by alex grainger
photo courtesy of nick vyner
Nick Vyner dropped his latest single “Flood” May 11th. The vulnerable yet gently powerful vocals work to send a message to Vyner himself, while letting people know the flood of thoughts and emotions occupying his mind. The single was three years in the making and sonically shares an experimental sound Vyner has begun to explore. Read more of our conversation about “Flood” and Nick Vyner below!
Can you tell us what “Flood” is about?
Nick: “Flood is about feeling out of place in a new city and reconciling with your past, present, and future.”
What was the creative process behind “Flood?”
Nick: “Lots of fun, lots of stress, and an open mind. We worked on the song for over three years, so it's tough to recall all of the times we went back to tweak things in it, but the original session was just us messing around with a chord progression I had. We knocked out a lot of the production before we turned our attention to the vocals, and eventually the vocals became a part of the production. So it was a messy, cathartic, exciting process.”
Is there a message you are sending to listeners in “Flood?”
Nick: “I think I'm probably sending myself a message more than anyone else. I don't necessarily have answers to the problems I'm talking about on the song. I'm just letting everyone in on what's been taking up space in my brain.”
Do you have a favorite lyric in “Flood” that is especially meaningful or powerful?
Nick: “I've always liked, ‘Spoke out and you moved your lips still talking about an ex that you miss.’ I think it's natural to look for comfort in nostalgia and that urge shows itself in a lot of different ways. Everyone has different reactions to conversations that are heavily rooted in the past instead of the present — some people can't stand it and would rather focus on the current moment; other people can't do anything but talk about what once was. I don't think either is right or wrong.”
How is “Flood” different from your previous releases?
Nick: “Sonically, I think it lives in its own world. It's exploring some different sounds that I haven't yet experimented with on my previous releases. It's also waited patiently in the depths of my files for the longest.”
How would you describe your sound? How has it evolved since the start of your music career?
Nick: “Outlets like to refer to me as ‘alt-pop’ which I'm comfortable with. But I'm hardly ever going into the songwriting process thinking to myself, ‘I want to make something with THIS sound!’ I much prefer to just see where my ear takes me. The biggest change to my sound since I started working on music is that my palette has expanded. I just consume so much music and content in general now that I feel like I'm pulling inspiration from a much wider variety of sources.”
You recently released the music video for “Flood.” What was the creative process behind the video? How did you decide how to portray the song visually?
Nick: “The song is very feeling focused, so we wanted to give the video a bit more of a narrative arc. We landed on campy horror as a fun lane to explore and just ran with it.”
What was your reaction to seeing the finished music video?
Nick: “Excitement and nervousness.”
What are you most proud of upon releasing “Flood”?
Nick: “I'm just glad it's finally out in the world! There were times that I really didn't know whether or not it would ever come out.”
What’s next for you?
Nick: “More new music coming out this year! I also just did a live video for the Recording Academy and I've got a few features lined up for the summer. Hopefully playing a lot more live shows this summer/fall.”