Nicky Click: The New Gay Interview
I was hella hella nervous to call up Nicky Click last weekend and talk to her about her upcoming Phasefest show. She's part of this queer music scene that I've always really admired for being punk-as-fuck and pushing boundaries with their performances. It was heartening, then, to hear that we both shared a past affinity for Lilith Fair artists, and both totally overslept and missed the riot grrl heyday.
TNG: Your work is like a hybrid of queer politics, dance hop, electro, and performance art. What influences did this grow out of?
Nicky Click: When I was a 15 or 16, I was just interested in any artists that were female, and what was available was more mainstream--Tori Amos, P.J. Harvey, Sarah McLachlan--music that I don’t listen to now, but it was inspiring, at the time, to see women making music. I got into the riot grrl/punk scene way after it happened. After that, I got into 70s and 80s punk/pop stuff like Nina Hagen, Lena Lovich, and Kate Bush--more like performance art, theatrical, story-telling stuff. And that’s where I’m at now. My sound is electronic dance music, but it’s still storytelling that’s true to my life experiences.
TNG: When did you start making your own music?
NC: About four years ago. I was living in Olympia and really good friends with this band Scream Club, who became my mentors. I bought this drum machine and figured out how to use it from the handbook. It was really inspiring to be able to do that. I always wanted to do music in middle and high school, but it was only guys that did it. I had to build my own confidence that I could do it, and I don’t have to do it in the ways I’ve seen. I don’t even need to show this to anybody, if I don’t want to. It became this thing I just did for myself.
I learned some simple programs, how to record myself, and just began creating characters, like this German man named International Flirta. Scream Club encouraged me to start playing shows, helped me put together my first album, and we and a few other people started Crunks Not Dead--my album was the first album on the label.
TNG: Coming from Olympia, the sort of queer punk fertile crescent, what’s it like now that you’ve relocated back home to New Hampshire?
NC: There isn’t really a queer scene here, not that I’ve found. I’m on the road a lot, so I also haven’t really gotten out there. I moved back here ‘cause I was just really down on living out West. I was broke from touring for four years, and living in this gross basement in Portland. I was like, I have to get out of here! I had fifty dollars to my name, and I just packed up everything and moved home. Which I wanted to do--I have an identical twin sister with two kids, and I wanted to be in their lives, my parents are getting older--so, I’m living with my parents right now and it’s actually really amazing.
My dad and I collaborate a lot. He’s a country/folk musician, and does vocals under the name “Mr. Owl” on my latest album, I’m on My Cell Phone. We write songs together and he was a co-executive producer on my album, in the studio, giving me advice, helping me develop characters. He’s totally a feminist and down with me being queer. We also have a country band together (laughs).
TNG: Sometimes it’s cool just to make queer community in a scene that isn’t already pre-fab--in some place other than San Francisco or Olympia.
NC: I totally agree. I’m actually really content here. Even though there are nights where I’m like, gosh I wish I could go to a queer club right now, but in other ways, it forces me to be creative. Like, I do a lot of visual art. I live on this farm where there are lots of old barns and I’ve created an art studio and a recording studio. It’s just a centering way to create your art and then go out into the world and share it.
TNG: Yeah, you just got back from a European tour, right?
NC: Yeah, and I played all queer fests, like Europride in Stockholm, Copenhagen Queer fest, Queer 9000 Fest in Aalaborg, Oslo Queer Fest, all touring with Scream Club. It was interesting--the concept of queer there was a lot more general.
TNG: Like you’re queer if the way you live challenges traditional gender roles?
NC: Right. For me, queer is very all-encompassing. You could be a heterosexual couple, but you could also be queer in the way that you live--that’s how I see queer. But at first, at the Euro queer fests, I was like what’s going on? And then I was like, this is awesome that these people are here. Like at one place, I played with this six-piece ska band of straight guys, but they were playing in support of this queer festival.
TNG: Man, I’m also kind of surprised that ska’s still around in Scandanavia.
