Meet Nicholas Vining

We were lucky to catch up with Nicholas Vining recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nick, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
Ever since I was a little kid I have always dreamed of being a musician, I would lay there for hours listening to all types of music and imagining myself on stage or in a studio creating those songs. I picked up the guitar at 11 years old and instantly fell in love with every aspect of the instrument.

When I was 12 years old I joined my first band and started playing shows, I remember it being the most freeing feeling I have felt in my entire life, and although we were not good in any way shape or form we truly loved it and thought we were awesome. I was in that band for about two years, then I was asked to join a new band and to me this band seemed more promising to get me to my goal of being able to play music for a living. I was a young teenager and didn’t even begin to think of any of the aspect of being successful, I thought all I had to do was play good songs. I found myself not feeling as confident and happy with the music this new band was creating. I eventually quit and played with a few other bands throughout the rest of my teens.

I reconnected with a friend of mine who would be in and out of musical projects and I started playing for his new project, this band was called Kyle & The Pity Party. When I first started playing for this project I realized I wasn’t nearly as skilled as I needed to be to make the sounds and contribute to the songs the way I would’ve liked to. I spent hours and hours just learning new songs, learning new techniques, a lot of listening to musicians I look up to and hearing their story, what influenced them, and how they got to the point where they made the sounds that they make that I love so much. I was still very young but it was the first time I started feeling more competent in my musical ability. I didn’t feel like a little kid making bad songs. This band started getting a great reaction from our peers and I remember many times where we would travel out of town to play and hearing people in the crowd say “Wow this band is actually pretty good!”. I always look back at those moments with humor because it shows the mentality of a lot of local music scenes where people are used to bands that are not the most impressive. I started gaining resentment for this band, I felt like I wasn’t able to fully express myself, I no longer felt like just a member who would play the parts written for me. I really was craving having something that was my own. More time passed, tensions got stronger and my own personal frustrations and struggles got in the way. Eventually right before the pandemic started this group that was going strong for eight years disbanded. I feel like I play a huge role in that, and I feel guilty about it.

Once the pandemic hit I made a bunch of realizations, I also overcame many demons and struggles that I never addressed, I was at a point where I wanted to give up on music. I felt like it contributed to where I was at that point, which was unhappy.

I gave it time and one day my friend Kyle from my previous projects came back and asked if I wanted to start something new and I wanted to give it a shot. This time felt so different for some reason even though I was hesitant. We got together a few times and the sound was different and more my speed and the sound that I love so much, the music felt more raw and dark. I started researching more artists and just got in this weird space where I was just writing music faster than I could say a sentence. I would challenge myself to write a riff a day, that turned into a song a day. I would walk home from work (I worked an hour walk from home) and I would be making these voice memos on my phone of me humming ideas and melodies, there would be nights where my phone was dead and I would hum a melody for an hour straight so I wouldn’t forget it.

I realized that it was my perspective the entire time that was the problem. I was trying to chase something that made me feel like it was the only way I could attain success with music. I didn’t have the raw passion in what I was doing. Once I started creating for myself it just became more fun and free feeling. I thrive to write my next favorite song, like “What would NICK listen to?”.

Now I try to challenge myself even more, I try to mess with new musical concepts that may not be common for the style I write, I try to incorporate all aspects of music and find my voice through all of it. My friend Kyle and I for a short period of time would pick a genre each week and study that genre, then we would write a song to record and share with the other. Finding exercises like this have kept a stream line of creativity and artistic growth.

I have become obsessed with creating new and pushing past my comfort zone, I find external ways outside of music to bring me creativity. I just surround myself with all forms of media and art, as well as nature. I listen to music I hate and music I love. I do anything possible to keep the ideas fresh and interesting.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am currently in a Post-Punk band named King In Yellow. We strive to keep a fresh sound with noise, and chaotic parts, as well as strong melodies, and thought provoking concepts.

We all come from different musical backgrounds and different genres. We work really well together to bring it all together to bring something refreshing and new to the genre that we are a part of.

We just love what we do and work to push ourselves to make the best music we possibly can.

We go in the studio every two months and record four songs, that way we can keep the ideas new and fresh and not burn out on it. We are currently releasing new music once every six weeks until that doesn’t seem to work out anymore.

We are also working on an EP as well as making more content to share what we do.

You can find it on all streaming platforms, just make sure you find the right King In Yellow, cause there are two! (Whoops)

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I feel like first and foremost, I believe everyone has the capability to be creative, I feel like people should explore that aspect of their lives in a non judgmental way. You don’t need to be a musician, or a painter to call yourself an artist. There are artists in all fields. I feel like art is found in wherever you allow yourself to find it. Finding what makes you feel passionate and adding your own creative input and ideas will make you find an even stronger love for it. So I would say be open to your creative mind and find where it gets triggered.

Secondly, I feel like collaboration is important for any form of creativity. It helps you be held accountable and not get stuck in a plateau for a long time. I love playing with people who play completely different styles and learn how to keep up with them because it causes me to think about what I’m doing differently which then adds to me growing and striving to push my abilities harder in my own work. Community is so important no matter what you do so I feel everyone should seek like minded people who will grow with you.

The third and most important part in my opinion is find a level in confidence in what you do without forgetting that you are a tiny fish in an ocean. There are so many creatives everywhere you look, some don’t even know it. I feel like a lot of people feel like they need to prove something and create these personas to protect themselves from whatever it is they are insecure about. This pushes people away, which could be people that would serve you in becoming better. So be proud of what you do but stay genuinely humble.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
I believe that you should focus less on your strengths and more on your weaknesses. Don’t get me wrong, we need to find out strengths and find our place in this world. But once you’ve found that place I feel like you really need to focus on your short comings and become well rounded in what you do or else you will burn out and fade away. It’s funny because most of the time you ever see a band change their sound you can read 10,000 comments about why that band sucks now, I look at it as growth and I admire it, because instead of throwing in the towel they continue to do what made them start doing what they do.

There are also aspects to art that unfortunately affect the artists ability to focus on it full time.

My personal biggest short coming is finding my way through the business aspect of the music industry. My brain just doesn’t know where to begin to get my music out there. I feel like I have so much to share with the world, but when you have hundreds of thousands of artists to listen to at your literal finger tips it’s easy to just get lost. My brain creates music, my brain doesn’t understand the business aspect of it just yet. But I’m really seeking that information as much as I possibly can.

I continue to create like I will be heard. I constantly am learning marketing and ways to get more people listening and invested in my project.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Our Band Show, Mickey Rowan, Kyle McDonough

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