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Nick of Skeleton Boy
1.1k Plays1 year ago
Host Ken Volante was watching some 'Dark Souls' gameplay and heard some rocking music down at the Albany, Oregon skatepark. He got to meet Nick of Skeleton Boy and here we bring you some of the sounds from the Willamette Valley. Thanks Nick for the great chat!
💀Welcome to The Bone Zone💀
💀Punk-ish band from Albany, Oregon💀
💀Keepin' it spooky 24/7/365💀
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host Ken Volante. Editor and producer Peter Bauer.
00:00:17
Speaker
Hey everybody, this is something rather than nothing podcast.
Ken's Experience with Nick's Music
00:00:20
Speaker
Most excited to bring on Nick May of Skeleton Boy Band based in Albany, Oregon. Saw them at the skate park, knocked me over. So Nick, welcome on to the show. Thanks man, so happy to be here.
00:00:34
Speaker
yeah i enjoyed the i enjoyed the show and i actually for me the band's personality goes a long way i had a lot of fun had a lot of fun and uh you know it was something that was really cool um and and listeners talking about albany oregon ran it to nick playing by the skate park and um
00:00:56
Speaker
Just a great event for benefit, but it's just great to have that live energy here in Albany.
Skeleton Boy's Album Journey
00:01:06
Speaker
And prior to popping on, Nick, we were talking a bit about arts and where arts are and finding spaces to perform.
00:01:16
Speaker
Let's chat about Skeleton Boy. Let's talk about you as an artist over here in Albany and making music. Tell the listeners a bit about, you know, what you're up to in the music and in the crowd, that type of stuff. Yeah. So we kind of we play primarily in like the Albany Corvallis area. And like our big goal right now is we're trying to like we're working on our our album.
00:01:44
Speaker
We've been doing EPs for the last few years or so because it was kind of easier just to get a short collection of songs that we've been playing live, but we've hit a point where getting something more creative and having the whole album space is what we've been really excited about.
00:02:00
Speaker
Yeah, just trying to make Albany music happen. We've had a little like thing going with Kalapuya Brewing over here for like the last like about I think a little over a year now and we're putting it on hiatus for the winter. But yeah, it's been it's been really exciting. For Peace Band, we kind of do like an indie punk kind of alternative rock sound. Yeah, yeah, lots of stuff really.
00:02:22
Speaker
Really happy to be on the show. Yeah.
Albany's Music Scene
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah. It's absolutely great. Great to have you here and in chat and art. Yeah. On the music bit, like, you know, I think one of the thing in talking about our local scene is, is.
00:02:36
Speaker
I talk to a lot of folks in the area and it's like there's, you know, it's like in a smaller city, you know, bits and pieces everywhere. It's not not necessarily like art, art, focus, culture, you know, the gifts that are underneath and hidden. But like even on music, I know Vintersee, incredible metal band,
00:02:58
Speaker
Plays and I know his practice in the area I go to the go would go out in town I saw lead singers fantastic band metal band vowel volition and you know, there's a lot of a lot of a lot of folks around and It's great. It's great to hear about you putting putting together The album in and getting out there. I wanted to ask you
00:03:23
Speaker
about you yourself as an artist, creator, and doing music.
Nick's Musical Genesis
00:03:30
Speaker
Is there a moment when you're going along, growing up, learning stuff, where you're like, I'm an artist, shit, I'm an artist, I'm a musician. Is there that point for you? Can you tell us about it?
00:03:45
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so I think that it was something that I kind of fell into, um, through, uh, maybe like an unkind way to say about it. It's like, like coping mechanisms and stuff. Like I, uh, I ended up playing music because, um, going into, um, middle school, like we got that option in my local area. You could do choir or like do band as electives and stuff at that point. And it was a lot easier than an elementary school. And my mom was like, Hey, you gotta, you either need to be in the choir or play an instrument.
