I sat down with ¾ of Nicos Gun in the beginning of January. Read what they had to say about their history, future plans, and musical influences. Nick was unavailable for the interview. Bummer.
ME: So how are you guys feeling tonight? Pumped for the show?
BARNEY: Yeah, we’re ready to rock on a Sunday night. We just did a big [gig]. We played like all night on New Years Eve, so I’m a little bit getting adjusted to reality again. <laughter> You know what I mean? I just slept for like a long ass time but I’m ready to roll.
ME: Awesome. Well, my first question is, how did you guys meet and how did the band come to be?
BARNEY: Basically, me and Nick, the guitar player, were in this other band called Cortez Cortez. It was really just these recordings that I made and Nick would play on some of it, like different instruments and shit. And we just started playing that. He was the bass player for that … We did that for a while. We did a tour and played around Philly a lot, and then I just kind of got bored of that, cause it wasn’t quite satisfying me enough. Then I took a little break. I mean, I was always writing songs and shit. So I took a little break and then I formed Nicos Gun. We met when me, Nick and Harry started hanging out, cause Harry is more of a producer, but he’s also a drummer. I would just bring him all these songs that were demos … We also started writing some shit together and we just started producing it at the studio over on 3rd and Callowhill…we weren’t really thinking about making a band. He was actually trying to make a compilation album with all of his friends…And then we were just like, forget it, we’re just gonna keep all these songs and just play live with it, put it out, and make records and shit.
ME: Most of you guys went to UArts, right?
BARNEY: Yeah, me, Nick, and Andy did. Harry didn’t go to school. I don’t even think he…went to high school. <laughter> He wouldn’t care if you wrote that down. In fact, he’d think that that’s cool.
ME: Well, I will put that in. So, where did the name, Nicos Gun, come from?
BARNEY: The name comes from…well, it’s actually a long story. Me and Harry used to work together. I used to live in Germantown for a long time, and Harry is from Germantown. We used to work together at a shoe store; actually, like, a show repair store. We worked for this guy named Nico; he was this old German guy and he used to have a gun under the cash register. We used to fuck around with it when he wasn’t at work, cause we were like, assistants. We would pick up the phone and do shit for him. We would repair zippers. It was kind of a weird job, but you know. He kept this Luger on the desk and one time I was fucking around with it and I accidentally pulled the trigger in the store and he found out about it. There was like, a hole mark in the floor and shit. So, Nicos Gun.
ME: That’s a very unique story. Any plans on releasing your music?
BARNEY: We’re coming close to it. …The main complaint is that we have nothing to download. But we’re putting out a five song EP soon.
ME: Title?
BARNEY: There’s not really a title yet. It might just be self-titled. But it’s gonna be a five song EP. We’re gonna sell hard copies at shows, too. And like, make the graphics ourselves. We’re just independent right now. We’re just waiting to get certain things mixed. You can download it on our Bandcamp soon. We just don’t have it for download yet cause they’re not technically mixed… You can check them out for now, but they’re not mixed and stuff. I don’t want people to like, have hard copies of shit that’s not sounding right yet, you know? But it will be very soon.
ME: Well, I look forward to that.
BARNEY: Thanks.
ME: I think you guys have a pretty unique sound. Can you describe it for me in your own words?
BARNEY: I don’t know, what do you think, Andy?
ANDY: I mean, people say a couple of things over and over.
HARRY: I would say it’s a mix of the old and the future…probably a lot of 70s and 60s music. So it’s like, a good mix of funk and rock and I guess you could say a fusion of types. Definitely not like, a jazz fusion. But yeah, I would definitely say it’s a mix of like hippie funk electronic, but then I guess we’re all…rock ‘n’ roll kinda guys, so a good mix of like, Stones-y stuff in there, too. So yeah, like funky rock n roll.
BARNEY: David Bowie is a big influence, too.
ME: Well, it’s listed on your Myspace page as “indie psychedelic rock.”
BARNEY: That really doesn’t say anything. That’s pretty [broad]. You gotta like, name references for people to understand, cause some of the shit is kinda psychedelic.
ME: We were just thinking today, I was showing [my friend] the We Are Fluorescent video and it reminded me of The Beatles.
BARNEY: That’s what my mom said, actually. She said the video does, too.
ME: It reminds me of the movie Across the Universe.
BARNEY: Some people hate that video, dude.
ME: I think it’s cool. There’s like, a story behind it. Which leads me to my next question, how do you guys come up with the ideas for your videos?
BARNEY: We just try not to think about it too much, cause videos that have like, real serious plots and shit I kinda feel like are a little self-indulgent. It can come off corny. So we just kinda do things off the cuff. It just having fun, you know? Like the We Are Fluorescent video, our friend Shane who filmed it, it was actually his idea for the video, but what ended up actually coming out was something totally different than I think he had in mind. We just filmed a bunch of stuff and then he would edit it and we’d be like, I don’t know about that, put this cut in there, and then it would just form it’s own kind of thing.
ME: The effects are really cool.
BARNEY: That’s actually the first video he made. A lot of the effects are just two different graphics on top of each other. Some of it we’re not even in it, too. Some of it’s like footage from The Barbary. We just filmed people dancing and shit. A lot of it is green screen. Our helmets, we used green screens so that we could put like crazy effects on it, and the girl’s bra is actually a green bra.
ME: What’s next for you guys?
BARNEY: The EP is next, and basically finishing… we have a lot of different stuff. A lot of it is stuff…people haven’t heard, like more acoustic type music. We also plan on making a ton of videos. We want to just hit the Internet, so when people search it on YouTube, there [are] as many things as possible. We have so many friends that are filmmakers, so we were just going to keep filming stuff… Film some songs that people haven’t heard that I think are pretty good that people should hear. We have so many different sides. We’re into so many different bands. …Another plan that we have [is] to just get our live show cracking, so that it’s more of a spectacle, not just like another band playing live, you know what I mean?
ME: What were some of the last CDs that you guys purchased?
BARNEY: I got this Velvet Underground CD. Loaded, it’s called. It’s a really good album. It’s the one with like, the Subway on the cover going down. And …Incesticide by Nirvana. I bought that at Repo.
ME: What about you, Andy?
ANDY: Uh, like Ariel Pink or something. I’ve been listening to that. And the first Iggy Pop and the Stooges record.
HARRY: I don’t think I’ve bought any CDs in a while, but probably Arial Pink is the last album I bought. [My girlfriend] just put me onto Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. They’re cool. I did listen to the new Arcade Fire album. It’s pretty good.
BARNEY: I actually don’t like that album.
HARRY: It grew on me. So yeah, those were the last records I bought.
ME: My last question for all of you guys is what would you say are your biggest musical influences?
HARRY: Bowie, Prince, Stones.
BARNEY: Beatles.
ANDY: Sly and the Family Stones
HARRY: Definitely Lennon. Recent bands? [That] would be Brian Jonestown Massacre.
BARNEY: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
HARRY: LCD sound system is a big influence. We listen to everything. I would say our biggest influences, not necessarily music influences, are John Coultrane, and Miles Davis. A lot of Jazz people.
BARNEY: We like the rapper Little B a lot. [And] Odd future.
ME: [Harry], Barney says you didn’t go to high school?
HARRY: I didn’t go to high school. I dropped out when I was like, 15 or 16. I started doing music.
ME: And you’ve been in Philly ever since then?
HARRY: Philly and New York. Just like back and forth. I lived in New York when I was around 16 or 17. But yeah, it was a good move. I should get my high school diploma at some point.
ME: Well that’s all I have for you guys. Thank you.
