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The Quick and the Dead

In my non musical life (the one that pays the bills I work globally teaching about behavioural patterns and strategic thinking. I’m a problem solver and my problem solving head is constantly amazed at how many artists spectacularly fail to spot really good opportunities.

Sometimes such individuals are natural procrastinators and simply can’t make a decision. I have lost track of the number of people who are going to write a book or record an album. They are always “going to” but mostly never manage to achieve their desired goal. Often they fail either to prioritise and/or connect to those people who will most assist in their pursuit.

There’s a story about two people walking along a road and spotting a hundred dollar bill.

One person says “I saw it first”

The other says “I picked it up first!”

I have many brilliant examples of these two different mindsets in action. In the last week I offered three artists the chance to be part of a new musical project. One simply didn’t reply even though they had read the communication, the other acknowledged the post, but never followed up and the last one followed up immediately and will now be part of the project which will also lead to some paid work.

In my business days my old boss used to talk about “The quick and the dead” In other words some people look for and seize opportunities as and when they come up and others remain dead to such opportunities. Of course each person needs to decide what works best for them, BUT some people don’t even get to an enquiry level to see what might be possible.

My own experience in life is that its smart to only align with the most talented people of like minds. I’m increasingly working this way and in the week ahead I have three very productive meetings planned with some very smart brains where there will be all manner of good opportunities through collaboration.

Electric Dreams for 2020

After completing the Caravan of Dreams album “Tales of Dark and Light” I’m now writing for a new ensemble in 2020. This will be an all electric affair and quite different to anything I have done before.

Key ingredients in this sound will be my Ransom Telecaster, possibly the heaviest instrument ever in terms of weight, but with its Tom Holmes pickups, its like nothing else. I have also been experimenting with multi amp combinations using a Lehe splitter and the Two Rock and the Anderson sound terrific together with a Dude pedal. Two Rock is that classic John Mayer sound and the Anderson is like a super clean AC30, so the combination is really sonically interesting.

The new Brown Box for European voltage makes a massive difference to maintaining the right voltage to get the best tube amp sound. I’m increasingly aware that voltage levels make a big difference to the sound and the tube usage. This unit sorts out any issues.

I’m meeting to discuss the new lineup, but Fergus Quill will be part of this new sound. Fergus is an outstanding player and great musical brain that will be invaluable. Rich Ferdi who has been in every band incarnation will be on board. Rich is an extraordinary player and rock solid for live work. This time he’ll be breaking out the big drums.

We’ll be recording throughout 2020 and this will be very different, not a ukulele in sight!

Nick Cody

Working on the BIG Project

Music for the Head and Heart

The Story so far…

Almost 3 years ago I set up a platform called “Original Ukulele Songs” with the intention of creating a portal for all the original ukulele artists around the globe. This project included a central site and the idea was to sponsor a number of live events. However although the site and social media received good attention, I realised that the “ukulele world” was too niche for what I had in mind. There is also a massive amount of politics and status seeking in such niche interests which at times make for a very odd dynamic!

The concept behind this beta tester platform was a good one, but I realised that I needed to think BIGGER and attract a much more diverse and skilled set of musicians. Hence “Music for The Head and Heart” began to formulated.

Giving a voice to all the mavericks

In the early days of working on this platform I had a meeting with Dean Anthony Murray from the wonderful band Biscuithead and the Biscuit Badgers, to talk to him about being a guest on the platform. To my amazement we ended up chatting for three hours straight and I soon realised that he would be a perfect sounding board for the platform. Dean has a very good insight into the music business and how many excellent musicians find it very hard to get their voice out to a wider audience. The “gatekeepers” to many established existing platforms are mostly looking for a very cookie cutter type act. Talent shows on TV have not greatly helped in this respect and many record companies are unable and/or unwilling to invest in artists as in days gone by.

Music for the Head and Heart is a platform for all those artists who want to connect to a wider audience. My own experience is that these days there are huge popular bands with loyal audiences playing major venues and many really great relatively unknown bands that find it hard to reach an appreciative audience. Many of these artists are maverick types in the best musical tradition. I can’t help but wonder how original artists like Tom Waits and Neil Young would do in this current musical era.

Watch this Space…

In the next few weeks I’ll be revealing some elements of the platform including the live concert on October 26th. Special thanks to Dean Anthony Murray, Nicky Bray, Ceri Woods and Nick Bloomfield who have been invaluable in making this platform possible. Even greater thanks to all the artists who have already agreed to take part. Music for the Head and Heart is not my platform but rather a platform that gives all kinds of music lovers their own voice uncensored and as they intend. Artists can only appear on the platform by invitation and each artist who contributes to the platform can then in turn invite artists of their choice, so this platform grows organically.

Best Regards

Nick Cody

Managing Time and Money in Music Creation

One of the major challenges for many musicians is to balance time and money in music to maintain predictable income. I have often blogged about the hyped expectations created in music colleges and with online talent shows. Yes, these can inspire aspiring artists to follow a path in music, but often the expectations are at least ambitious and often totally delusional.

Of course professional musicians know this only too well and the need to maintain this tricky balance and its not an easy task. The same challenge exists for authors. Many expect to be the next JK Rowling, failing to realise that that’s pretty unlikely. I’m lucky to be able to fund all music projects from other unrelated work and this gives me total independence in what I do. My other work across USA, Asia and Europe has taken 12 years to develop and an enormous amount of focussed work and networking. I would hate the idea of having to shift X amount of products or merch in order to pay the monthly mortgage or buy food for the cats. This is exactly why many aspiring and professional musicians maintain different income streams to balance the books.

Predictable Income

I remember reading back in the 1970s that Tom Verlaine when releasing his classic Television Marquee Moon album, still worked part time in the local bookstore. Many working musicians also teach privately knowing the importance of diverse income streams in this uncertain economic times and god only knows what will happen in the UK post brexit. That said, there are still opportunities to generate income and smart thinking artists appreciate that monies are no longer going to come from physical products as in days gone by.