00:04:14
Speaker
It'll be good for you. Just do it for a little bit. If you hate it, you can stop, but you at least got to start. And I picked up saxophone and played that for a while and was really into it. And then, you know, you become a teenager and like emotions can be really difficult to process. And I, you know, something that really helped me with just being a young, angry kid was metal and punk music and like trying to write that music for myself. And it kind of transitioned from just like jumping around in my bedroom and like singing along to songs that I really liked and into like
00:04:43
Speaker
writing my own songs as a way to kind of like get that catharsis of like expressing those emotions that I was having in a unique way. And then that's transitioned into like a real love of like collaborating with other people to make that message that I have something that's more universal that we can all feel excited about sharing with people and then sharing that with the crowd of people and have everybody dance is the best part, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. I really dig on. I really dig on what you're saying. And, um,
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's, uh, you know, I think like talking metal and punk, right?
Art as Expression and Connection
00:05:17
Speaker
So like I, uh, I grew up, you know, listening to classic rock and my parents, but, um, I grew up a time when rap hip hop's coming up. So I'm talking early eighties and stuff like that. And, uh, culturally I was, um,
00:05:34
Speaker
You know in both worlds, but I was into hip-hop rap stuff and I got it to like High school and you know that that friend that you have that comes over with like the fucking ministry tapes You know like and it was like industrial and metal whereas at that point to where you know there's certainly a lot of intensity a lot of evocative pieces of hip-hop that I threw myself into like but um
00:06:01
Speaker
It was that it was that metal. It was that metal where I think it was the sound and just the whole sound. I was like, OK, that's that's the feel right there. And it's a good it's it's it's a great energy. So about about art in and of itself, Nick, what do you think art is like?
00:06:28
Speaker
What do you think, for you, what is art? I think that art is such a big, fun question. I love these. I think art is self-expression. I like to say that I had an opportunity to describe my personal characteristics I like about myself and a work thing the other day. And I chose self-expression over creativity because I think that people can get really pretentious sometimes about what
00:06:58
Speaker
it means to be a creative and just expressing yourself, like yelling into the world, I think is cool. Can I swear on here before? Yeah. Yeah. It's fucking cool. You know, I love that, you know, right? Like it's yeah. And so I think I'm sorry. The original question was I got to know just about what is just no, no. Yeah. Like what is it? So I think that it's it's that ability to at least the way that I use it, express something that is
00:07:25
Speaker
is unique to you in a way that other people will resonate with their own uniqueness. Like there's artists like Will Toledo from Car Seat Headrest is a singer songwriter that I really like. And he I think writes these highly specific lyrics that are so unique to like what he has gone through and tells his stories in this unique way.
00:07:46
Speaker
that even though I don't resonate with a band like The Beach Boys in the same way that he does, I can still pick up that nostalgia that he has and that resonance with other bands that people have shared with me like, you know, Boston or the Eagles, for example, like, you know, talking about classic rock.
00:08:03
Speaker
And yeah, and it's so to be able to express something that is so holy yourself that people can see their own unique experience in it. And that can inspire people to share that. And my cheesy thing is that I always say that hopefully art will save the world. Like we can just all
00:08:21
Speaker
create stuff and by showing each other our own unique lens can humanize the experience that we're all having. Yeah, I mean that hits it for me and I think it's not trite to talk about like sharing art and sharing culture and sharing food.
00:08:37
Speaker
And, you know, like, just the idea of change, of changing the world. Because, you know, I've done the show for a bit, and when you talk about the experiences that are art experiences that, for lack of a better term, seem to be mystical, you know, you keep still kind of, you know, exploring. And particularly music, you know, there's various levels of sensitivity to music. A lot of people I have on the show are highly sensitive to it.
00:09:06
Speaker
the realizations or the inflections are like incredible, you know, of like you say in highly personalized lyric or like, how did, like, if we're talking about lyrics, how did somebody get that weird ass feeling that I could never characterize or something like that?
Evolution and Challenges of Skeleton Boy Band
00:09:24
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great experience. So talking about the band as a whole, in Skeleton Boy, you're talking about looking to try to pull together things with an album. What about the rest of the cats on the album? And who play with you? Just kind of like, where do those folks come from? And just a little bit about the band.
