NICK RATTIGAN OF CURRENT JOYS
It is hard not to overstate the critical role film plays in Nick Rattigan’s life. A production assistant who cut his teeth working on film and television in New York, he is an avid fan of the genre and is in his own right an accomplished director. But don’t be fooled into thinking that this is where the story ends because Nick is an extremely talented musician having released the album Wild Heart in 2013, Me Oh My Mirror in 2015, A Different Age in 2018, Live at Kilby Court in 2020 and now in 2021 with his latest offering Voyager.
In understanding Nick the film maker and Nick the musician, it is best explained by the man himself in reference to those who he admires “I’ve always appreciated artists who stay very true to themselves. Go against the grain of their own work. Like Scott Walker for example, who completely turned his own music and creative style on its head or Lou Reed, Nick Cave. I think there is something important about the ego death of an artist. Especially when music in our culture creates such a flaunting of the ego. It is interesting to see what happens when it is destroyed.” This notion of ego is one that runs throughout his work and understandably so when considered from the view point of a film maker and the concepts of self, character, performance and artistic vision.
In that artistic realm and when working across multiple mediums it is worth pondering the thought, is the input to output equal across the disciplines of film, visual media and music considering the areas that each overlap? Although as Nick defiantly points out “Not at all. Film and music are so radically different creative zones. I can write a song so effortlessly, but bringing something into the video realm is an incredibly taxing and exhausting effort. The end results definitely play in influence with each other - but the process couldn’t be more different in my opinion.” A shining example of this is the film clip for the lead single off Voyager, the entrancing Amateur. Shots of a desolate desert eventually give way to a panicked and demonic character emerging from the shrubs before jumping into a car and driving off at break neck speed “filming this was a mix of high concept and chaotic improv. Because of the pandemic I was trying to limit my crew to an absolute bare minimum - so I had this idea to just literally strap a camera to the window of a car and film this video of me driving recklessly through the desert in devil make up. All I really had was the idea. So when we went to film it, I slowly realized how dangerous the stunt actually was. We only did two takes and on the second one, the car spun out. Absolute Loony Tunes. I think we captured something very interesting though.”
The cinematic way in which Amateur was filmed begs the question if Nick approaches his musical creations from the perspective of a film score yet in reality “I approach the individual song writing in a very “rock n roll” fashion. Making sure each song has a good hook and structure. But when constructing the whole album I try to tie a nice cinematic bow around it. Making sure the songs are in conversation with each other and follow a sonic theme.” This theme clarifies any doubt as to whether Voyager has a distinct narrative running throughout the record or more of an assortment of ideas that zig zag throughout the sixteen tracks on the album. “I like to think of it as different adventures in the same story. Kind of like the Odyssey” yet stylistically and thematically if there was a common thread tying Voyager together it is “themes of internal struggle, anxiety and battling one’s self. All very human experiences. But stylistically I wanted the oppressing force to feel more mystical- cinematic.”
With that said, it was the achingly beautiful follow up single American Honey that fuses all of these ideas, styles, concepts and notions together. As Nick astutely puts it, “American Honey is an idea. An idea that can inspire, but also destroy. There is a duality to the song which I myself cannot really make sense of. It can only be felt in the moments in between the lyrics.” From the opening scene of the accompanying video clip which sees a drunk and hysterical Nick arrive home with drink in hand, laughing and making his way indoors before a steady decline. This decline is the destruction that Nick speaks of but making that visual concept particularly impactful is the string section which features within the track yet “the original version of the song had an extremely simple version of the strings. It was more of a drone sound that would come over the chorus. However, when we were recording I started messing around on the Mellotron and creating a ton of different melodies to layer over the drone. Then Eliza Bagg, who played the strings on the record, added some 3rd and 5ths on top of that. So the final arrangement is a mixture of Mellotron and real strings.” The closing scene is of Nick, drink in hand, staring off into the distance from a room atop of a city scape which as it turns out is “actually my house which I moved into right as the pandemic in LA was getting pretty scary. The music video itself is a play on the movie Love Streams - but actually draws a lot of the parallels to the isolation and madness I was ensuing in this my wood panelled prison.”
Another film reference and a small wonder why film is at the heart of Nicks work but it by no means starts and ends with film. Enquiring as to how Nick arrived at the various cover art for his numerous albums reveals that across the eclectic mix of visual covers, there is an evolving approach to his artistry as Nick states “I feel like ten years ago, I just threw something together to upload to Bandcamp and quickly as possible. Wild Heart was just an Instagram photo I posted of my grandparents. Now that I have a lot more time, it is fun and interesting to put more thought into the visual aspect of the record. Much like the last Surf Curse record - I wanted the album art to “set the scene” of the album. In this case the photographer, Julien Sage, and I went to the beach and LA and tried to capture “something is very wrong.”
Although rooted in film, the ever evolving Nick Rattigan constantly showcases his creative prowess in his multi-disciplined approach to crafting his unique blend of mixed media and deft touch to everything he throws himself at. All of which is beautifully surmised on his latest record in the ways he has fashioned the album and imbued it with his passion for film and love affair with music by uniting the two fields in such a stunning way.
