In 1985 at 13 years old, Nick began playing drums. He had been wanting to play for years before he attained his first drumset. When he finally got a set, he fell in love with the instrument immediately.
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Two years later, at 15, Nick joined his first band. At 17, Nick played in his high school jazz band.Then, at the beginning of his junior year of high school, he had a life-changing experience. Nick was one of six students in his school system to be accepted into the Drums and Percussion Class at the Fine Arts Center (a magnet School of Arts in Greenville, S.C.). All the other students were in the marching bands of their respective schools. They could all sightread, they knew the rudiments and they had good technique. Nick had none of that but he could play. Nick worked hard to catch up, and he did. The grip his teacher Gary Robinson taught was most influential in his development.
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When Nick was about 18 he formed a progressive rock band. The band lasted about two years. Then he auditioned for a more well-known local band (progressive but more pop) and played with that band for about eight months.
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Toward the end of his time with that band Nick started commuting once a week to Spartanburg, S.C., to study under Paul T. Riddle, Marshall Tucker Band's founding drummer. Paul developed a whole new facet of Nick's playing and mindset, and they've developed a great friendship.
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After studying under Paul for about six months, Nick moved to Durham, N.C. He'd been in the area for about ten months when he entered a drum competition sponsored by 2112 Percussion in Raleigh, N.C. Nick took first place in the advanced category.
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Shortly thereafter, Nick auditioned for and got the gig in a local progressive pop group called Goujroy. The band lasted for about a year and then broke up. At that point, he began taking lessons from a local guy, Wes Little (now with Chuck D / Public Enemy), and landed a gig with a local cover band. Both the lessons and the gig came to an end about six months later.
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A few months after that, Nick auditioned for a local Raleigh band called Jam Pain Society (www.jampainsociety.com). This band had been around a few years and had built quite a following all over N.C. They had also gone through several drummers due to the songwriter's strong work ethic. Nick made the cut out of thirty-three drummers and has been playing with the band since. Nick then relocated to Cary, N.C. to be closer to the band's rehearsal / recording studio.
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During the last several years Nick's been performing and recording with JPS. He's done some session work and the occasional restaurant gig. He was also asked to do a drum clinic at 2112 Percussion in Raleigh in 1998. It was his first clinic and in his words, "was scared to death". In the end, everyone seemed to like it, and it was a big stepping stone. He has performed five other clinics since then, four in Raleigh and one in New Bern. Two of them were at Mars Music (one in 2000 and one in 2002), one at Guitar Center in 2002 (also on the bill that day were Mike D'Angelo, Jim Chapin and Rick Latham), one at Sam Ash Music in 2004 and a final one at Fuller’s Music in 2005.
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In his off time from JPS, he started a group of his own called Sexual Harris. SH is where he has absolute artistic freedom on the drums. JPS develops his playing on levels such as playing with a click (live and studio), concentration on playing as close to the original recording as possible, and styles such as metal, pop and funk. In SH, on the other hand, he never plays with a click live (although he used one on the two recordings Sexual Harris has done), the dynamic range is formidable, improvisation abounds and the music blurs the lines between rock, reggae, jazz, latin, funk and atmospheric textures.
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In early 2000 JPS released a c.d. called "Disco 13". It has sold over fifteen hundred copies. JPS plays mainly between North and South Carolina and Virginia. JPS has also played in New York, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Texas and performed a showcase for Interscope records in L.A. They are hoping to greatly expand our touring area with the new cd they're about to release (more on that below). The disc, "Disco 13", gets good airplay on college radio and some commercial radio. JPS was also featured on a local public access television show.
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JPS is currently recording a new disc to be released in early 2007. Demos from this recording are already getting rave reviews and we’re selling an advance E.P. online and at shows. Once this recording is released JPS will be booking shows relentlessly to support the disc. This is also the recording that enabled JPS to go to L.A. to perform for Tony Furgeson of Interscope Records.
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SH plays live whenever possible, however, getting an experimental, instrumental band shows is very difficult in the Raleigh area. SH did perform three of the five drum clinics with Nick. SH has given away five hundred copies of their first c.d. and has sold over three hundred copies of their second disc titled "Obvious", which was released near the end of 2001. It was released on Really Big Records. Sexual Harris is in the process of recording a follow-up to “Obvious”.
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Nick also released (in late 2002) an instructional DVD titled, "Building Better Technique". It is selling well and he has been getting really good feedback from it. The DVD was reviewed in the April 2006 issue of DRUM! Magazine. The strength of the DVD attracted the attention of Dante Roberson (drummer for the Comedy Central talk/comedy show “Weekends at the DL”) who contacted Nick about doing joint drum clinics.
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Pearl drums brought Nick on as one of their artists in June of 2000.
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Nick provides drums for The Berkeley Cafe's open jam night (Wed. nights, weekly) and around town at others occasionally. He also performs at these events.
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Nick does session work as well. He has recorded with several area songwriters, some demos/some releases. One album session in 2004 had Will McFarlane on guitar. Will's recording and performing career has placed him in some impressive company, including multi-Grammy winning artist Bonnie Raitt, The Pointer Sisters, Jackson Browne and part of the famous Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Another session in 2006 had Robert Sledge of Ben Folds Five fame on bass.
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In December of 2002 Nick came on-board as one of the instructors at Drumlab in Raleigh. At this time Nick is only subbing at Drumlab due to his busy schedule.
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This is where Nick is at this point. He believes that JPS is going to be a good career in the near future. Chris Hill, JPS songwriter, writes great songs with hit potential and the live show Jam Pain Society puts on gets rave reviews. SH will continue to be a part of his life as well, although it will probably never be as well known due to the experimental nature of the music.
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November 2007
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