ARTIST: Thomas Ian Nicholas
INTERVIEWER: JenJen Reyes (jenjen@bandvibe.com)
INTERVIEWEE: Thomas Ian Nicholas
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 12.22.07

JenJen: First off, how are you doing these days since you reached the finish line of your Acoustic Tour?

Thom: I’m pretty excited. The acoustic tour was definitely more than I thought it was going to be. Initially, I thought I would book 10 shows and land a booking agent, so I would have information to tell them where I have played and what my draw was. Then pretty soon, I started booking more shows on my own and forgot about pitching in a booking agent. So the acoustic tour was about 50 dates in about 12 states since like February to December. In October, that’s when I started my band. Now that I’ve already kind of gone and played a few cities here and there on the acoustic tour, now I can go back to those places with a full band. So I’m really excited. As much as I love doing the acoustic stuff, playing with a band is a whole different thing.

JenJen: Can you elaborate that? For instance, how is it different with you and your guitar versus playing with a band?

Thom: Well, certainly a good song should be played with a band or with just an acoustic guitar and a lead vocal. So people really dug the tunes and I’m really proud of them, but having a full band gives me the ability to present the material the same way it sounds on the record. Instead of me having to explain, “Hey, this is the acoustic tour, but the album has a full band,” now it’s like “This is what the album sounds like.” Plus, it’s a great group of guys that we have a great time hanging out, and it really shows performance that we all get along. No drama or anything.

JenJen: That’s most important. No drama.

Thom: No doubt. My bass player, this cat named Ty Long Le. He said we’ve done a couple of road trips and we’ve done 5 shows with the full band and we’re launching the album release tour on December 27th at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. He said, “Ya dude, you have to make sure you get along with everyone because it’s 22 hours of hanging and 1 hour show.” So, it would definitely suck if we didn’t get along.

JenJen: It definitely sounds like the snowball is getting bigger…

Thom: Ya, I certainly wasn’t expecting things to move as quickly as they have. I just really enjoy playing. I was just trying to create opportunities to do that, and I thought cool. You know like any business, it would take me 5 years to get this off the ground even though I’ve been playing music for 14 years. But this is the first time I finally created my own sound and been really happy with the music. Now only a year now doing the touring and just finishing up my album (which is releasing on January 15th), we are starting to get interest from record labels and managers. So, we’re kind of at the stage where we are still playing live gigs and now we’re taking meetings on the side. Again, I didn’t really expect that until maybe a year after having a band. It took me a year of doing an acoustic tour to finally put the band together and find the right guys. So, I thought, ok it will take me a year to play with a band and putting the album out there before we had any interest from record labels. And now it’s happening a little faster.

JenJen: As long as the band fits, that is what’s important.

Thom: It’s definitely finding the right people, and I’m certainly not in a rush. It’s more about the long road than the short one.

JenJen: When booking your shows, where you able to perform in a city you haven’t been to before? If so, what city and how was your first experience there?

Thom: There were a couple of times this year that I went to a city just for a tour date that I have never been too. Most notably and most randomly, I have say to say Jacksonville, Illinois. I picked that city based upon the fact that, you know I can said that oh I did my show at Cleveland Ohio, but maybe I would have ended up in Cleveland at some point. But I wouldn’t think I would have ever gone to Jacksonville Illinois other than to play a show because it’s about 4 ½ hour drive south of Chicago. It was at an Illinois college that’s only about a 1,000 person school, but the show was great. There were 220 kids there that stayed for the weekend. They were happy because it was one of there bigger shows. I sold out all of my CDs, and it was a fun time.

JenJen: What was the most memorable moment or the biggest highlight during your tour?

Thom: Gosh the biggest highlight, hmm. I would say it would be my first performance that I launched the acoustic tour. I played at the Hotel Café in Hollywood, and it was on a night when Tom Morello was performing with The Nightwatchman. He brought in a bunch of special guests which included Ben Harper. So I had essentially launched my acoustic tour opening up for Ben Harper even though I played at seven and he played at eleven. It still counts (laughs).

JenJen: Yes it does (laughs)! I noticed the show roster was filled with small intimate venues, were you able to spend a lot of time interacting with your fans?