NC: We played at this really interesting squat in Denmark, and do you remember that band Harum Scarum? They played there, and Green Day played there fifteen years ago--and I was like, wow, I feel really lucky to be playing here, cause there’s a lot of history. In the States, I’ve played Homo-a-Gogo, a lot of Ladyfests, Mondo Homo--it’s this amazing, giant, four-day queer fest in Atlanta.
TNG: Playing a lot of queer fests though, as an out queer performer, did you ever feel like that was going to pigeon-hole you as an artist?
NC: It’s really important for me to play these queer festivals. When I started writing my press biography on my first CD, I was like, do I come out as being gay or not? And it was a really big issue for me, because I felt like that would be what everyone would put first--Nicky Click, GAY. So would I be seen as an artist? I ultimately decided to do it, and it ended up being a blessing. I had no idea that there was such a queer music scene out there, and I feel like I’ve been really embraced.
TNG: Do you feel like your art has a particular focus or mission?
NC: I’ve gone through a lot of different shifts of what my intentions are with Nicky Click. In the very beginning, I wasn’t interested in engaging the audience and putting on a show in any way. I feel like that kind of ostracized the audience and I didn’t feel connected to them, and since then I’ve realized that I really want to try to have an experience with the audience and have people feel comfortable and let go. Playing this over-the-top, sexy person that’s fat and showing that they’re proud of their body, and femme, it sort of takes it to this drag queen level and definitely fucks with gender.
Performing songs that are very personal to me and just putting myself out there in a very vulnerable position, I want to create a platform where I’m showing all these different sides to myself which I feel like, speaks to the sense that, women especially have all these different sides and characters and positions that they’re put in--mother, sexual being, etc--how do you weave them all together? We’re not supposed to see all of those sides together, yet women have so many different roles that they have to play and be in life, so I’m trying to show all those sides and say that you can put them together.
TNG: I've read that queer femme visibility is one of your agendas as a performer.
NC: I talked about it a lot on my first album, and I’ve gotten some criticism for not talking about it so specifically on my second. You know like, “HI! I’m queer, I’m femme!” I still feel like my music can be interpreted in that way. Women get tokenized for being feminine, much less a queer femme who’s trying to say I’m taking this femininity and distorting it and making it a whole new thing, and trying not to be seen as straight or somehow diminished in the queer community--cause of course, sexism is everywhere.
People are really afraid to say that sexism extends in to the queer community. Like if I’m at a gay bar, I’ve noticed on multiple occasions that gay men will think it’s okay to touch me in inappropriate ways--like grab my breasts or ass. And they’ll be like, that’s not bad because I don’t actually want to have sex with you. And I’m like, you’re still a man who’s touching me inappropriately. So my being a femme and putting it out there and saying I’m not going to hide this, I’m going to empower this--hopefully that can be an inspiration to other people to put that out there.
TNG: What’s next?
NC: I'm On My Cell Phone is out, and I’m working on a new album right now, writing songs, they’re all collaborations with Mr. Owl, tentatively called Metaphorical Of Course, which speaks to that my songs can be interpreted in lots of different ways.
TNG: Is it going to have more of a country feel because you're working with your dad?
NC: No, it’s going to be electronic, he’ll have his weird little vocal parts. It’s funny, I was in San Diego and this gay man, who didn’t know that it was my dad, was like, I kind of have a crush on Mr. Owl, who is he? (laughs) I didn’t say anything cause I kind of like to keep it as an illusion.
I’m also working on this little side project called Petunia Pie, one of my alter-egos. That’s where I put all my really diary entry songs. I’m also working on some religious sculptural stuff under the Petunia Pie persona.
Down the road, I'm thinking about becoming an art therapist someday. Who knows? I'm trying to get involved with this program in New Hampshire working with girls using art to improve their self-esteem. After Phasefest, I’m playing the Chicago International Film Festival. But yeah, I’m coming into D.C. for two nights--I’m so excited to see all these bands--I love Boyskout and Athens Boy's Choir!
Nicky Click plays Phasefest Friday, September 12th, along with:
Shunda K of Yo! Majesty
Odd Girl Out (Bmore)
Somer
K. Love the Infinite
Cat Furniture (DC)
We Are Hip Hop Too
Josh Bloom
DJ Natty Boom (DC)
Doors at 6 pm / 21+
$15 / tix at door
Phase 1
525 8th St. SE
TNG: Your work is like a hybrid of queer politics, dance hop, electro, and performance art. What influences did this grow out of?
