Nolan Potter Interview SXSW 24
Based out of Austin, Texas, Nolan Potter has been releasing imaginative and fantastical psychedelic music since 2017. Forming The Nightmare Band a few years later in 2019, Potter has established himself as a force in the DIY music scene in Austin. 2019's Nightmare Forever and 2021's Music Is Dead play into themes of exploration and escapism through the lens of fantasy and science fiction. His latest solo release, The Perils of Being Trapped Inside a Head, demonstrates Potter's songwriting abilities, as well as his proficiency with his guitar. Potter invited us to his home in Austin to discuss the upcoming album, the process of creating a song in his home studio, and how he got his start in the Austin music scene. Watch the interview below.
Ian
Hi, I'm Ian from WLUW and I'm here with.... you want to introduce yourself?
Nolan
Yes, I'm Nolan Potter from Nolan Potter's Nightmare band in Austin, Texas.
Ian
Thanks so much for sitting down with us and inviting us to your lovely home.
Nolan
Absolutely. Yeah.
Ian
Well, we really appreciate it. So I want to start out by talking to you about Honey: Tales From The Library of the Occult.
Nolan
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Ian
Yeah, the latest official release, I guess he got some new ones on Bandcamp.
Nolan
It became official, unofficially, it was like a commission to do this cool series, that Library of the Occult has been doing over the last few years. And I was like, yeah, that sounds great. But, I guess I misread the appetite for vinyl that our fans have. They're like, 'Oh, my God, they have a new record out.' You know, I wasn't thinking like that. I was like, this is like a side project. I love like scoring and soundtrack, all that kind of stuff. So any opportunity to do stuff like that, I'm like, this is great. We'll just put it under the Nightmare Band name because I collaborated with other Nightmare Band members. And then people were like, 'You've got a new LP out!' I was like, oh, yeah, I guess we do. And they all sold out very quickly. So yeah, not not super available anymore. But yeah, that was a really fun project.
Ian
How did it come to be? How did you link up with those people?
Nolan
I'd never heard of them before, and they'd heard of us, I guess. They sent me an email and I looked into everything it was doing and it's all based on like, old British 70s horror movies, folklore, which I love that stuff so much. It was just a no brainer. They sent me the story, and I was like, I'm so into this. And then we got to like, kind of collaborate on who was going to narrate it, and how to do the music with the narration and everything. And yeah, it was a really fun project. Nice. Yeah.
Ian
So I did see that you were initially interested in being a film composer. I was going to ask you this, but I learned it. The first song you learned to play was the Star Wars theme, on piano?
Nolan
Yeah!
Ian
That's amazing. What kind of drew you to want to compose for film?
Nolan
I mean, I think popular music was not a big thing in my home growing up. We were a very religious family, but very music oriented. So it was always church music. My mom was a piano teacher, so we'd always have music in the house. And yeah, I think I got into Star Wars before I can remember, you know, and John Williams has been such a huge influence on me, but, but just the way that the music works with the images and stuff, it was like, the first sort of like, what's the word I'm looking for? Like an epiphany, you know what I mean? I was like, whatever this is I wanted. I didn't picture that the music was in a separate world than the image, you know what I mean? When you're a kid, it's hard to separate that sort of. It was like, it was all happening at once, imagining that the characters are listening to this, while this is taking place, you know what I mean? It fascinated me and still does today. I always am picturing, like, as I'm working on a song, the movie of the song kind of comes into focus as I'm working on it. I picture all of my stuff as being soundtrack to something, you know,
Ian
Yeah, that was something I wanted to talk to you about is the differences that you find between writing a song like for Music is Dead or for I saw that you were soundtracking a short film before the pandemic, which didn't come to be but, how do you find that composing for a film and writing for like your own album differ in that writing process?
Nolan
I guess with a film you have prompts, you know what I mean? You're trying to serve the visual that's already there and, please, somebody else's vision of their projects that they're working on, which is kind of way easier than just coming up with music out of thin air that just has to exist on its own, not in support of a project or an idea that somebody else gave you to work on. But yeah, I mean, my partner Julie does all the artwork, and the camera's not gonna see it, but the original Music is Dead painting is up there. And now we sort of collaborate, she starts working on the on the album covers as soon as I'm working on the music, and that kind of like propels me forward to like, see what what the visual aspect of this is going to be, you know?