I was talking to Tim Booth, lead singer for the band James at one of our regular 1990s Leeds United football match meet ups, about how they made way more money from merch than from music. Twenty five years later we discussed the changing world of the music business. This gave me a whole new insight into “the music business” and why I would never want a record contract and/or to work for a record company. It all looks so glamorous from the outside, but those working as professionals know just how much work is required to earn even a reasonable living.

Self Funding?

I’m a big fan of self funding and literally putting my money where my mouth is. At times it reminds me of an old Blackadder joke –

“I feel like a penguin, everywhere I look there’s a bill in front of me!”

I’ve never used Kickstarter or similar fan funding platforms, and artists have had variable experiences. A local music college gives the following advice

Set an achievable goal, but factor in the additional costs of any rewards given (physical costs involved, shipping, transaction fees) – work out your net income and what this allows you to achieve.
Time and time again musicians forget to factor
this in and eventually lose money on any crowdfunding campaign.

  1. Leverage your network – ask your friends and family before asking more widely, it’s easier to gain support from your fan base towards your final target total rather than at the very beginning. People want to help you get over the line, not to it.
  2. Keep your campaign page updated regularly – fresh content keeps it interesting and demonstrates that you care about those who back you.
  3. Offer rewards to both existing fans and potential new supporters – crowdfunding is the ideal opportunity to increase your fan base and help create a deeper relationship with existing ones.
  4. Keep engaging with supporters after the project is funded – it’s a relationship, not a transaction. You’ll reap the benefits if you value your fans long term.

All common sense advice, BUT there are so many artists seeking funding in this way its like watching daytime TV where the audience is bombarded with adverts for charitable causes. The challenge is to balance maintaining your own creative voice and also be able to pay the bills. A lot of new musicians have great enthusiasm but lack essential business skills and imagine a manager or promoter is going to do all the work for them I talked to one manager who was closely aligned to a music label for many years as well as being an artist in his own right. He told me he’d been approached by a new female artist for management and pointed out that for his 10% to be viable, she’d need to generate many times that amount and that was (I’m being polite) somewhat unrealistic.

My own policy 2 Strikes, then move on…

I have a policy of carefully noting how people respond to any opportunities I offer. I’ll usually offer something a couple of times and if a person doesn’t respond then I’ll not offer a third time. Its nothing personal, but if they don’t see the value I don’t really want t invest in time convincing them.

Sometimes I am astonished at how people miss great chances presented to them n a plate. I’ve had artists fail spectacularly to deal with their own online presence and even fail to secure a domain name for their own artist name. They totally miss “the elusive obvious” and not amount of enthusiasm or aspiration makes up for good strategic thinking.

I am currently developing two big platforms for promoting music. To my amazement a few of the artists I have invited ave been incredibly slow in responding (its free publicity) or in one case rearranged meets 3 time! My biggest pet hate is doing a bucket of work and then asking for feedback or a date to meet to discuss and hearing NOTHING! I appreciate that many folks consider themselves “busy” but I suspect their idea of busy may well be different to mine, but then I did work in a marketing sector for 14 years where you lived or died by meeting strict deadlines and we often worked 7 – 6pm with virtually no breaks!

Ok, without sounding like some ranting old fella, these days its mostly a 2 strikes policy and then move on as I only have a certain amount of time available. If someone is busy and they send a note “Let me get back to you” that’s fine because at least we have some communication in play.

Conclusion

There’s no magic wand to balance time and money investments in music. I’m regularly evaluating “risk v reward” in terms of my own projects. Sometimes as my old mentor would say “That dog ain’t never gonna hunt” about a particular project. What I have learned to date is to gather together the best creative team and work with like minds. The same goes for working with musicians. Finding talented and reliable people is often tough and its useful to cut loose anyone who is not a good fit either musically or business wise.

Managing time is essential and this means working long hours, but also working smart and not spending time on activities that don’t return a creative or financial return. Its not just about money, but any artist that takes their eye of the ball financially is at some point going to have a major problem. The smartest individuals have diverse income streams and are constantly reviewing how they best spend their time. Its easy to be extremely busy, but unproductive. I love writing and recording music and do it mostly for the love of the experience. Its been a fascinating journey to date and has allowed me to meet many amazing people from all over the globe.

Building a Body of Musical Work

I was in discussions with a music professional recently about up and coming artists and building a body of musical work. He remarked that sometimes aspiring artists produce a very small amount of material and even though they may love the end results, they fail to appreciate that music companies seek out a body of work. “A body of work” means more than an EP of tracks of course!

He quoted a very well known indie band from 1990s and the fact that they only started to get notice after three albums. Similarly I have followed artists who also only began to become recognised after writing and recording a significant number of songs. In an era where there are individual songs as opposed to albums, often building a body of musical work gets ignored.

The Use of Social Media & Internet

Whether we like it or not, social media is here to stay and any serious artist needs to pay attention to having a presence online. Its no good having an ignored FB page and not bothering with a website. If you want to reach a wider audience, the minimum you need is a functioning website, a Twitter account, a FB page, a YouTube channel and an Instagram account. This is the minimum in ensuring that your body of musical work is available to a wider audience. Its also a good idea to blog so people get a sense of who you are. This means some time commitment and those who say “I don’t have time for all that” are respectfully missing the point.

Favourite Artists that have inspired me

Many of my favorite artists have had a work ethics that has driven them to create a hugely diverse body of music work that both inspires and frustrates. Such artists include Tom Waits, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Nick Cave. All these artists have at times delighted, and mystified me, but also make me groan at what I am listening to. I’ve never really embraced Tom Waits “Black Rider” or Neil Young’s “Trans Am” but I can forgive them after regularly listening to “Small Change” and “On the Beech”

Building a musical body of work means taking a risk and having a strong work ethic. Knocking out a few tracks is not just going to cut it. I don’t by any means consider myself as a music professional, but I am pleased to have written and recorded 40 original songs to date across 2 bands and have at least another half dozen songs ready to record in the near future. Its a fascinating process and a massive education, at times hugely inspiring and sometimes massively frustrating. I wouldn’t have it any other way!

