Sitting down with veteran musician and vocalist Nigel Hall opens up the doors for a no-holds-barred, blow-by-blow analysis of the music industry among his many other insights. He isn’t afraid to tell anyone what he thinks and in turn live up to his own expectations. From his days drumming in awe of Questlove to the minute he bought a Rhodes and sang the blues, Hall opens up to us about his inspirations, aspirations, and expectations.

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When did you begin singing and playing?

Well I came from the planet Nebular…just kidding. I was born in DC. My father was a musician, a guitar player. My mother sang. My older brother was also into music; he was a bass player. So it was kind of predestined that I was going to play music before I was even born. That choice was made by something bigger than me really. I’ve been playing keyboards since I was about four. My grandmother had a piano and I hit a key on it once. I remember how that felt. It made a sound because I pressed the key. I’ve been chasing that high ever since. I just got hooked up with the right people. The music was always calling me somewhere. Regardless of what I was going through at the time, I always followed it. It’s never let me down.


What were some of your first experiences of actually playing music like?

I’ll tell you about the first musical experience where I played in front of people. My family knew I had some sort of talent. My family is weird. They have always looked at me like the black sheep of the family. I’m the weird kid. I used to run around the house at five or six years old with Stanley Clarke records. Really old shit too, like shit where I wasn’t even a thought until six years after these records came out. I’d always been obsessed with the ‘70s. One of my favorite singing groups as a child was the Temptations. I remember listening to them Christmas time at my grandmother’s house. Me and my cousins were downstairs like, “Alright let’s do something for the family.” We put on “Silent Night” and all five of us were the Temptations. I was Eddie Kendricks. None of my cousins sang at all, they were just messing around. But when it got to my turn for the Eddie Kendricks part, I nailed that motherfucker. People just went off. And I will never forget the way I felt because it kind of felt like it gave me some validity. It was really cool; I didn’t know how to identify it then. That was like 1988 when I was about seven.

My first gig that I had I was the drummer actually. I wanted to be Questlove so bad. I grew up listening to Billy Cobham and David Garibaldi. I love fusion. But I wanted to be Questlove so bad so I started playing drums in a blues band in Maine when I was 16. That was the first time I ever played a gig.


Where did you learn how to play drums?

I taught myself. I got behind the drums and I just wanted to be involved. I kind of just figured it out on my own. I started by playing Go-Go beats because they were easy to play and I just figured it out. The more you play, the more you figure other things out too. I played drums up until I was around 18 or 19 years old. Then I developed the nerve to be like, okay, I haven’t played piano since I was about 13 or 14, but I bought a Rhodes. That was it. I didn’t understand English, I didn’t shower for I don’t know how long. I just stayed in the basement and taught myself all of the things I wanted to know and wanted to be able to play. Stuff that George Duke played. I said, “OK, this is what I’m doing.” That was the original plan though. The original plan was for me to be a keyboard player. The drums were just an aside, which was not the way you’re supposed to do shit. You’re supposed to know already.


Were you writing music or playing a lot of gigs at that time?

I was scared to write music at the time. I was scared to because I didn’t know what I had to offer. I was in Maine at the time. I was a little fish in the big pond and I didn’t realize it at that point. I didn’t realize how successful I could have been if I had just done my own thing until later. That all comes with growing up in the scene and just figuring it out. I didn’t really start writing until I got the Rhodes. I started to kind of see inside myself at that point. I found I could deal with everything that had happened in my life through the music. That’s when things really changed. I figured out that I could actually do what it is that I had been dreaming about. That was the gateway drug I guess, the Rhodes.




...Anger


Did you have a turning point where you decided to pursue music as a career and really dedicated yourself to it?

Not really. You can ask anyone in my family. Music has always been first priority to me my entire life. From the moment I was born up until this very minute, music has been the most important thing in my life. It’s never steered me wrong. It may have taken me down some really sketchy streets, you know, some really sketchy neighborhoods, but it’s never led me wrong and I’ve always learned my lessons. I mean, I just knew I was going to do this. It was always just a matter of when this was going to happen for me. I’ve always felt strongly that this is me, this is why I was put on the earth, to play music and make people feel good. I just always knew it. It was just a matter of when.


What was that big break in your career?

This is how it happened. Like I said, I used to live in Maine. Ryan Zoidis sought me out which was kind of weird because I was a fan of him because he played with Lettuce. This was before I really knew anyone in Lettuce. He sought me out and was like, “Man, I really want to play with you.” I was like, “Man I want to play with you too!” We started getting together and realized that we have some of the same musical tastes. We love the same shit. Zoidus is like my best friend to this day. He’s one of my closest, closest friends. And not because he got me these gigs, but because me and him established a relationship before he had even said anything to anybody about me. He was the one who brought everyone’s attention to me though.


How did he know about you?

He was form Maine and I was doing gigs up in Maine. Every time he would pop in, he would hear about this Nigel Hall dude who sang soul and did some James Brown type stuff. That’s right up his alley. So he sought me out, we met up and we started talking and playing. Then I met Sam not too long after that. Sam and I played together for a little while in Boston and what not. I’m a big fan of Sam Kininger as well. Those two were the ones who really vouched for me. That’s really how it happened. And then after that, once I came down here for the first time, it was just like everything. I was meeting people who I had been inspired by just left and right. The first time I ever went to the Blue Note, Mike Clark was there and Billy Cobham was there. I was just like, “Oh shit!” That was when I thought about all of the stories I had heard from my favorite musicians about picking up, moving to New York and seeing what it was all about.

