Nick Gusman of Nick Gusman and the Coyotes joins us for a vibrant discussion about his latest album, "Lifting Heavy Things," which showcases the band's unique sound blending elements of country, rock, and folk. He shares insights into his musical journey, revealing how personal experiences and observations inspire his songwriting. Gusman emphasizes the importance of collaboration with his band members, highlighting how their chemistry leads to a cohesive and evolving sound.

The conversation also touches on the band's upcoming performances, including a highly anticipated show at the Old Rock House on December 13th. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the creative process behind the album and the dynamic between Gusman and his talented bandmates.

[00:00] Introduction and Guest Welcome

[00:59] Return to Civility: Donate to Charity

[02:46] Nick Gusman: Musical Journey and New Album

[03:46] Band Formation and Evolution

[05:33] Upcoming Shows and Mini Tour

[08:04] Songwriting Process and Inspirations

[09:16] Recording the Album: Lifting Heavy Things

[15:36] Band Dynamics and Future Plans

[20:22] Quick Break and Upcoming Live Performance

[21:00] About St. Louis in Tune

[22:35] Dred Scott Heritage Foundation

[23:48] Live Performance by Nick Gusman

[28:49] Nick Gusman on European Tour

[31:18] Songwriting Process and Band Dynamics

[37:24] Upcoming Shows and Final Thoughts

Photo by Ryan Stanley

• Nick Gusman Instagram
• Nick Gusman and the Coyotes Linktree
• Nick Gusman YouTube
• Nick Gusman and the Coyotes music | SoundCloud
• Bandcamp Music | Nick Gusman and the Coyotes
• ‎Nick Gusman - Apple Music
• Nick Gusman | Spotify
• Facebook Nick Gusman and the Coyotes
• Nick Gusman and the Coyotes

This is Season 7! For more episodes, go to stlintune.com

#music #nickgusmanandthecoyotes #oldrockhouse #indiemusic #stlouismusicscene #guitar #vinylalbum #nickgusman #songwriter #songwriting

Links referenced in this episode:

• nickgusmanandthecoyotes.com
• bandsintown.com
• stlintune.com
• dredscottlives.org

Arnold Stricker: 00:00:05

Now, if you have cable TV and it's at and T, you may know our guest and maybe you sat in a bar or a booth that he constructed and put together, but now he's a musician. Nick Gusman is in studio and he's going to be talking to us about his new album that's coming out. Welcome to St.

Louis in Tune and thank you for joining us for fresh perspectives on issues and events with experts, community leaders and everyday people who make a difference in shaping our society and world.

I'm Arnold Stricker along with co host Mark Langston and Mark is on assignment today and I'm going to have to give him a test from his assignment because he's really missing a great interview today. Before we get into to our guest Nick, I want to read our return to civility.

At least once a year, donate your unused good condition household items to charity. Now this is something that a lot of people do along the way, especially at the end of the year.

They've got a little time between Christmas and New Year's and they donate. And sometimes if you donate enough, you can actually get some deductions.

If you're one of those deduction people, maybe those items will just be what someone else needs and you'll have a great excuse to go shopping for something new. So at least once a year, donate your unused good conditioned household items to charity. It also helps you clear out things.

I know my wife is on me about some of those things, you know, why do you have that? Do we really need that? She doesn't say those things. I say those to myself because she's a really good man. She's a minimalist.

And I have a little too many things. So I want to start this out by doing this.

Nick Gusman: 00:02:02

Here we go.

Song Lyrics Speaker: 00:02:24

You can't shortcut the mountain. It's just up or down in mother nature gotta be lost or found. There's nobody to lean on. There's no go way around.

You better watch your steps down in a footstool town.

Arnold Stricker: 00:02:46

That's a song from the new album Lifting Heavy Things with Nick Gusman and the Coyotes. Nick, welcome to St. Louis in Tune.

Nick Gusman: 00:02:54

Hello. Good morning. Happy to be here.

Arnold Stricker: 00:02:57

When I heard your voice and I read this after the fact, I thought, you know, kind of Hank Williams Jr. Growl a little bit every once in a while. And then I read something that said about, gosh, Bob Dylan and okay, I can get that.

