Sean Watkins (guitar and vocals), his sister Sara (fiddle and vocals) and Chris Thile (mandolin and vocals) have comprised the progressive bluegrass/acoustic trio Nickel Creek since before they had all graduated from elementary school. Their decision in 2006 to announce a hiatus following this year's tour shocked many fans who have enjoyed albums like the platinum, grammy-nominated Nickel Creek, the grammy-winning This Side and their most recent record, Why should the Fire Die?
But who could honestly be surprised at a band who has practically lived together for 20 years forming irreconcilable differences and calling it quits?
Nickel Creek's breakup is atypical in this respect, however, as no fights or divisive creative differences precipitated their declaration of hiatus. The ambiguous, indefinite tour title has left the band's future open to hope and speculation, and Sean Watkins discussed the band, the tour and the process of creating an album.
The Daily Cardinal: So how is the tour going so far?
Watkins: Amazing. Really, really well. Just very well attended and really, really fun. You know, like, on the last leg everybody is really appreciative and not taking anything for granted. It's really fun.
DC: So what exactly is the meaning and purpose behind the Farewell (for now) Tour""?
Watkins: You know, we've said on all the websites it's a hiatus, but it's undefined ... You know, the idea is we would hate to get really comfortable - I think that's the thing. If we get too comfortable as a band it would be a dangerous thing. We've thrived on not being comfortable as a band and really striving hard to avoid getting to a comfortable place ... It's really a great little jumping off point. We love each other, love playing together and love the band, but we'd hate to do some record or some sort of something that we're less than proud of.
DC: You play in Madison Oct. 28 at the Overture Center with fiddler and banjoist Bruce Molsky. What can Madison specifically expect from this stop on the farewell tour?
Watkins: I don't know, I mean we've never played with Bruce before. It'll be great. I think he'll open and I think we'll probably include him in our set somehow. But we've got some new songs and a new cover or two. It'll be fun, and hopefully it'll be something new that you haven't heard before.
DC: You incorporated Fiona Apple heavily in your Milwaukee show this August and performed many of her songs alongside your own. What is it like playing with artists like Apple, Ben Harper and Bela Fleck whom you've included on different legs of your ""Farewell (for now) Tour""?
Watkins: Well a lot of the people we're bringing along with us we know and have played with a lot before, so it's not a hard thing. Fiona Apple - Sara and I play with her all the time in [Los Angeles]. We have a show we do on Thursday nights called the Watkins Family Hour. She comes to pretty much all of them and we've worked on a lot of her songs. We've played with her there and she's done her own shows, so we have a lot of material that we can do and we learned a few extra things, put a band arrangement on them and it was easy. We just rehearsed for, like, two days before and then took it on the road.
And Bela Fleck, we have a lot in common with him. We spent some time working on some things in sound check and did a little practice ... So it wasn't like we were starting from scratch. But it definitely keeps you on your toes.
DC: So when you're touring with Nickel Creek, do you have a favorite album or song you like to play? Do you prefer the ones you've written? What do you like playing the most?
Watkins: You know, I love our last record so much ... Everybody always likes their latest work, but really I feel like overall [Why Should the Fire Die?] really is the best. We worked harder on the songs than on any of the other records. We did so much co-writing together and filtering. I mean there's like 30 songs that didn't get used. It's pretty amazing how much time we spent filtering those things. So I'm happy about that.
But I don't know. I mean, they're all really fun to play. It varies night to night. It's certainly not just the ones I sing. There's not really one song that I'm like ""Oh yeah, I can't wait to get to that one."" Sometimes maybe one night there'll be a certain song I'm looking forward to playing. Mostly I'm just concentrating on trying not to suck. That takes up a lot of brain space. As long as I can not embarrass myself in front of my band mates and the audience then I'm happy.
DC: On the topic of Why Should the Fire Die?, what was it like going from a bluegrass influenced producer like Alison Krauss on your first two releases to a more rock/pop producer in Eric Valentine (Smash Mouth, Queens of the Stone Age, Good Charlotte) on your latest?
Watkins: Well, you know, it was just time to try something new. The world is a big place. I love Eric and we absolutely just clicked with him from the get-go and Tony Berg who co-produced it. Meeting with Eric, we sent him some songs and we had just a quick meeting where he commented on them and said, ""I like them, but this how I'd want it to change your sound for these songs"" or ""this is kind of how I'd like to do it. And it completely made sense, and it was exactly what we wanted. His ideas and it all just really clicked. In the end, we couldn't be happier.
DC: There seems to be a spiritual influence and quality to Nickel Creek's music. Do your Christian beliefs manifest in your work? Do they help you, influence you?
Watkins: You write about what your experiences are in life and your beliefs are a huge part of that. And how your beliefs change and warp ... is kind of the glass that you look at life through. At the same time, you also have to be careful what you write about because you don't want to be categorized for one thing, but also there are some things where there have been great songs written about them and it's hard to top that. Sometimes it can be trite to try to write about something like that. It can be sort of lame ... you know what I mean? A few of the songs I've written in the past that have been spiritually based, some of them I'm happy with, but some of them I kind of really don't think needed to be written, but you can't help it. At the time you just write what you want to write, you know?
DC: Is there anything else we should know for the concert coming up?
Watkins: Just that it's gonna kick ass. It'll be fun, we always love playing there.
- Interview conducted
by Alex Morrell.
