punk scene, imbibing the ska-punk sound of 'Oi' bands like Capdown and Pennywise. "That was my music as a kid," he remembers. "Proper aggressive punk and double time drumming, but then it would have really great dub reggae breaks. It was just great dancing music. That's definitely where a lot of what I'm doing now comes from." Having outgrown the big-shorted brigade, he was heading perilously close to singer-songwriter territory, when he had an epiphany after the household installed multi-channel television, and MTV2 opened the 18-year-old Nick's eyes to a new world of dancefloor-wired guitar groups like Bloc Party, Arctic Monkeys, Futureheads, Maximo Park, and he knew he had found his music. Nick was at this time finishing school and found himself at a crossroads where, knowing he wanted to pursue his music but without the money to do so, was looking at a stereotypical three year media studies course square in the face. But a surprise benefactor came in the form of his Grandmother, who seeing his passion for music agreed to give him his inheritance early so that he could go and follow his dream. The cash allowed him to pay for entrance fees to undertake a course he’d heard about at Guildford Academy of Contemporary Music – a college where they actually encourage students to form bands, write their own music and generally sharpen their musical skills. But the journey would not be without its twists and turns. “I realised I wasn’t as good as a drummer as I thought I was,” says Nick who joined ACM with drumming in mind. But fate was smiling on him, when it became clear to others that he was an exceptionally good singer and songwriter. "I’d been thinking, this is my chance, I can really try and be a session drummer." I went to try out for some spots at the college and they found out I'd been writing songs so got me to sing - then they were like, "you’re a better singer than you are a drummer. That was a total shock." You’ll understand their revelation when you hear Nick's voice which has a totally unique and unforgettable tone. His musical palette broadened. Bands were formed and cover songs were learnt furiously, but by now Nick was following his own singular vision. In the end he only lasted a year at Guildford – not because he flunked out, but because before he’d got anywhere near assessment, he was snapped up by management and publishing, inking a deal with A&M Records before most of his course mates had made it home for Easter. Everything started from the song ‘One Drop’, referring both to the ska break that so many of the songs hinge on, and the process of Nick taking the first tentative steps in what will surely be a long and fruitful career. So it’s fitting that this is the title of his now-complete debut. The writing and recording started pretty quickly once he was signed to A&M, home to young megastar singer Duffy and swaggering lovers-of-the-good-times The Courteeners as well as dark art rockers The Horrors and the genius that is Patrick Wolf. One of Nick's musical dreams came true from the off when he found himself working with Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Kate Nash, The Rakes, Maximo Park), the production powerhouse behind so many of the art rock records that had inspired him and many others. The album’s other major collaborator; producer Salaam Remi (Amy Winehouse, Fugees, Nas) who was based out in Miami, helped give the songs a few extra layers of sunshine to hit home that feel good vibe Nick's music so effortlessly pays homage to. All of this has led Nick's debut album 'One Drop' into becoming a startlingly modern record that brings all the older influences Nick grew up loving thrillingly up to date. When they came to finishing the album it dawned on Nick that he'd need to put together a band to help recreate the feel of the album. So he enlisted the services of college friends Naz who plays bass and Toby who takes up drumming duties. Together with Nick fronting on guitar/vocals they make a tight and spiky three-piece when he does the live thing. The first song out of the traps was 'Oi Rude Boi', a thematic cousin perhaps to Arctic Monkeys' 'Brianstorm', which lovingly lampoons an encounter with an ageing hipster who developed an unhealthy obsession with Nick's pork pie hat one afternoon. "It’s about a jaded old guy who's still hanging onto his past. He's just a total Eighties revival, clinging onto these memories; but there's something tragic, now life's moved on for everyone else but him. And it all comes out through this really happy sounding song." All the songs have a nostalgic thread running through them but it's not only the music influences from back in the day so much as the attitude which takes you back to being fresh out of school with the world at your feet. The album 'One Drop' scales a range of emotions, from the lilting love song 'Something Special', the broody brilliance of 'Come on Over', to 'Collins Avenue' and its cheeky tale of some of the more 'colourful' characters Nick came across during his time recording around Miami beach. But Nick's favourite moment is Epworth-collaboration 'Honey', simply one of the most optimistic, feel-good messages of hope you will hear all year. "I'm really proud of the lyrics on 'Honey'. It was a co-write with Paul and he had these wicked chords. With the lyrics added they just felt like they made perfect sense. The song's a positive thing about checking yourself, and where your head is at." As leader of a three-piece band playing one-drop breaks, comparisons with The Police were perhaps inevitable. But it's a comparison that Nick takes with a pinch of salt and a bucket of admiration. Nick didn't set out to bring about a ska revival – it's just the music that's always poured through him. "It's always been there, in our culture, and it's just a groove I've been playing for years. Naturally I just fell back into playing those kinds of grooves. I love them. I love dancing around to that kind of stuff. I wanna go and dance and I just wanna make other people dance." What else do you need to know about Nick Harrison? He's scared of snakes, good at drawing cartoons, not athletic in the slightest, he doesn't believe in aliens but is up for being convinced, and the thing that makes him the angriest is X Factor but that doesn't stop him watching every week. "I wanna carry on doing what I’m doing. Even if it means just playing in a pub to 20 people and recording on Garageband, I love it. Everything is a bonus the way I see it. Everything is an amazing opportunity for me now. I’m looking forward to this summer". And when 'One Drop' drops, so should everyone else.