Photo by Ross Farrar

Looking Stupid: What’s up man, how’s your morning been? What’s your routine?

You were on the phone starting from 7am yesterday – is that normal a week out from album release?

Nicky Palermino: GM yeah alright. I tried to allow myself to sleep in a bit today. I usually get stuck in this 4-5 day rotation that has me on the phone or generally working for 10+ hours a day. I usually start the week staying up til 5-6 am and then up at 9 am to start taking calls, I usually start to feel it around mid day and maybe nap for 20 out of pure exhaustion but I’ll push through. When I’m finally wrapped up I might eat an edible or wine to try and let my brain relax but it ends up feeling too good so I’ll stay up late again. I can usually make it 4 or 5 days before I crash out completely but the goal is to try and make it to the weekend when no one wants to work.

It’s kind of typical for me to get like this when it’s actually busy which always seems to be the case even off-cycle. We have a small team and I’ve always been pretty hands on with all things moving. prepping multiple tours from routing to flights, accommodations, budgeting, etc, to writing/releasing new music or just rehearsing myself, merch designs and drops, web shit, social shit, accounting, marketing. And then the past few years with Slide Away it really all just doubled down, especially since we’ve been pushing the growth annually so aggressively. It’s a lot to juggle but when you wanna see things out your way it’s what you have to be ready for. End of the day I’d rather be busy than sitting around, I’m usually terrible to myself with too much time on my hands. 

LS: So then record comes out next week (tomorrow for this) and then it’s straight into full US, euro dates and then Slide Away, seems light

NP: Yeah we’re booked out through fall some stuff not announced yet but we will be pretty much on road until early winter 

LS: Your last couple records have been a bit more project oriented, how was the process around this record? It’s gotta be different with the shifting personnel but then it’s always you in your body doing the thing 

NP: Yeah I mean they are all different but very much the same. I always sink myself in everything I do, get obsessed with details, things most people would never notice but I think it’s because I have this constant cloud of self doubt hanging over me and often feel like I’m on borrowed time ya know? It being the way it is also leaves the weight of criticism on me totally which is why I think I’ve made it so important to be honest in everything I’m doing. It’s almost a safety blanket of sorts I guess in that if it all spirals wildly out of control and the criticisms come flying at me at least I can know it was just me. it weighs kinda heavy on me but again it’s also what moves me. I was always a “watch this” kind of kid. 

So a lot of the other variables, especially who’s around me because I always have a rotating cast in nothing, are just that, just different pieces of whatever puzzle I’m trying to work out to get something where I want it for better or for worse. 

LS: What’s on deck for this afternoon? 

DP: Today I have to find a sound guy for rough trade gig, book flights for an unannounced tour and slide away, come up with some merch designs for an urban outfitters drop, work on edits for a or draft for last single next week and wrap its video, and then hopefully pick up a guitar and start working on some of these new songs before the band pulls in on Tuesday for rehearsals.

Playing guitar is always such a drag after days like this but when we get out on the road I really depend on our team to carry on for me because I’m totally useless on tour. It’s like night and day. 

LS: for things that might slip through the cracks when you’ve got a mental load like that – do you keep running lists of sound guys, is there a desktop file with images that you keep around to make sure there’s water in the well when it’s time to make new merch? 

NP: Yeah I’m kind of old school autistic when it comes to balancing this stuff. I have sheets of papers and post it’s all over the place. I usually like use every inch of the paper, different size, pens, it’s a little chaotic but I’ve tried doing things more functional it just doesn’t make things clear enough for me to attack tasks like pen and paper. I use notes a lot too but it’s usually a more legible carbon copy for someone else’s sake. And yeah for merch ideas or inspo I just have a folder in my phone that I’m constantly dropping into. Often I’ll go through it and have no idea what I saw in what I saved tho. Like why is there a redacted cia email in here?

Nicky’s current list, blurred to keep mystery alive

LS: Hahaha what case?