You got your own groove and vibe and that's great.

Nick Gusman: 00:03:19

Cool. Cool. Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for. You know, definitely hoping for having that now.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:24

This is the third album, is that correct?

Nick Gusman: 00:03:26

This is the third album I've released. Yeah. Second with my current band lineup.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:31

Okay. Because I thought. Didn't you do a solo album?

Nick Gusman: 00:03:34

Yeah, that first one, it was. Yeah, there was probably 21 musicians that played on there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:39

Wow.

Nick Gusman: 00:03:40

But it was considered, yeah, my first solo album because I didn't have a band.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:45

Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:03:45

Put it together.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:46

All right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:03:46

And how did you get the band together?

Nick Gusman: 00:03:48

I got the guys together because I had put that album out, something I had always wanted to do, and finally finished that. And it was about to come out and I realized that I needed a band to play the release show. And so that's how that started.

I ended up reaching out to people that I knew, and it was pretty easy. A guy that I worked with at the time, I was working on Windows and things like that. And he. He was an older guy. He's about 60, 60 something.

And he was like, I'll be your bass player. And I was like, okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:24

Really?

Nick Gusman: 00:04:24

There's my bass player.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:25

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:04:25

Dave Werner. He's a great songwriter, bass player. And he's since passed, but. So that was first band member.

And then we got the other guys I just knew from around town, and they were just. They wanted to be a part of it. They're like, we want to be in your band. And so I was like, that was easy.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:39

Were they playing in other bands at the time?

Nick Gusman: 00:04:41

Yeah, they're all playing in other bands.

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:43

And a lot of times they play in multiple groups or just one.

Nick Gusman: 00:04:46

Multiple groups, usually.

Nick Gusman: 00:04:48

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:04:48

s since then, but that was in: 2018

Arnold Stricker: 00:04:53

Okay. Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:04:54

We have a lot of the same guys in there, but yeah, we went through a lineup change, whatnot. But the fiddle player, Sean, and the keyboard, just Tony and Garrett, really. Our lead guitarist has been there for a long time.

Arnold Stricker: 00:05:07

Okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:05:08

He's the one that does the Tom Petty riffs.

Nick Gusman: 00:05:11

Yeah, those wild solos. Yeah, he's great. He's top notch guitar player. I'm really lucky. We are lucky to have him in the band.

Arnold Stricker: 00:05:18

Really enjoyed listening to the album. And by the way, folks, the album comes out tomorrow. This is 13 some Saturday the 7th.

Okay, so this is December 5th, when we're recording this, and it comes out the 7th. And you're going to be playing December 13th at the Old Rock House. That's at 7:30pm Gonna be a great show.

Nick Gusman: 00:05:43

I'm so excited for this. Al Holiday. Are you familiar with El Holiday?

Arnold Stricker: 00:05:47

I'm not, no.

Nick Gusman: 00:05:48

Oh, man. Check him out. Check out all his, all his stuff. And he has an amazing band.

I mean, I think I want to say maybe it's like a eight or nine piece band or something.

Arnold Stricker: 00:05:59

Wow.

Nick Gusman: 00:05:59

With horns, horn section. And it's real, real hard driving, like roots, soul rock stuff. Funky and kind of like tower power group. Oh, maybe a little. Yeah.

But he, he's gonna blow us out of the water. I don't know what else to say. But we do our own thing, so that's good.

But we're just so lucky to have him agree to do the show with us because he's just great. So we're really excited.

Arnold Stricker: 00:06:25

That's cool.

Arnold Stricker: 00:06:26

And tonight you're headed to Urbana, Illinois. Then Friday you go to Louisville, and then Saturday you're in Madison, Tennessee. So you're doing a mini tour here before the end of the year?

Nick Gusman: 00:06:38

Yeah, we do a lot of these three day, three day, four day kind of things like that. It's good to. St. Louis is a really good base to be able to do that from.

So we'll either go out towards Oklahoma and hit some places on the way out there or do what we're doing here up to Chicago, loop around. Something that we have found works good for us.

