We all have our own personal musical influences that shaped us and made us who we are today. As an artist, we take those early favorites and build our own sound using pieces of the past and blend in our own unique style of what is next. Recent discovery Nick Cove & The Wandering has done just that to create something fresh but with a real flavor of the past.
Rooted in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the band intertwines the careful finesse of the singer-songwriter genre and Nick Cove’s deep roots in 90’s era grunge. In addition to Nick handling guitar and vocal duties, Nick Cove & The Wandering is keyboardist Joe Mancinelli, bassist John Halfpenny, and drummer Trevor Kiscadden. Together they create a sound that morphs multiple genres into something truly fetching.
Last month Nick Cove & The Wandering released latest single “Glass Houses” along with an impressive music video. There is a dark thread that runs through the track as Nick’s elegant vocals drip emotion through the verses. A steady beat is laid down from the start that keeps building to a full crescendo of sound. The grunge influence can be felt heavily on the chorus as the energy turns up with some angst as well. The video adds in sharing the story as a loop delves into madness.
We had the chance to chat with Nick Cove to get even deeper into the band and the single:
How would you describe the sound of Nick Cove & The Wandering?
The sound of Nick Cove & The Wandering is heavily influenced by my love for grunge and the 90s alt music, but there is a good dose of prog rock and the singer songwriter style of indie rock. All of the players in the band have a diverse spread of musical influences that truely add depth to the music. We are also a very musically dynamic band. Each song is a little adventure just waiting to be explored.
There is some real emotion felt in “Glass Houses.” What can you tell us about the meaning behind the song?
“Glass Houses” is about doing the same thing over and over again and not understanding why there is no change to the cycle. This can obviously be related to toxic relationships, bad jobs, etc… I feel like everyone has known this feeling in some way shape or form and then finally found a way to break the cycle.
The accompanying music video looks like quite the undertaking as well. Tell us about putting that together? (and the story being told?)
The music video for “Glass Houses” was unlike anything myself, the band, or the director had attempted before. We borrowed the loop concept from a video game trailer/demo that came out a handful of years ago called “PT”, but it never became anything more than that. The player would start at spot A follow and path to spot B and then end up back at spot A, but with each consecutive loop, that story that was being told would unfold around you.
So, we took that concept and made it our own. In the peripherals of the music video, you can see a younger couple, an older couple, a small group of friends, and obviously the band. Loops one and two end up being near identical, but after that, the story presents itself.
The story is about one person in the younger couple becoming terminally ill and how that journey affects those around them (i.e. their friends and family). There are a lot of subtle things that change throughout the video from the number of place settings at the table to the clothing color choices. Lots of extremely fine details. The director, John Decker, and I had to figure out how we could break up the song to make sense with the start of each loop and then figure how to tell the story we wanted to tell in these small time frames. There were A LOT of practical details we had to figure out on the front end before we could even start thinking of filming.
What is next on the horizon for Nick Cove & The Wandering?
We have some new music in the pipeline that will be coming out this year and we are also discussing new video ideas and also weighing the option of playing some shows this year depending on how safe everyone feels doing that. We’ll be busy nonetheless!
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