Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicolas Rosen.
Hi Nicolas, 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?
When I was 16, I joined a band/group called the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, I was the 2nd white person in the group 40 years history to officially join the band. I spent most of my free time going to South Central, Inglewood or Leimert Park to play/hang/study with the LA jazz legends that I idolized. This all helped build my character as a person and as musician and this is where I really learned how to dive into any musical situation and play my heart out with confidence. In 2002, I helped find jazz legend Henry Grimes who had been living on skid row for close to 30 years. I got my high school to pay Henry to teach me and he started coming with me to school sometimes and would stay at my mom’s house occasionally as well. This got me the attention of many jazz greats around the country and instead of going to my senior prom, I went New York with Henry to play with him in William Parkers Big Band as part of the 2003 vision festival, this was also Henry’s first gig back in NY in decades after he had walked off the jazz scene in the late 60s. Because of my connection with Henry, I also got to learn and play with some amazing people like Nels Cline (wilco) and jazz legend Bennie Maupin. This all gave me the drive and creative spirit that I feel like is the reason for all my success now and really helped me grow as a musician in ways that can’t be learned in any school.
Since then, I have been blessed to work as musical director for many brands and artists and was the music director of Sayers club in LA from 2011-2020 (closed due to the pandemic), as well as being pretty full-time as a studio musician and producer, I record a lot of orchestras of myself for people’s songs and help produce and develop many artists; I also co-own a label for an artist that I produce Kerry Hart. I think because of my background coming from punk and then jazz I am able to fit in with many different artists, there are weeks when I go from Sofia Carson to Phantogram to Ty Dolla sign and back again. In May 2019, my friend who owned a small indie label asked me to send him some songs and he ended up wanting to sing some songs that I had written with me singing. I had never thought about being a solo artist but it was a great way to dive into writing and producing what was in my heart and has become one of the highlights of my life. My solo project is called Sloane and these days, I try to devote as much time to this project as I can. I recently signed to a new label (parts+labor records) and am working with producer Jimmy Messer on a ton of new songs for myself, it is the first time in my life that I have someone producing me, I get to be the artist! And it feels so amazing.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There was a time before Sayers opened that I had a negative bank account for a few months, stopped paying all bills, but I was stubborn and said I would be broke on my own terms and would never get a job other than music. I also have had times where because of business deals going south I had to take out large personal loans to cover musicians fees and expenses and couldn’t say anything to anyone because I was the leader and needed everything to be smooth and musicians happy. But every artist will encounter financial struggles at some point, I think there have a been a few more serious, constant struggles that I have dealt with over the years, namely depression and body dysmorphia. I constantly have a hard time with the way that I look and have only recently started to love myself and my body on a deep level. Being an artist is so much about looks and image, even if we don’t realize it or are in the background, and comparing ourselves to others and at times, this has been debilitating for me.
I struggle a lot to have deep, meaningful relationships romantically and with friends, I think a lot due to my lack of self-love and my skewed vision of myself. I have tried to take my own life a few times because at times, I feel like a prisoner to myself and it is so overwhelming and painful that I just need it to stop and start over, it’s hard to explain how my life can feel so awful to people when from the outside I have a really good life and am great with people. I started therapy weekly in 2020 and this was the best decision that I have ever made as a person and as an artist. I am realizing that I had spent so long dancing around issues and getting good at music/work that I had ignored really diving into myself and learning to be ok with who I am, I need to never pretend about anything in my life is my philosophy now. The beautiful thing that I learned after seriously trying to take my own life is that I have two choices: to live or to die. And If I am choosing to live, I need to live as joyful and as inspired as possible.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think what sets me apart from others is that I am able to adapt to any musical situation and not only do the music/arranging/programming needed but also connect with the humanity of the artist and song (s) or show and find a way for that to shine through in what I do. I am a huge believer in letting the music tell me what it needs rather than me telling it what it needs, same with an artist. I try not to have a set process for anything I do but be studied and practiced enough to be able to listen and support whatever is needed in any music situation. As a music director, I recently put together all the music for Derek Hough’s Vegas residency at the Venetian.
For this show, I did everything from playing and recording string orchestras to recording and arranging big bands to programming dance breaks. This was because it was really important to me for Derek that there was little to no midi instruments in his show, it needed to feel and be real from the ground up, all the backing tracks needed to match the humanity and spirit that I feel from him. I don’t believe that a music director should just make it sound like the recorded versions of songs with a few fancy band hits, I believe that each live show should be a special moment that elevates that narrative of each song to a new level.
In the studio, my philosophy is the same, many bands will send me their songs and I will record and arrange orchestras of myself over the songs. I sit with the music for long enough that I can connect with it and then I plan my parts and record. The actual recording part sometimes takes the least amount of time, it is the listening and connecting with the narrative of the music that takes a while, I want to make sure what I am adding isn’t just layering more colors in places but helping to tell the story, helping to create a world for the artist and audience to live in. I always tell artists when I am working with them that the most interesting thing is them and as long as we are starting from a place of openness and honesty, the final product will be great, anyone can play and program a ton of cool stuff over songs but not anyone can really listen and build from a truly egoless place.
A few things that I am most proud of, I recently did a strings only version of this song ‘you are my favorite place’ by the band Layup and I love how it came out. I am very proud of the Derek Hough Vegas show that I created for him, he was also nominated for 2 Emmy awards for best choreography and I did all the music for both pieces. I am also very proud of a lot of the tracking and music that I have played and made with Phantogram over the last few years, we had one piece released only for a day during the pandemic that was a cover of ‘you are so beautiful’ with Sarah singing and me doing strings and piano that was truly amazing; we also did a show ‘live from the den’ during lockdown where I played cello, bass and keys with them and they let me rearrange all their songs for an acoustic setting which was really fun. I am also extremely proud of my solo project called SLOANE and love and believe in every song that I have released and will release coming up. In general though, I feel so lucky to get to work with so many amazing people and am extremely proud of everything that I have been part of, I recently started making a Spotify playlist of tracks that I have worked and felt such a rush of joy listening to everything.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I am a very easy person to reach Instagram nickrosenmusic or @sloanesongs for my solo project.
And for collabs email is great [email protected], best way to support me is by streaming and following my Sloane project on Spotify or Apple Music.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.sloanesongs.com
- Instagram: @nickrosenmusic
- Facebook: sloanesongs
- Twitter: sloanesongs
- Youtube: sloanesongs
Image Credits:
William Mathieu, Adam Bravin