Ian
I want to talk to you a little bit more about the writing and recording process. We just saw a little sneak peek at your recording room there yeah. You've got all kinds of instruments, so do you write and record all instruments by yourself for these albums.
Nolan
Pretty much yeah, I mean, there's a bit more collaboration these days but you know, it's much easier for me to just do it myself. I have given myself all the time in the world to work on it basically, and other musicians’ schedules are a lot more limited than mine. So it's mostly out of necessity. I want to make a record with especially the new lineup of my band, I love so much working with these guys, but we just never had the time. The way that I make records, now, we would need like a month straight of nobody has to work, nobody has to play with any other bands. We just have to do this for a month, and then it'll be done. But yeah, it's more out of necessity than anything else, and then if I can't play something that I want to hear on the song, then I'll either adapt the song or work out a time to get somebody else in on it. But so far, that hasn't been too much of an issue. I have another new record coming out next month that I just ended up doing all by myself again, even though Music is Dead was kind of meant to be the last one. That was really out of necessity, I couldn't really even see my bandmates for all of 2020 / 2021, our time together was very limited. So that was truly the pandemic record. Now it's just kind of like, everybody's so busy, the guys in my band are so talented, that they're highly in demand with other projects around town. I don't know, it's easier for me to do stuff without having to talk to other people about it. And it's kind of limited by my own ability on whatever instrument too, which is kind of cool that it's like, well, I know that the song can only fit within these parameters, because I can't play beyond those parameters.
Ian
So that's something that I'm interested in knowing too, what is your favorite instrument to record for, and then what is one that you're like, 'Oh, no, I don't know how I'm gonna write this, I don't know how I'm gonna do this part.'
Nolan
I mean, my favorite one to record is drums. That's kind of the impetus for the whole project going back like the six, seven years I've been doing this is just, I love playing drums. I love figuring out how to make them work and recording. How to make them is like its own challenge, and the room that you're in limits you a lot, but limitations are what breeds creativity. Drums are probably the hardest, and the thing I spend the most time on, but also the most fun. The ones that... I mean, a lot of these songs are written on piano, but tracking piano is really hard for me sometimes. I want it to be very precise. I don't want to have to punch in or overdub, a lot of stuff, I want to be able to play it all the way through. So that's the thing I probably spend the most time on. If a song calls for piano, I'll spend our days sometimes practicing it and tracking it over and over and over and over.
But yeah, I get a kick out of doing all of it. I kind of like lose myself. Now it's time to play bass. I'm like, Okay, now I'm the bass player in the band that's playing this song, and like, try to put yourself in the mentality of being somebody else tracking that part. Yeah, it's an interesting thing. It's very psychological. You know, it's very psychological, producing a band in the studio and having to observe all the different personalities and stuff and how each person reacts to tracking their part. But then when you're doing it yourself, it's fully inward. It's like a very zen kind of thing.
Ian
Yeah, that's, that's a really cool insight. So I also wanted to talk to you about the Collected Improvisations and Meditation Music. You wrote like in the description, it's 'non canon music.' So what to you is non canon music and what draws you to releasing that for the world?
Nolan
I think a good example, going back to Honey, when I did that, I was thinking of that as non-canon. But I put the Nightmare Band name on it, so I guess it has become canon now to me. But a lot of the Bandcamp stuff, I just want to keep showing the fans like where I'm at right now, you know what I mean? It takes a long time to put out a vinyl record, I wish I could be doing that. There's a new record every six months or whatever, you know, but it's just the turnaround is not there for that. So, yeah, I mean, the improvisation stuff, it's literally just off the top of my head. A lot of those sounds come from recording like a guitar part, say and then turning that into a digital like MIDI part and then reworking it on different fake instruments and then putting it back in and learning it and then playing along to that, doing stuff at different speeds. So yeah, the improvisation stuff is very just stream of consciousness and just to see what happens because it takes so much effort and so much thought to make a real record. Yeah, so that's why I would say it's not canon. It's just not planned at all. If there's any sort of lore going on behind any of this, it's because there's a lot of thought put into it, and this stuff is not that at all.
