Nick Hook is a real New Yorker. Well, not literally, as Nick was born and raised about 1,000 miles west in St. Louis. But the Red Bull Music Academy graduate has been making his presence felt on the NYC underground music circuit for what now has added up to a total of ten years.
As a member of Cubic Zirconia and part of Drop The Lime's live setup, big dog on the city's DJ'ing circuit and probably the most beloved studio nerd around, Nick is the type of dude who's comfortable with playing the background, but who's just as capable of holding all the musical reigns himself, as evidenced on last year's Without You album.
Above all, Nick is good people. He'll show you exactly where to grab the best peanut butter milkshake in Greenpoint. He'll take it to the next level when you have some vintage drum sounds to lay down in the studio. Or he'll let you crash on his couch in Chinatown when your name happens to be Salva or Doc Daneeka.
We met up with Nick for a quick chat at the Red Bull Music Academy studios in NYC. He also dropped off a mix and came through with a bunch of copies of his new record. Nick's just nice like that.
The music world in New York City is constantly in flux. How do you, as a musician who's been around for such a long time, manage to stay with the time, without trying to hop on to every new trend?
I just love a lot of music. I think the reason for why I've been put in a position to stay around, is because I like to work with people and I don't care about money that much. The Azealia Banks thing for example happened because a friend was like "Yo, can she come over to record?" and I was like "Hell yeah." We drank a bottle of wine and recorded "212." I met Hudson Mohawke in Texas, where my band was playing, and we were jumping on top of the tables. It's just organic friendships, man.
You recently put out your first official solo album though Scion A/V…
Yeah, to me that was a chapter where I had gone through a lot of changes, personally, and it was my first time going out on my own as a musician. All the people I worked with are actually my best friends that helped me get through my break-up with my girlfriend. They're my friends and my mentors. They were all actually really there for me. That's why I chose to work with that batch of people. Andrea is a fellow RBMA grad, Daryl Palumbo from Glassjaw is my best friend, Machinedrum… All the people I worked with – we'd bail each other out of jail. That was the premise. Not like "Oh, I wanna work with someone to make me big" or some shit, you know?
And why did you decide on putting this out now, at this point in your career?
Well, I had always been in bands and I always felt like that was my life and my identity. I didn't have a defining statement for myself and I didn't wanna confuse the band with myself. I had always DJ'd on my own and made mixtapes and stuff. It wasn't until Cubic Zirconia decided to take a break that I was like, "alright, this is my time to focus and just do my thing." And my dude from Scion challenged me to make it all in two months, which I did. I'm gonna make another, longer album soon, but only when I feel that the time is right.
So what are you working on in the studio right now?
In the last month I've started to work with Zebra Katz. Me and L-Vis 1990 are planning on doing his full-length. I've been engineering for Killer Mike and El-P, their new project Run the Jewels. Me and Salva made some beats. Me and Doc Daneeka made some beats. I just mixed like nine tracks for Riton. I'm mixing a track for Mark Ronson. It's weird cause sometimes I feel not busy but then I realize, "holy shit, I'm doing so many things."
And besides that you're probably doing a lot of DJ'ing around town, right?
Yeah, I'm playing with RL Grime on May 9th, playing Movement Festival in Detroit on the RBMA stage, playing with Brenmar for RBMA on May 21st, and then I'm playing with Gaslamp Killer on the 31st.
The mix you served up, is that emblematic for something people can expect you to be playing at a set right now?
Nah, this is a mixtape I wanted to ride my bike to. I didn't treat this like a club DJ mix but more like if I put my headphones on and got a coffee and wanted to walk around, this would be my little soundtrack. It's a spring-time-walking-around. Makes me wanna go talk to a girl and makes we wanna go down, like "I'm gonna fucking kill it today."
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