Nicolay: Here, there, and everywhere
Oct 8th, 2006 by Chris
I approach producer albums like blind dates. Sure, there’s a chance they’ll be good, but you probably shouldn’t hold your breath. The problem is that most producers fail to take control of their own projects. Instead of creating music and picking the appropriate contributors to round it out, most producers assemble an all-star cast of guest vocalists and proceed to let the guests drive the project toward mediocrity.
With that in mind, imagine what I thought when I read a line in the press release for Nicolay’s new album that called it “the most romantic album of the year.” Well, at least it’s got a theme. “I wasn’t aware of that,” Nicolay says of the romantic line. “I don’t really think it is though.”
Now that we know what it isn’t, let’s talk about what Here is. It is one of the most coherent producer driven projects I’ve heard. From start to finish, the album is about Nicolay’s musical vision. Of course, maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider the Dutch producer spent the first part of his musical journey as a band leader. He’s use to plotting the course.
Nicolay is as much composer as producer. Sure he can chop and loop samples, but beyond that, he can play and arrange instruments. “I always want to make sure that my music alone can stand on its own two feet,” he explains. “So even before there’s any thought of vocals, I want to make sure that you can tell that it’s 100% a musical product.” His work comes already completed. Add a vocalist, if and only if, they can fit as an element of the larger work. Nicolay does not work in the old paradigm of half music, half vocals. His work aims at a coherent whole that is greater than its individual parts.
Nicolay’s ability to compose instrumentation is what led to his big break. You probably know the story. He and Phonte (of Little Brother fame) came across each other on the Okayplayer message boards. They started exchanging tracks and vocals via instant messenger. Nicolay produced “Light It Up” from Little Brother’s stellar 2003 debut, The Listening. But his connection with Phonte was only beginning as their computer-facilitated collaboration blossomed into the partnership dubbed Foreign Exchange. The pair’s debut Connected hit in 2004 and along with allowing Nicolay to quit his day job, it made his musical reputation. All that while “having never been in the same room with each other.”
But what led Phonte to Nicolay on a message board that has as many bedroom producers as ?uestlove has afro-picks? “The composing side of his sound is what drew me to him in the beginning,” Phonte says of his screen introduction to Nicolay. “I felt like he was doing something different. He was covering a base that my team didn’t really have covered as far as the composing aspect. Between 9th [Wonder] and Khrysis, there’s nothing we can’t do as far as sampling. If I want any kind of sample flipped, I can just drop it off with 9th. But the composition Nicolay was working on was in line with where I wanted my sound to develop.”
Following Foreign Exchange’s debut, Nicolay put out an instrumental album (City Lights Volume 1.5) as well as Vol. 1 of his acclaimed Dutch Masters Mixtape. Every record further established his ability to pair what he calls hip-hop’s “joy in repetition if you will” with his more complex musicality. “I am a musician,” he explains, “and I have a lot of things that I can bring to the table musically and I always like the fact that I can use that to balance with the power of a really good loop.”
In May, Nicolay packed his bags and headed for the U.S. But he didn’t land in either of the twin music industry hubs of New York or Los Angeles. That would have been too typical for a producer who makes his living off incorporating the unexpected change into every track. Instead, Amsterdam’s loss turned into Carolina Beach, North Carolina’s gain.
The Carolina address only makes sense. He made his name with Phonte who lives in Raleigh. The new album features not only Little Brother, but also extended crew members Darien Brockington and Yahzarah. Can you think of a better crew for a producer to live near? “It’s funny, because sometimes I take it for granted,” Nicolay says of his affiliation with Little Brother and fam. “Just the fact that all of them are so incredibly talented. There’s a difference between working with them and working with other people. No matter which of them you’re talking about, it’s the work ethic of these people that I admire a lot. They’re all people that are willing to go that extra mile and go above-and-beyond in whatever it is that they do in this music thing. That’s something that’s truly admirable.”
You can tell that Nicolay respects and admires his most frequent collaborators. But what about the other way around? Well take this as example. At the New York release party for Here, every guest vocalist was in attendance ready to perform and not one of them was getting paid to be there. “We share a genuine love of music and that makes the world a smaller place no matter where you’re from,” Nicolay says to explain the ease with which he’s fit into the NC-based musical family. “I’m a very different person than a lot of those people and I come from a very different background. But at the same time, my love and appreciation for music is very much the same as all these people. So we share that and that is bigger than any difference we may have.”
Now that his touring for the new album is nearing its end, Nicolay is focusing on a series of sequels. A new City Lights project, another Dutch Masters mixtape, not to mention the follow-up album from Foreign Exchange. But wait a second; Nicolay and Phonte are in the same state now. “It’s funny,” Nicolay admits. “We’re working on the second album and since I moved it’s going to be far from a foreign exchange.” So is a name change in order? Not so fast. “He’s still like three hours away,” Phonte laughs.
An in-demand producer is sitting out in the countryside of North Carolina. He’s keeping his head down and getting a great deal of work done. As we finish talking, I ask Nicolay if the album’s title is a play on announcing that he’s finally “here” following the move. That’s when he hits me with it. He admits that the title comes from something he and his girlfriend say to each other: “The only difference between here and there is the ‘t’.” I guess there’s something behind that romantic line after all. Maybe I’ll play Here on my next blind date and see if it can work some magic “there” as well.