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, so the origin of it is that I had written a couple of these songs for myself in my graduated from high school period of time. And then I was doing that. I did bad in college, so I started just working retail jobs. And I met Joel, the current drummer of the band, and Derek, the
00:10:15
Speaker
keyboard player for the band. Sorry, I stopped for a second because everybody played different things at the time. We're one of those bands like so when it started, it was Derek was on drums and Joel played bass. And I've always kind of done the guitar and vocals. That's been the central thing. But we kind of
00:10:30
Speaker
morphed through things over time and it was one of those situations where you kind of meet a couple people, work in someplace and that kind of shared, you know, traumatic experience and just the fun that you have like working and dealing with people kind of bonds you in a way that you end up joking enough about starting a band together that it really happens. And we did that for a while and we kind of just like for the most part we're just like
00:10:54
Speaker
having fun with it, playing open mics in Corvallis. Shout out to Bombs Away Cafe. That place rules. And we've made that our haunt for a while. Big shout out. Right? They rule, man. I love that place. And so we'd just kind of play there and just made a lot of friends with more of the graduate students there. There was kind of like a little scene going on at that time of just people just kind of making music. And that was separate from other music scenes going on in Corvallis.
00:11:23
Speaker
Kept going through that, the pandemic hit, we just started working on our own stuff and growing in the meantime. And then when we came out of it, we started playing shows and realized that when we had recorded during the pandemic and not given ourselves the rule of like, hey, you can't
00:11:38
Speaker
I'd always like said when we're recording, we shouldn't try to put anything on the album or the song or whatever that we couldn't replicate live. And with three people that can be like a little bit limiting at times. And so when we didn't have as much of an opportunity to play in front of people, we decided, hey,
00:11:54
Speaker
Let's take those wheels off of that and let's just kind of do our own thing and see what happens. And so what came out of that was we had some fun like keyboard parts that we ended up writing that were really interesting. And so that was inspired Derek to want to take that over. And then Joel wanted to do drums because they had found that they were more interested in doing that recently. And then we're like, oh, well, I love bass personally. And like there might be a universe where we could have still kept it three people and just not had a bass player.
00:12:21
Speaker
Um, but I've just always loved bands with like interesting bass parts and I think it can be such a cool instrument. Um, and so yeah, we, uh, we put out an ad on like Craigslist and Facebook and Instagram and tried to find a basis. And then Al was the one person that we actually ended up interviewing. We had, I think like two or three other people that we were supposed to, and things just didn't end up working out. And it was kind of one of those first thought, best thought things.
00:12:46
Speaker
Um, and so yeah, it's kind of become a band that like initially started as something that I felt really comfortable just like taking and calling, you know, my own in a way. Like I wrote these songs. I could just play them by myself with an acoustic guitar, but like more and more lately, especially since like Al has joined the band, like it's the songs that we're writing now aren't ones that I can as easily take for myself and just play in front of people alone. And I think that makes it so much more fun for me.
00:13:13
Speaker
And it just, yeah, sharing that experience and what we all add to it, we come from very different but similar musical backgrounds. And so it makes a really fun kind of like, you know, gumbo that you kind of get, mix everybody all together and stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for giving. Thanks for giving someone that background there too.
00:13:34
Speaker
everybody talking to Nick May, a skeleton boy based in Albany, Oregon. So I wanted to ask you a question as far as the role of art and just talking about what art is. And the basic idea is that, the basic question is whether art, the role of art is different now
00:14:02
Speaker
say 2023, then it's been, or if it feels that way, but what's the role of art for human beings?
Art, Technology, and Connection
00:14:11
Speaker
What's it supposed to do? I think that I was actually kind of thinking about this when I was like driving in the car the other day, like my commute is usually pretty short, but I had to like go on like a little work trip. So I had like an hour and a half to go up to Beaverton. And I was just kind of like listening to music. And I was thinking about the fact that
00:14:33
Speaker
You know, a lot for a while there, a long while there, like, you know, music was dictated by like tastemakers, like radio or like people like, you know, Rolling Stone magazine and stuff that will come out and say like, Hey, this is something I identify as really good and this is art. And there, it wasn't as easy for people on a large scale to just like, like me, not that I have that, but for somebody like me to just come and say, Hey.
