Today we’d like to introduce you to Nothing Special.
Nothing Special started out in 2013 as just Alex Georges (drums) and Erik Anderson (bass) who had locked into a groove through years of playing together. Alex met with Kevin Cremin (rhythm guitar) and Peter Kissin (lead guitar) through their graduate program and the four members shared a vision to play “party music” and started a few months of jamming.
A chance encounter on a bus with local vocalist Lizzie Shipton and an email to the UCSD pep band set our initial lineup in motion, complete with a brass section including Tsukasa Takahashi (trumpet), Kirk Wang (trombone) and Ryland Fallon (saxophone). In 2016, Natalia Hill joined the band as the new lead singer and in 2017, the group expanded to 9 members with the addition of Miren Edelstein on violin.
Since then, they have recorded 2 EPs and regularly perform at venues around San Diego including: 710 Beach Club, The Loft @ UCSD, Mr. Peabody’s, Bark Pink, Winston’s, The House of Blues Voodoo Lounge and other locations. They’re currently working on material for a new album and performing as much as possible.
A few pieces of trivia that (they hope) are interesting:
– One of them is a professional dancer;
– 7 of them have or are currently working on graduate degrees ranging from Physics to Psychology;
– One of them is in the army;
– 4 of them are surfers.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
We ultimately try to create and perform music that makes people happy. We all find that spark and the individual flair we bring to this genre is particularly well suited to this goal. Whenever we play, we are always so happy to perform our music and we hope this translates to the crowd even when there’s just two people there. We also focus on music that sounds uplifting and sends out positive vibes to everyone. And from repeated experience, we’ve found our music is nostalgic which people really like. But we hope there are so many other reasons that leave people walking away from our music in higher spirits.
Many of us are surfers and all of us embrace the SoCal beach culture. Many of the topics we sing about and the thematic elements we bring to the music draw largely on this background. And although, we’re serious musicians, we’re definitely silly performers. It’s just too fun not to be.
Our creative workflow in making our music often times starts out with a simple lick or jam that someone brings to the table. Since there’s 9 people in the band, it can be hard for a jam to catch the attention of everyone, but when it does, we always have a lot of momentum which can produce a really good song.
The stereotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Everyone in the band works another job, which luckily works out with our scheduling. This has always been the setup in this band and it works out for us. We’d say, try to look for a way to supplement income that: (1) allows you to pursue your craft and (2) hopefully gives you experience that adds to your craft.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
We have a few different online profiles you can check our work out at:
Facebook: facebook.com/nothingspecialska
Music: soundcloud.com/nothing-special-ska
Instagram: instagram.com/nothing_specialska/
Email: nothingspecialska@gmail.com
People can support our work by coming to our performances and having a good time. We perform a few times a month in the San Diego area.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 717-380-1437
- Email: nothingspecialska@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nothing_specialska/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nothingspecialska
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/nothing-special-ska
Image Credit:
Amandine Berro, Tsukasa Takahashi
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
