Our Double Shot series includes an interview question and a song feature from an independent band or musician near you. The goal is to allow you to learn more about the bands we feature in smaller, more digestible amounts of content.
Grab your cup of coffee, click play, and allow us to continue getting to know Richard of Niacin Library.
Today’s Double Shot features Wait a Minute from The Vulture and The Sun. Be sure and check out our previous Double Shot with Richard.
What led you to choose the music path? Who or what are your influences? And what was the last song or album you listened to?
When I was younger my life was just really out of balance. I don’t know how else to say it. Everything was constantly changing. My family moved all the time. I grew up watching my sister die from cancer. My parents completely believed that the world was about to undergo some kind of apocalyptic epoch. Every day. Every day was one step closer to where we were all going to be implanted with microchips and the government/Satan was going to end the world. I am completely serious. I can’t begin to tell you how many times my mother thought that whoever was in office or in power was the Antichrist.
Through all of that, my mother was also an aspiring songwriter. She mainly composed children’s hymns. Still, she was a member of few local songwriting organizations and would bring me along to various get-togethers and meetups. So, until my teenage years, I essentially thought of music as my “mother’s thing” and I didn’t want any part of it.
When puberty hit my friends really started making fun of me for not listening to popular music. As I alluded to before, the only music that was really playing in our house was religious. My sisters had a few country records and movie soundtracks. My father owned one, best of, Nat King Cole album. And aside from listening to country music on the radio, that was it. So, in an effort to reduce any teasing, I started listening to what my friends were into. At the time these were acts like Metallica and White Zombie. Not exactly my cup of tea these days but I was at least slightly higher in the pubescent pecking order.
At some point, a friend in my boy scout group introduced me to MxPx’s Life In General album. That was it. That was my gateway into music that I really loved. It was catchy. It was fast. It was really a moment for me. I had the entire thing memorized. I could recite it note for note and would gleefully annoy any acquaintance with terrible vocal renditions. From there it went onto bands like NoFx, Rancid, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Black Flag and many, many, more. In years to come, my interests moved far beyond punk. However, Bad Religion was particularly influential.
I can safely say Bad Religion changed my life. The lyrics made me question every single aspect of my surroundings and all of my preconceived ideas. Every song felt like a mini-essay on the human condition and you had to have a dictionary handy in order to catch what the heck Greg Graffin meant in the lyrics.
While my external life was always in chaos and going completely crazy, my internal life was stabilized through music. Music was one of the few things I could count on. There was a kind of world and a kind of education that you could only get through headphones and speakers.
A lot of the bands and artists I listened to were able to make a living through record deals and constant touring. But most of them weren’t. The point (to my young and all too idealistic self) was that it wasn’t about making money, it was about making sense of life. Someone at some point was in front of a microphone and giving you another piece of the puzzle.
That, I feel, was what ultimately lead me to music. The idea that you could communicate complex ideas, and affect lives in roughly three minutes or less.
I’m not sure if I will ever be able to competently reach that goal haha! But it has definitely been rewarding.
The last song I listened to was Buddy Guy singing Baby Please Don’t Leave Me from the Sweet Tea album. He’s so good on that song. If you’re reading this you should stop and find it somewhere online. His voice is tapping into some kind of platonic form. It’s this eternal, ethereal wail. It’s so real. There are parts in that song where he is communicating something that you just can’t do with words. It’s so god damned good it’s scary. Your life is incomplete until you’ve heard that song. Quick! Go find it! You don’t want to die without hearing it at least once. And listen to it loud! Otherwise, your soul may be missing some pieces.