When you’re writing, you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room”. Tom Waits

Myth v Reality in Music Business?

I was talking to a producer recently who was lamenting about how music students were taught at music college. His main complaint was that students were given an unrealistic set of expectations when they left studies and were in “the real world” This was around what they were talk technically in terms of recording as well as giving students unrealistic expectations of a career in music!

My own experiences on talking to a wide range of artists about the music business is that many aspiring musicians dream of getting managed, signed to launch a career, nit really appreciating that its not as simple as that. Often record company executives want to package artists to ensure they get a return on their investment. As I have often said “the music business” is like any other business and there are no short cuts to making a reasonable living.

I know one major international artist whose band signed to Sire because they had some of his favorite artists on their roster. Later he realised that the record executives tended to “collect bands” and his band found themselves stuck in a contract where they had very little creative freedom. When the contract expired, the band self financed a live album and this allowed them to explore new options. They are now doing superbly well, but its taken decades to get to this point. Many artists that get “signed” end up with massive debts as well as a serious reality check when trying to earn a living exclusively from music. Personally I can’t imagine anything worse than working for a record company, but that’s just a personal view.

Platforms like Drooble are full of naive aspiring musicians all believing they are “gonna make it” without realizing that in the real world, there’s a need for a great deal of work and knowing “the right people”

Time to plan and Strategize?

My own experience if music promotions is that to generate interest you need to invest a substantial amount of time to make this happen. That said, allocating time alone is not enough, you need a smart plan. This means seeking out good information and talking to other musicians who have invaluable experience in this aspect. Many people imagine that enthusiasm alone is enough, but like any promotion you need investment of time and money as well as a smart creative team.

In this internet era there are all manner of crazy online promises made to aspiring artists and most are quite frankly a total scam. Fortunately there are also some good resources like 60 second marketing which give simple clear advice.

Conclusion

As they say in show business, “It takes ten years to become an overnight success. The reality is that each person’s idea of success will vary massively. Personally my own interest is in building a catalog of great songs and working with like minds. Bands come and go, and as my producer often says “Its all about the songs” There’s no shortcut despite all the copy online about pluggers and publicists. That said, I love music and value every moment I am involved in writing, recording and playing live.

Another Album Review of “Tales of Dark & Light” – Uke Planet

Nick Cody has been back in the studio this time with a new ensemble, The Caravan Of Dreams. With fiddle, upright bass, percussion, ukulele and male and female vocals, the band have burst out of the traps with an album of acoustic folk and blues and bagged a few guest stars to boot.
With a drone and some sweet sweet vocal harmony, an intro track kicks things off before leading into some all out Grey Skies blues. One can already sense the male and female vocals are crisply gelling together and the band are well matched with a tight professional empathy.


Unexpectedly we then head for the sandy shores of Hawaii with the vintage styled The Pink Moon, a lovely jazz bass and brushed snare wonderfully setting the sandy mood before a contemporary piano tune takes us down another avenue of exploration. And it is this traversing nature that defines this album I think. The dual vocal and general lilt of the song writing cements the performances together through quite a divergent range of styles yet still with a fluid folk music aura. A stand out performance comes from fiddle player Laurent Zeller who’s fluid fingers are an asset every time and perhaps fine tune the water and sand ratio in that musical cement even further.


Whilst this may not abundantly sound like a typical ukulele album (and why should it have to!) all the songs did spring from a ukulele seed and the instrument is of course ever present. And that’s what we like to applaud at Uke Planet towers, our favourite little guy merging seamlessly into a professional line-up of sound. “Tales Of Dark & Light” is fresh, exploratory and fully loaded with exceptional musicianship and shrewd songwriting.

Seeking permission BEFORE posting footage of artists online?

This week I took some time out to request that YouTube remove some sub standard footage of one of my previous bands. The clips were filmed without permission and then loaded onto YouTube also without permission. Two of these clips were from a well know UK ukulele festival where we can very poor sound on stage which was one of the factors that meant I didn’t want that footage out there.

There seems to be an assumption that anyone can post footage online of artists without any discussion and in my view this is not great for either the artists or the listening/watching public. In the same way comedians have become more reluctant to do small unannounced shows testing out material for major performances as there’s often someone recording on a phone and blasting some of their not yet fully formed material all over YouTube.

I appreciate the enthusiasm that some some people may have in posting, but I think its only respectful to seek permissions before posting to the wider public. For me it would be like someone finding some half written lyrics and then posting them on social media. One of the people who I issued a copyright claim against was quite tetchy about having “a black mark against their name” My response is ask politely if its OK to film and definitely if its OK to broadcast on your own video channel BEFOREHAND and then there will be no problems…

Nick Cody Musician

South Leeds Radio interview

Nick Kirby: Welcome, everybody. This is South Leeds Radio and this is South Leeds Goes Live show, and today we’ve got a real treat for you because sitting in the studio with me today is Nick Cody, of Nick Cody and The Caravan of Dreams. We’re going to be having an interview with Nick and also a little bit of music from Nick as well.


Nick Cody: Well, thanks very much for the invite. It’s very nice to be here.


Nick Kirby: Yeah. Because, I saw you quite recently playing at the Grove and I was so impressed.


Nick Cody: Well, thank you so much. The Grove is this almost like time-warp of a venue that’s been there forever. I mean, people have been playing there, it’s like stepping back into the 1970s. So like many of the venues we play in, it’s a tiny little stage and we’re all huddled together, because today you just get me. The Caravan of Dreams, they are all working doing their musical stuff elsewhere.
But that was a fun night, and it was the first time we played since doing the album launch. And any band that plays will tell you that you do the album launch and you have this big sort of, “Oh thank God, that went well,” then you have to really pay attention for the next gig because there’s a high probability you relax too much and it’s a complete train wreck.
But, touch wood, it was a good night, highlighted by my co-singer and brilliant friend, Agi, who at one point leapt into the audience into some wild dance routine, which even I was surprised for. I’ve never seen her do that.