Nicky Click: When I was a 15 or 16, I was just interested in any artists that were female, and what was available was more mainstream--Tori Amos, P.J. Harvey, Sarah McLachlan--music that I don’t listen to now, but it was inspiring, at the time, to see women making music. I got into the riot grrl/punk scene way after it happened. After that, I got into 70s and 80s punk/pop stuff like Nina Hagen, Lena Lovich, and Kate Bush--more like performance art, theatrical, story-telling stuff. And that’s where I’m at now. My sound is electronic dance music, but it’s still storytelling that’s true to my life experiences.
TNG: When did you start making your own music?
NC: About four years ago. I was living in Olympia and really good friends with this band Scream Club, who became my mentors. I bought this drum machine and figured out how to use it from the handbook. It was really inspiring to be able to do that. I always wanted to do music in middle and high school, but it was only guys that did it. I had to build my own confidence that I could do it, and I don’t have to do it in the ways I’ve seen. I don’t even need to show this to anybody, if I don’t want to. It became this thing I just did for myself.
I learned some simple programs, how to record myself, and just began creating characters, like this German man named International Flirta. Scream Club encouraged me to start playing shows, helped me put together my first album, and we and a few other people started Crunks Not Dead--my album was the first album on the label.
TNG: Coming from Olympia, the sort of queer punk fertile crescent, what’s it like now that you’ve relocated back home to New Hampshire?
NC: There isn’t really a queer scene here, not that I’ve found. I’m on the road a lot, so I also haven’t really gotten out there. I moved back here ‘cause I was just really down on living out West. I was broke from touring for four years, and living in this gross basement in Portland. I was like, I have to get out of here! I had fifty dollars to my name, and I just packed up everything and moved home. Which I wanted to do--I have an identical twin sister with two kids, and I wanted to be in their lives, my parents are getting older--so, I’m living with my parents right now and it’s actually really amazing.
My dad and I collaborate a lot. He’s a country/folk musician, and does vocals under the name “Mr. Owl” on my latest album, I’m on My Cell Phone. We write songs together and he was a co-executive producer on my album, in the studio, giving me advice, helping me develop characters. He’s totally a feminist and down with me being queer. We also have a country band together (laughs).
TNG: Sometimes it’s cool just to make queer community in a scene that isn’t already pre-fab--in some place other than San Francisco or Olympia.
NC: I totally agree. I’m actually really content here. Even though there are nights where I’m like, gosh I wish I could go to a queer club right now, but in other ways, it forces me to be creative. Like, I do a lot of visual art. I live on this farm where there are lots of old barns and I’ve created an art studio and a recording studio. It’s just a centering way to create your art and then go out into the world and share it.
TNG: Yeah, you just got back from a European tour, right?
NC: Yeah, and I played all queer fests, like Europride in Stockholm, Copenhagen Queer fest, Queer 9000 Fest in Aalaborg, Oslo Queer Fest, all touring with Scream Club. It was interesting--the concept of queer there was a lot more general.
TNG: Like you’re queer if the way you live challenges traditional gender roles?
NC: Right. For me, queer is very all-encompassing. You could be a heterosexual couple, but you could also be queer in the way that you live--that’s how I see queer. But at first, at the Euro queer fests, I was like what’s going on? And then I was like, this is awesome that these people are here. Like at one place, I played with this six-piece ska band of straight guys, but they were playing in support of this queer festival.
TNG: Man, I’m also kind of surprised that ska’s still around in Scandanavia.
NC: We played at this really interesting squat in Denmark, and do you remember that band Harum Scarum? They played there, and Green Day played there fifteen years ago--and I was like, wow, I feel really lucky to be playing here, cause there’s a lot of history. In the States, I’ve played Homo-a-Gogo, a lot of Ladyfests, Mondo Homo--it’s this amazing, giant, four-day queer fest in Atlanta.