Arnold Stricker: 00:06:58

Now, do you haul all your sound equipment or do they have sound equipment that's there and you just plug into it?

Nick Gusman: 00:07:03

It depends. Most of the time we're playing at a place that has sound equipment, so we don't have to bring that, but we got to bring all of our stuff.

Arnold Stricker: 00:07:09

Right.

Nick Gusman: 00:07:10

But not the PA and stuff like that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:07:12

Okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:07:12

Now, how long you've been doing this? This is. You started out, you brought your grandfather's guitar. I know he loved play and he was in a band, wasn't he?

Nick Gusman: 00:07:21

Yeah, he was in numerous bands. They were like country and western bands. And I got pictures of him playing on the radio and I'll. And I might pull that out and show you.

Arnold Stricker: 00:07:30

Wow.

Nick Gusman: 00:07:31

Really cool. Him in a radio station. They got the outfits on the old country and western band outfits.

Pretty wild to find out that out later because when I first picked up the guitar, I had no idea that any of my family members had been musical at all. But yeah, so I've been playing now for about 20 years.

Arnold Stricker: 00:07:51

Yeah, you picked it up late in high school, didn't you?

Nick Gusman: 00:07:54

Relative to some of my peers and stuff. Yeah, it was pretty late. I was like leaving high school just about when I actually got a guitar.

Arnold Stricker: 00:08:02

Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:08:02

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:08:04

And so you started. What was the. The songwriting process that all of a sudden you were. You had all these ideas in your head or stories in your head, or you wanted just.

Your head was going to explode and you needed to write these things down.

Nick Gusman: 00:08:15

I didn't know that existed, honestly, in. In my, I guess, skill set or whatever. I. I don't really. Because I immediately started writing songs right when I was able to learn chords.

Somebody had taught me the song House of the Rising sun. And that has, I don't know, five chords in it, five or six chords and really essential chords. And once I blew through that song, I loved the song.

It really got me hooked on playing guitar and I learned the words for it and really right away I was already.

I started composing my own songs right away, and I didn't think it was anything weird, but I showed back up to my buddy's house and I was like, hey, check this out. And he's. You wrote a song? What are you talking about? I was like, I don't know. It just happened.

And so I've just been on that train ever since and just leaning into that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:09:03

So would your music teacher and English teacher from high school be surprised at your prolific writing career here?

Nick Gusman: 00:09:09

Yeah, I think so, for sure. I wasn't the shining star at school. They'd be quite surprised.

Arnold Stricker: 00:09:16

I want to play the main track from the title song of the album. And it's called. The album's called Lifting Heavy Things. Give us a little background on this song and why it's the title song for the album.

Nick Gusman: 00:09:28

It's the title song for the album. We voted on that.

And we realized that out of all the songs that are on this album, that song thematically, like, lyrically, and the sound of it, everything, it shows mostly who we are, what our sound is. If you maybe choose a different song on the album, it might lean more rock and then one might lean more almost indie folky country stuff. And.

But that one, we feel is really what our sound is.

Arnold Stricker: 00:10:00

In your groove.

Nick Gusman: 00:10:01

Yeah, it's a little country, it's a little rock, it's a little folky. It's lyrically a lot there, which is. I love that part of it. And yeah, it just really showcased our sound.

But that song came about as I came home from work one day and I had all my tools, I was dragging them up the stairs and I.

Arnold Stricker: 00:10:19

Was this the AT&T job or was this the building?

Nick Gusman: 00:10:22

This is job. Yeah, this is. This is post AT&T, big company work, stuff like that. That was way after this and. And I've been working for Myself for years.

Arnold Stricker: 00:10:33

Okay. Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:10:33

And. But I was dragging all my tools up the stairs and I. They came loose and they all fell down the steps and Rol. Everywhere. And I'm like. I was so pissed.

And I was trying to figure out what I was exactly mad about in that moment. And I just yelled out. I was like, I'm so tired of. I cursed. Of lifting heavy things.