00:14:56
Speaker
I'm just a guy in my house in Albany, and if somebody really likes my song, that can blow up if I get incredibly lucky. And so I think that what can be really great now about art is that discovery piece, is that as hard as algorithms can make it, it creates this terrible silver lining for me where whenever I find something that really resonates with me, I'm like, oh, I've kind of gotten past all of the
00:15:24
Speaker
technical barriers that make it seem like this should be very easy, but actually make it incredibly hard. And long story short, it kind of like it's a human experience where I feel like I'm reaching through all of this bullshit to be like, hey, somebody made this like painting like that just speaks to me. And I'm not even looking at the thing. I'm just looking at a picture on my phone screen. Or like somebody like made a TikTok that just made me laugh.
00:15:49
Speaker
so damn hard because they made a joke in a way that I'd never thought of before. It's all art to me. It's human. It's a way of showing us that, again, it's that unique experience that you have that you can show to somebody that makes them realize that their experience is unique. Yeah. I don't know when, and I think tied to the sensitivity that folks have with art. I mean, I had this indescribable experience,
00:16:19
Speaker
Like when I'm really like into a painting, like really into it, I know I am because it's behavioral and it's not in my head because I go as close as is allowed, like as close as is allowed. Like I'm very like rule bound when it comes to like art, not in general.
00:16:39
Speaker
But when it comes to art and like so I'm up to the extent of it And then when I notice like I'm trying to find what's underneath because there's something that's impacting me I'm looking at at different angles and different lights and It's such a it's such a powerful experience sometimes where a piece is like that and it pulls you absolutely in or a or a song where
00:17:02
Speaker
There's so much energy going through you. The sound you make surprises you, or the body action you take surprises you, or a painting you want to take a bite of because you don't know what to do with it. You're like, it's so scrumptious and wonderful. Let me do something with this. And, you know, music with the, I go for that, you know, the visceral,
00:17:28
Speaker
in the body and one of the things I said like about like even just talking about art scene in Albany and just like a lot of bands and quite a diverse
00:17:44
Speaker
group and we're talking here listeners about kind of just Corvallis Albany area Corvallis is a College town and just talking about some of the aspects where they're kind of art scenes that aren't overt or That are overlooked, but I got to see skeleton boy at at this at this at the skate park Which is pretty dope a great scene a lot of skaters
00:18:11
Speaker
All right, Nick, I want to ask the big question, just kind of clear it out of the room of the show. Why is it really just to clear it out of the room? Why is there something rather than nothing?
00:18:25
Speaker
I've been like really toying with this because I listened to like one of the episodes before And so cuz I wanted to know what it was all about. What what the fuck is this question? Good. Good. Just listen a little. Yeah, you gotta get a check it out. See what kind of someone else answer it
Existence: Something Instead of Nothing
00:18:41
Speaker
shout out ketties resort for giving me a model for how to do this well wait a second here oh wait a second here I love ketties but for listeners recent episode ketties resort Nick has told us he's relying on ketties but that's cool crazy man that was a fun fun
00:19:04
Speaker
Um, so I think that there is, is something rather than nothing, um, because, uh, we're all, we're all sitting here and the fact that you would identify that like saying nothing is something as weird and meta to get with it as that. Like, um, there's a, uh, a quote of a quote that I really liked that there's a rapper, um, rap Ferrera that I really liked that I think that it's, um,
00:19:34
Speaker
poet Jack Whitten that he's quoting when he says an idea is a work of art and I just I love that and I think it's that there's something rather than nothing because you know I as an artist was at one point just somebody there that was like standing watching somebody on a stage going I want to do that and now I see myself doing that for people and like it is you know and I
00:19:57
Speaker
We don't all get the opportunity or have the resources to be able to make that switch like I have. But I think that the aspiration for that in the first place is something rather than nothing. And the fact that that's in there, it enriches us. It lifts us all up. It's beautiful. No, I really like that.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's that question. I heard some read at the beginning too when you're saying, which is just a subtle point of like by announcing nothing, there is this piece of where you're flipping it over and saying that there must be something. What is the nothing of? It's something.
