Australian-born, German-based singer/songwriter Nick Gibbs shares his musical story on the latest episode of the Riffing With Christina podcast.
Nick’s rich musical history as a lifelong listener is reflected in his 2016 debut album, “My Mind It Runs Away,” which explores everything from soul music to noodling jazz energy to reggae to soaring, loved-up summertime pop. Raised on his dad’s epic Seventies record collection, his passion for expression is vividly embedded in his record.
Nick is also a vocal teacher who takes great joy in helping people find their voice, which is something we explore in-depth throughout our wide-ranging conversation about art, the universe, hip hop, musicals, dance, winning Triple J Unearthed Sydney, moving to the other side of the planet for love and much more. Check out his stunning record here on iTunes.
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A few moments from our hour-long podcast conversation below:
Christina: “We all have to break through our own resistance and self-sabotage. Every artist in the world experiences that. It’s really cool when you can overcome that … what would you say to a young musician who is doubting themselves?”
Nick: “I’ve got quite a lot of students, I teach at the University of Oldenburg [and lots of private students] … Often what I say to them is: “Don’t forget there are twenty things that you can do, and twenty things that you can’t do. There are twenty things that I can do, and twenty things that I can’t do. There’s no more struggle for me, or the other way around.
The more you learn about music … at the beginning, music is gargantuan. You can’t hold it, its infinite. The more you learn about the voice and the way that you sing … it gets smaller and smaller until you can hold it, and you can actually hold it in your hand and say “I’m at this point where I can see where I can get to.”
“At the beginning no one thinks they’re good enough. In fact, I don’t think you ever really have to know you’re good enough. I saw a great interview with Jimi Hendrix on the Dick Cavett show in the late Sixties or early Seventies. Of course Dick Cavett was a huge champion of all of the fantastic artists of the Sixties in America, from Janis Joplin to Jimi Hendrix to Jim Morrison, all of them.
“[Dick Cavett] introduced Jimi and said “this is a man who is possibly the greatest guitarist on this planet at the moment,” and Jimi put his head down and looked around as if to say “who, me?” [and said] “don’t do that,” and went a bit red. And he said, OK, maybe he’s the best guitarist in this country. And Jimi said “no, stop it, you’re embarrassing me.” And he said, “OK, maybe he’s the best guitarist in that seat.
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“Jimi was the most humble musician that you could find. Also people like John Coltrane. Absolute humility. Not everyone had these huge egos where they’re just like “I’m the greatest, I’m the best, and check me out.”
Christina: “That attitude makes me so sick … for me, I can’t listen to people like that, it’s so toxic. There’s a lot of theories [out there] that art is where the ego is not … the only way you can connect to whatever the life force is that makes you creative is to let the ego die. Let yourself be a vessel for things. Jimi Hendrix is a great example. He was playing something from another planet.”
Nick: “I think the greatest example of those kind of people is the people who spend none of their time thinking about how great they are, and all of their time thinking about how great they could be … it’s wake up, make art because you love it, and repeat.
And of course, how do [you] do this? Twenty years ago I would have said you need to go to a teacher and find the right techniques and you have to sing your scales. But the thing is, these days … YouTube has a tutorial for everything. Whatever you want to do, YouTube has a thing. That was totally channeling George Carlin, remember that record? He’s like “everything that exists man, everything that could possibly exist, is here.”
