Last saturday we had the chance to meet Nick Howard in Zurich. Right before he took the stage at Komplex Club in Zurich we could sit with him and ask him some questions. If you want to find out what totally freaked him out, keep reading 🙂
It’s been almost 2 years now since you’ve won „The Voice Of Germany“, what’s different?
I’ve been doing music for such a long time, „The Voice Of Germany“ gave me something like that little bump that I needed in terms of fanbase and exposure through being on that TV-Show. It’s like I don’t have to worry as much as before about how many people would be coming to the show – ok well, I still have to worry about that a bit. But it just gave me the chance to build up my fanbase in this part of the world…
OK, so those are all the positive things, are there any negative sides to it?
Of course there are. When you go on a show like that, people usually think that’s the first thing you’ve ever done. So you have to work very hard to show them that you can and have been doing more. Also in many places the casting-show tag can be an obstacle to overcome. But I guess with „The Voice“ it doesn’t really matter as much as with other formats. Even though it was a great experience and very important for me, you constantly try to lose that TVOG-title. It was only a small 6 week period in my life, where as I’ve been playing music for 10 years. So I guess that’s a bit of a challenge sometimes.
Speaking of challenges, beginning of the year you had to reschedule your tour (due to the possibility to tour with Boyce Avenue). I remember there were a lot of very harsh and negative comments about this decision. It was a bit shocking to read some of the things written about you. How do you personally deal with things like that?
Yes, that was a bit shocking to me as well. I’m very fortunate and don’t get a lot of negative comments. I knew there were going to be upset people, but I was hoping that in the longrun they would understand. I think fans do understand that for me as a musician I need to keep growing and it’s better for everyone if I can do that by getting more exposure – it allows me to keep doing music. And it’s not like we cancelled the tour, we just postponed it to now. Funny enough, even the people that were negative at the time, if you ask them now, they really enjoyed the concerts this time around. I think it’s more that people were dissapointed but a lot of those people came to the shows with Boyce Avenue and the shows now. But I do have to admite, it was a bit of a shocker at first, but they way I dealt with it was to remain positive about it and kept smiling. I think if you react negatively to things like this it just blows it up even more.
Good for you! I think that’s a good way to handle it. So this tour now only has a couple more dates left. How is it going for you so far?
It’s been great, the best tour ever! I mean I’ve played bigger venues and smaller venues before, but the special part about this tour is that over time (I’ve been playing this part of the world now for over 5 years) I can now see that the fans at these shows are a mix oft he fans I’ve been getting during these last 5 years. Like the last tour was pretty much right off the back off TVOG and the tour before that was right after opening for Boyce Avenue or Sunrise Avenue, as for this tour now, it really feels like these are MY fans now and we’ve shared this journey together, so this has been really special for me.
Tours… You’ve been on tour a lot, you’ve seen so many different cities. Which place would you want to go back to again?
Yeah! In Europe, Amsterdam probably. It’s just such a beautiful place and I just love everything about it. I love getting there, seeing it, walking around. It’s a beautiful place. And in the states… Hmm there are so many cool places. New York… Well, obviously having lived there for the longest period of my life. New York is a very special place.
So, one question I always like to ask. If you had the chance to work with any artist in the world, dead or alive, who would that be?
Definitely Michael Jackson and I’d also like to write a song and perform with Chris Martin from Coldplay. Or maybe Paul McCartney. But hey, I’m not setting my goals to high am I? They’re very realistic things, right *laughs*
We’ve asked our Twitter and Facebook fans to submit some questions for you, are you ready for them?
Yeah sure, go for it!
Tinchen on Tour: Will „No Ordinary Angel“ be released as a single?
Yep, it will be. I think around Christmas
Patrick: Where would you rather spend your holidays, mountains or ocean?
Oooh that’s a really good question. I love skiing so I obviously love the mountains, but I also like the sand and the beach. I guess depending on the time of year I’d enjoy both!
Patricks follow up question: Do you scuba dive? If not, WHY NOT?
I don’t! I actually tried snorkeling once in Thailand, but I got really freaked out by it. I don’t know why, I felt really claustrophobic suddenly. And the unnatural kind of breathing-feeling. Very random question by the way… But yeah, tried snorkeling and I think scuba diving would be a bit too much for me 🙂
Daniela: Sunrise Avenue who you’ve opened for are playing a couple shows with an entire orchestra (strings and everything) – is this something you’d like to do someday?
Absolutely! That would be really cool. That could be a really cool plan for the future. I’ve always wanted to perform with a string section.
We have come up with beginnings of sentences. Can you please end them as spontaneously as you can?
If I had the possibility to invent anything, I would… invent time travel
Really? Where would you go? I’d go back tot he late 1800’s in america. Be part oft he discovery of the west – it would be tough, but I’m ready for it!
My superpower is… the ability to always smile, regardless of how bad the situation is
If I had a monkey I would… name him Stan! Stan the little monkey! – These are cool questions *laughs*
Well, that was quite a fun interview. For us who have supported Nick for quite a while now (we’ve discovered him when he was supporting Sunrise Avenue in 2011) it’s great to see how down to earth he still is. Super friendly and cool. The success hasn’t changed him at all.
Also I’d like to remind you, he’s got a great album out, „Living In Stereo“ was released this summer and includes his hit-single „Untouchable“. You should go check it out.
Check out the pictures taken during the interview. Also enjoy a video of my favorite song „Falling For You“.
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