Thom: Ya, I think for an acoustic show it’s always better to be at a smaller venue. Even still I think with new material, it’s always better to be at a smaller venue. For two reasons… One, like you said, to interact with people. You know, when you in a smaller venue, you don’t have that crazy stage lighting that blinds you. You can see everyone in the audience and see how they are reacting to it. You get someone that wants to say something, you can answer back. The other thing is you’re not going to fill a big venue until you have music that is more widely known. At this point, the acoustic tour was done to kind of to lead up to release of the new album. So that point I was playing material that no one really heard before.

JenJen: I had the pleasure of listening to your upcoming album, “Without Warning” which will be released in stores on 01/15/08…

Thom: Well, it will be released on iTunes. I don’t know about stores yet.

JenJen: Oh just on iTunes only?

Thom: I’m self releasing it so the only store we’re in at this point in time is at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco. We’ll be release at one store, and also iTunes.

JenJen: Are most of the tracks personal experiences or are they a mixture of experiences that you have seen from family and friends?

Thom: For the most part, I definitely write what I know and what I have personally experienced. Although, sometimes it can a lead of actions of reality. Sometimes, I will tell a story of an experience that maybe more or less existed of what I felt. For example, “Anybody Home?” was a song that I definitely have felt that way but I never had actually done the things I’ve actually talked about in the song.

JenJen: I’ll try not to ask much acting related questions, but would you consider writing a song for a particular movie or are your songs strict about personal experiences?

Thom: Sure, if there was an opportunity to write a song for a film or take the concept of the movie and kind of melt that which what I know and what I’ve experienced and how I relate to it, sure I would definitely do that. Or at this point of time when I talk to people that are looking for music for films or when I met with the music supervisor on the film that I’m working on, I’ll try to find the song that best fits the theme of the movie that’s already on a record.

JenJen: When I opened up the album insert to read your lyrics, I noticed that the lyrics are printed like draft papers. Are those scanned copies of pages from your writing book?

Thom: Ya, they are. It’s really funny because first I’ve lost the book of all my notes. We wrote about probably 60 songs to choose from for the record and we came to the final 11. I spent a couple of days transcribing all of the lyrics into Microsoft Word to give to the designer. We were working on the design and I was like, “Ehh.. it’s not really working, I mean I like the colors but it looks a little cold,” and he goes, “Well what do you what to do?” and I said, “I don’t know. I always kind of had this idea like I would like to have my own handwriting in there.” Remember the Green Day album, “Dookie” ?

JenJen: Yepyep.

Thom: Remember how it was all chicken scratch writing on the inside? I was like, “That was cool!” I was in junior high school when that came out and I was like, “That’s dope!” And my designer was like, “Yah, I can do that.” And I went, “Really?!?!” So I took pictures of all my note paper and he messed with it. I don’t know how he did it, but he got it on there.

JenJen: That’s a real cool way of showing a more personal side of your songwriting. You know in a teacher’s perspective when they edit their students’ papers? I saw how you edited your work. It was interesting to see what your original song title was before you revised it to the final title. It gives the fans a sense of how your thought process works.

Thom: Absolutely. I definitely wanted to put that out there, you know?

JenJen: It was very creative. I liked it. Umm… you probably should scan your pages just in case that book gets lost again. (laughs)

Thom: (laughs) You know the thing is, I guess I left a part of that story, is when I told my friend who was designing it that he goes, “I can do that” and I went “Well, I lost my book” and he goes, “Well OK, let me know otherwise I will keep working on it.” And then, it ended up being in one of my guitar cases. I went to show someone a guitar because I have a pretty expensive guitar collection, and I found the book and went “OMG! I found the book!!!”

JenJen: It’s Christmas all over again!!!

Thom: (laughs) Totally. Totally.

JenJen: The song “Without Warning” reminds me of my favorite quote, “Good things will happen when you at least expect it.” Was this particular song based about your music career how it found you?

Thom: No.. actually. Well, that is a cool interpretation, I might use that… Can I steal that and say yes?

JenJen: Um sure! Just give “whaddup JenJen!” shout out afterwards.

