After playing only a handful of small, intimate shows around Brisbane, jazz multi-instrumentalist Nick Karpin is already beginning to make waves on the scene.
Blending traditional jazz with a contemporary twist, Nick has a style that is uniquely his own, and it’s all thanks to a heavy-metal phase that he went through when he was 15 years old. “I was 15 and I just picked up the guitar. I was just listening to records like you do when you're 15 and I suppose I was having the metal stage that people have when they're 15 too. I really liked Metallica back in the day and thought it was just cool.”
While it was the heavy-metal phase that made Nick pick up the guitar in the first place, his musical tastes began to change after catching a brief glimpse of the world of jazz while holidaying in Canada. “I went travelling to Canada to a city called Montreal which is French occupied and has a history and heritage of jazz. They have the Montreal Jazz Festival which is just huge.”
Jazz left a lasting impression on Nick and it wasn’t long before he had lost his faith in rock and metal all together. Inspired by the music of John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Miles Davis and Yussef Lateef, Nick decided to make the transition from rock to jazz. “I guess I was losing faith in rock music. It just sort of felt like nothing was really real anymore and after seeing jazz clubs, I got to see people react and you got to really see their personality come out. I thought that was just great.”
Nick has been honing his multi-instrumental capabilities at the prestigious Queensland Conservatorium of Music where he’s now in his final year of study. He’s become so good at almost every instrument that he quit playing guitar because it was simply too easy for him. “I mostly play saxophone now. I don't actually play guitar anymore. I was just getting really frustrated by the mechanics of it.
“One thing that really bugs me with guitar is you can play the same note in a variety of different places, because you have six strings that overlap in terms of what range they cover. With saxophone, there's only a few fingerings of each note.”
Nick got the challenge he was looking for in an instrument with the saxophone, yet he says playing a variety of other instruments helps him to push his playing even further. “I play a bit of piano and a bit of flute as well. This last holiday I picked up drums as well. Each instrument forces you to think a different way and it helps you to develop in a different way.”
Nick’s diverse sound has secured him a number of small gigs around the city and the crowd’s response has been nothing but positive. “I’m in a few ensembles and we're finding our way around the scene in various forms – cafes and small gigs here and there. Some have been interesting, some are very humbling.
“Last year we had one gig which was just at some crazy place in the Queen Street Mall, it was just electric being able to play something and feel the audience connect. It was very satisfying.”
Nick’s next gig will be at one of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s Green Jam Sessions where he’ll be laying down the grooves on the lush Melbourne Street Green. Accompanying him will be his equally talented friends who will be spicing up the usual jazz repertoire with some more contemporary styles. “I've got a friend on drums, sort of doing a drum & bass background.
"I guess the great thing about this gig is it connects so many different people from different backgrounds that wouldn’t otherwise meet. Our pianist as well, she's from a gospel background, so just the fusion of all of us including our bassist who's from a jazz-rock background, creates a variety of colours in the sound. We're planning on doing some arranged versions of contemporary songs like a Queens Of The Stone Age song called 'Hangin' Tree'.”
Nick will also be using the QPAC gig to perform a number of his own, original compositions which he aims to have released as an EP towards the end of the year. “I'm planning on trying to release some recorded material by the end of the year, so that's another goal on the end of the horizon. I've got about four or five tunes that I've more or less worked into a form that I can accept,” he chuckles.
Although he’s still a student himself, Nick also finds the time to teach music to other young, aspiring, jazz musicians. He says it’s nice to earn a small living from music, but the only way you can pull it off is if you genuinely love it. “I've been doing a little bit of teaching, that’s been great, but you don’t do music for money; you do it because you have an insatiable pull towards it. If it was about doing something that you thought was easy, you would have stopped a long time ago.”
The Nick Karpin Quartet plays the Green Jam Session as part of QPAC's Front Yard Music 17 April from 5pm.