NP: I think the one I’m speaking on was about the David Koresh, which we did wind up doing a shirt of on the anniversary of Waco a few years back but an anime girl version 

Had some good quotes on it

I’ve been really into collecting dea and special police patches from the 80s and 90s Philly and nyc. Gonna lean Into it fast before someone steals my shit again like Halsey 

LS: Is this a Jackson Green original haha

NP: No this is me, really wanted to run a deep fried shirt at least once before I died. We sold like 300 of these

Kinda crazy

LS: I feel like kids kinda crave a fried merch item, I know I did.

Wait, doubling back, which design did Halsey take? Not sure I caught that moment 

NP: Shit I never really brought it to light because that’s not my thing. She kinda ran with our early tank of the nirvana bleach shirts which kind of became a thing but also was always kind of a thing. But she put a drop out that was like exactly colorways and with song titles. I made a funny tweet and she actually responded to me and then all of her bots attacked me which was probably the best engagement I ever had on the app. But yeah she said she took it from nirvana blah blah blah I didn’t really care, but a few years later she released her make up line and one of the colors of a lipstick was called Vertigo Flowers lol I was like bitch I see u!!! But I didn’t say anything. I really don’t care, there’s probably a fan somewhere on their team. 

LS: Honestly that’s pretty funny, the lipstick. Gotta tip your cap. The bots and Stan’s thing is probably why there’s 4 music critics left. I can’t tell if that’s a good or a bad thing (it’s definitely bad but I don’t want to admit it) 

NP: Yeah dont get me started, really sad state music journalism has been in 

LS: Please, start

NP: Ah I mean without going all out it’s just kind of pathetic and scarce. All the good writers barely get to move on the main media sites anymore, mainly due to being priced out. The shit that’s covered seems like it’s all for clicks or major label kickbacks, with a small percentage of something cool that might salvage appearance. And on the other end artists being walked into creating their own means of coverage upon themselves with stale reel or TikTok videos just embarrassing themselves daily. A lot of peers too. It’s painful to watch but ngl I do enjoy a bit of it. Most of my feed is a mixture of that and Epstein files currently, and I’m Pretty sure it’s got our account shadowbanned a bit lol

LS: The things that require new ideas rather than additional work when things get that busy feel especially daunting, at least to me

NP: Yeah def which is what was cool about this record. We got stuck in the 2.5 year grind from Guilty of Everything on. Write record tour rinse repeat. Guilty was always special to me because it was inspiration or really a trauma dump that brought me to the music not the other way around. The rest of the record after felt more like ok what am I writing about now, how can I reinvent? Obvs I got a lot of meaningful stuff out because I unfortunately was surrounded in crisis but it was more stream of thought, not that adequate amount of time to digest it all. So new ideas need to be reinforced in that. With this record I let it bottle up and write when I had something to say, let the idea make itself known. It feels a lot more justified after it’s finished. More rewarding. 

LS: In a way this much work probably feels edifying after bottling up and storing creatively for a few years, no? Does booking and coordinating slide away when you aren’t playing fill a creative void at all? Or just a phantom limb of having to do shit from growing up in hardcore?

You know it’s turned into another creative outlet that I can use to not be in the nothing bag 24/7 which is great but again I did it to create a space for kids into the music since it’s never really existed, cross generationally anyway. I didn’t do much when I was into hardcore and punk tbh besides get myself into trouble.

LS: Is there an aspect of slide away that’s been gratifying or cool that you expected to suck? 

Being a promoter or an agent, probably. Two things I never thought I’d have a hand in or ever want to. Tough stressful jobs. But we work with good people, we’re backed by Live Nation but everyone we work with are punks that took their ethos with them into a wider career. It’s really cool to be able to do a festival being on the inside track for so long, playing them all myself, knowing what sucks and what’s wrong with them philosophically. I have the unique position to say no merch fees, no outrageous ticket prices, no dickheads, and make it special for the fan but also special for the bands playing. Knowing what bums people out, making sure everyone has time to check, appropriate back lines, paid well. And if it doesn’t work out ever I can fuck right off. But we’ve grown so much in just 4 years from one show in at 1200’cap room to 6 shows in three cities in 4000 caps. So I know we’re doing good things but being at one of the gigs is the real way to see. Just a lot of love in the rooms from staff to fans to artists. It’s been really rewarding in that sense. 

