Click here for Nick's Resume

Q: Where did you grow up?
A: Western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, until I was 10, then all over the South (Norfolk Virginia, Charleston South Carolina, San Antonio Texas, Biloxi Mississippi, Fort Walton Beach Florida and even Norman Oklahoma). I was a military brat (Dad was in the Navy) so we moved a lot. Moving frequently when you're young isn't fun. I hated changing schools and friends every couple of years. But when I look back on it now it was a great experience. I learned to fit in and make new friends quickly wherever we went. That's a plus in adult life, getting along with folks, and especially as a musician it's a good policy never to burn your bridges. You never know whom you might end up playing with on the bandstand.

Q: What made you realize that music was your path?
A: To this day music is not my full time occupation but a serious hobby. I deliberately chose not to make my living at music. There's just not enough money for the working musician and I didn't want to be a high school music teacher. I almost gave music up completely several times. But after a while I realized that I was going to keep on doing it no matter what. I got my first guitar when I was 14 in 1963, the year Kennedy got shot. But it wasn't until 1980 though, nearly twenty years later, that I started taking it seriously. That's when I taught myself to read music and began writing songs. I wrote Dee in 1980. That was my first song.

Q: How would you describe the music that you typically create?
A: It's jazz but exactly what kind of jazz is more difficult to target. I guess you could say my music is somewhere between smooth jazz and the straight ahead stuff. I think it's not your typical I-IV-V tunes. Not that there's anything wrong with I-IV-V tunes (Lord knows there's already a billion of them out there and I think I learned most of them) but I decided that if I was going to write my own new, original music that it was going to be just a little bit different, have a little bit more substance and be just a little bit more interesting than typical I-IV-V tunes. My influences were some of the jazz greats like Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Once you learn to play a tune like Moment's Notice on the guitar as a solo piece you realize there is a vast universe of opportunities and possibilities when it comes to composing music. From a strictly musicians point of view, after playing a song like Giant Steps, playing Wild Thing seems just a tad anti-climatic.

Q: Who are your biggest musical influences?
A: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Jimi Hendrix. John Mayall, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Steely Dan, The Yardbirds, The Kinks, The Stones, The Beatles, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, Tommy Emmanuel, Al Jarreau, Chic Corea, SRV, EVH, Mozart, Brahms, Cassius Clay, Charlie Parker, Jobim, Elias Bailey, Tim McDonald, Jae Sinnette, Tim Bascom, Blake Wallace, Russell Scarborough, Mike Bloomfield, to name just a few.

Q: What makes your music unique?
A: That's the kind of question you hope someone else will answer for you. I guess what I try to incorporate into my music is an element of enjoyment and storytelling, so the listener can forget where they are for a few moments. The bass lines I write are as important as the melodies. The chord changes are as important as the rhythmic style. To me what makes a song good is that while you are listening to it, whether it's 3 minutes long or 7 minutes long, you can forget everything and be transported to a different place altogether inside your mind, a place that the music allows you to travel to. A good song has imagery and touches your emotions. Hopefully my music does that. Indifference in the listener is the worst thing that can happen to a song. Lastly but probably most important is that I never try to steal the limelight when producing my original tunes. It's all about sharing. I think Miles had a great formula in that sense. Hire great sidemen and let them shine. I try and do that in all my recording sessions.

Q: Has there been one particular moment in your musical career that you're most proud of?
A: My last gig.

Q: What's next for you?
A: More gigs, more writing, more producing, more music in films and TV, more CD's.