Kevin Nichols Interview
A man in a Hawaiian shirt slips his mask over his face while he sits awaiting his eviction notice, but no one is there to serve it to him. Burger Records goes defunct and no one notices. A dollop of grease drops from a paper bag full of poutine, bought with CERB money at the expense of ruling class tax dodgers in British Columbia. Kevin Nichols (vocals and guitar) from the Oakland post-tumblr pop grunge band Kevin Nichols knows nothing of any of this, but idle hands are the devil’s playthings and he has nothing better to do than talk to me.
Kevin tells me his new single ‘Hanging on to My Head’ is about not being able to keep up with everything happening around him. A sentiment scattered youth everywhere can feel right now despite literally not having anything to do but work and/or stay home watching Vice documentaries about goofballs in London partying with permission of local authorities (narcs). The mantric title resonates with being so overwhelmed that there isn’t much to hold on to.
Jesse: What does your band have on the horizon following this release?
Kevin: We just recorded a record, but because of COVID and whatnot we’re pushing that back until we can tour around it. Touring is very necessary, especially for bands at our level. But for now, I think we’ll make some more singles and hopefully we’ll do some visual content and live streams. Kind of what everyone is doing to keep active right now. But definitely more singles are on the horizon.
Jesse: You do your own visuals?
Kevin: Yeah, usually we do everything ourselves, like I made the art for this single but our friend Mitchel Sturkey (who is a graphic designer and animator in Cincinnati) made the little animation loop to accompany the song. We wanted something kind of visual and moving to be stimulating as well as just the audio by itself. We usually do music videos, and for stuff like that we all just come together with an idea and work on it and edit it ourselves.
Jesse: Where do you see your band participating in punk as a form of oppositional culture?
Kevin: Well my thing is that I want to make sure everyone feels empowered in being transparent and sharing their emotions. Especially the men in the punk scene. I just want to gently start to stamp out toxic masculinity and open up a dialogue where we can all talk about our feelings, and make it so doing that is something that is viewed as strong, and celebrated. Rather than any sort of shred of weakness surrounding men being scrutinized. I’m just a very emotional person, and I used to really hate that about myself, but I’m learning to love it as well as the freedom that I’ve felt from becoming more open and transparent and talking about things. And just communicating all I can, even the hard stuff to talk about. I want that freedom to be felt by everybody and everyone.
Jesse: You don’t think that was already successfully done in the 90s?
Kevin: I think it needs to happen again.
Jesse: Is ‘prunge’ pop-grunge, or is it just FIDLAR but not terrible?
Kevin: Hahahah I would say it’s pop grunge.
Jesse: Now that Burger Records has been rightfully shut down, can we admit that FIDLAR sucks?
Kevin: You know, there’s a couple songs by FIDLAR that I still like. But yes, they went so downhill.
Jesse: How do you think this genre fits into the bay area punk scene?
Kevin: I think in the bay area punk scene as long as you’re just doing something genuine, pretty much any genre is going to be accepted. Just look especially around Gilman and whatnot. It seems like there’s a lot of people here that just make art because they want to, and it’s kind of like ‘I like it, so take it or leave it’.
Personally, I think that what I do fits in because we as a community all want to get together, and we want to feel uplifted from our experiences at shows. It’s tough because rent is so high and anyone that’s making art has to work so hard, and we all just want a break when we go to a show. We want to let loose. But I mean I feel like everyone wants that at every show.
Jesse: I guess there’s also the history of bay area garage punk in the early 2010s with bands similar to the Oh Sees. Around the same time Yadokai were playing shows. So it’s already been pretty somewhat prolific. Anyway, you can’t play shows now, so what are you going to do when you’re stuck and waiting around in quarantine?
Kevin: Now’s a good time to keep writing, and keep playing my guitar. Before quarantine, I was working so constantly alongside doing the band that I was wishing for some time to just isolate myself, and sit with my guitar, and get into Pro Tools, and make demos and stuff. Now I have that, so I intend to make good on the small morbid positivities of the situation that we’re all in.
Jesse: Morbid positivities?
Kevin: Yeah. I don’t think there’s much positive to the way the world is right now, but there’s little things. I’m enjoying the fact that I get to wake up and just play my guitar and sit in my underwear, but at the same time, it’s pretty morbid to be thankful for any of that right now. Because you know, the world is a mess.
Jesse: You used to live in Orange County. What would you say the punk scene is like there?
Kevin: I think there’s a handful of cool bands that are really doing something. And I think that those bands should get the fuck out of Orange County. That scene just honestly sucks. And I don’t want to spew too much negative stuff, but I just have to say that they’re too good for it, and they should at least go to LA. They should just get out of there. I have to say that coming up to the Bay Area and getting out of Orange County has been one of the best things I have ever done. It’s just my opinion and my personal experience, but that’s what I’ve got to say on that.
Jesse: You were in a band there, ‘Your Ugly Sister’. How did they fit into the culture of punk rock in Orange County?
