Records and Ramen: Nick Hardy

by Dave Sharp on Dec 23^rd, 2010

This is Nick's 'Wheelie Face." Pure serenity. Photo credit: Ashley Curtis

Records and Ramen is a series focused on the lifestyle sacrifices many people are making to be a part of the music industry.  They are pillars of a forward-moving industry and their stories deserve to be told.

Part 3: Nick Hardy

Picture this: a young, skinny kid ska kid, a junior in college.  He has short, scraggly hair and likely an RX Bandits shirt on.  He’s standing in the back of crowd that just danced away all their energy to the likes of Westbound Train, Deals Gone Bad and Southern Ska All Stars and realizing that, despite all the fun and good music, attendance was short, which means his promises to those bands are short too.

His name is Nick Hardy and he coordinated this entire event.

The festival was a culmination of many successful ska shows booked in Nashville and the Southern Ska Tour – an extension of his website at the time SouthernSka.com.  All of this empirical research led to the pay days for the bands based on estimated attendance.

“It was a combination of guaranteeing some bands too much and not enough people coming through the door,” he said.

At that point, demonstrating poise and necessity, he immediately borrowed the balance from his parents, but it was a check and a check couldn’t be split among the bands right away.  He promised each band that he would cash the check in the morning and drive the dues down to each band’s next stop which in one small stroke of convenience, was Atlanta, as all the bands were playing a festival there the next day.

That promise was kept with no variation.  The bands expected the sad, usual treatment in similar circumstances: more hollow promises.  They were pleasantly surprised that that wasn’t the case.

It wasn’t about looking good, he said, it was about doing the right thing.

“I made the gamble and these bands were working hard. They deserved the money; every bit of it.”

That’s called ethos; establishing reliability and its how you weave a strong thread in the music industry and kick-start a career.

The road to a sustainable career in artists management is lacking, but switch out sustainable with successful and Nick’s on a fast forward path.  His demonstrated integrity and passion for the music has fueled his engine.  He’s currently working Parachute Musical and has a few other projects in-process.

Sinizine.net sat down with Nick at Gold Rush on a rainy night n Nov.  In the corner of the pool room he discussed the his Southern Ska site and tour, carving a niche in Nashville, his new country discovery and what drives him in the music industry while flipping tacos and working construction.

Here’s the conversation:

“I wasn’t even supposed to go to college”

SZ: Who are you and what are you doing in Nashville?

NH: I’m Nick…

[Laughs] Sorry, this is new to me.

I manage a pop-rock band out of Nashville, Tenn. called Parachute Musical.  I moved here eight years ago from Memphis, Tenn.  I went to school in Murfreesboro, graduated with a Music Business degree.  I went through the regiment of trying to find and internship, had no luck, so I set out to do this on by myself.

I was fortunate enough to meet Tom Gilbert of Parachute.  I actually knew him in college and was fortunate enough to get word that his band that he was a part of in D.C. was moving down to Nashville and he wanted me to take a listen.  When I did, I was blown away by it, just because of the quirkiness.  I grew up listening to punk music and ska and reggae and always found enjoyment in it because it was different.  When I heard what Tom and Josh were doing; this kind of ragtime bluesy off-the-wall kind of thing, I was like “this is awesome!”

So, I told him “Hey man, whatever you want me to do, I’ll try.”  I had a background of booking ska and reggae shows.  He knew that too.  I presented that to him and he said “Cool.” One thing led to another and they played at my house, Parachute did, and the band formed with Kyle Cornett and I started putting them on the road. I started doing it myself, working day jobs, working construction and the restaurant industry, juggling girlfriends and all that stuff.

SZ: When you graduated MTSU and hooked up with Tom and Parachute, what was your ideal goal at that point?

NH: Well, maybe I should backtrack a little more.  Hopefully this doesn’t make it complicated for you to edit…

SZ: Not at all.

NH: I wasn’t event supposed to go to college.  I was not a very good student in high school or middle school or elementary school.  I did it because my parents wanted me to and I was able to find a program – the Music Business program of MTSU – that I liked.  I grew up listening to music; it’s the only thing I ever turned to for comfort.  It was my life and I was like “This is amazing, I can do this!”

So, with that mentality, not even supposed to have gone to college and then graduating with a 3.2 GPA – I surprised myself, its nothing to be super excited about, but I was like “Oh shit, if I’m not getting these internships or being as progressive as these other people are, there’s no reason I can’t set out to do this myself.” So, going in to Parachute, I took my DIY ethics and applied it to that.  I said “All right, let’s look at this in the rawest form, exploit that the best we can and build that to where you guys want to go.” That’s the path we’ve taken so far.

DIY booking and Southern Ska

SZ: We’re going to backtrack too.  You helped me out by talking about getting in to college and I want to you to describe freshman year Nick Hardy.

NH: Freshman year of Nick Hardy was strictly reggae and ska and punk rock music, just because that’s what I grew up on through my brother, stealing his cassette tapes.  I lived out in the country of Memphis, as country as you it can be, and there weren’t a lot of people around to make friends with, so I’d turned to my brother for musical influences.  He was in a punk band and ska band and eventually an emo band and eventually an indie band.  So, for some reason what punk rock and even ska and reggae means in an ethical mentality or mindset has really stuck with me over the years.

Coming in to freshman year, I had been in a ska band, where I was completely horrible.  I have no musical talent whatsoever; I just did it because my brother did it.  So, I went in to freshman year loving this music and was booking showing in Memphis wanted to carry it on to Nashville.  Through that, I started this website called SouthernSka.com to exploit the southern ska scene.  I was so involved in it, but I saw all these other people in bands, available that hadn’t been recognized by the west coast, where third wave was really large or the northeast where the Toasters and a two-tone movement was involved.

So, I gathered up all these people, made friends, set up tours and radio programs.  It was pretty much the major news resource for southern ska music.  It eventually turned in to a resource for ska and reggae music in the US in general.

It got so big that I couldn’t handle it. I was a kid and was overwhelmed by anxiety and was like “I’m done. I’m out.”  It was probably for the best, I still love that stuff.

SZ: What did Southern Ska entail?

NH: It was a website with news, latest releases, stuff going on in the scene, reviews.  I created a tour that happened every summer where I picked three of my favorite ska/punk bands to tour the whole east coast.  The radio program I did on 80.3 at MTSU.  Pretty much, that was it.  I think, it’s been a while.

SZ: Has there been anything long-lasting in your career now that came from that?

NH: No. And this may be my ego sticking out here, but I kind of felt – and I had a great conversation when I was in the midst of everything with Brian Dixon of the Aggrolites about the history and the waves of reggae and ska music and business in general – on a micro-system here in Nashville, when I decided not to do it, everything kind of fell apart.  When I was booking bands like Big D and the Kids Table, The Toasters, Westbound Train and having two or three hundred people in a room enjoying it.  You’re not going to find that here in Nashville anymore.  Granted, Reel Big Fish can do it just because of their likeness CD.  I was the backbone for that, everything fell apart.  Even the local bands like Stuck Lucky and AKA Rudie, they didn’t have the means to get out there and support and promote themselves, so that kind of died too.

I still keep in contact with Obi from Westbound Train and Bucket from The Toasters and Megalith Records, but its just to say “Hello.” I’ve kind of moved away from that just because there’s no business for me to be there anymore.  I’ve moved on.  For all the people that try to, more power to them.  I respect that 100 percent.

“I don’t give a fuck, I can do this”

SZ:  You said when you came in to Parachute Musical, you took this DIY attitude you learned from punk and ska and it sounds like you epitomized that in Southern Ska. How have you taken that and transitioned that into what you do now?

NH: It’s a very grassroots effort.  With punk music and ska music and any of those sub-genres that are so obscure, you hear things by word of mouth.  Now that the internet is so prevalent, you can still get wind of these things through the internet.  I took that in to Parachute Musical and built it from the ground up.  The first thing was to get them on the road.  Seeing how charismatic they are, I knew they would win over fans.  So what if there are only five people at the show, I guarantee those five are still die hard fans of Parachute Musical.

We would go out here in Nashville with fliers or free downloads and walk down the street and talk to them, learn what their about and see if they’re interested.  If they’re not, then ok, see ya.  If they are, we give them a free download or a flier to a show and say “Come on out!”  I think that’s what grew their initial fan base here in Nashville.  We were putting together free shows for people to come to on our own dime.  We were getting out there to all the universities, all the hipster places that people go and said “Hey, here’s some music and some free stuff.” It was a very selfless type of thing.

SZ:  How long it take you to get adjusted to Nashville?  Maybe it wasn’t that hard in Murfreesboro, but there’s some distance there. And Parachute is outside of that ska/punk scene you were a part of.

NH: I don’t think it’s that difficult.  It just takes time and patience.  I think I knew what I was getting in to, with such a transition of musical styles.  I think of a lot of it too was plain ignorance.  Going into it saying “I don’t give a fuck, I can do this.”

I think I’ve made more connections that are more personable, more everlasting now than I ever did when I was a kid.  Just because you mature and you step up and you meet more people that have a more mature idea of what’s going on.  It’s taken three years to make the few but great connections that I do have.  But, I wasn’t really all that concerned with that.  You make short term goals and you focus on these.  You have your long term ideas and dreams, but I think myself and the band have always looked in very short term aspect and just shot for those.  And whatever came from those, we formulate the next step.  It’s just no worries.

SZ:  I’m glad you said that because from my point of view it looks like you have a lot of foresight.  I was going to ask what the next step is for you.  So, is it really that short term in all aspects?

NH:  It really is. Parachute just raised $16,700 in their Kickstarter campaign and, granted, that’s a shit-ton of money for any one in general nowadays, but for a band that’s nothing.  So, now we have the ability to pay for our producer to make a great fuckin’ record.  But, where does that go?  We don’t know.  We’re still trying to figure that out.  But, we’re not really worries about it, because and I don’t know if I can explain it – this band has done this for so long – and this is very personal, it doesn’t work for every band at all – why worry about the long term future when we can just kill what’s happening right now?  Completely own what you’re doing right now.  And then whatever you decide to do later that, completely own that.  Make it your bitch and just do it.  That’s exactly what they do.

We have an idea where we’d like this band to go and what Id like to do as a manager or anyone in ht music industry.  But, things change so much.  We do have a picture, but we’re not married to it.  We’ll see what happens.

A finger on the pulse

SZ: What about you personally?  You worked in a few different, larger groups, agencies and media groups; you’ve done it on your own.  What are you looking at as the next step for you?

NH: Right.  Interesting question, because I honestly battle with this every day.  I think right now, I want to be in a more managerial role.  I’ve had some time doing booking.  I still do all of Parachute’s booking and still will until it’s not needed anymore.  That’s just because I have vested interest in it and I love doing that and I get rewards for doing that for them.

It’s funny you ask this and I might go off on a huge tangent.  It might be an A&R role, even thought it sounds like the A&R people are dead. I came across this band hat recently moved here from Australia.  A friend of mine who I recently met who’s a producer wanted me to meet them and come hear them play.  There hasn’t been anything that has gotten me so excited since Parachute Musical; I am not taking an active role in this band as a manager or anything else besides being a friend and mentor and setting up all of these meetings for them.  They’re just killing it in these meetings.

Today actually, coming home from work I was thinking people say A&R people are so worthless, but I think they say that because record companies are paying them so much money to sit on their ass, do drugs, drink and take out people.  I’m just an average Joe who sits around and listens to music all day and I took a chance on this band and I have an ability to be a part of it in whatever capacity.

But, this band – and, for the record, this band may be the next big country act out of Nashville, Tenn…

SZ:  Should you go on the record with the name?

NH:  It might change, but the band’s called Sons of Summer.  Its just absolutely mind blowing what they’re doing.

I was thinking an A&R role, you cans till have that, but it needs to change.  So, I thought, maybe I need to pursue that and be a scout.  And not be the scout that’s like “Oh, yeah man, I signed this band and I’m responsible for this and this and this.” Bands really need a mentor with connections who can help them build their dreams.  Not necessarily just lead them in the right way, but help them formulate their trying to do.  That’s what I’m trying to do with this band currently, leading them in the right direction.  It’s up to them and their produce to decide what the next step is, but I’m presenting opportunities for them.

Punk ethics vs. selling out

SZ:  There’s an impression — I came from the same punk/ska scene that can be focused on the term “sell out,” but their not necessarily ant- certain genres, but their not always very welcoming.  You said Parachute was kind of natural – they cam in, blew you away and you were into it?  Now, you’re working with a country band.  Did Nashville get a hold of you? How do your tastes play in to you development?

NH: As far as taste and where I’m at now geographically, yeah probably Nashville got a hold of me.  I hear country music every day.  But, I have such a love for music that I finally realized when I started to get older that I shouldn’t pinpoint anything or any one genre.  So, I started listening to a lot of stuff and branching outside to pop records or jazz or Latin.  Anything I could get my hands on, I’d listen to it and formulate an opinion within myself about that type of music or band.

As far as selling out, it’s so common to come from a punk upbringing, as weird as that sounds, and venture off to other things.  People who think that are set in their ways.  Granted, they might live that live perfectly with that type of thing, but I’m constantly evolving and wanting to better myself and knowledge about my surroundings: who I am with and what I’m hearing.  It’s completely natural for me to be all-encompassing and letting everything soak in.

I still have those roots and you’ll catch me on any day by myself listening to the shittiest punk rock records you could imagine, but I’m not going to limit myself.

SZ:  You gotta keep your roots, I agree.

Tell me about the average day in the life of Nick Hardy.

NH: Ah, it’s pretty shitty!  You want in-depth?

SZ: Yeah, sure!

NH:  Ok, I wake up pretty early and let all my dogs out, which currently consists of two pit bulls and some weird mix of pit bull and basset hound, my roommate’s dog.  I deal with all that bullshit: mud, shit, piss.  I get ready to go work at a fuckin’ taco place.  I work there from 10-3 or, if it’s on a Thursday or Friday, I work construction with my landlord.

I get home after about four or five 0clock, same dog spiel, get on the computer and answer emails.  I do business pretty much from emails.  It’s very rare that I can get on the phone and make phone calls.  I actually hate being on the phone, which is kind of a downfall of myself.

If I’m not going out that night or have meetings afterward – I usually structure meetings at night – I’ll sit there answering emails or conjuring up ideas that I’m writing down and researching; researching venues if I’m doing booking, researching bands that my bands can play with.  I’ll be reading music business blogs, my favorite one is HypeBot.com or KingsofA&R.com, just to see what kind of bullshit their putting up, because I think all their shit sucks!  Speaking of sucks, I think Nashville Cream sucks, but I still look at it to see what kind of bullshit their talking about.

If I actually have time, I like to work on mopeds and build them.  I’ll end on that note.

Mopeds!

SZ:  How on earth did you start working on and building mopeds?

NH:  Out of necessity.  I needed a hobby to keep sane.  I’ve always had interest in scooters, like old Vespas.  But, those were always too expensive for me to buy.  So, one day I was on Craig’s List and saw this little moped and was like “I’ll buy it!” knowing nothing about mechanics, not a single fucking thing.  I bought it and it turned out to be a big piece of shit, but I was able to meet a lot of people here in Nashville that ride and are very passionate like I am about rebuilding, and kind of learn from them.

I think I’m on my third bike now.  You can either be a strictly vintage, keeping them stock – their normally 49cc stock and they’ll go 25-30mph – but, I’m in the world where I want to take this 49cc motor and make it go 60mph.  There’s a 101 ways to do that and I’ trying to figure those out.  So, I’m sitting there in my shed, when I’m not working on music, blowing up motors, cursing and drinking and freezing my ass off.

It was out of necessity to keep sanity.

SZ:  So that’s your kind of release?

NH:  Yeah!  I love my dogs; I love dogs, but it’s a physically thing I can dive into and get my mind on and learn something else.

SZ:  Now that you’ve made music, as you put it earlier, you’re “fantasy” career, but still a career and something you work really hard on…

NH:  Yeah, a career doesn’t necessarily have to be categorized as making money.

SZ: Very well said.  Now that it’s at that point…

NH:  It is.

“Music that really gets me off”

SZ:  Do you have trouble making music that release that it was; making it that release and something that you have to yourself?

NH: You mean listening to music that really gets me off?

SZ:  Yeah.

NH:  I don’t have a lot of trouble with that, actually.

I’ll be point blank with this: thanks to file sharing, I can download anything I fucking want to.  It sucks to do it, yes, but it’s the way it is.  If I had money to spend on music Id buy it, but I don’t.  So, music being a hobby of mine, I steal it and I get gratification from finding those bands.  And, for what it’s worth, I will support them whenever they come to down to seeing them wherever I happen to be, through merch sales and paying at the door.  A lot of bands have won me over because I stole their record and their records and songs have touched me so much.

For example, I don’t think I would be the person who I am today if it weren’t for a guy named Rocky Votolato. I stole all his records off the internet.  Every time here comes here to Nashville, I will go see him and buy merch.

I’m not saying I’m right or wrong.  I see the arguments on both sides. It’s kind of like, what do you want to weigh? Do you want to weigh someone spending $12 on you album and maybe never coming to a show or somebody stealing your album and coming out every show you’ve had in this town and buying merch every time.  I think, in my personal opinion, and this doesn’t happen for every band, I think that’s worth a whole lot more.

Adaptability, hard-work, hope and ambition. “This is what I do.”

SZ:  Tell me about a circumstance then, in any of the phases you’ve been in through your career, where you’ve had to question “Am I going to make it past this one? Is there where I want to be?”

NH: Oh, every day.  I hate to say it, but, yeah, every day.  I don’t have as steady paycheck from a management company or booking agency or the band, even, that’s going to say that I’m set.  Great things are happening for Parachute Musical, but that doesn’t mean I’m set.

I was having a conversation with a great friend of mine on the way here, actually, saying that I have had a string of great things happen to me in the past couple of days and it shows that hard work does pay off and that just having hope pays off.  I struggle day to day and barely pay my rent and barely pay my bills, the same as every person in Parachute Music, but we have this hope that things are going to be better.  I think that hope will drive you a long way.

So, yeah, I’m scared shitless every day of my life.  For the past five years, I’ve lied to the IRS, created fake business, wrote off fake stuff just so I can get by.  I do it for a good cause, I think.

SZ:  Do you have any naysayers?

NH: In what aspect?

SZ:  People around you that are saying “Nick, come on man, go get a real job.”

NH: I’ve never had anyone straight up tell me that point blank.  I think a lot of people I know in the music industry who have seen what I have done with this band and the potential I might have, they kind of think I’m crazy for sticking in this long, but I feel they admire it.  Because, shit, you don’t come across this all the time.

For you, for instance, you said “I want to start an online site.” You do it.  You have such a passion for it and so do I.

For me, it’s the only thing I know.  If music falls off the face of the earth, I will be working at this taco place the rest of my life, I will be working construction the rest of my life and spending all of my money building mopeds.  So, I guess I’m in a win-win situation! [Laughs]

SZ: Which paradise do you want?!

In terms of the success you’ve experienced and most of it hasn’t paid the bills, but it’s been rewarding, how do you define success?