Nick Kirby: Wow. Yeah. And of course, you haven’t always been in Leeds, have you? I believe, didn’t I read somewhere that you were playing down in Guildford at one stage?
Nick Cody: Nope.
Nick Kirby: No?
Nick Cody: Not unless I have seriously lost any recollection. This is a new band. I previously played with a band which I started up called The Small Change Diaries.
Nick Kirby: Right.
Nick Cody: We played mostly in Leeds, except for one surreal invitation we had to play at a festival in Portugal, which I thought initially was some spam email. I thought that this was going to be, “Send me all your money and your bank account details.” So I was a little sort of, not rude, but sort of fairly curt until I realised that it was a genuine invite. So we played overseas at that festival. Over here, we’ve played some local festivals. We played Wetherby Arts Festival with the first band.
But The Caravan of Dreams, this is a brand new band with a brand new album, Tales of Dark and Light, just come out. This is actually the first radio interview, so you have an exclusive. If we become mega famous, you can say, “I knew those guys.”


Nick Kirby: Well, I think you deserve to be mega famous. I’ve been listening to the album, I’ve listened to it several times now and it’s just absolutely superb. The songs are a little dark, on the dark side in places?
Nick Cody: Yeah. There’s, the idea behind the album was, I was playing with my old band and I wanted to do some tracks which didn’t really fit in the old style. And I was having sort of like music lessons with Agi who’s my co-singer in this band. And we were originally going to do, I think we were going to do like three tracks, maybe an EP at best. And we got Agi in the Studio and I heard her sing, and I thought, “Oh my God, it’s like listening to Emmy Lou Harris and Joni Mitchell, all rolled up into one.”
And that inspired me to start writing more tracks. And some of the tracks were very sort of happy, jovial tracks like, The Pink Moon is one of them. And some of them were more than a little bit dark. So I thought, we’ll call it Tales of Dark and Light with a big emphasis on lyrics, because I’m a big fan of great lyricists like Dylan, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, would all fit into that category.
And so, the album’s split between very introspective stuff, a bit like Dylan circa Blood on the Tracks, my favourite album of all time. And then, other stuff which is a lot lighter. So you have light and shade, literally, Tales of Dark and Light.


Nick Kirby: Yeah, and actually, because you’ve mentioned the lyrics. Does your song writing begin with the lyrics, and then move to melody, or?
Nick Cody: It can vary. Sometimes you can, I was doing a gig at The Grove, and I was talking to my double bassist Adrian Knowles, a fantastic player, in the other band. And I had this line that came to mind, where I went, “He’s shooting blanks, she’s shooting cops.” God, bit of a tongue twister. And I thought, I said, “Adrian, give me a pen, I’ve got to write this down. I have no idea what I’m going to do with this, but that sounds like a really great juxtaposition, lyrically.”
So that was the first track that we recorded for this. And I thought, “That is a bit dark,” and the first line in that track is, “I’m your attack dog, she said with a smile.” And I thought, “Whoa.” So, I like things which are going to get people’s attention, get people to think and provoke people getting into a different state, rather than lift music in the background or music for shopping in Tesco’s.


Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: So, yeah. There’s some fairly dark stuff, and there’s more tracks to be recorded. Which you will have heard, actually. One of the tracks we’re going to record is called Sticks and Stones which is similarly, I think, a line that starts with, “You bring the guns, I’ll bring the knives,” is definitely in the dark category.
Nick Kirby: Yeah, so you-
Nick Cody: But it’s all about human experience, human expression and getting people, in the great story telling tradition, taking people on a journey somewhere.
Nick Kirby: … Yeah, well, you mentioned, He’s Shooting Blanks, and there was a couple of lines in there that I really liked, which was, “She’s got no answers, he’s got no love. In between the gravel road, and the stars above.” And I thought, “That is just so good.”
And that’s something that makes me buy into songs, that sometimes there’s just like, those lines that grab hold of you, and you think, “I want to hear more.”
Nick Cody: Well, it’s all about creating a sensory experience for the audience. So, if you talk about, if you say you know, “the road,” is a description people can make up their own minds. If you say, “the gravel road,” it’s much more sensory explicit. If you say, “the stars above,” then you’ve created more of a visual image for people.
So my idea is taking people on a journey so that you’re, they’ll have their own road, their own gravel, their own stars interpretation. But you’re really sensorarily exploring things. And this is why, in writing lyrics, it’s important to do many drafts. Because sometimes the first draft, you go, “Yeah, it’s all right. But it’s not got it, yet.”


Nick Kirby: Right.
Nick Cody: And sometimes the smallest change can make the biggest difference.
Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: That’s the difference between your Leonard Cohens, your Bob Dylans, and your average guy, who’s, “It’s all right.” But it’s like Dominoes Pizza, it’s not Michelin star.


Nick Kirby: No, no. You know, I think Leonard Cohen said on his last album, he had a track on there that had been 40 years in the writing because he, I would imagine that he’d got probably 30 great songs in there, that he’s discarded. But, yeah, so, I understand what you’re saying. You just keep going until you feel that you’ve got it absolutely right?


Nick Cody: Well, songwriting is strange. Sometimes you can get, for example The Pink Moon, which was a song written about my good friend Zeke Schein. Zeke Schein wrote a fantastic book called Portrait of a Phantom, which is about one of the long lost Robert Johnson photos. There were only, I think, two photos ever known of Robert Johnson, famous bluesman, in existence. And Zeke found a third one.
Immediately, this massive debate from the Blues Mafia is, “Well, how can it be legitimate, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,” but the Robert Johnson Foundation verified it, as did many other very esteemed scholars. And I was talking to Zeke, and he was telling me the story about this. And we were having lunch one day in Manhattan, and it just inspired a whole bunch of lyrics. Literally, I just sat down and I was just writing, writing, writing, writing.
And so, the whole song came together really quickly. So sometimes it’s the lyrics, and then you come back and you get the sounds. Or sometimes you may just get a riff, or a sound and think, “Man, that’s great.” And the secret then is, record the thing.


Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: Immediately. On a phone, or whatever device you can get hold of, because as soon as you don’t record it, you know it will disappear into the ether. And you’ll forever be thinking, “That was the one.”
Nick Kirby: I must admit, I keep an iPad by my bedside, and it probably drives my wife crazy, because like three o’clock in the morning she’s like, “What are you doing now? Oh, you just thought of something, haven’t you?” And it’s like, “Yeah.”
Nick Cody: Any songwriter, I always say, always have a pen and paper to hand or an audio device because inspiration does not come on the clock. I’ve often had things where, wake up early in the morning, you get an idea for something. And sometimes you think, “I must have heard that somewhere, because that sounds too good, just to be an original idea.” So you have to check back, and check to see it’s not something that you’ve just recollected.
But inspiration comes from people, travelling, interactions sometimes you may just overhear somebody say something. With the old band, I wrote a song called Draw You Out, for a protest songs EP, about the Charlie Hebdo thing.


Nick Kirby: Ah, that’s, yeah.
Nick Cody: I was just so outraged that I literally just sat down and every verse started off with, “We’ll draw you out,” you know, “We’ll draw you in our cities, we’ll draw you on our signs,” and the whole theme was around, “We’re not going to have this.” And that was written, literally, in about 30 minutes. And it’s, to my delight, a one chord song.


Nick Kirby: Oh, right. And you’ve got a song on there about Big Tony, is Big Tony a real person?
Nick Cody: Big Tony, well, I thought, there were a few Big Tonys, and I thought, for the purposes of legal matters, I will blur the Tonys all into one character. So, we have Tony Soprano, and then some real life characters which I thought, “So I don’t get sued, we will sort of make it suitably vague enough,” that with that band, people can sort of make of it what they will.
But The Caravan of Dreams stuff, that’s my current love, and of course we’re playing back in, locally. In August, we’re going to be playing.


Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: And we are playing the 22nd at The Grove Inn and on the 23rd, we’re playing The Chemic Tavern. And then we’re back in November the 22nd at The Chemic Tavern. And the August gigs are going to be recorded, we’re going to video record those. So any listeners here who want to be in a famous video, then come down to the 22nd at The Grove or the 23rd at The Chemic. And who knows, if we become world famous, you’ll be able to say, “I was there.”
Nick Kirby: You might even spot yourself in the video, who knows?
Nick Cody: You never know. You never, everything starts, everything starts somewhere.
Nick Kirby: It absolutely does. Yeah. So, going back to the album, with The Tales of Dark and Light. Do you have a favourite song on there, or is it difficult?
Nick Cody: Ooh, it’s a tough one, I mean, there’s a big variety of songs. There’s The Pink Moon, that we’ve talked about. Which is a lovely, sort of like swing song, with the fantastic Rich Ferdi playing percussion. Phil Doleman, fantastic player down in Darby, playing lap steel. Agi, with great vocals. That sort of swings along.
Then we have Grey Skies, which is a bit like the ghostly channelling of Jim Morrison Doors, circa One, or Strange Days album. Which I really like, which also has Phil Doleman playing banjo on it, brilliantly. And the terrific John Burr, who will be joining us at The Grove gig on the 23rd. Playing harmonica. And if you’ve ever seen, if you’ve never seen a great harmonica player, you should see John play. It’s just fantastic.
So I think, I like those two a lot, I really like He’s Shooting Blanks, because that was the first one that we did. But I also like Say What You’re Thinking, because that was just a simple, very simple, two instruments and vocals. And we have my very dear friend Laurent Zeller, from France who I met at this Portugal festival, years ago. Who is also an extraordinary musician, playing on a number of these different tracks.


Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: And then in England, we have now Jed Bevington, who just got back from playing at South By Southwest. And his friend, Fergus Quill, who’s playing more gigs than James Brown ever plays. Fergus plays double bass, and Jed plays violin. And then, the wonderfully named David Bowie, Junior-
Nick Kirby: That’s, God.
Nick Cody: … who plays double bass, on most of the album tracks. So I can legitimately say, I have played with David Bowie. I will say no more than that. I will not go into details.
Nick Kirby: Right. And what a great name to be playing with. Off that whole album, I also liked the song, I think I’ve mentioned it before, When The Pain Begins.
Nick Cody: Yes, When The Pain Begins. The learning starts.
Nick Kirby: The learning starts. And that grabbed hold of me, when I saw you playing live. And I just thought-
Nick Cody: Well, an old friend, an old-
Nick Kirby: … “That’s a great song.”


Nick Cody: … Well, an old mentor of mine, in my other world, a fantastic therapist who lived in America for, was based in America and taught all around the world, had this saying which was, “Nick, when the pain begins, the learning starts.” Which is essentially, if things get tough enough, then people change. Then people react. So, I thought, “You know what, that’s a, you know what, that’s a great, great chorus.”
And also, the thing I love about it, is it’s a three chord song. So it’s just literally three chords. And often, less is more with these things.
Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: You have something that’s really simple, and that works great.
Nick Kirby: Yeah. I was playing Long Black Veil, last night. And it’s basically D, G and C. That is three, that’s-
Nick Cody: That’s, I find, that’s all you need.
Nick Kirby: … and it’s such an effective tone, too.
Nick Cody: I was in a guitar store in, now, no longer there. Although Zeke used to work there, my friend Zeke Schein, called Matt Umanov in Bleecker Street in Manhattan. And I always used to joke, “Everything you ever need is in Bleecker Street. You have an ice cream parlour, you have this fantastic cheese shop that’s there, and you also have Matt Umanov Guitars.”
And I was in there, and I met Steve Earle, who would regularly go in there.


