I’m Nick. A while ago on social networking sites, web forums, etc, I started going by “Nick, just Nick” because everyone was giving themselves silly names. So I thought I would go with simplicity. Like Madonna, Cher, Liberace, Beyonce…
Maybe I will start changing it around like Sean “Puffy” Combs. How about: Nick Daddy, N-Diddy, Nickalicious, N-Bomb, N-Word…
I have been around for 40 years. I got divorced within the last year after being married for about 13 years, together for about 5 more before that. I’ve got two kids who are 12 and 10, girl and boy. They live with me most of the time. Things have been pretty good, all things considered.
For most of my adult life, I have been doing graphic design, mostly for print media. That evolved into more of a technical/production kind of thing as technology advanced. Digital Prepress. It was a good fall-back career to support my musical endeavors.
Now I have my own company, Ker Communications, a Pittsburgh internet marketing firm. We do search engine optimization, web design, social media marketing and make videos.
I have been in a bunch of bands. I sing, mostly, but have been known to play bass and recently have finally applied myself to playing guitar. My musical ambitions are not what they used to be. I grew up in the punk hardcore scene of the 80s, living pretty close to DC. Quickly became disillusioned with the hypocrisy, rules and snobbery of that scene and found other ways to create musical chaos. At some point I was out to save the world, yeah, you bet I cared a lot. I also stumbled in and out of the rockabilly/psychobilly scene a few times over the years. Still dig the 60’s garage rock sound.
I am generally an easy going kind of guy – don’t fuck me over and I won’t eat your liver.
I wear a lot of black, not because I want to be artsy or spooky but mostly because I am a slob and it hides spilled stuff better.
No – I am not wearing eye make up. I have always looked like that.
Yes, I have some tattoos but my life does not revolve around them. My nose has been pierced since 1988 but I don’t wear anything in it very often.
I have been called a hedonist, and yet a moralist – sometimes by the same people. I do have a pretty strong sense of right and wrong, or maybe thats a sense of “All riiiiight!” and “That’s just all wrong”… I do both
I may look intense, quiet and creepy, but I am actually pretty fuckin funny and won’t shut up once you get me going. And now that I think about it, I am really a pretty positive and easy-going guy. I’m not one to bitch and moan about the hand I’ve been dealt, but that doesn’t mean I am not well aware of just how crappy the cards can be at times. It’s all part of life, y’know? We’ve all had to travel the roads we’ve traveled to get to where we are now.
Well, OK, maybe I am a little weird.
Anything else you want to know, just ask.
I’ll probably leave a few out but here’s a list of some bands I have been in:
- El Diablo (1998?-2002?)
Hellbound punk rockabilly. Holy crap, what a good time that was. - Kelly Affair (back in like 1991-92)
I sang. - PUCKER (”P” was pronounced “F”, go figure 1992-95) We were punks playing sorta slightly metal prog-punk-rock with hints of 80′s post-punk and hardcore. Apparently only people who were accepted by none of those subcultures dug it. Think Queens of the Stone Age but more primitive.
- Next President (if you remember that one, what rehab did you end up in? 1987-1989)
- Cave Dawgs (disgustingly drunk half-naked garage punk 1989-90?)
- Teenage Zombies (wild-eyed psychobilly from Central PA back in the late 80s)
Recently I was laid off from what I hope will be my last job in the printing industry. Just the kind of catalytic kick in the ass that I need to get moving in a new direction. What exactly that is, I don’t know.
If my writing seems like half-assed rambling, that is because it is. I don’t do drafts.
I am prone to going on rants about politics, music, pop culture, religious fanaticism, and many other things. And I will philosophize about what others view as trivial – like the significance of the availability of pancake batter in a compressed air can similar to a whipped cream can. Mmmmm… pancake whip-its…
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Frank Black:
