In an interview in 1995:
Q: Who inspired you to pick up the guitar?
Nick: "That was me. I just got a guitar and I could play a few things on it, and I liked messing with it, and I liked making my own things up."
"When I was 14 or so I listened to a lot of Joy Division
- I loved the textures of their records. Now, though, it's more
John Martyn, his '70's albums in particular; that's where my
textured guitar playing comes from, honestly. And I had Led Zeppelin
and Pink Floyd forced on me when I was younger, and although I
tend not to listen to that sort of thing now I guess it's lodged
in my brain.
I won't say that bands like Cocteau Twins were not an influence,
but that's not the sort of thing I really like... I like Vini Reilly
(from The Durutti Column) because he could be flashy but he
was really simple about it. I also like Funkadelic's Eddie Hazel
who, to me, condensed the best bits of Hendrix. You can probably
hear all my influences in what I play, whether it's recent stuff
or old blues records.
It's all about sound. I think guitar players who strive for technical
excellence have lost the plot, really. The whole point of the electric
guitar started when Charlie Christian plugged his guitar into an
amplifier to make it sound like a saxophone or whatever... and if
I can press some button in the studio to make my guitar come
up with a new sound, what's so bad about that? It's like the whole
idea that techno isn't 'proper' music 'cos they can't play instruments
- it's so short-sighted. That's surely where new music comes from"
"I love buying gadgets and I go through loads of
different setups, so what I use changes constantly. For guitars,
my standard Strat is the one I really like, and I also have a Gibson
ES-335 for a lot of the feedback stuff. I've got a Jazzmaster which
I bought mainly 'cos I liked the shape.. and then I found out how
shit it was. It was Tom Verlaine's fault as usual.
My main Marshall packed in and started to sound horrible just before
we recorded the album so I got hold of a Mesa/Boogie (MkIII) combo.
For effects I started off with a Watkins Copicat and I used to have
one of the those old Roland Space Echoes, but at the moment I've got
a Roland GP-8 that I picked up second-hand. It's pretty reliable,
it does the job. But in the studio, it's a case of using anything
I can get my hands on - a GS-6, a Roland Jazz Chorus combo... I
hooked those up after the Mesa/Boogie and it's that which gives the
great big sound on 'The Sun, The Sea.'
I come up with new ideas just by dribbling guitars over everything
and picking out something that makes some sort of sense. We sample
stuff, loop bits I've played and it sounds great. John (Leckie) has
actually tamed me down a bit, really. But live it's different - we
never try and exactly recreate the studio sound and I think all our
songs will always take on a different character when we play them
live."