00:20:36
Speaker
Strangely enough, I've been doing this show for four years. I hadn't quite thought of it in that categorical way. So, no, it's really super. Yeah, and talking about music too, even in Albany, my child, Aiden, who might have briefly saw after the show as a skater,
00:21:00
Speaker
musician with the project Polybius as well. So one of the cool things for me is that I've been around Aiden with the creation of all the components of that musical project and just kind of talking art with them and like, you know, just seeing the creative piece because
00:21:26
Speaker
Early on, the only instruments I ever tried to learn, Nick, were the accordion and the ukulele, which tells you a lot about me. You don't know me, but...
00:21:35
Speaker
I know something now, yeah. You know more than you did. And I tell you, when I lived in Wisconsin for 12 years, I lived in Wisconsin for 12 years, and holy shit, I wish I kept up with that according because the polka star is the punk star in some parts of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and other places. And when you hear a polka and you're culturally in a place,
00:22:05
Speaker
where a hundred people do it, the accordion is king. I have not had the pleasure, I have seen, I have seen videos, I have heard the tale of the polka in its best cultural setting, and I have yet to experience it, but I hope one day too, because it seems like it must be arresting. Well, let me tell you what helps create it. There's just a little drop into Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I live.
00:22:34
Speaker
So, you know, tailgating, right? I don't drink now at the time. There's no partying like to drink and all that stuff, which Milwaukee is quite the place for that. But anyways, going to a Milwaukee Brewers game, right? So now I, when I was younger, whatever, screwing around, I grew up in New England going to New England Patriots game, tailgating, Sunday, big party, everything going on, that whole thing.
00:23:03
Speaker
Well, that's fantastic and wonderful and quite the event. I went to a Brewers game on a Tuesday night in August. And it was the biggest fucking party I've seen. And it was like one of my first games. And I'm like, well, wait a second. They tailgate at baseball games. Number one, that's different maybe than some other years that you are tailgating at a baseball game.
00:23:32
Speaker
and the polka. So, you know, you could have an enormous polka before folks are going into the Brewers game. And it was at those points that I said, man, I should have kept up on that damn heavy instrument I could barely carry.
00:23:55
Speaker
My guitars get lighter every time I get a new one, man. You don't want a heavy instrument, right? You're lighter. Then when I jumped over to ukulele, the only songs I learned to play were Blue's Traveler and The Cure. Both sides of the spectrum. You got the whole thing covered.
00:24:17
Speaker
So I guess maybe if I take up my third stilted attempt at picking up an instrument, let's make sure it's obscure, can't be commodified, can't be popular, can't find an audience.
00:24:34
Speaker
Got you the spoons man. I mean you might get an audience with the spoons though. There's China here. I am poor poor Nick I'm trying to figure out my music career at this point of this point of the of the interview. Um
00:24:48
Speaker
Hey, so I don't want to miss it dropping back on Skeleton Boy again and kind of go over the like Weirdifying Skeleton Boy, you got shirts where you pop in, play live, I know Spotify, can you tell us about all that
Stay Connected with Skeleton Boy
00:25:06
Speaker
stuff?
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So we're most active if you want to see where we are on Instagram and TikTok. And that's at skeleton boy band on all of those. We try to do fun videos, just keep people in the know through there. But then if you want to listen to our music, yeah, pretty much any streaming service, but Spotify was the one that we paid the most attention to. We try to update shows on there too. And then if you wanted to give us some money for our work or just own it, it's all free or pay what you want on Bandcamp.