And that was my immediate problem as I was just lifting too many heavy things and I was tired of it. And then I laughed a little bit after I said that and I was like, that's just funny sounding. And then it stuck in my head for then.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:06

You can't get it out of your head. Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:11:08

And then it turned into that song.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:09

So did the lyrics come first? Did the melody come first? Did it. All the lyrics.

Nick Gusman: 00:11:13

I mean. Main line came first. Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:15

Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:11:15

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:15

All right, let's catch some of this here.

Arnold Stricker: 00:11:17

Okay.

Song Lyrics Speaker: 00:11:26

Well, I woke up in the middle of the night. It was a bad dream I had. I dreamt I was a baby boy crying for my dad. As soon as I learned to walk, they put a hammer in my hand. Said, learn to talk.

You better keep up quick if you're gonna be a man. So I shook the sleep out of my eyes and walked into the cold Ran into a hole.

He said, if I may be so bold I said, I'm off to work, I ain't got no time. He said, man, that dollar ain't worth a. When you're getting by on pennies. And then you sang me this whole rhyme. Lifting heavy things.

Lifting heavy things all day long, every night, even in my dreams. I don't do it because I wanna but when I feel I say.

Arnold Stricker: 00:12:41

I love the yippee ki.

Nick Gusman: 00:12:45

I had always wanted to put that into a song. Yippee ki yi.

Arnold Stricker: 00:12:49

And it's the perfect one to do that.

Nick Gusman: 00:12:51

It turned out to be the one that worked. Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:12:53

One of the things I really love about your music is both music and the lyrics is I listened to some of the stuff last night and I was. When I got up this morning, I was singing some of the songs in my head.

And it's amazing how different kinds of music, when it hits you and gets you in a groove or it gets you in a certain mood. And I didn't even need the lyrics to follow your stuff because I can understand exactly what you're saying now. That's a little.

That's a great compliment from me because I'm half deaf anyway. Okay, that's one thing. But secondly, it's I don't want to have to go to an album cover or whatever and find the lyrics.

I know you guys have that on yours, which is great.

Arnold Stricker: 00:13:37

Folks.

Arnold Stricker: 00:13:37

I'm holding up his new album and you open up. It's a. It's a big double album and all the lyrics are there. And that's great because I remember I told you beforehand that in.

Back in the day, it was always on the. The sleeve cover.

Nick Gusman: 00:13:49

I like same thing. I really enjoyed having the lyrics on the album or in a booklet.

Arnold Stricker: 00:13:55

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:13:55

And we've done that with a couple of these.

Arnold Stricker: 00:13:57

But I don't need that because you are. You really enunciate very well.

Nick Gusman: 00:14:01

Yeah. I don't know. I've had people tell me that too. Live. Even about the live shows that I don't really know what that is. I guess it's just. I don't know.

I can't really explain that. Yeah, sure. I've heard that before, though, that they can hear exactly what I'm saying because I'm always enunciating so well, I don't know.

I guess I just want to make sure that if I'm singing that people are hearing exactly what words I'm saying.

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:26

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:14:26

Because otherwise it's like, what is the guy saying? And we get these mondegreens, which are. I thought I heard this, but it's actually. These are the words. There's a bathroom on the left.

No, that's not what the words were saying at the time.

Nick Gusman: 00:14:39

I think it must be boiled down to really, that I find lyrics to be incredibly important. It's what I really enjoy about songwriting. And so it's. When you're watching me, it's not so much about the singing.

It's not as much about the singing. It's more about what's the content of the song. That's probably why I lean into enunciating really hard.

Arnold Stricker: 00:15:02

Yeah, that's good. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. We're talking to Nick Gusman of the. Nick Gussman and the Coyotes.

And you can get more information on them. Go to Nick. It's NI Gusman. G U S M A N and A and D the Coyotes. C O Y o t e s.com nickgussman and the coyotes dot com.

They're going to be playing December 13th at the Old Rock House. You can get tickets@bandsintown.com. that's a 7:30 show, also with Al Holiday and the east side Rhythm Band will be there.

And Nick, when you do you write for anybody else, or do you write just strictly for yourself?

