Sauce

In the mercilessly hard-rocking world of indie-folk-pop-rock, none are more hard, nor so bed-wettingly merciless as Sam (J) Nicholson. What makes Sam harder than anyone in his field, aside from his masterful command of that six-stringed Weapon of Mass Distraction, the acoustic guitar, is that his grandfather was Jack Nicholson. This very fact alone gives Sam the extra initial he needs to make it in the mean fields of folk…

So what can we expect from your new EP?
It’s called Small Town Bankrobbers. There’s a picture of Kempton on the front. I guess there’s five songs involving stolen washing, cats, bank robbers stuck at traffic lights, blowing up letterboxes, and almost moving to Melbourne. It ain’t no concept album but, for some reason, the record deals with love and criminal activity in the small town that is Hobart. I’ve only dabbled in the former.

How do you balance Uni life with that of the life of an itinerant minstrel?
All my recent songs were written as a means of putting off assignments, so it’s working okay. I haven’t really done the itinerant minstrel thing yet, apart from a trip to Melbourne with Viva Computer. There was a MySpace-organised gig by a pop collective, Albert’s Basement, which took place under a tree on busy Lygon St. That was pretty much the most fun solo gig I’ve had; thirty people huddled in close to hear over the traffic. One guy handed out bits of percussion for everybody. Next year I’m looking to travel a bit further to China. I’d really like to check out what “pop” means in that part of the world.

How is life getting strange for you in Hobart?
It ain’t strange but it’s been a bit busy getting the EP done and getting ready for the indie pop event, Poptimism, at The Loft. There’ll be myself, Anthony Rochester, Andy Brazendale, and the Melbourne ex-pat, Joe Foley (AKA Extreme Wheeze). You should MySpace them ‘cos they’re all really original local pop of different colours and flavours. The night will double as my EP launch.

In relation to your name, is it Samuel, Sampson, or Samantha - and what does the J stand for?
I wish it were Sampson, or Samwise even, but it’s a little too late. My former girlfriend’s Mum told me, in a well-meaning way after a gig, [that] she liked the music but my name was kind of boring. Taking a leaf out of Samuel L. Jackson’s book I thought the pretentious solution was to add in the initial. My grandpa was Jack Nicholson, seriously. I might yet change my name to Robert Zimmerman.

How did you come up with such a unique name for your band?
I don’t have a band but I’d kinda like to. The opportunity to put drums on my EP and then get carried away with keys and getting in horns and strings means I really want to try something new live. Anneliese, who played viola on the record, played a gig with me a week ago at the Republic and the sound of her playing makes me like all my songs again. It worked well so we want to try that for a bit, perhaps both using looping pedals to make it more “Sonic the Hedgehog”… The thought of getting a really different collection of instruments together is inviting, especially a friend on French horn and, perhaps, organ and accordion [with] elements of electronica. If anyone’s interested I am too.

Indie/Pop/Folk doyen, Josh Rouse, said in 2006, “I get tired of the kind of thing that I do. There are so many people doing it now. You go to an indie record stop, and there’s all this folk-pop that’s kind of light.” How do you feel about this?
That’s a whiny thing to say. Surely, soft folk pop don’t hurt nobody unless they stray into adult contemporary territory and shatter people’s lives with cheap emotion. There is a feeling of if what you’re saying isn’t lyrically or musically slightly new then why not just listen to what’s already out there? I think the curse of the singer-songwriter is that you can just ignore that section of the music store thinking they just go, “here’s one about my recent breakup.”

In reference to the song “Letterboxes” featured on your MySpace page, why is this town too small for blowing up letterboxes?
I’ve never gotten to the bottom of the truth but I’ve been told my Dad may, or may not, have blown up letterboxes in his youth. It’s still a cold case but I stand by his story. It made me think about things that in a way I’d like to do but there’s an element of small town fear that you’d be found out ‘cos you’d accidentally do it to your Mums Niece’s old babysitter and word would get around.

Sam Nicholson launches his new EP, Small Town Bankrobbers, at The Loft in Hobart on September 7 and will appear alongside Charles Du Cane in Burnie at The Stagedoor Café on September 22.

http://www.myspace.com/samjnicholson