Towards the end of my time in Maine I was married. My ex-wife was always telling me I wasn’t going to be shit, that I was just a big fish in a little pond up there, just being real negative. So when I moved here to New York, I thought immediately that I am a little fish in a big pond now, but that kind of made me work a little harder on myself and to just be really mindful of what I do. We’re teaching. People who see musicians know that this is a manifestation of their thoughts. So if I don’t care about the music, then whatever music I produce is not going to be gold, just by default. It kind of taught me to really give a shit about the music. The examples I had when I first got here, like when I met Kraz, I was like shit, he has a rap sheet as long as the Manhattan Bridge. He knows what the fuck he’s doing. Then I met Warren. The first time I met Warren Haynes, he was like “Man, we’re going to play together one day.” Now I’m touring the fucking world with him. It allowed me to see that in such a little amount of time, if everything you do is pure, you will be everywhere. All over the world. I’m just grateful to have fallen in the right spot and the right time. That’s really what it is. There are motherfuckers out there that I see all the time that can sing circles around me and play circles around me. I learn from that. They are struggling too, like I used to struggle. I’m just really fortunate.


Are there some underrated vocalists that you vouch for? Or some young cats who you know are going to do things?

There’s a ton of people. A lot of those people too are starting to surface. You’re starting to see more of them. For instance, Alecia Chakour. That woman, I swear to God, that is my homie. I call her my music-wife and she calls me her music-husband. I’m going to be honest with you, I’m really picky when it comes to singers. A lot of times I notice that singers, because they can hold a note in the bag a lot of times, they try to ride that until the roots come off. There’s something way more spiritual about singing. Not only as a musician, but as a singer, number one you’re the focal point of the song. It’s like you’re a minister or and Evangelist that’s supposed to be able to form a way to talk to the congregation or whoever they’re talking to and be able to relate to them in a manner where they can understand everything that they say. For example, Donny Hathaway, if you go through some shit, if you listen to “I Know It’s You,” I’m telling you, there have been so many times where I have almost gone off the fucking road and crashed into a tree because I was crying so hard! Every note that the man sings, for me, I can feel whatever pain or whatever happiness, whatever sadness or whatever anger is going through his mind at that particular time. Really good singers have a way of doing this. Now a lot of people aren’t true to themselves enough. Alecia, that woman sings from her heart. That’s what I was trying to say. Just because someone sings doesn’t mean they’re singing from their heart. They’re singing just because they know they can sing and that’s their way in, instead of being truthful and singing from their soul. Again it goes back to giving a shit. You have to give a shit about the music. If you don’t really give a shit, you will know; you will hear from the first fucking note.




...Walk On By - (Alecia Chakour & The Osra)


Can you talk a little about technique and your voice as an instrument?

[Laughs] Well, there really isn’t a whole lot of technique here. I mean, I sing every day. You know what I really do, I’ll tell you this. I don’t do any warm-ups. This is really bad, you’re not going to believe a word I’m saying, but this is the truth. I don’t really do much warm-up. I smoke a lot of weed, and I smoke so much that whatever it is I hear, I sing it. I’m actually cutting down on cigarettes because I have a new girlfriend who won’t kiss me if I smoke. But there’s really no technique. I just sing what I hear in my mind. I like a lot of sarcastic soul. When I say sarcastic soul I don’t mean that these people aren’t really singing, but the way that they sing is almost comical because of the swag they put on it. People like Mavis Staples and Rance Allen. But one of my favorite things in singing is getting the best out of one note. All of these lines don’t mean shit, because you can’t understand what people are saying because they’re singing too many damn notes for one word. One of my biggest things as far as technique is to find the way to get the best and milk that one note for all it’s worth. Runs are cool, when needed. I think that comes with me being a musician too. I’m really into the playing the shit the way that it’s supposed to be played. A lot of why shit is so dope is about what you don’t play as opposed to what you do. I’m a stickler when it comes to that…unless I’m playing fusion. Then it’s every man for himself.


So what projects are you working on now?

I’m preparing to do a tour with Lettuce and Soulive later in the spring. My record is to be determined at this point. We’re mixing it right now. We should be done mixing this week, but then it has to be mastered. I might wait a little while before I put it out, just to make people sweat a little. People are not going to like me when this record comes out though; this record is fucking retarded. Me and Kraz used to fight so much because we had this record just sitting on a hard drive getting dusty. He kept telling me to wait it out, and now I’m really glad I waited as long as I did. Doing a record is an emotional journey. A lot of tones came from emotions, just love and hate, happiness and pain. I have to relive this shit while we’re recording. I have to try and convey as much of it as possible. So I’m exhausted and I’m ready to put this thing to bed now. I’m so close and I can’t wait for everybody to hear it. I call it “the greatest soul album you will probably never hear.” I believe in it. It’s really fucking good. But the way that the music industry is today, music that is really good doesn’t get heard. When you give a shit, nobody cares. I hope this record will be something that changes that.


Nigel Hall Online


http://revivalist.okaypla...the-heart/

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