[Friday Feature] Nic Manders: Interview + New Album 'This Time'

KATIE BROWN - 4 DEC 2020

PHOTO SUPPLIED

Nic Manders is something of a legend in the circles he’s known. He’s a veteran musician and producer with an ear for detail, meaning and beauty like no other. Over the years, his touch has been on the works of many a New Zealand treasure, such as Brooke Fraser, Lydia Cole, Stan Walker and Katchafire, to name just a few. He knows exactly how to tap into the depths of potential of the artists he works with, and he has a special knack of working to find out what is at the heart of each project and crafting each song around this deeper essential meaning and direction.

However, 2020’s combination package of lockdowns and isolation meant that Nic found himself landed at home, unable to work on such projects. With space and time to turn to his own scraps of ideas and songs collected over the years, This Time came into being as Nic’s long-awaited solo album. Musically, it’s a seamless and masterful melding of the electronic and acoustic: an entwining that speaks to the themes of the embracing of opposites the album deals with.

As a complete entity, This Time felt to me (an unapologetic lover of a good metaphor) like watching leaves fall on a still autumn day: the kind of transient, melancholic beauty that speaks of a necessary winter that lies ahead, but also of a new spring that is just around the corner soon afterward. It creates a beautiful, gentle and safe space to reflect and process: to be sad, perhaps, but also to be hopeful. It’s a poignant and necessary work for this particular era.

This Time is out today on all good digital platforms.

Listen to the album and read Nic’s interview below.

Find album links here. Follow Nic on Instagram

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KATIE: ‘THIS TIME’ CAME INTO BEING WHEN YOU FOUND YOURSELF IN A SPACE WHERE, OUTSIDE OF YOUR CONTROL, THE PROJECTS OF OTHERS HAD FALLEN AWAY BECAUSE OF THE RESTRICTIONS OF LOCKDOWN. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO FIND YOURSELF NUDGED INTO THIS SPACE?

Nic: I know lockdown was a challenging time for many, but I loved it. I had been tinkering on the fringes of some kind of solo project for a while and it really became a situation where I had no excuses! I threw myself into the place of writing and dreaming, walking with the whānau, shuffling around the house in my son’s slides and essentially allowing myself to be the artist.

WHAT WERE YOUR INFLUENCES BEHIND THE ALBUM?

I had a hard drive full of ideas that I’d started here and there when I’d had time. I knew these ‘felt’ a certain way, and it became my challenge to discover the meaning behind those ideas. Musically, I’d say I lean towards a certain peace and perhaps a touch of melancholy, but it wasn’t until I started to unwrap the lyrics that the songs started to reveal and dictate the direction.

AS A VETERAN PRODUCER, YOU’RE ACCUSTOMED TO SEEING AND UNDERSTANDING AN ARTIST’S WORK AND VISION, AND BRINGING ABOUT THE BEST ITERATION OF THEIR WORK THAT YOU CAN. HOW DID YOU FIND PRODUCING YOUR OWN WORK IN THIS RESPECT?

I don’t think I’ve been un-empathetic to artists I’ve worked with over the years, but committing to writing this material in its completion has definitely given me a newfound respect to those who write amazing songs! It’s a wonderful privilege to start the day with nothing and end the day with some form of creation that had never existed! I basically made the writing of the song the priority and I knew if I got that, the production would take care of itself. It might be easy to say that as a producer, but there was no point trying to make a flash production if the song didn’t mean something in the first place.

HOW HAS IT BEEN MAKING THIS ALBUM NOW AS OPPOSED TO WHEN YOU WERE JUST BEGINNING YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY?

Gosh - well, having started my musical journey singing in a cathedral choir as a youngster, it in some ways feels like an eternity ago, and yet, there are moments peppered throughout the album that I know began in those days! I love a good harmony!

WHAT WAS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT IT, AND WHAT WAS THE BEST?

Hardest - most definitely the lyrics. I have often worked in tandem with other people when it comes to writing and in particular a good friend Luke Oram who is a brilliant lyricist, so it was my challenge to write the stories that I knew only I could write from my perspective and life story. I loved it though, and it was very cathartic!