Ian
So we're Loyola Chicago's radio station, and we wanted to talk to you about college radio. Do you have any experience working with college radio, you know, getting involved on either side of it?
Yeah. I wasn't in college long enough to get involved with it. But I imagined I would, I was a Media Studies major for the two semesters that I was in college. But we've done some things with local stations here. Doing live broadcasts and filming and stuff. I love it. I mean, I love radio so much, and I love what radio has become in the modern era, too. Like I listen to podcasts more than I listen to music, probably at this point, Listening to music kind of feels like a chore sometimes, because, especially I've been producing other bands so much lately that I only hear the technical aspects of things sometimes, you know. So I love talk radio, I love listening to podcasts, I love college radio, and I'm glad that it's still a thing you know? And so I'm happy to do this.
So my next question is: you used to live in Michigan, and now you've made your way down to Austin, you said for about 10 years now. What kind of drew you to Austin? And how'd you get down here.
Nolan
So that's all down to one band, basically. I don't know if you guys have heard of Holy Wave, they're playing this week a little bit. They've been around since, gosh, I don't remember, but they started in El Paso, moved to Austin. They, for a period of time, we're kind of these ambassadors of Austin. They toured and played in Grand Rapids when I lived there, and stayed at my house for the weekend. We kind of became friends and stuff, and then after, I think it was probably about six months later, I was getting fed up with Michigan. I didn't want to live through another winter up there. I was like, Well, I know these five guys from Austin at least. I ended up moving down here becoming friends with them, and they introduced me to a bunch of people, I ended up playing drums in this band Lake of Fire who had been associated with Holy Wave in El Paso before. And all these people had kind of moved here to work on music. I just found my niche. Through them, I ended up getting a job at Hotel Vegas, and that was really the impetus for like now I'm in the scene here, you know what I mean? I know all the musicians, I can see what genres are being explored and like where the scene is headed, and yeah, so I mean, it's all thanks to those guys that I ended up here at all, and they're still some of my best friends and I love all the music they make and super inspirational dudes.
Ian
So this one really interests me, aside from other music, what inspires your art? Whether it be like art that you're inspired by, or like real life things that inspire you
Nolan
I'm very inspired by all fantasy and sci fi which I'm sure it comes through in the music a lot. At some point you can get a shot of my bookshelf, I think that would be a pretty good place to start. Dune has been huge for me. There's little doing references sprinkled throughout all of my records and Lord of the Rings obviously. I want my music to provide the experience that those books and movies provided for me when I was a kid. I grew up in... I say I'm from Grand Rapids. I grew up north about two hours north of Grand Rapids in the middle of nowhere, basically. McBain, Michigan is a town of 600 people, and all of them are dairy farmers pretty much. So for me, I just always wanted to escape, you know, and live these grand adventures in my mind. I feel like the the modern world kind of closes us in now into our own little middle of nowhere, and I want my music to be like an escape from that, you know? And so yeah, I look to the books and movies that I grew up loving. I want it to be a fantasy of some sort. But also I mean fantasy and sci fi has always been sort of like a barometer of where society is at. So as much as it is being an escape it's also a way to look at what we're experiencing from a different angle. That's the the biggest driving force for me like I'll, I'll sit and read... right now I'm reading Children of Dune and like I can get through to chapters maybe before I'm like, I have to start writing. Yeah, that's that's the driving force for sure.
Ian
Nice. So we were talking earlier about how you play all these different instruments for the records. What's an instrument that you maybe just learned for this new record coming out, or one that you're interested in learning how to play to implement on future records?
