Formed towards the end of 2014, Denny band The Nickajack Men have been gigging like possessed demons and have started making a bit of an in-road into the Glasgow scene. Consisting of Lewis White (guitar/vocals), Michael Garner (guitar/vocals), Jamie Burns (bass) and Matthew McAllister (drums) the band already have two headline shows at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut already under their belt and are set to return to the famous venue next month as part of the Summer Nights series of gigs running throughout July.
Being a former pupil of Denny High, I was curious to hear the band for myself and caught up with them for a chat at the recent Shuffle Down festival in Larbert (Central Scotland).
Hi lads, how are you all?
Lewis: Pretty good man cheers, keepin it real.
Matty: Keepin it country….
So how did The Nickajack Men get together as a collective?
Lewis: Matty, Jamie and myself have known each other for years. Matty and myself went to nursery together and stayed in the same street from like 2 until we were 10 or something. Jamie and myself were in a band a good few years ago but that was more of a laugh than anything. We wanted to start something, which was just going to be an acoustic sort of thing. Then I came across Mr Garner at a friends party a little worst for wear with a guitar and convinced him to join Jamie and myself. That left us needing a drummer so we hit Matty up and thankfully he was up for it and The Nickajack Men were born!!
Jamie: We didn’t have much experience of playing together when we first started so it’s been good to learn how we all play together and progress as a unit rather than induvidially.
Matty: I nearly said No when Lewis first asked hahaha. I had a load of Uni work to do and didn’t think I’d have much time for it but whenever we started writing stuff and playing shows, I defo had time !
Mikey: I was playing in a band with friends from school, we were doing a lot of covers and stuff back then and I really wanted to be playing original material. So when we all started playing together and writing songs I knew this is what I wanted to do!
How would you describe your music, and who would you say your influences are?
L: It’s hard to put the finger on exactly what genre we are. Not that we want to label ourselves as anything because I think our music is there to be perceived in anyway people can relate or enjoy it. We like to put on a show and get people leaving with that feeling you get when youve just seen a band that ain’t fuckin about! It’s somewhere in between alt country/indie rock.
I listen to lots of different alt country rock stuff from America that isnt so popular over here. I could list far too many but I’ll give you the short list of influences! Probably the most influencial for me is Jason Isbell, the likes of The Districts, Delta Spirit and The War On Drugs are also massive bands for me. Bob Dylan, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash and Jason Isbell are also massive influences on myself for the timeless song writing.
The band has played a number of gigs across Glasgow, what has been your favourite gig to date?
L: We have played some real fun shows already. Probably our headline show at the O2 ABC2 was my favourite. It was a Saturday night, our first show of 2016 and we had over 130 people there for us giving it 110% that’s exactly what it’s all about for us!
Mikey: Our first Tuts show was class. It was the first time we played a world class live venue! We got the show on like a weeks notice and still managed to sell
J: I agree with Lewis, the O2 ABC show was really fun!
Matty: I’m stuck on the fence between both the shows that have been mentioned. I’m sure our show on 23rd July in King Tuts will take the prize if you ask us this again haha!
The band are set to release debut single, ‘Gordo’ – what’s the crack with that song and when will it be released?
L: Gordo is one of the first songs I wrote. It was a rough time for me to be honest. My ex girlfriend had just done the dirty on me so I wrote some songs about it haha. We’ve played it as our last song since we started its just got something about it for us. I hope everyone else feels the same! It will be released on 24th JULY. That’s the day after our show at Tuts.
Is ‘Gordo’ going to be a physical release or is purely digital?
J: There will be CD’s available to purchase at our King Tuts show on 23rd. It will be released as a double sided single with our other track ” Family Tree ” taking the B side.
So how many tracks have you got currently in your locker, and are there any stand-outs?
Mikey: We’ve never really stopped writing songs. I think we got like 15 finished tracks. A good few others with bits to add or to change things around. If only we could afford to record an album and put it out haha! We have a song called Hurricane that will be released hopefully sometime in Aug/Sept that we are all very excited about. We’ve also gave an older tune a good revamp and are also very excited about that. It’s called When The Winter Comes, anyone at King Tuts on 23rd July will hear it’s new format live debut ;)!
Lewis, I believe you’re the main songwriter, how does the song writing process work for The Nickajack Men?
L: Myself and Mikey share the songwriting duties. I usually get the basic track on acoustic and take it to everyone and start playing it in a band environment which gives everyone the chance to be creative with it and put our own stamp on each song.
You seem like a band on the up with a bit of a live following, is it all just falling into place or are the The Nickajack Men strategically planning to be the next big thing from Scotland?
L: Thanks man, we’re glad you get that impression. We’re just having a good time doing what we do just now. We have some really really good friends and family who are at every show. We can’t say how much we appreciate that! Things have just kinda happened for us, we didn’t set out with any plans to do anything in particular. We’re just making the music we enjoy making and we really hope when everyone hears our stuff they can enjoy and relate to the music.
You’re headlining Tuts on July 23rd, any other big nights in the diary?
J: We will have some shows to announce really soon to release the rest of our music. We will be playing Tea In The Woods Festival on Saturday 6th August in Kincardine as well!
Finally, fast forward a year from now…where will The Nickajack Men be?
L: Hopefully on tour somewhere continuing to grow and produce good honest music. I don’t think there’s enough of that going about just now.
Thanks lads, good luck for the rest of 2016!
Find out more about The Nickajack Men on Facebook or catch them on Twitter.
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