Thom: I collaborate on songwriting with a bunch of established musicians. We wrote songs with Bruce Kulick, who used to play in the band KISS back in the twelve years they stopped wearing their makeup and now he’s on the road with Grand Funk Railroad. He’s a pretty incredible guitar player. The song “Anybody Home?” we wrote with Chris Chaney, who plays bass on the whole record. He’s an incredible bass guitarist which is why the song is written around the bass guitar rift. Then, “Without Warning” , “Wasting My Time” and “You Don’t Know” which are some of my favorites, the producer and I collaborated with Dan Lavery, who used to play bass in a band called Tonic, and now he’s been touring with The Fray. And the song kind of came from one of our writing sessions. We got together our first time and my producer said to bring in a couple of riffs you written just so I have something. I tried playing through those. We wrote songs from some those and some we didn’t. We haven’t found the song yet, then I was just noodling on my guitar and that riff from “Without Warning” just kind of came out accidentally. Then Dan said to play that again, and he started singing a melody over it. Then he was like “Wait, I got a chorus!” So he grabbed a guitar, and he hit the chorus instantly. And the first words that came out of his mouth were how the song got written without warning. So that’s sort of the insection of the idea and I just kind of took that most based upon of what you thought of how good things happen when you least expect it.

JenJen: You know how the saying goes, “Keep work life and personal life separate”? Well, I’m guessing your acting career is work and your music career is more personal. Will you be putting those separate or will you include your music on future movies you’ll star in?

Thom: I would definitely be combining all those things. A lot of the films that I’ve done the last couple of years have asked to have songs on the soundtrack. Granted, some people can say that happen because you’ve worked on the film, but it does or it doesn’t. I mean obviously that’s the connection, but I’ve been doing music for a long time and I’ve always kind of pitched my music to be on the soundtrack. Again like I said, this is the first time my music has been at the right place. I don’t want to say I’ve made crap before, but it’s finally good. So I have been turned down on past films for doing things like that so I know that the music speaks for itself, but as far as combining them, ya definitely. This year, along finishing the record, and doing the 50 acoustic tour dates and 5 dates with the band, I also shot 4 movies. I think two of the films are include at least one song off the record for the soundtrack.

JenJen: I really like the song “You Don’t Know” because it has a real catchy tune. I think it would be an awesome addition to a movie soundtrack. (giggles)

Thom: Well, I agree with you (laughs). Actually, we shot our first music video “Without Warning” . That will be coming out on iTunes late January. And then I just shot one for “You Don’t Know” and now I’m shooting “Wasting My Time” at the end of this month. So you’re gonna have some music videos coming up too.

JenJen: For future songwriting, which singer would you like to have featured singing with you on one of your songs?

Thom: Oh wow. I can’t really answer on who would be singing with me. I don’t know who I would sound good with or whether or not it would be coordinated to do a duet with. Can I rephrase that answer with who I would like to open up for?

JenJen: There’s not a dream singer that you would like to collaborate with just for fun?

Thom: I’m a really huge fan of Switchfoot which you know is a San Diego band.

JenJen: Of course.

Thom: Actually, I’ve got things in the works I’ve trying to find my way to connect with them to maybe playing a couple of tour dates with them or open up for them somewhere. And if that can happen, maybe I can collaborate with John or Tim. Then John Mayer, of course is a major song writer, I think collaborating with him would be amazing. But I don’t know if these guys would want to collaborate with me (laughs). So this is why it’s my dream.

JenJen: Will we be seeing any music collaboration with you and your wife, DJ Collette in the near future?

Thom: Not really sure. Obviously our genres of music are very different. Even though house music would, at times, will bring in a “guest singer”, I think Collette already got that on the market on the corner because she sings. So she’s her own guest singer. Other thing too, so much of our time being spent doing music, we’re definitely trying to keep our music life separated from our life. But you know, we’re both really picky when it comes to what we like musically. I don’t think we’ll be collaborating any house remix to my music.

JenJen: How was your experience meeting Sharon Osbourne? I saw your interview on her show. Did she give you valuable advice from her music management knowledge?

Thom: I’ve tried. I mean, you saw it right there on the interview. I tried to get her to agree to manage me if she liked my tunes. She didn’t really approach me after we were done taping. Plus, I’ll be honest with you. I was so ill that day. I was completely under the weather the day we filmed that.

JenJen: You definitely pull that off. I didn’t even notice you were.

Thom: Ya, I don’t want to go into details in grossing you or anyone else out. I was cowering in the dressing room, and then I turned it on, went out, did the interview, sang the song, and then I was like “Must go home!!”

JenJen: And get some sleeeeeeeeep!!

Thom: Ya. I’m not one to cancel a gig so rain or shine. Sick or well, I’ll be there.

JenJen: Here’s a fun random question. Since your initials are T.I.N. what else could TIN stand for besides your name?

Thom: You know I can honestly say I never thought that before. I think it was bad enough that my first band, when I was 17, was called the Tinmen.

JenJen: Did they purposely came with that name?