Nick Kirby: Oh, yeah.
Nick Cody: And got into conversation with him, and he was saying, “Basically, my songs are only about like, four or five chords. If I need to change the key, I just stick a capo on and just move it up, move it up two or three frets.” And that’s another big inspiration, Steve Earle.
Nick Kirby: Yeah, I like Steve Earle. I really do. And you mentioned instruments. I believe that you’re quite taken with the different, and particularly with the ukulele.
Nick Cody: Well, I first, when I first met Zeke in Matt Umanov, I looked on the wall and I saw this ukulele by this, Collings. A company I know very well called Collings. Collings Guitars. Made great acoustics.
And then started to make electric guitars, and everybody said, to Bill Collings, who was the owner, “No. Don’t make electric guitars, because everybody that does that ruins their reputation, because they’re good for one thing and not for another.” Anyway, Bill of course made brilliant electric guitars, which now, everybody knows.
But in never knew he they made ukuleles. So I look on the wall, and I’m thinking, “That’s a Collings ukulele,” and I said to Zeke, “Can I have a look at it?” And he went, “Yeah, yeah.” And I said, “I don’t know anything about ukuleles, so what?”
He said, “Oh, Nick, ukes are cool. You should get a uke.” And I picked it up and I thought, “Yeah, I kind of like it. It’s not massively expensive,” it was pre-production, from the NAMM show. So I bought it, and I had it for about a year. And then started to play around with it and thought, “You know what, firstly, it’s small. So it’s not like carting a guitar around, it’s very portable. I quite like this.”
And that sparked the writing of pretty much every single track, all of which now we have recorded with the Caravan tracks, 40 original tracks. All inspired from playing the ukulele.
Nick Kirby: And do you think those songs wouldn’t have been written the same, had you just stuck to a guitar?
Nick Cody: No, I don’t think it would have at all. There’s something about less is more. There’s an old story about Paul McCartney when he was with The Beatles, and they were recording on four tracks. And he heard that EMI had, allegedly, an eight track. And he was going, “Oh, would we be able to,” and they go, “No, that’s for serious musicians, like classical players. Not for the likes of you.”
Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: So a lot of, sometimes, less is more. The less choices you have, the more you have to make of what you have, with what you have. And with ukuleles, and my favourites, Collings are very, very good. There’s a builder in North Wales called Pete Howlett that’s very good, as well. And a builder in Vienna called Gregor Nowak, who has built a few instruments. But my all time favourite is a Shimo from Tokyo. I brought one of his instruments-


Nick Kirby: That’s good.
Nick Cody: … which, I was completely seduced by, when I first saw it.
Nick Kirby: Well, I heard you play a few seconds before we came on the air, and I thought, “I didn’t know it could sound so good.” It is just absolutely amazing. Would you like to-
Nick Cody: Well, I’ll pull it up.
Nick Kirby: … play something, please.
Nick Cody: The first time I saw this uke I was playing in, I was in a place called Heartman Guitars in Tokyo. And I was, and this is like just the, they’ve got everything. They’ve got the top end acoustic guitars, but a huge amount of ukes, and I played a whole bunch of different ukes. And I looked up and I saw this, and I thought, “What the hell is that? That looks very different. So, can I just have a play of that?” And the owner said, “Yes sir.”
And I picked it up, played about three chords, and I thought, “Oh, God.” And my wife went, “What? You don’t like it?” I go, “No, I love it. I must have it.” It’s a bit like, sort of, Lord of the Rings. “It will be mine.”
And then proceeded to hand over my entire fee for Japan and the work that I was doing. And then the balance on Visa card. I now own seven Shimos
So not exactly your sort of standard, “I bought it on Amazon,” 30 quid ukulele.

Nick Cody: And I told my good friend Andy who’s my guitar tech in the UK, what it was made of and he said, “Nick, that’s a Visa melting combination of woods.” I said, “Yeah, you’re right.”
Nick Kirby: … Yeah. Well, ukes very often sound very underpowered and quiet, and I thought maybe I wouldn’t be able to think about playing a uke, with the songs. Because it’s like, I’m not going to go anywhere with it. But that just is a completely different category.
Nick Cody: Well, it’s all about, it’s like every instrument. I say to people, “Okay look, do you want a ukulele shaped object, or do you want a ukulele?” They’re all different. This one has got a low G, so that you’ve got this-

… so you can get that whole slap.

That you wouldn’t get with a high G sound.
Nick Kirby: Yeah.
Nick Cody: But also, it’s got a lot of range,

… so big, big variety. And then, you can really dig into it. This has been used on probably 30 tracks, most of the tracks on Tales of Dark and Light, we used this actual instrument. So, it’s cheap. It didn’t, if I figure out how much I’ve used it, to what I’ve recorded, it’s an inexpensive instrument.
Nick Kirby: Yeah. Well, I sometimes say about guitars and stuff that if I got a club membership of any football team, and if you were to pay that membership every single year, you would soon get through a few thousand pounds. So, the hours of pleasure that I get from a guitar, I think, “Well actually, working it back that way, isn’t expensive.”


Nick Cody: Yeah. A good friend of mine and I, years and years ago, my wife, my dear wife Sue bought me a place on a Martin Simpson guitar workshop, in Sheffield. Which he runs, it’s only once a year.
And I just heard Martin play, and I thought, first time I heard him play I said, “Martin, I feel equally impressed and inspired and depressed, in equal proportions. Inspired, because I could just see how amazing you are. Depressed, because I’m so far off that.” And he said, “Well, the thing you have to remember, Nick, is I’ve been playing for decades. So if you play every day, you get better.”
And then afterwards, I said, “I’m looking for someone who could really teach me one to one. Do you know anyone?” And he went, “Well, I can do that.” And I went, “Oh! Oh, my God.” So I’m on my way to have a Google lesson with Martin Simpson, and I’m equally inspired and concerned. And over the years, he’s been a big inspiration, he’s become a good friend. Just about to release, he’s about to release a new album that is amazing.
And he taught me to really develop the love of music, and a big variety of different instruments. They make you think differently, they play differently. And also, it’s a great excuse to buy more and more stuff, of course.