Nick Gusman: 00:15:43

I don't. I don't write for anybody else. I'd love. I'd love to. If you're listening out there and you want to collaborate, let me know. I'd love to.

Love to collaborate. Yeah. Just writing for us. Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:15:55

So how long did it take to get all the songs together for this album?

Nick Gusman: 00:16:00

Didn't take long at all. All those songs, we were already playing out. We have. We have a backlog of many songs that we've learned and that we've played out. And we.

At the time when I was like, we need to put a record together now. Let's do this.

We gathered the best 10 that we thought we were playing really well at the time, and we went right into the studio at Native Sound Recordings, which is my favorite studio. I've recorded three albums there now.

Arnold Stricker: 00:16:30

It's down on Cherokee Street.

Nick Gusman: 00:16:31

Mm.

Arnold Stricker: 00:16:32

Why do you like that place? Shameless Plug for them?

Nick Gusman: 00:16:35

Yeah, no, I would. I direct everybody to there. It's just. So the look and vibe of a place matters. Absolutely. The look, the vibe, the lighting. Well, we could start there.

It's really warm and nice and comfortable and feels like a little. And other studios I've been in, they don't all feel like that. So that's a good point.

But also the engineers there that I've worked with, David Beaman, I've worked with on a lot of things. David and Ben, they both own Native Sound, but David Beaman engineered this last one.

He's just so calm and kind, and he's very skillful at the same time. It's always a vibe kill. If you go into any studio and you work with an engineer who maybe isn't as patient and whatnot.

David Beaman, ultimate patience. Really talented, really cool. So it just makes you more creative. So that's why I keep going back there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:17:31

So you guys recorded that. How long was the mixing or things like that?

Nick Gusman: 00:17:35

This one was easier than any record I've done because, like I said, we picked the 10 best songs that we thought. We got these down really good. Now let's go into the studio. And we maybe had a couple rehearsals beforehand, and we went in and we cut them all live.

So I think it only took us two sessions.

Arnold Stricker: 00:17:52

That's great.

Nick Gusman: 00:17:53

Maybe two and a half, I think. Yeah, more like two and a half, because we went right in and we just did live takes. Those are the original vocals, too. We didn't replace any.

Anything.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:04

That's great.

Nick Gusman: 00:18:05

Everything that you Hear is straight from us right into the board.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:08

Do you have somebody videotape for YouTube so you can do those live things and then put that on YouTube?

Nick Gusman: 00:18:14

We didn't. We had some photos taken, though. But yeah, so Native sounds great. That's why we keep going back there. And that's how we did this record.

We did it live. So it came right out of our instruments into the board, then onto that vinyl.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:28

Wow.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:29

Wow. Now people can go and get your stuff at Bandcamp. They can get it at SoundCloud, our website, too.

Nick Gusman: 00:18:37

NickGustman and the Coyotes.com youm can. We've been updating that to try to have everything on there. There's some new merchandise we got. We're revamping it.

But right now the vinyl is on there. You can order that online.

Arnold Stricker: 00:18:50

So where the. Where the Coyotes Come from, is that going to be like a logo on some of your shirts or hats or something like that?

Nick Gusman: 00:18:56

Oh, yeah, it already is. We got hats coming. The hats are really cool. They're like a trucker cap with the sort of naval sort of fringe on here.

Arnold Stricker: 00:19:03

The eggs on the top there.

Nick Gusman: 00:19:04

Yeah, right here. You know, on the bill, right then it says, Nick Gusman, the coyotes in St. Louis, Missouri, right on the COVID there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:19:11

So what's. Where did the Coyotes come from? Where'd that name come from? Why?

Nick Gusman: 00:19:14

And you know, our. So we had a lead guitarist for a while in the band Nigel. He's amazing, and a best buddy of mine. He lives in Nashville now, and he's doing great.

He came up with that one. I think that was him. We were trying to come up with all sorts of names a while back, and he ended up saying the Coyotes.

And I was like, that's pretty cool. And we were all like, why? The Coyotes and the coyotes. Coyotes, they're like, they're resilient. They're out there. They're hungry.

