Nomad

"Nice production and sonic touches - keeps the listener engaged."

- Taxi.com

NOMAD
New York City, NY
(Indie/Unsigned)
By: Bob Donovan
www.northeastintune.com

This is yet another outstanding band from the New York City area. I'm doing this review/article based on the material and songs in their Sonic Bids EPK. I wish I had their full length CD because if the rest of their material is ANYTHING like what was presented to me in their EPK, I would totally enjoy it all.
Their first song from their EPK is a tune called "Like a Mirror." This piece starts out with an awesome, clean guitar part leading into a great vocal piece. As the song develops, the music, especially the guitar, gets better and better. I mean, this has a totally southern rock feel that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be proud of through and through! This is a straight forward rock tune with awesome musicianship bringing out the "southern rock" feel, especially the way they do their slide guitar work.
Nomad, like their name implies, is made up of well traveled musicians. This, I feel, is reflected in the material they write and their performance of each piece. With their dueling guitars they can take a song in any direction and keep a solid rhythm while traveling deep into the realms of perfectly situated leads.
Their second song in the EPK, "Once You Reveal," once again, is brilliantly written and musically precise. This song has a great overall soothing, and yet soulful feel with the right amount and placement of power. The vocals are very clear and have a great melody to them. These are most definitely enjoyable songs for driving, partying, or just sittin' and enjoying.
The third song, "Sleep Away," have a very cool intro with a drum beat leading in to the two guitars; one with a unique rhythm while the other comes in with a very impressive, but not over done, melodic lead. I don't really know how to describe this song other than great… I enjoyed this song, personally, because of some great musicianship. Good solid rhythm section and interesting and distinctive guitar part throughout the song.
This is some killer material from a band that considers themselves Rock with a secondary genre being a Jam Band! Well, they surely can Jam!
You need to go check out this band and take a listen. See if you don't agree with me. You can check out their website at: http://www.nomad-music.net

- Northeastintune Magazine

"The identity of the band lies in the harder edge of rock and roll." - NYROCK.COM

"The guitar-driven music of NOMAD is a reach for the shoulders of giants that reads like a diner menu; a healthy portion of Phish, roast Black Crow, tea from a Rusted Root, and a dessert of Cherry Garcia garnished with Cream."
-Sugarzine Magazine - Sugarzine.com

Guy and Daniel, when did you both first discover your love for music?

Daniel: It's tough to pinpoint it to a particular moment. Music has been an integral part of our lives as long as I can remember. I started playing piano at five, picked up the guitar at 13 and finally found the groove and started playing bass when I was 20, six years ago.

Guy: As kids, we were lucky enough to get in a carpool where the lady would play WCKG and The LOOP on the way to school. Our parents would then play folk music at home, and blues was everywhere. It was hard not to fall in love with music. I used to fall asleep to late night radio and one night heard a broadcast of some live B.B King and from then on all I wanted to do was play guitar.

When did you realize you wanted to form a band?

Guy: I think we joked about it as kids and we were always trying to find jam sessions. On holidays sometimes we would perform for the family. Daniel would sit down at the piano and I’d grab the guitar and we’d sing Jewish folk songs for a while and then start busting out the Zeppelin covers. Forming a band together didn’t become a plausible idea until we were both out of high school. Sometimes it amazes me that we are actually playing in a band together. We spent a lot of time playing when we were much younger, then went our own ways and formed our own bands, and then things eventually came full circle.

What part of Chicago did you both come from?

Daniel: Actually, Guy was born in Jerusalem and I was born in Boston. Our Mom is from South Africa and our Dad is from Australia. They met in Israel, where Guy was born, and after short stints in Boulder, CO and in Boston, we finally settled in Chicago in 1982. We lived in Wilmette for many years and eventually ended up in Skokie, the largest village in the world. I'll always consider Skokie my hometown.

Do either of you miss the windy city?
Daniel: Of course. I try to visit a couple times a year. People in Chicago have the perfect mentality and a friendly pace of life. Not too uptight and hectic like here on the east coast, but focused enough to stay driven and get things done.

How does Chicago compare musically with NYC in your opinions?

Guy: Chicago has a more rootsy sound and aura to it, so much great blues, soul, R&B and urban music history, not to mention a vibrant indie rock scene. NYC music scene is what you would expect of New York, it’s a melting pot.

Daniel: It was a tough decision to come to New York to start a band. On the one hand you have amazing opportunities at your doorstep, and your chances of being seen by someone influential are pretty high. There are so many musicians, labels, venues, festivals...the resources are endless. In a city like Chicago it's a little easier to keep people coming to back to the shows time and time again. We had our CD release party at the Elbo Room in Chicago and doubled our usual draw in New York. Musically the two cities are just as diverse, but in New York there's a lot of crap. Chicago has the blues to feel proud about, so you know that all the music coming from there has a lot of soul.

Were any of you in bands prior to Nomad? If so, what bands were they and
are those bands still kicking?

Daniel: We've both been in lots of bands. They were mostly Bluesy Rock bands. Before moving to New York, we spent two years playing together out of Boston in a band called Brother Jones. In high school I played guitar in the vocal Jazz band. We played all around Chicago, and also played in Hawaii, New York, Sweden and Denmark. I also played in a Jazz Quintet at the Grammy Awards in 1998. That's pretty much the extent of my Jazz playing though. Recently Guy and I played together in a Jewish Rock band called Heedoosh…a cross between Oasis, Alice in Chains and Shlomo Carlebach. They’ll come play in Chicago sometimes.

What would you say are the characteristics of a good rock song?

Guy: Great guitars and some kind of story. A really good bridge or instrumental section can make a song unique. The Who are masters at this. A good song is a good song, and can often be recorded in a million different ways, but the guitar has to be there and shining if you are going to call it rock, and if you’re going to call it good rock it’s nice to be able to hear the story of the song.

Daniel: It's all about energy and the hook. The energy is determined by the solidity of the groove, the tighness of the performance, and the mixture of soul and balls that the band brings to the song. But it's the hook that keeps a song in your head, and in the end that's what makes it timeless.

So, how did you get hooked up with Nir Z for your second album?

Guy: We met Nir through producer Mike Shimshack here in New York. Nir is great, a true musician in every way and he doesn’t put up with any crap. You can check him out on the web at www.nirz.com.

Where can people get their hands on your CD's?

Currently you can download our new EP Box of Time on our website www.nomad-music.net, or on myspace at www.myspace.com/nomadmusic. In the very near future it will also be available on iTunes, CDbaby, Napster, Jambase Rhapsody and a bunch more.

What has been the best form of promotion for your band?

Daniel: Things like posters, flyers and advertisement don't go very far because on a given day any New Yorker is exposed to so much of that that most of it gets ignored. In the end we have to rely on word of mouth and of course our most valuable asset, the mailing list. Getting into band collectives has been a great way to promote and share fans with other bands. The internet of course remains our biggest promotional tool, from email to websites people find out about live music today online.

What do you think of internet radio for bands as opposed to regular radio?

Daniel: Regular radio is turning into a thing of the past. 5 or 10 years ago a program director at a radio station could make or break a band's career. Nowadays the download is king. Everyone gets their music online. The industry is still in the process of reshaping itself around new technology. For bands like us the market is now global and the goal is to find your niche, rather than being one of the few artists to get on regular radio or MTV.

Where do you find the greatest pleasure? Writing, recording or performing?

Guy: Performance is a part of all three, so I would say performing.

Daniel: Definitely performance. It’s an exchange of energy between you and the crowd, and when it’s going well, there’s no feeling quite like it.

Is there ever a concentrated effort to keep your sound fresh and new or does it come naturally for you?

Guy: We’ve played with lots of different members so the sound seems to stay fresh. We are always working on new material or improving older songs which I think has proved to be a good way to keep things new. In any profession enjoying what you are doing will produce the best results.

Daniel: Guy does most of the songwriting and he does a lot of it. We're usually trying to keep up with him. At any given time we have a backlog of about 20 songs that we've never even touched. So keeping things fresh isn't usually a problem.

Who are some of the most influential musicians in rock today that have influenced you most?

Guy: Dire Straits, Stevie Wonder, The Black Crowes, Tom Petty, Derek Trucks Band, Fleetwood Mac.

Daniel: …all of the above plus The Allman Brothers, anything Motown, Middle Eastern and Klezmer folk music, Ben Harper, The Meters, Bob Marley, Paul Simon and Guns N’ Roses.

What type of venue do you prefer to perform at? Intimate or larger? And Why?

Guy: I think it really all depends on the energy of the crowd. I’ve had better times playing for ten people than for three hundred.

Speaking of venues, where will we be able to see you in the next few months?

Daniel: Our next show will most likely be on the Rocks Off! boat cruise. We played this show last year and it was amazing. It's a 3 hour boat ride that goes around the island of Manhattan. Probably the most fun show we've ever played. Nothing like rockin out and then looking over your shoulder to see lady liberty towering over you.

Any plans of a new album in the works?

Guy: Sure, who’s paying?

What do you have set for the rest of the year?

Daniel: We are really happy with how this recording came out, so we plan to use it for the rest of the year to turn some heads. We're looking for management, labels and the like to help us take things to the next level. And of course we'll be playing shows and more shows. Hopefully we'll make it back to Chitown before 2007.

Thank you very much for your time!
- Chicago Music Guide