LS: I could see you being a great agent or manager, you know what things cost and what you’re asking for, which is weirdly rare I feel like. Would you ever consider working with younger artists you are into outside of booking them on the fest? 

Especially since there’s less infrastructure than ever before

DP: I thought about it for a while, crazy people have asked me along the way, which is really surprising because I feel like I come off kind of unstable. Riley(RIP) from Power Trip asked me at some point, I was like are you insane? The lack of help successful artists have, it’s kind of mind blowing. 

Managemt for me has always been a weird experience in general as well. I always loved the idea of having this perfect person who just had way more knowledge than me and would guide me to a perfect place where I could chill and focus solely on music and direction, but sadly I think that’s unbelievably rare for someone who ultimately wants to be In control of how their art is produced and distributed. I’ve had some really sharp intelligent people work with nothing in the past and it always ended in a rift. I blamed myself for awhile until I realized I just need to find someone who can help me be me rather than try and steer me. 

LS: Does playing guitar become the security device once you’re on the touring grind?

DP: Nah usually drinking does 🤣 but I do enjoy playing guitar more on the road than I do at home. 

I’ll go months without touching one when I’m off cycle 

LS: How are the anxieties of the present world reflected in the new record? Is there anything to the decision to incorporate more electronics in the music? Or was that just another tool to expand your ideas with?

DP: I think being off the cycle and having that forced time at home was a total shock of being for me. I didn’t have distractions from myself. I had to look in the mirror daily with nothing in the way, what decisions I made over the past decade chasing an obsession, what its value was versus what I left behind to pursue, mistakes, lots of shame and regret and confusion. And a lot of what I tried to peel away in the early Nothing days was still underneath all that, just layers upon layers of things I really avoided. Trying to get more to the bottom of who I am really spawned this record and the only way I could get there was to be honest with myself so I could try and shed some of the weight. 

The writing came naturally and the songs followed the same way. Typically in this situation I’d take these demos and try to shape them to this sort of nothing sound we’ve kind of established. But hearing the shitty voice memo demos with badly played acoustic and pitchy vocals just kind of spoke to me. It felt so personal and maybe I didn’t realize it at first? I figured I owed the songs the same courtesy and not trying to morph them but to let them bloom however they did with no restrictions. Everything kind of felt like a dice roll with this record, much like my life feels a lot of the time so everything made sense, from the after songs, the electronic, to even the vocals not bent drenched in effect. I wanted it to be me that the listener was hearing,  

LS: The feeling when you think you’ve moved away from a version of yourself because of time and location and somehow someway it jumps back on you, is fucking jarring, to find the version of yourself you had worked away from still waiting there for you 

DP: Yeah I mean it’s partially a be careful what you wish for scenario, but I do think there’s gonna be doubts and regrets whenever you forge a path away from what’s laid for you. 

LS: What do you mean by owing the songs a courtesy?

DP: I just think that all of this came from a center of self realization and awareness, staring into the eyes of a person I might not truly know or trust. So when approaching the songs I felt they needed the same energy of vulnerability and not to play it safe and do what I do normally and well for a decade plus. 

LS: Is there something about the possibility that life you can’t take back has been lived and that’s that?

DP: I think it’s more about already knowing and living in a non restart world, but more dealing with the bullet points in my life where I really do wish I went the other way, how I made it through, and what were the lasting effects. I don’t come from a place that stops to address feelings or after effects. It’s “Put your head down and move forward through any wall that presents itself.” Damage from that sets in. It’s an impossible pace. Where I’m from it’s built in your DNA to be like this, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right way to approach it either. It obviously wasn’t, and that’s what this time presented to me.