Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Pagan.
Hi Nick, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m a true-blue musical artist. I am a singer, songwriter, composer, and performer, but in past lives I have been a journalist, a shoe shiner, a street photographer, a knife salesman…all of these people I’ve been have strengthened my music, allowed me to create a world, paint a more complete picture in presentation. I just came out with a new music video which shows you what I’m talking about.
I call my music “new-wop”—colorful sonic palettes, catchy hooks, and classic sounds ripe to be sampled. My music has been Today’s Top Tune on KCRW; I have interviewed and had my music on KROQ; been written about in Remezcla, Talkhouse, and Indie Rocks! (CDMX); and one of my songs was recently in one of my favorite Netflix shows, Elite, which I’m super hype about.
I’m a full-blown Californio. Much of my family (on both sides) originally hails from Baja California—Mexicali. Many of the first of my family in Baja California were vaqueros. Later, much of my family (on both sides) moved to Highland Park where many of them lived in yellow stucco houses that marked my earliest and most profound memories. My parents met in Highland Park—my mom went to Franklin, my dad went to Eagle Rock. I was born in Highland Park, moved to San Diego when I was three when my dad had joined the Navy but came back to live in LA in 1st and 5th grade. Back-and-forth, back-and-forth…I went to seven different schools before high school. Soon as I finished high school, I moved to San Francisco, where I truly came of age and found myself. Then on July 4, 2019, I moved back to a much different Highland Park, where my family no longer lived in those yellow stucco houses; in fact, those houses aren’t even yellow anymore. So now, I release my music under my own label called Yellow Stucco House, staking claim to the neighborhood once more and allowing my art to flourish where it began.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road. Like I said, I went to seven different schools before high school, so I’ve never felt like I had a definitive home or a definitive group of friends. I don’t really have too many lifelong friends, most of them are from college, and my college was a commuter school in a transient city so everyone is all over the world. In a way, I’ve always been nomadic and have learned to survive like this, which has helped me to feel comfortable in any part of the world, in a way.
While I grew up in a family of musicians, I was never really close to many of them, and my dad had to put playing music on the back burner when I was very young since the trials and tribulations of supporting a family took precedence— plus, it’s hard to be a drummer living in apartments. In fact, I had never even seen my dad play drums until I was an adult. He did play congas sometimes, though, and some of my most formative musical memories were of him calling a 6-year-old me into the living room one morning to hold down the clave while he jammed on congas to a Fania record.
We never had much money and we always lived in apartments, so I didn’t exactly have my bedroom studio like some kids do. In fact, I couldn’t make too much noise because my mom worked the graveyard shift and would sleep during the day. Needless to say, I couldn’t take up the saxophone the way I wanted to, lol. I always played on an acoustic guitar and so I would have to be very imaginative to arrange songs in my head that way, trying to imagine what it would sound like with a full band or orchestration. This helped a lot in songwriting and arranging. Turns out my great-grandfather was a big band arranger in Mexicali—funny ‘cause I was the same in my head, in me and my brother’s bedroom with my acoustic guitar.
Another struggle and huge eye-opening experience was when I realized that I am a gentrifier. Even though I grew up “poor” and my family were the ones being displaced from their homes in places like Highland Park, I lived in San Francisco, went to college, and became part of a social class of young individuals conquering the world. This didn’t really occur to me until one day I was flying from San Francisco back to LA to document my great-grandparents in their home in Highland Park—I was there to take photos of them because, in the coming weeks, they were being forced to move from their home of 50 years. A good friend I had met in San Francisco came to pick me up from LAX and take me to my grandparents’. Before he dropped me off, we went and got food on York Blvd. We got ramen and then cappuccinos—mundane, right? But that was when it all hit me: I am very much a member of the world of gentrifiers. I am part of the wave. I was even working at a craft brewery at that time, haha. And being a part of that world, here I was going back into the other side, the gentrified world I come from, to see the last of our family in Highland Park being displaced. This reality messed me up a little bit; it was hard to accept. But then I realized, I have always been in the middle of crossroads like this in so many different areas throughout my life—my high school was under construction when I went there, and so was my university; I left home during the heat of recession and was a knife salesman; I have always joined companies after the end of an era and beginning of a new one; while I was traveling in Cuba in 2014 (“illegally”) President Barrack Obama went on television to announce that we would be lifting sanctions with Cuba and we would be working on better relations; things like that. And so I realized that since I am in-between different worlds in so many regards, I ought to act as a bridge between them, especially between the socio-economic mindsets of gentrifier and gentrified. And this aim is precisely what guides me in every aspect of living and creating art.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As I mentioned, my aim is to be a bridge. This is especially true with my music, which takes influences from the past—classic, tried-and-true methods—and spins it for new ears to enjoy.
Everything repeats throughout history, as we know. So this is my natural way of bringing back older heritage and traditions, ones deeply-rooted throughout the Americas. I especially aim for my label Yellow Stucco House to set a foundation and be a home for not just “new-wop,” not just music from similar-sounding artists, but for like-minded individuals who understand this bridge between worlds as well, and seek to shine a light for others.
Please, feel free to follow me on all socials @nickthepagan and follow my label @yellowstuccohouse
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I have been blessed in crossing paths with so many talented and highly-influential individuals. I think it has helped that I have been so nomadic all my life because it has forced me to adapt to get along with nearly anyone, and that has helped people to truly see me and even want to help me succeed. Such people are Mike Rexhouse and Ben Brandrett, two friends with whom I recorded the songs I’ve released so far and who helped me to become more of myself, without words, but by allowing me to bloom in front of them; Paul Butler, an amazing record producer who took a chance on me when I had never even recorded professionally before, and teaches me something with every conversation; Kelly Finnigan, a brilliant soul music artist, producer, and friend who is a wise sage; my homies McArdle and Erik who are some of the most-talented storytellers and multimedia artists around and unceasingly support me in my high hopes; Charlene and Aaron who have essentially been a big brother and sister to me my whole life and taught everything from good music to how to let my freak flag fly; my partner Brandy who has helped me grow so much as an individual and given me the courage to pursue my deepest truth as an artist; and our dog, Logan, who has allowed me to see the world through new eyes and has kept me rooted deeply as a human.
Pricing:
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$9.99 LIMITED QTY yellow vinyl record available (45RPM, YSH-001, “Hardly Use My Hands”/”In A Cave”)!! https://mixtorecords.bandcamp.
com/album/nick-pagan-hardly- use-my-hands-in-a-cave
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://fanlink.to/nickpaganmusic
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickthepagan/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nickthepagan
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nickthepagan
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFq-skFHjNbGWrwREa_4WQ
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/nickthepagan
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3GNXDMVCH3NDK1adUInNaT?si=MGnJkT8sTbeyh5AsNWtu0Q&nd=1
Image Credits:
Profile Photo: Brandy West Additional photos in order: – McArdle Hankin – Brandy West – Nick Pagan (all the rest)