Best - Being able to do it at all! Being a part of a creative process is incredibly rewarding and the opportunity to delve into that has been humbling. To be able to write and record a song and then invite your wife to come and have a listen and see her eyes tear up, knowing she knows the meaning behind it. That’s a treasure!

IN ‘FRAGILE’, YOU SING ‘LOVE AND HATRED / A BROTHER TO HIS BROTHER… STILL HOPE / STILL LOVE IS TRUE.’ THROUGHOUT THE ALBUM THERE IS A GENTLE CONSIDERING, BALANCING AND EMBRACING OF OPPOSITES: LOVE AND HATE, JOY AND DESPAIR, HOPE AND SUFFERING, LETTING GO AND HOLDING ON. ALL ARE WELCOMED AND WOVEN TOGETHER. EVEN THE WAY YOU TREAT THE INSTRUMENTATION – THE ACOUSTIC VERSUS THE ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS AND YOUR PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES SPEAKS TO THIS. WHERE DOES THIS BALANCE SPRING FROM?

I think the more I live the more I realise that easy, black and white answers to life’s challenges and questions are extremely hard to find. Life is full of the grey, so to speak, and our lives are surrounded by equal measures of tragedy, yet hope, love, yet conflict etc etc. I love the sense that life is a gift and we can hold it lightly knowing the fragility of it, and yet embrace it with all its fullness at the same time.

“I love the sense that life is a gift and we can hold it lightly knowing the fragility of it, and yet embrace it with all its fullness at the same time.”

“I love the sense that life is a gift and we can hold it lightly knowing the fragility of it, and yet embrace it with all its fullness at the same time.”

Photo via Nic Manders

‘LOOKING BACK OVER MY SHOULDER / FIND MY FEET IN THE WAY THAT I’M MOVING FORWARD’, AND ‘AS A MIST WE’RE HERE JUST A MOMENT / BUT WE BEAR THE BONES OF OUR FATHERS WITH US’ ARE LINES FROM ‘TIME’. HOW DOES LOOKING BACK AND REFLECTING ON THE PAST TURN YOU TOWARDS THE FUTURE?

I’ve been on a journey recently in te ao Māori, and along with my faith, I’ve been blown away by the thought that we are not just the here and now, but carry with us the DNA of our tūpuna, our ancestors, those that have gone before us and paved a way, This helps me to realise I’m a part of a much bigger story. It’s easy to get myopic and self-indulgent as individuals, yet knowing and understanding our heritage and history gives us a better sense of our place in that greater story.

THIS YEAR WE’RE HAVING TO DEAL WITH A SENSE OF LETTING GO OF THE WORLD AS WE KNEW IT, AND WE’RE LEARNING HOW TO LOOK FORWARD WITH HOPE AGAIN. ‘THIS TIME’ IS A TENDER AND TIMELY REFLECTION ON THIS. WITH ALL THAT IT HAS HELD, HAS 2020 IN PARTICULAR REDEFINED HOW MOVING FORWARD LOOKS FOR YOU, AND YOUR HOPE FOR WHAT LIES AHEAD?

2020! I mean, who knew, right?! But in all reality, I believe we are amazing and adaptable as people, and challenges like 2020 in all its craziness offer an opportunity for us to ask ourselves difficult questions, rather than just ignore them and do life on rote and accept the status quo! I’m a bit of an idealist, so the idea that we can partake in creating a better life for us and the generations to come is exciting.

THE ALBUM COMES ACROSS AS THE GENTLE CLOSING OF ONE CHAPTER, AND THE OPENING OF ANOTHER. WHAT’S EXCITING YOU WITH WHAT’S NEXT?

The beach! Haha. Honestly, I think we’re all looking forward to a little pause in what’s been a pretty bizarre year. I’m looking forward to noticing more, smelling the roses more, being aware of friends who need me more, planting gardens, sowing seeds, writing unheard songs, watching my kids grow up, enjoying moments as they happen, exploring, gosh…. Sounds like I want a lot! I’ve a friend (actually, let’s call him a psychotherapist for this) who has a saying “it takes a lot of effort to craft a great life’. I love that sentiment. Keep crafting.

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