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Nickel Creek expands musical scope on new album
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By Alan Sculley : Special to The Herald-Sun
Sep 14, 2006 :
9:31 pm ET
CHAPEL HILL -- Rick Rubin would seem like one of the most unlikely producers for a group like Nickel Creek.
While Rubin gained acclaim in recent years for his work with the late Johnny Cash, he is best known for producing a variety of heavy rock bands and rap acts, including System Of A Down, Slayer and the Beastie Boys.
Nickel Creek, meanwhile, came up through the bluegrass scene, after the three San Diego natives -- guitarist Sean Watkins, mandolin player Chris Thile and Watkins' sister, fiddle player Sara Watkins -- hooked up in 1989 at a local eatery, That Pizza Place, which sponsored a weekly bluegrass night. And while the trio's music has since branched far beyond that style, their melodic acoustic sound is about as far afield as one can get from the pulverizing death metal of Slayer.
In the end, Rubin did not produce the new Nickel Creek CD, "Why Should The Fire Die?" Still, Sean Watkins credits him with spurring the group to take steps that played a critical role in improving the final results on the CD.
"Rick Rubin told us he listened to a bunch of songs [at] one time, but he's like, 'They're really great, but I think you should co-write and then you should also be each other's critics,'" said Watkins. "We'd never done that before. That really helped a lot. That was the main factor in the songwriting getting better."
The group, as it turned out, had more time than planned to consider Rubin's suggestion.
"We tried to make the record for like two years," the guitarist said. "And there were a bunch of hang-ups with producers, and situations just kind of didn't pan out. The good thing is it gave us a lot more time to write some extra songs and talk to more people, to write together more. Most of the songs came about a few months prior (to recording). There is a whole batch of songs that we had a year before, and I don't think any of them made it on the record."
In the end, five songs co-written in various combinations of the three members of Nickel Creek made "Why Should the Fire Die?" while six of the remaining eight songs were written individually by one of the group members.
The internal critiquing, Watkins said, also represented a shift from previous practices within Nickel Creek.
"We just got with each other and said, 'OK, we're all on the same page here. Nobody's going to get their feelings hurt. We're just going to talk about how could we [make the songs better].' Everybody was open-minded and nobody was defensive about stuff."
The production on "Why Should the Fire Die?" also plays a key part in the quality of the CD. Whereas bluegrass star Alison Krauss produced the first two CDs -- 2000's "Nickel Creek" and 2002's "This Side" -- the group went outside the box to select Eric Valentine to produce the new CD. His best known credits are the rock acts Queens Of The Stone Age and Smash Mouth.
Valentine, in turn, recruited Tony Berg, who as co-producer helped the group further sharpen song arrangements.
Berg's eclectic resume includes producing Michael Penn, X, Squeeze and Edie Brickell, as well as serving as an A&R representative for Geffen Records.
The efforts of the band, Valentine and Berg pay off handsomely on "Why Should the Fire Die?" It's Nickel Creek's strongest effort and expands the scope of the group's music without betraying their bluegrass roots.
The bluegrass influence shows up in tunes like "Scotch & Chocolate" and "Stumptown," which both feature some frisky soloing. But mostly, the songs fall somewhere between acoustic pop and folk. The ballads like "Somebody More Like You," "Jealous of the Moon" (co-written by Thile and Jayhawks frontman Gary Louris) and "Why Should The Fire Die" all boast especially graceful melodies. Meanwhile, peppier songs like "Best Of Luck" and "When In Rome" capture the potent sound the group is known to generate in live shows.
Watkins said all three members of Nickel Creek tried to be open-minded in their songwriting and take whatever stylistic paths best served the songs, without worrying about whether the songs would meet or defy expectations of others.
"A lot of people think it's a conscious effort to move away [from bluegrass]," Watkins said of "Why Should the Fire Die?" "It's not that at all. We love bluegrass. It's just not the only thing we love."
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WHAT: Nickel Creek
WHERE: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
COST: $24 to $45.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: To purchase tickets, call (919) 843-3333 or visit www.carolinaperformingarts.org
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