Singer-songwriter Nick Flessa chatted about his new single “The Terror, The Traitor and The Tastemaker.”
The song is a track of his forthcoming instrumental album, “With A Different Kind of Energy,” which will be out on April 17th via Anxiety Blanket Records.
How did the new single come about?
The single was tracked live with a full band in studio. I played guitar, J.D. Carrera played pedal steel, Ross Chait played drums, Nicki Chen played viola, and Gina Segall played bass.
Neil Wogensen recorded and mixed the session. I had been working on the guitar composition in some form for years.
I completed it one night around the holidays in 2024 after I was seated near a group of screaming, degenerate rich men at The Musso and Frank Grill in Los Angeles. Something about the experience motivated me to finish the song.
What inspires your music and songwriting?
For this record – the landscape surrounding my house, my friends and family, my complex relationship with the organic food and natural wine industries, and the history of the American West.
How does it feel to be an artist in the digital age?
It’s all I’ve known, so I guess it feels good. At times I resent the protestant anxiety/performed status present on Instagram and other social media, but those things existed long before that technology.
With the influx of AI art, I’m glad to be a real person making art on my own.
What do your plans for the future include?
Making more records. “Making art in America is about saving one’s soul.” – Charles Simic on Joseph Cornell, in Dime Store Alchemy. I hope to do that, over and over again.
“Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.” – James Joyce. Something like that too.
How do you use technology in your daily routine?
I read on my phone a lot. I lost my airpods last year, and I think it harmed my mental state for a few months.
Eventually, I got used to it and found some corded headphones in a kitchen drawer. I’ve been doing a little better since.
Which artists would you like to do a dream collab with?
My current collaborators are a dream already. That being said I would love to have an Eddie Van Halen guitar solo on one of my songs.
I’ve also dreamed about Drake or someone else rapping over one of the instrumentals from my previous record, The Politics of Personal Destruction.
What is your advice for young and emerging artists?
To thine own self be true. Attitudes will change on a dime and most hierarchies are an illusion in service of the powerful.
What would you like to say to your fans about your new single?
If you listened to the song and are reading this, “thank you!”
To learn more about singer-songwriter Nick Flessa and his new music, follow him on Instagram.