Nolan
Well, I just got gifted an alto saxophone. That's the biggest thing. I've played wind instruments a lot, obviously, I've played the flute. I grew up playing trumpet. But I've never really gotten into reeds a whole lot. So that's the next step for me. I don't know if I'll ever get to a point where I can actually play it on a record. But yeah, I mean, the newest record has a lot of guitar. It's more guitar centric than Music is Dead, I would say. I didn't really learn anything that new for it, we did try some new techniques and this one, as with Music is Dead I collaborated with Dylan Fernandez, who was the bass player for Holy Wave for a while, and then he played synth with us, and now he's playing bass for us. And he's also a brilliant producer, he did some production on previous Holy Wave albums and stuff, and he's going to school for music production right now, too. So we're kind of, every time we make a record, we're like, man, listening back in the old stuff, I didn't know what I was doing at all, and now like, we have a whole new insight on how to record different instruments and how to mix stuff. So I think that's the biggest improvement is just the overall quality of sound. I feel like the instrument I learned to play this record is my computer. You saw my studio, there's not a lot of analog equipment. We do all that stuff, kind of at the end, put it all on tape at the end. I run stuff on a real shoestring budget, like I have a lot of instruments, but I don't have a lot of microphones. I don't have a lot of vintage gear, recording gear, you know. I just really figured out how to use my studio a little bit better, how to mix a little bit better. It's all pretty amateur stuff. But we try and elevate it.
Ian
Nice. So I got a few couple rapid fire questions for you at the end. What's your favorite venue to perform at and you're in Austin?
Nolan
Ooh, I will give you two, because I will get flack if I leave anybody out. But Hotel Vegas is my home. You know, I've spent the night at that place before. Like, I used to be there every single night. It's my favorite place to play for sure, as far as the crowd goes and the vibe and, I never feel nervous there. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter what the show is, it's like I run this place. But then, as far as sound goes and just having like the perfect onstage experience, Mohawk is the best place for that. The outside stage at Mohawk. The guys that work there are so attentive and they listen to you, and they want you to have the best sound. There's moments on stage where I just feel like I'm listening to a record of us playing, it's just so crystal clear, and it feels so good. I just got to fill in on bass with Grandmaster there yesterday and, the sound is just, it's perfect.
Ian
What's a city that you haven't played yet, and you'd really like to get to soon?
Nolan
Chicago! It's insane that it hasn't worked out yet, and every time we're on tour people are like 'What no Chicago?' and like, I wish it was up to me because I want to play Chicago so bad. I played Chicago in previous bands. But with Nightmare Band, we've never made it happen. Last year we played Milwaukee Psych Fest. Which is run by my adopted older brother Andrew Shelp, and so whenever when we're in Milwaukee, it's like, why are we not also playing Chicago? That's ridiculous, but just hasn't happened yet. So hopefully this year, it'll come through.
Ian
Well, my last question for you is, what's next for you in the band?
Nolan
Yes, we have a new record. I don't think I've officially said the name of it anywhere yet, but it's called The Predicament of Being Trapped Inside a Head, and it's gonna be technically Nolan Potter solo record, but there was some collaboration from the band. We've been working on a record for about two years now, that the opportunity hasn't come up for that one to come out yet. I got this opportunity to make a record with this coffee shop in town called Tryhard Coffee. I don't know if you all have been there yet, but you should check it out while you're here. They have an imprint associated with the coffee shop on Spaceflight records, which is another local label. They have this series where, every month, every other month, they try to put out a record from a local band that's pressed here in Austin, like all done in house, and they put me on the list to do that. It's this super rare opportunity to get to make a record and have it come out two, three months later, which just doesn't happen anymore. So I was like, I've been slaving over this one record, since we finished Music is Dead, and I'm not quite ready for that one to come out yet. So I was like, I'm just gonna start from scratch, do a new record, finish it in two months, put it out three months later, and just show people this is where I'm at, right at this moment, you know. So I'm really excited for that. We haven't done any official announcement where we're waiting for South By over to kind of have everything die down and then be like, 'This is the new thing that's happening.' So yeah, I'm very excited for that to come out, we're gonna start playing songs from that record for our South By gigs this week.
Ian
Sweet. Yeah, excited for that. Thanks so much for sitting down with us.
Nolan
Thanks for coming over. It's been a lot of fun.