Kevin: We didn’t. That was the whole thing. Especially with everything that’s just happened with Burger and stuff like that. I remember being around in high school, and wanting so badly to be accepted and be in that scene, but they just never paid any attention to me or gave me any time of day. And now I’m really thankful that it didn’t happen, and I also kind of see why. Because you know, I’m not a young person to be preyed on. And fuck, that’s just so fucking gross and such a fucking mess. It’s weird how later on in life you look back at something that kind of made you sad, and you’re like ‘wow I dodged a fucking bullet’.
Jesse: Yeah, and you can’t tell when you’re young that they’re fucking creeps and it seems so obvious looking back.
Kevin: Straight up. I just wanted to go to shows. It’s weird, there’s these memories I have of going to shows around the orange county area, and even if they were Burger associated those were still fun times in my life, but now there’s a black cloud hanging over them, rightfully so. It’s been a weird time to reflect and have that new perspective on experiences I had when I was 15,16.
It’s a weird thing because that scene initially gave a lot of people our age hope and excitement, like ‘oh hey, we can just do this ourselves, we don’t need a slick studio, we just need to make music and keep doing it, and put it out, and it can be something’ So yeah, it’s really weird looking back.
Jesse: Yeah, I still like some vaguely associated bands. Like the Oh Sees who I mentioned. They’re still cool.
Kevin: Yeah, the Oh Sees just put out a single.
Jesse: What’s it called? I should check it out.
Kevin: The new record is called Protein Threat. The album art is really cool. Very prog rock.
Jesse: I hate prog rock.
Kevin: It’s kind of a return to form. They just go really hard on the single. It’s so sick.
Jesse: I’ve got a vendetta against them. They came to Montreal for a show, and I know this guy who’s friends with one the dudes from the Oh Sees, but they wouldn’t put me on the door. I had no fucking money so I couldn’t go. So my irrational vendetta is based on them not letting me in for free. Which I know is stupid, but fuck them!
Kevin: Hahahaha well if I ever come to Montreal you’re on the list.
Jesse: I appreciate that. In the COVID world where everyone is standing five feet apart and wearing masks while crowd killing the walls or some shit.
Kevin: Yeah hahaha
Jesse: What has changed from ‘Your Ugly Sister’ to your self-titled band? How has it changed musically?
Kevin: Well when I was in high school I was kind of fucking around. I was always doing psychedelics and different drugs, and stuff like that. So I feel like my music now is a lot less druggy in a way. I was just exploring as a high schooler with a ‘fuck school, go get high’ kind of thing. But I feel as though slowly over time, I’ve been able to take little things that I enjoyed about the music I made back then, like the noisiness and fuzz tone, and package them into a little bit more of an acceptable thing with some pop hooks. Creating the ‘prunge’ kind of sound.
I mean, I think the original prunge record is Nevermind, but Nevermind is pop grunge compared to everything else around it. So it’s kind of stemming off that. But yeah, I would say I’ve been able to hone in on better song-writing, structures, and a better use of hooks. I’ve progressed as a song-writer, but been able to keep those little weird things that I like. I think the main thing I’ve worked on since that time is just becoming a better vocalist. I used to hear recordings of me playing live back then, and I would just fucking cringe. I’d be like ‘fuck, i can’t believe I sounded like that in front of people’. I got less bad.
Jesse: Yeah, Nevermind is super poppy. I think In Utero is too. I like pop. But then, I also think that a lot of the other bands in that scene were poppy too. I think Mudhoney were poppy.
Kevin: They definitely were. Mudhoney has some really dancey tracks. I don’t know if they would read as dancey as Nirvana, but there’s a bounce to it.
Jesse: Yeah, you know what, all the good grunge bands were poppy. I don’t like Alice In Chains, and I don’t like Pearl Jam.
Kevin: Me neither
Jesse: And I guess even Flipper were a little poppy too. Like poppy hardcore or poppy noise rock or some shit. I dunno.
Kevin: Yeah, I mean, you know, even bands like Fugazi. They’ve got some hooks in there.
Jesse: You know Krist Novoselic from Nirvana toured with Flipper?
Kevin: I did not know that, but that’s really cool.
Jesse: It is cool. What’s not cool is that he’s like a libertarian. But whatever
Kevin: hahahaha
Jesse: I saw the Nardwuar interview with them, and he’s talking about Doukhobors. I don’t get how this guy who was into Russian Anarchist religious groups is now a libertarian. It’s a very strange progression. Maybe it’s because he got rich.
Kevin: Yeah, it’s very strange.
Jesse: Well Flipper still rock. I even had a Flipper shirt but I lost it in Daly City.
Kevin: You got to get that back.
Jesse: Tell me about this tape you’re releasing ‘Bedroom Singles’
Kevin: I had a couple demos that I was working on that started to sound something viable for a release, especially at a time like this. I’m in this group chat with Billy from Slang Church, and I decided to fire these demos in, just to hear what he thinks. And then everyone on the team was kind of like ‘yo these are really cool, do you want to do something with them?’ There’s really no reason not to put something out right now, so we decided to do a little singles type thing.
Jesse: How many tracks are going to be on it?
Kevin: There’s going to be two, but I might try and sneak something else on there, just as a surprise for anybody that decides to make the purchase and get that tape.
