Nick Santino Interview (11.12.14)
Nick Santino, formerly the frontman of A Rocket To The Moon, brought the Long & Winding Roadshow he’s been headlining to Lakewood, Ohio on Wednesday, November 12, 2014. Not long before he took the stage at Mahall’s, we got the chance to sit down with Nick (in fancy bowling alley seats)  to talk about what it’s like performing solo, the obstacles he had to overcome, and the new community he’s found himself a part of since launching his solo career.
So how’s the tour been going so far?
[quote]It’s good! It’s been a blast because we’re all buds just travelling around in a van, so it doesn’t really feel like touring. It feels like we’re just driving around playing shows. It’s a lot of fun.[/quote]
You have been coming to Cleveland for a while now for past shows, do you have a specific memory from your past times here?
[quote]We always just have really good shows here. I feel like every tour we’ve done has come to Cleveland. Almost every time we’ve played here it was Grog Shop. And for some reason, the kids keep coming! So, we just keep coming back to Cleveland![/quote]
And you were even here over the summer for Warped Tour, which was probably a really different experience since you were performing solo. What was that like?
[quote]Well I was in the Acoustic Basement, so everyone that was in there was playing basically solo acoustic music. And, it was cool because it was kinda like a little shelter for people to come that wanted to get away from every other Warped Tour thing. They wanted to get away from the loud music or the sun or rain or whatever it was and we just had this little shelter, kinda like a refuge for them to get away and listen to some soothing, slow, softer acoustic stuff. It made me have a completely different outlook on Warped. I was going into it thinking, ‘No one’s gonna give a crap. I’m gonna be down here playing acoustic stuff and people are gonna be watching metal bands. I don’t know what I’m gonna do or how I’m gonna fit in.’ But it ended up proving me wrong, so it was awesome.[/quote]
That sounds fun! Was it more intimate than you expected Warped to be?
[quote]Yeah, it was! It’s such a small space where the tent was so you could only fit like 200 to 300 people in there really tight. You almost had to go out of your way to go in there. So you knew the people that were in there were there to see you rather than just passersby that would just walk by a stage.[/quote]
Before Warped you released a full album back in May that was a really big solo album for you, considering A Rocket To The Moon just closed down in 2013. What was really different about this album recording process than the albums with Rocket?
[quote]This one, it was just me in the studio with Pat [Kirch (of The Maine)], who helped me record the record. I was used to being in a studio with like six people, producer, engineer and then four band members, and whoever else would come in that day. A label breathing down your neck trying to get singles, always checking in on you and it kinda takes the realness and rawness and fun out of recording a record when you have all those rules to go by. So this record was great cuz I didn’t have any of that. It was just me and Pat with no time restrictions or anything like that and we kinda just went at it. We were like ‘let’s do this kind of song today’ and ‘let’s record this instrument’ and ‘let’s make it sounds like this kind of song’ or ‘let’s put this mic on it so it sounds crappy on purpose.” All those kind of things we could do and get away with rather than hearing a big sigh from your label executive sitting in the back of the room. So it was cool. It was no stress; nobody bickered or fought about anything. I’m used to being in the studio with guys and it’s like, you don’t like a guitar part and it turns into a heated fight about it, and then it takes the vibe away from recording and you’re like, “I don’t wanna be here anymore, I just wanna go back to the apartment. “ And [with this album] it wasn’t like that. It was perfect. I enjoyed it a lot more and I think that’s the way that I want to continue to make my records.[/quote]