Thom: Ya, they purposely did that and it was cheesy. Ever since that I kind of steered away anything that had to deal with my initials, hence why I haven’t really thought about supplementary acronyms. Do you have any ideas?

JenJen: Uhh… if your asking me to think right on top of my head, I would say uhhh… Twenty… Itchy… Nailbiters. (laughs) I don’t know! That’s why I threw in that random question.

Thom: Hmm, maybe I should think of something…

JenJen: Yah, just in case if you are asked this question again.

Thom: I guess I should just have fun and mutilate my name. But I think yours takes the cake. I think we should print yours.

JenJen: It’s all yours. My Christmas present to you.

Thom: Thank you.

JenJen: In your “The First Gig” video, is there a part 2? I saw part 1, but I googled part 2 and I couldn’t find it.

Thom: The whole short is actually 18 minutes long. What happened was, at the time youtube.com started, we didn’t know how to compress it to get it under the 100 MBs. We used any music that we wanted, so we were also afraid that we’re using major songs that we have don’t have any rights to. So that’s how we came up with part 1 with my brother the music doing beat-boxing. I have to talk my brother into finishing more of the short. Like I said the whole short is 18 minutes. I thought I have it uploaded somewhere. I guess I don’t. I thought I have it up on my myspace page. I’ll have to check. I don’t remember.

JenJen: If it’s not on google, it doesn’t exist. (laughs) When did you film that?

Thom: I would say 2002 or maybe 2001. I don’t really remember it was long time ago.

JenJen: Let me know when part 2 is up, please. Since Christmas is a few days away, are there any cool toys or gadgets you want for Christmas?

Thom: This will sound funny considering that I started just my band and been doing this acoustic tour, I got one of my Christmas presents already which is Guitar Hero.

JenJen: That’s sick! I’ve played that. My brother has it. One game I’m addicted to is Rock Band.

Thom: I heard about that game is pretty cool too. I got Guitar Hero 3 and I battled Tom Morello.

JenJen: Who won?

Thom: After 7 attempts, I beat him.

JenJen: At least you got a win.

Thom: Ya, I wouldn’t give up.

JenJen: With your album coming out next month, what else can we look forward to for Thomas Ian Nicholas in 2008?

Thom: Shoot, I guess more shows with the full band which I guess a lot of people that have seen the acoustic show would really dig the full band show. Just to understand the difference between the acoustic tour, we actually given the band a name. So it’s called Thomas Ian Nicholas and The Rojo Trio.

JenJen: What made you decide to use The Rojo Trio?

Thom: The guitar player and the drummer are in another band and that’s their name, The Rojo Trio. So I thought since we’re combining efforts that I would incorporate their name. The Rojo Trio goes out on rock gigs that are more bluesy and when we get together it’s more pop rock. A lot of artists that I really dig have multiple music outlets and different bands so I thought it would be cool to do the same thing. Looking forward to playing more shows with the band, and even though the first record is not even released yet until Jan 15th, we’re starting to talk about how we’re going to approach the next record, which of course we won’t do for like a year, but we going to start writing for it , I think together. I’m going to start writing with the band, so we can start hauling in more of our own sound. Then, of course the music videos, and going to keep shooting movies. Hopefully at some point, get a team together with a booking agent, a manager and seeing what happens with the record labels that are interested.

JenJen: Start building up an empire.

Thom: (laughs) Ya, well.. a small empire. But yes, the empire.

JenJen: By the way. thank you for the personal Bandvibe shout out in your album. We really enjoy working with you.

Thom: Of course, you’re welcome. Well, you guys have been a part of my music career, at least from this record and the acoustic tour from the very beginning. I mean, I’ve made it up on the Rock Shot of the Week a couple of times. I got my presence on Bandvibe.

JenJen: Any words or advice you would like to say to your Bandvibe fans?

Thom: First and foremost, thank you for everyone that’s been paying attention to the early stages of the “Without Warning” record and sort of the beginning of my band. Like most music fans, some people have aspirations to do their own music. We definitely live in a day in age where we can do that on our own. You can make great stuff. I kind of think we’re moving backwards in a positive way in music where things are starting to go more in a sense that artist can put their music in a way they want it to sound, as oppose to getting infiltrated with marketing and record labels telling them how to do it, which is exciting for music. For all of the Bandvibers that have aspirations of music, just put it out there, don’t be afraid.

For more official information on Thomas Ian Nicholas, please log onto:
http://www.thomasiannicholas.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thomasiannicholas

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