TNG: Playing a lot of queer fests though, as an out queer performer, did you ever feel like that was going to pigeon-hole you as an artist?
NC: It’s really important for me to play these queer festivals. When I started writing my press biography on my first CD, I was like, do I come out as being gay or not? And it was a really big issue for me, because I felt like that would be what everyone would put first--Nicky Click, GAY. So would I be seen as an artist? I ultimately decided to do it, and it ended up being a blessing. I had no idea that there was such a queer music scene out there, and I feel like I’ve been really embraced.
TNG: Do you feel like your art has a particular focus or mission?
NC: I’ve gone through a lot of different shifts of what my intentions are with Nicky Click. In the very beginning, I wasn’t interested in engaging the audience and putting on a show in any way. I feel like that kind of ostracized the audience and I didn’t feel connected to them, and since then I’ve realized that I really want to try to have an experience with the audience and have people feel comfortable and let go. Playing this over-the-top, sexy person that’s fat and showing that they’re proud of their body, and femme, it sort of takes it to this drag queen level and definitely fucks with gender.
Performing songs that are very personal to me and just putting myself out there in a very vulnerable position, I want to create a platform where I’m showing all these different sides to myself which I feel like, speaks to the sense that, women especially have all these different sides and characters and positions that they’re put in--mother, sexual being, etc--how do you weave them all together? We’re not supposed to see all of those sides together, yet women have so many different roles that they have to play and be in life, so I’m trying to show all those sides and say that you can put them together.
TNG: I've read that queer femme visibility is one of your agendas as a performer.
NC: I talked about it a lot on my first album, and I’ve gotten some criticism for not talking about it so specifically on my second. You know like, “HI! I’m queer, I’m femme!” I still feel like my music can be interpreted in that way. Women get tokenized for being feminine, much less a queer femme who’s trying to say I’m taking this femininity and distorting it and making it a whole new thing, and trying not to be seen as straight or somehow diminished in the queer community--cause of course, sexism is everywhere.
People are really afraid to say that sexism extends in to the queer community. Like if I’m at a gay bar, I’ve noticed on multiple occasions that gay men will think it’s okay to touch me in inappropriate ways--like grab my breasts or ass. And they’ll be like, that’s not bad because I don’t actually want to have sex with you. And I’m like, you’re still a man who’s touching me inappropriately. So my being a femme and putting it out there and saying I’m not going to hide this, I’m going to empower this--hopefully that can be an inspiration to other people to put that out there.
TNG: What’s next?
NC: I'm On My Cell Phone is out, and I’m working on a new album right now, writing songs, they’re all collaborations with Mr. Owl, tentatively called Metaphorical Of Course, which speaks to that my songs can be interpreted in lots of different ways.
TNG: Is it going to have more of a country feel because you're working with your dad?
NC: No, it’s going to be electronic, he’ll have his weird little vocal parts. It’s funny, I was in San Diego and this gay man, who didn’t know that it was my dad, was like, I kind of have a crush on Mr. Owl, who is he? (laughs) I didn’t say anything cause I kind of like to keep it as an illusion.
I’m also working on this little side project called Petunia Pie, one of my alter-egos. That’s where I put all my really diary entry songs. I’m also working on some religious sculptural stuff under the Petunia Pie persona.
Down the road, I'm thinking about becoming an art therapist someday. Who knows? I'm trying to get involved with this program in New Hampshire working with girls using art to improve their self-esteem. After Phasefest, I’m playing the Chicago International Film Festival. But yeah, I’m coming into D.C. for two nights--I’m so excited to see all these bands--I love Boyskout and Athens Boy's Choir!
Nicky Click plays Phasefest Friday, September 12th, along with:
Shunda K of Yo! Majesty
Odd Girl Out (Bmore)
Somer
K. Love the Infinite
Cat Furniture (DC)
We Are Hip Hop Too
Josh Bloom
DJ Natty Boom (DC)
Doors at 6 pm / 21+
$15 / tix at door
Phase 1
525 8th St. SE
1 comment:
Hey Nicky, long time no talk. My new band The Forest is looking for a show, let me know if you can help. Thanks girl.
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