Nick Kirby: Yeah. Yeah. And, maybe they’re an investment, as well.
Nick Cody: But, yeah.
Nick Kirby: Because I know that you have written on this subject, as well.
Nick Cody: They seriously are. I mean, if you take your average money and you stick it in a bank account these days, with the inflation and what you get in terms of interest rates, mostly, you’re in a holding pattern or going to lose money. If you buy the right instruments at the right price, and they have to be the right ones, then they will accumulate and appreciate in value.
Nick Kirby: Yeah. And, you mentioned practicing , how long do you spend practicing away?
Nick Cody: When, when my good friend and tutor Agi has, we do an hour’s vocal workout every single week. And then every day I set aside time in my home studio to practise things. I’m also learning the mandolin, which let me tell you, is the most torturous instrument ever. Because the neck’s so thin-
Nick Kirby: Yes, it is.
Nick Cody: … so for the first four or five months, I kept thinking, “Why don’t they make these necks wider?” And Evan Davis, who’s a great player as well, and he’ll be supporting us at The Grove gig, said, “Nick, that’s how they make them.”
So eventually, your fingers get used to it, and you start to get some semblance of something that is bordering on musical.
Nick Kirby: Because I like to make excuses for myself. So when it’s guitar, I go like, “Well, I can’t really reach that, because I’ve got small hands.” When I get the mandolin, I go, “Well of course, my fingers are a bit chunky.” So I can’t have it both ways, I guess. Would you like to play something for us?
Nick Cody: Sure, I’ll play you something on, I’m going to play you something sort of like, really sweet, simple song. This is an old one, and this is an example of a song which was three chords, just a sweet three cord song. And this is called, There’s Only One Of You.

Nick Kirby: Oh, brilliant. And that really does quite resonate with me, because I’ve written a few songs on that same subject, but I’ve not hit the nail quite as much on the head as you have. So that’s also a good inspiration to me, to say, “Well actually, how could I do that differently?” But, obviously that’s a-
Nick Cody: Well that’s an old song, that’s on an album called Adam Blames Eve, which is also, I love that old Small Change Diaries song, which goes, “Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the snake. God only knows what folks make, of heavenly disasters here on earth.”
We play that once at literature festival, to a very small group of people, elderly people. And as soon as I announced, “We are now going to play a song of biblical proportions,” half the audience left.
Nick Kirby: A bit like Bob Dylan’s Saved album, was it?
Nick Cody: I was half expecting people to start shouting, “Judas!” Well, you learn from your experiences. But that was written, that was a sweet little three chord song, written pretty much in an hour. And it’s one of those ones that just appeared and then bang, that’s it, done.


Nick Kirby: Yeah, and it’s something that is, it’s so universal, which I think is one of the things about writing songs, isn’t it? It being, having universal appeal. That’s-


So really, sometimes, less is more. With The Pink Moon, it’s again, simple structure

… So we’re talking simple chords, but there’s always like a really nice melody in there, which I like.
Nick Kirby: Yeah. Yeah. One of my heroes was the late Tony Joe White, I don’t know if you know of Tony Joe White.
Nick Cody: Yes.
Nick Kirby: And I saw Tony Joe White rehearsing. And I can’t remember who he was with, but he kept saying, “How can we make it simpler? What can we take away?” And that was a big message that Tony Joe White had, and I just love Tony Joe White. But yeah, it does seem to be like, less is more.


Nick Cody: The great artists, Blood on the Tracks, by Dylan, no songs were really more than three or four chords. A lot of Steve Earle are really simple. I recently heard a track by Guy Clark which I want to record called, “That Old Time Feeling,” that is also really small. When The Pain Begins is literally just- C, G, F, G. That’s all it is.
Nick Kirby: But it’s, it sounds so great, as well. It’s obviously the strings that you’re picking out there, to bring out that melody. Would you like to play, When The Pain Begins?
Nick Cody: Well, I’ll play, I’ll play a little bit, I’ll play a little bit, I’ll play a little bit of it.
Nick Kirby: Play a little bit. Yeah.
Nick Cody: Unless this is-
Nick Kirby: Because I love that song.
Nick Cody: … do we, are we, are we, I might want to do the X rated version, or should I do the normal?
Nick Kirby: Whichever you like. We’re after the nine o’clock news.
Nick Cody: All right, we’re after nine, because when I wrote it, I thought. Okay, I’ll just play, I’ll just play the chorus. But I thought, “It, you know what, we don’t want to be swearing like some crazy rapper, from like, New York. But it needs a little bit of an edge to it.” So we’ll just play a little bit of this.

So you get the idea?
Nick Kirby: Yeah, that’s right.
Nick Cody: It needs that expletive, because if you go, time to heal these unhappy hearts, these sad hearts, it doesn’t quite work.
Nick Kirby: No, it doesn’t, no.
Nick Cody: And in this day and age, trust me, if you turn on the news and you’re just saying, “Oh my God,” I mean, some sort of like, Franz Kafka movie. It’s highly appropriate, I think.


Nick Kirby: I think whatever you do, you’ve got to make it real, haven’t you?
Nick Cody: I think so, and also I think, I’m a big fan of artists who have their own expression. My favourite artist would be Dylan. Neil Young, who wonderfully brought out a whole bunch of albums, the record company loved. He brought out Harvest and After the Gold Rush. And they thought, “This is fantastic.”
Then he brings out Time Fades Away and they go, “What is this? There’s no hit singles on this, this is sort of like driving, grungy,” fantastic. And then the other two albums were, they were called the Ditch series. Time Fades Away, On the Beach and Tonight’s the Night. All around ’74, ’73. Brilliant albums that have stood the test of time. But not for the general, happy, clappy listening public.


Nick Kirby: No, no. But as you say, sometimes, you need something with that bit of edge, and for me, I’m not, I have recently got into some of the more funky stuff. But, for me, I do like the type of music that you produce. And something that, a song that has something to say, which I feel that your songs actually do that.