00:25:36
Speaker
so you can access it that way as well. And we have a little ramshackle Google form that you can use to order t-shirts from us if you aren't able to make it up to shows because we are proud of our merch and we have cool stuff. And you can check that out on our link tree, which is attached to the Instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks so much for, I'm going to check out some of that stuff. I recently interviewed
00:26:01
Speaker
Jayden Allen, who's a graphic designer, does some fashion, some streetwear and stuff like that. I met him at the Heritage Mall over in Albany, a little bit of an arts type of thing there as well. And so it's been really cool in local arts. I mean, he even did a commission and designed one of the logos for something rather than nothing. So
00:26:23
Speaker
Part of this is it's I gotta tell you it's it's actually really cool to It's a worldwide show which I'm proud of but like There's some cool shit in Albany there's some cool shit in Albany and there's some there's some good bands and really enjoy Running into running into your running into your work. It's a great pleasure. I
00:26:50
Speaker
man you gotta put me in the way maybe later on or maybe right now if you want to plug people about the metal scene because I used to talk about metal bands around here that I hadn't heard of so we gotta
00:27:00
Speaker
Yeah, be informed about that. Well, let me let's the so this is what I know this is right off the cuff. I ran into let's let's follow this trail. Hang with me. So I interviewed the dude who created Jason Rising filmed in Oregon City fan film of Friday 13th series.
00:27:27
Speaker
These fan films are phenomenal and get millions of views. The dude who did some of the video for that is the video dude in place I forget which instrument, Infintersi, which is a tremendous band and beautiful videos.
00:27:44
Speaker
Polybius, my child, Aidan, put some of that out. I've seen Vow of Volition and I've seen, I'm escaping names right here because it's a loose story, but the lead singer for that, Vow of Volition, I saw them open up for Thy Art as Murder a while back.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, and in more in one or two that I'm forgetting but um, I've oh trash boys 80s 80s trash metal here metal trash metal now trash trash boys is gonna be on the show but interestingly enough, they're
00:28:31
Speaker
They're they're relocating establishing themselves. I believe out in Boise, Idaho not too far away. So Albany Created but trash boys as well and they're gonna be on the show. So let's um
00:28:47
Speaker
We're gonna have to compare notes and get our Albany area metal type thing and do the festival that I keep hinting towards. Do it, man. Do it. Well, my problem is, it's not a problem. It's a great experience in life. I went to Woodstock 94. Oh, that's a good year. Woodstock 94 is incredible. So my head, it has to do with
00:29:17
Speaker
the scope of what I wanted to read off to that because Woodstock 94 was absolutely wild. So I'm not going to drop into that right now. But when I think festival, I think
00:29:33
Speaker
I think big, but we could start with our Albany. We can do some fear grounds and stuff. Everybody, we've been chatting with Nick May of Skeleton Boy and I appreciate your art and I've been digging on the music too. Listener's got a treat for you. We've got Skeleton Boy's track Monroe taking us out. Hey, Nick, tell us a little bit about this track.
00:29:58
Speaker
So when we play this live, I always like to introduce this as a song about hating your best friend and living up above a record store because this was another shout out to a classic Corvallis business, Happy Trails Records over in Corvallis. I love those guys. I've spent so much money there. They have apartments that are right above there and I used to live above those or in one of those apartments up there at a very formative time in my life. And the girl that I was with at the time,
00:30:28
Speaker
should not have been together and it was a toxic relationship and was one of those like codependent things where you're like looking at how you're treating yourself and someone else and going, why are you being such an asshole right now? But you just don't know.
00:30:40
Speaker
how to get yourself out of that situation. And yeah, that's how I wrote that song, because it's on Monroe Street in Corvallis. Yeah. All right. Shout out to Happy Trails and Bombs Away Cafe. They're talking local stuff here. So anybody, if you're ever in the region, great, great record store, great, great music scene in, yeah, in the great town of Corvallis, great town of Albany, Oregon. So yeah, everybody check out Monroe.
00:31:45
Speaker
Feeling like an asshole Feeling like an asshole
00:33:07
Speaker
Feeling like an asshole, feeling like an asshole
00:33:39
Speaker
moonlight
00:34:41
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.