NH:  Well, I think its two-fold and obviously it varies from person to person: some people thing success means money and rightfully so.  You do so much work, you’re good at what you do, you get promoted, you get promoted and you get more money, more money.  That’s gratifying and I’m not going to take that away.  But, for me, success is being someone that’s willing to adapt and I mean that as in being a part of a band and riding that wave as the music industry is changing or their music is changing and transforming ideas and being their support.

So, willing to adapt and hard-working.  I grew up around that with my father who worked countless jobs to support my family and was able to supply a great house, lots of land, education for myself and my brother just out of hard work.

Hope.  I’ve worked five years in the music industry with not a dime for it.  But, I see things on a bigger scale.

And just ambition.  Like I said before, this is all I have and if I don’t make this work, what else do I have?  So, now with Parachute, I can’t wait for this new record and it’s been really fun dealing with the raised money and the new producer, which s going to me a great addition.  So, going out there and finding what could be the next big thing like Sons of Summer and I haven’t been this excited about or wanted to work with since Parachute.  I honestly think, within the year, they’re going to be the next big fucking country act.  That drives me.  I will flip tacos all day long just on that idea and whatever is created in my brain that gets me off.

I hope to turn that into a self-sustaining job where I can get out of these secondary jobs and focus on musical hurdles.  A lot of people are afraid to admit they have a second job or it’s not their main gig.  Fuck it.  I don’t care. This is what I do.

“I’m really big into turmoil inside a singers mind.”

SZ:  I like that.  One last question about music.  One of the missions of Sinizine.net is to draw connections between influences.  You did a lot of that talking about staring in one place and end up listening to country and supporting and having a passion for them.  Real simply, what’s turning you on right now? What’s good in your ears?

NH: I’m really big into the Mumford and Son’s new album.  It must be the weather, but whatever I come across in the fall that’s sad bastard music, I fall in love with it.  It also doesn’t help that my girlfriend moved to Portland, Oregon. So I’m 2000 miles away from here and that doesn’t help.

So, Mumford and Sons and a lot of Rocky Votolato; he’s from Portland actually.  Its real sad bastard music.  I’m really excited because I downloaded the new Smoke or Fire record on Fat Wreck Chords. It just brings out the rawest of punk rock the way Avail was doing it.  I turn a lot to finding new punk bands that resemble the old sound that I grew up with.  But, to expand on that, take Avail for example: Tim Barry writes amazing country songs.  I love everything he has done.  I have everything on vinyl.  I won’t pay for a download, but I go the show and buy everything on vinyl.

So, Tim Barry, Smoke or Fire punk rock, Mumford and Son, Rocky Votolato; I’ve been wanting to get this new Deer Hunter album because I’ve heard lots of good things about it.  But, I’ve heard old stuff and wasn’t too turned on.

I listen to a lot of Tokyo Police Club.  I like their new album a lot.

Brand New after Déjà Entendu.  Everything but that album including The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me and Daisy.

Ok, this might answer your question: I’m really big into turmoil inside a singers mind.  So, with Brand New, it’s his conflict with God and no god at all.  And the stuff he writes in so heartfelt and so angry.  I love that fucking band to death.

Anything that shows conviction and emotion.  I think a lot of stuff today doesn’t show that because you’re trying to do that whole pop, generic formula.

I’m gonna look band on this be like, gosh I should have mentioned….!

Let me think real quick.  Oh, yeah I gotta say this: Screeching Weasel and Descendants and the Riverdales, I listen to that shit nonstop.

Interviewer: Dave Sharp

Notable links:

Westbound Train
Deals Gone Bad
Parachute Musical
Parachute Musical On the Local
Sons of Summer
Hypebot.com
KingsofA&R.com
Nashville Cream
Megalith Records
AKA Rudie
Stuck Lucky
Rocky Votolato
Mumford and Sons
Tokyo Police Club
Smoke or Fire
Tim Barry
Avail
Brand New
Deer Hunter
Screeching Weasel
The Descendents
The Riverdales