Five minutes with...Mike Nisbet
Grab a shot of espresso, glass of wine and sit down with Mike Nisbet, live from the Eurostar...
Our next ‘Five minutes with…’ is with the majestic Scottish artist Mike Nisbet. Mike released ‘Get Dead’ (listen here) in 2023, his exceptional fourth record, which demonstrated his deeply dark and beautifully honest songwriting craft. He has since continued to release standalone singles as he builds up to his next venture.
We spoke to Mike about his approach to writing songs, stumbling upon a release strategy and what’s currently on his stereo…
Q: Describe your music in three words…
Emotion, Story, deep
Q: What's your musical ethos?
More than anything I think I’m trying to connect my inner landscape to the outer. So any kind of ethos is about trying to honour that as much as possible - to not get too blown about by the winds of the wild and connect to what’s happening inside and letting it out.
Q: What’s your songwriting process?
Step 1: Cry.
Step 2: A lot of jamming on guitar or piano until some kinda riff bubbles up. That usually means it’s connected to something I’m feeling and trying to figure out. I’ll usually just keep playing it till a lyric pops up, or something I’ve written before.
Q: What’s your music-making process?
It usually starts with quite a lot of jamming, then I start to demo pretty quickly. I find getting ideas down in recordings helps me to create the arrangement. From that, holes quickly appear when it's down on 'tape'. So once there's guitar/piano/vocals it usually goes through two or three revisions at least, before settling into what it’s going to be.
Then comes the time of overdoing it, over knobbing it, adding synths, second bass lines five backing vocal tracks. I spend way too long trying to 'mix' it then eventually throw all that away and start writing the whole track again from scratch in a much more straightforward way. It's the long way around, but all that trying out and adding weird shit only to take it off is part of seeing what the song wants to be, like trying on a bunch of outfits.
From a technical perspective it's all done on Ableton (come at me you Logic freaks!) A couple of mics - of course a 57 and a Rode Valve condenser mic. A shockingly cheap audio interface from Native Instruments and a few choice plug-ins I'll keep to myself. Oh and a weird five string bass that needs a mention - that was left behind from a previous tenant in the room I live in.
Q: How do you balance music and day jobs/other life?
Badly. Well, I'm getting better, things used to be all or nothing, art or die! But these days I also manage a coffee shop in Central London, where I work with a bunch of great creative, artistic people, and there's no shortage of inspiration.
Q: Do you go into your releases with a particular marketing strategy/release strategy and has this evolved?
Now yes, absolutely. Historically, fuck no. But only because I had no idea what I was doing. From my first releases I've been doing it myself, from 2008 or 2009. Being able to get your music online without a label was starting to take off, the first digital distributors and all that. So getting it recorded, printed, artwork, and released was a win. Now there is more of a plan, better art, release at a good time, and book shows to promote it. I’m also slowly starting my own label whether I want to or not. But I think that's a good thing, and is really what artists should be doing.
Q: What are your main musical inspirations?
There's some obvious ones, Dylan, Cohen, that kind of lyrical focus I really admire and aim at. But the day-to-day rotation changes a lot, at the moment I'm obsessed with Arthur Russell, Hania Rani and the new DIIV album is absolutely glorious. I'm always searching for writers who bottle emotions in potent ways.
Q: What song/record can’t you stop playing at the moment?
Nils Frahm - 'Lemon Day'. I've listened to every day since it came out. It's a beautiful 18 and a half minute meditation that always lifts me up.
Q: If you could change one thing about the music industry what would it be?
Less talk, more action. Music is a doing thing. Talking about it can only get you so far.
A less nebulous answer would be to have more live music in non alcohol/drug-drenched rooms. I enjoy a rock show in a dirty bar with a beer as much as the next person, but it would be great to have more live music spaces that didn't rely on that.
I'm not sure now this could come about, but it's on my mind.
Maybe this applies more to the rock/folk world, as opera and classical concerts are more chill, but especially in the UK it feels like we could all benefit from an up-and-coming music scene not being so intertwined with alcohol.
Q: You've gigged fairly extensively in the past couple of years - what value does the live show have to up-and-coming artists?
It's everything. Recording and releasing music is a wonderful way to share the art, and it is very important, but the live experience is the heart of it all. Music vibrating through the room, connecting you and everyone around you to the performer, nature and your environment is something that makes music so special.
Even the best headphones money can buy ain't gonna do that for you. I would encourage any up-and-coming writers and performers to get out and play their songs to people - it really does transform them. And you!
Q: Any plans for new records/music on the horizon?
As I write to you, I'm on the Eurostar to Paris, where I'll attempt to finish writing the next album. Wish me luck. I hear wine and ciggies are fantastic for the muse.
You can find Mike on Bandcamp here.