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Firstly what's the story behind the band name Nice Guy? I think I’ve told a different story every time I’ve been asked this to drum up a mystique. But in truth, it was intended to be a sneer at those self-proclaimed ‘Nice Guys’ who snap and show their true colours in the face of rejection. Unfortunately, I think most people have taken it as me proclaiming I’m a nice guy, when it’s a collective term. Saying that, our guitarist genuinely is a lovely fella.
Who would you say the bands biggest influences are? I think there’d be too many individual influences to place. Personally my music taste is rooted in Soul/Motown, Matt & Kev love classic indie rock (The Strokes, The Libertines), Chris has a bit of a heavier influence and Paddy is a child of music. So it jumps all over the place.
You’ve recently released three singles over the past year. What’s the response been like? Really good! Fake Leather did really well with airplay on BBC Tees and a few stations elsewhere, then Last Orders At The Linthorpe really took off. It was played in Canada, the US, a few times on BBC Tees and even in Brazil. NE Volume also kindly gave us a 10/10 review for that one. We’ve just released ‘Give Your Love’ but we didn’t really do any build-up as it seemed pointless with the lockdown again. It’s all just profile building at the point.
Over the past year it’s been a hard time for bands with lockdowns. How have you kept busy creatively over this time? The same was as pre-lockdown really. Writing music and working on half-finished ideas we already had. We’ve also had some label interest so we’ve been chatting to them to plan out for the future and see where we should go.
There’s been line up changes over the past year. What do you think this has done to the bands overall sound? Yeah we got Paddy involved in the band! That was always something I wanted in truth, but finding a keys player was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. When Paddy asked if he could jam with us it was an immediate yes. It gives an extra layer of sound and allows us a greater scope for creativity.
Do you have many plans going forward? At the moment we’ve got some releases ready and waiting to go, so we’re just focusing on those until gigs are green lighted again. We had Songs With Northern Britain booked in so hopefully that’ll still go ahead. It’s hard to plan at the moment and you open yourself to frustration when you do, so we’re just taking it as we come.
If you could recommend five local acts who would you pick? Eve Conway is brilliant, Lucy Pottinger is an up and comer too. There’s a band called Sonder Minds who I think are pretty brilliant though I’m not too sure what’s happening with them. We get on really well with Emu and they’re incredible live too. I really like Jim Riggall’s latest release, Moosejaw. The songwriting in it is brilliant.
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