Nick Cody: Well I like that, it’s, the greatest artists will often inspire and frustrate. Like Springsteen at his absolutely best, which would be Darkness on the Edge of Town, Nebraska would be the same, the compilation tracks.
And then he’ll bring out something and I’m going, “What? What is this?” But, he’s doing his own thing. Same thing with other artists, Frank Zappa used to confound and bemuse people with some of his stuff. Tom Waits would be another example.
On jazz, Miles Davis. He would bring out albums like On the Corner. And people would go, “I don’t know, is it even music? This is not A Kind of Blue.”
Nick Kirby: Yeah.


Nick Cody: So, everybody from Bob Dylan to Bill Frisell, they’re all people developing, and have their own voice. And a lot of the time, they’re ahead of the curve, in terms of what the public are expecting. And a lot of the time, they stick by their guns and go, “This is what we’re going to do. We could very easily do exactly what people want, or replicate what we’ve done before, but we want something which expresses how we feel in this place and time.” And I’m a big fan of that.


Nick Kirby: And, the songs on the latest album, did you have a problem selecting the songs for, did you have additional songs written?
Nick Cody: We’ve got some songs that we have yet to record. We’ve got a song, you would have heard at The Grove, called Hold That Thought, which is me playing electric guitar, which is kind interesting after years of ukes. So that’s going to be recorded. There’s another track, which is an acoustic track, called All Kinds of Crazy, which kind of reminds me a little bit of John Martin, which is definitely going to be recorded. That’s not been recorded, yet.
And then we have my Donald Trump type tribute, not in a positive way I might add, called What You Going To Do, which I said to my great percussionist, Rich Ferdi, “I don’t know Rich, it’s just a two chord song.” And Agi and Fergus and Jed all are playing it, which is like some hillbilly rant. So we’ll record that as well, because the audience liked that, as a song. So there’s at least those-
Nick Kirby: So does this going to be a second album?
Nick Cody: We’re already going to be on to doing the second album. But we’ll take our time.
And then as a side project, I’m going to working with Agi and some other musicians, with some really stripped back songs recorded old style, like Sun Studios, with one microphone. And when we play, there will be like one mic, which trust me makes, in some ways simpler is better. But we have to get that right.
And my producer Carl Rosamond, who is just brilliant, will be working on that in forthcoming weeks to start rolling out some tracks. Which will be like, a little side project.


Nick Kirby: Right, so they will have a very different feel to the album.
Nick Cody: It will be, well, it will, yeah, maybe a little bit different. But we may well put some of those into the Caravan set, where we just sort of strip back to one or two songs. We’ve started to do that, anyway. It’s, at the end of the day, it’s all about entertainment, engagement, are you taking people on a journey somewhere so that it’s an experience?
Nick Kirby: Yeah.


Nick Cody: I’m a big fan in getting people to listen to things that are interesting. I saw a very world famous jazz pop artist once, in Manchester. And it was all right. But I was just, it’s so predictable, I just thought, “I just wanted to do anything, a cappella, break out into rock, tell a story, anything.” It was just like the album, just repeated.
The best singer songwriters, whether they’re the people I’ve mentioned or your Carole Kings, or people like that, they know how to write and engage people. And they’re always pushing the boundaries, lyrically and musically, in what they’re doing. And sometimes the public are behind the curve, and they go, “Ooh, I’m not sure about that.” But over a test of time, it’s about building a body of work which just provokes, stimulates, and as I say, music for the head and music for the heart.


Nick Kirby: And am I right in saying that you’ve done something with a movie, before? It was a short movie?
Nick Cody: Well, I have, my new video guy, Nick [Bloomfield 00:40:57], there’s a shout out to Nick Bloomfield. I just got into contact with him, and he’s done a short clip for the track The Other Me. But in days gone by, I did some work, I did some ambient work and this guy sort of said, “Is it all right if I do it for my movie short?” And I went, “Yeah, yeah, fine.” And never thought anything of it.
And then he sent me an email saying, “It’s showing on Channel Four tonight, in the advert break.” I went, “What?” And this is a track, if you look on Vimeo for a track called My Amersham and the music on there is in my old, very, very old identity. That’s going back like 19 years.


Nick Kirby: Wow.
Nick Cody: Which is quite different. It’s nothing like the stuff I’m doing now. But it’s nice, you know, it works really well.
Nick Kirby: Yeah, absolutely brilliant. Any other songs that you’d like to play for us today?
Nick Cody: I’ll play you a little bit of, I’ll play you a little bit of Pink Moon.
Nick Kirby: Right.
Nick Cody: But I don’t have my fantastic co-singer Agi here, so apologies for everyone, this is not as good as the album, but we’ll play a little bit of it.

That’s an edited version. That’s Pink Moon, and that’s on Tales of Dark and Light, by Nick Cody and The Caravan of Dreams. You’ll find us on Facebook, on nickcody.co.uk, on Sound Cloud, on Spotify, and many other places.
Nick Kirby: And if you want to see Nick live, remember it’s August the 22nd at The Grove Inn, it’s also August 23rd at The Chemic Tavern. And then, again in November, November the 22nd, back at The Chemic Tavern, if you haven’t seen him anywhere else. Those gigs are on for certain, aren’t they?
Nick Cody: Those gigs are for certain, and if anybody’s looking to book us, then just contact me from nickcody … N-I-C-K, C-O-D-Y… .co.UK. We’re always interested in playing live to listening, appreciative audiences.


Nick Kirby: Oh, thank you very much, Nick. And it’s been a real pleasure to have you here today. Obviously we want to play a few more songs from the album, so that has been, it’s been great to have you here. And, listen to this marvelous instrument, too.
Nick Cody: Well, it’s terrific. I mean, if we, we’ll have to come back and we’ll bring some of the other guys with us as well-
Nick Kirby: Oh well you-
Nick Cody: … You’ve just got me. The Caravan of Dreams are still yet to appear. And these are like, fantastic musicians.
Nick Kirby: Oh, that would be great, if we can do that, yeah. Excellent, yeah. Be in touch to arrange that.
Nick Cody: Thank you so much.
Nick Kirby: Thank you, Nick.

https://soundcloud.com/nickcodymusic/south-leeds-radio-interview-with-nick-cody-june-2019