A Quick Chat With Nick Carver

Nick Carver & The Mean Street Butchers recently dropped their ferocious blues-rock album 'ANIMALS'. The album is an 8-track collection of artistically crafted tunes that reflect the band’s camaraderie, Nick’s home life and the long country drives where his inspiration is uninhibited, and his imagination is free to roam wild. We caught up with Carver to find out more about the album, his influences and more.

Congrats on the new album! Can you tell me what 'ANIMALS' is about?

The song Animals is about finding beauty and tranquility in a rough and uncurated stretch of coastline. Musically, the album explores multiple genres through the lense of my crusty guitar playing and voice, with heavy lashings of vintage keys, roomy drum sounds and vocal harmonies.

Lyrically it varies between love and loss. With songs about my son and wife, as well as more abstract ones about Iggy Pop, and introspective songs like The Way That You Walk that deals with toxic masculinity.

What are some of your influences when it comes to music and why?

I love guitarists like Ron Ashton from the Stooges and Ty Segall. For me, electric guitar is the instrument of the musical revolution, and it defies musical convention. So most of my songs come from an idea that has been developed and expanded on from a simple idea on the guitar.

This album saw me take influence from classic bands like Crazy Horse, Zeppelin Hendrix and The Stones.

Lately I’ve been really getting into garagy experimental rock again like Ty Segall, Goat, The Dirtombs and anything by Jack White. Looking forward to bringing in some of these influences soon.

What's the creative process for you, from writing to recording?

Everything seems to happen at once. I record A LOT. I built a fully functioning studio with a single booth a couple of years ago. So if I’m writing, I can be either just playing guitar, writing lyrics, recording new ideas or experimenting with mixing sounds and ideas. I really like to nail a guitar tone before I write lyrics, but sometimes it goes vice versa.

I write a lot of Melodys and lyrics while driving to work listening to demos. I drive 45 mins to my job through the beautiful Gippsland country side, so the ideas come quite easily.

I do like to record in a professional studio with someone else engineering though. I like to relax and have fun. Not worry about mics and pres. On any Mean St Bitchers song, at least the guitar/bass/drums/keys have been recorded live in a single take. With the vocals, percussion and other fiddly bits like solos or weird stuff done as an overdub.

What do you think makes a great song?

Simplicity, repetition and “a special bit”. I love a good curve ball. Like the 7/4 section in Heart Of Glass by Blondie. I’m a bit of a sucker for an odd time signature in a pop song.

You've got a string of shows lined up for the rest of the year. What are you most looking forward to?

Creating in the love setting. We have two albums now. We’ve been working on developing a high energy set for really rocking gigs! We’ve got a few quirky covers that we do as well, and I’m looking forward to bringing those out as well. The girls that snags BV’s on the album are playing with us as well. They both play tambourines live as well, so we’ve got this Brian Jonestown kind of vibe going as well. Haha!

If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?

I’ve always wanted to work with Jeff Lang. He’s a twisted individual (musically). He just gets it! I’d love to see what he could do with one of our songs.

When not working on music, what other creative outlet do you have?

Lately I’ve been getting back into drawing. I used to draw comic book illustrations in high school. I’m not brilliant at it, but it’s mindful.I also work as a primary school specialist teacher of art and music. So that keeps me pretty busy. I love to teach kids to think creatively. I’m planning on doing some more community theatre in 2023 as well

Winter or summer and why?

Neither Autumn. All of the tourists bugger off in Autumn. A mate of mine reckons everyone’s birthday is in Autumn as well. Which is obviously not true, but it’s a cool way to think : ). My wife and I both have our birthdays then, and we’re besties! We live in Inverloch which is pretty touristy. They all bugger of in Autumn, so we still get some nice warm days to frolick on the beach.

What else do you have planned for the year?

My little boy turns 3 tomorrow! We’ve got a few festivals to play as well, not all of which we can announce right now! I’m also directing a primary school production of The Lion King. So yeah, busy busy busy!

australianmusicscene20 July 2022