Arnold Stricker: 00:19:41

They're howling.

Nick Gusman: 00:19:42

People are shooting at them. They're sickly, but they're scrappy, and they get stuff done. And I was like, that's exactly us. Yeah, that's us.

Arnold Stricker: 00:19:50

That's cool. That's cool. And all the guys, they looked like they're all having fun in the process.

Nick Gusman: 00:19:57

Yeah, we have a lot of fun. That's the key to us doing good together. For sure. We get along. We're gonna have a lot of fun this weekend. We don't go out.

There's some bands, I hear that they travel together, and some have big egos or they don't get along or someone's always causing trouble, but in general we have a great time. We're just best buds and so I'm looking forward to this coming up trip.

Arnold Stricker: 00:20:21

Yeah, that sounds good. We're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna go out with one of the songs and we'll be right back because Nick's gonna play some guitar.

Live in studio and Arnold Stricker with Mark Langston of St. Louis in Tune. Don't go away.

Song Lyrics Speaker: 00:20:49

When the echoes of last night Wake me up at dawn.

Narrator: 00:20:59

Thanks for listening. St.

Louis in Tune on each and every show, we strive to bring you informative, useful and reflective stories and interviews about current and historic issues and events that involve people, places and things. Hey.

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Dred Scott Foundation Speaker: 00:22:32

This is Arnold Stricker of St. Louis in Tune on behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation.

In: 1857

,: 1868

The Dred Scott Heritage foundation is requesting a commemorative stamp to be issued from the US Postal Service to recognize and remember the heritage of this amendment by issuing a stamp with the likeness of the man Dred Scott. But we need your support and the support of thousands of people who would like to see this happen.

To achieve this goal, we ask you to download Sign and share the one page petition with others. To find the petition, please go to dredscottlives.org and click on the Dred Scott petition drive on the right side of the page.

On behalf of the Dred Scott Heritage foundation, this has been Arnold Stricker of St. Louis in Tune.

Arnold Stricker: 00:23:47

Welcome back to St. Louis in Tune. This is Arnold Stricker with Mark Lent Langston. Mark is on assignment and he will be back for the next show.

We have Nick Gussman of Nick Gusman and the Coyotes here in studio. And he has so graciously agreed to play a song from the album here. And it's. Nick, which one are you going to do?

Nick Gusman: 00:24:09

I figure I'm going to do one called Magic 8 Ball and send this one out to Sean, our fiddle player.

Arnold Stricker: 00:24:18

Okay, Sean, this is for you.

Nick Gusman: 00:24:20

This is for you, Sean. I started writing this one for him when we were on tour in Germany last year.

Arnold Stricker: 00:24:27

Wow. We'll have to talk about the European tour.

Nick Gusman: 00:24:30

Oh, the year before last. Sorry. No warm up, you guys. So no judging. I just had biscuits and gravy. Yeah, that's all the warmup I had this morning.

Arnold Stricker: 00:24:42

And this isn't the greatest studio in the world.

Nick Gusman: 00:24:45

Pretty nice. All right, here we go.

Song Lyrics Speaker: 00:25:09

Well, it seems like a waste to sit and worry about my fate could be glory, it could be truth it could rain right through the roof Shake my heart, swing it all around Lift me up, slam me down Win or lose, just don't let me draw Magic eight Ball well, it gets lonesome all the time but nothing's empty in my mind Reaching out and holding on it don't come easy like the dawn Shake my heart, swing it all around Lift me up, slam me down Win or lose, just don't let me draw Magic 8 ball sitting high up on the.

Song Lyrics Speaker: 00:26:42

Wall.

Song Lyrics Speaker: 00:26:47

Might be here to take a fall could you put me back? Oh, one more time? Shake my heart, swing it all around Lift me up, slam me down Win or lose, just don't let me draw Magic 8 Ball. Magic E Ball. Magic J.

Arnold Stricker: 00:27:53

Wow.

Nick Gusman: 00:27:54

Not bad.

Arnold Stricker: 00:27:54

You.

Arnold Stricker: 00:27:55

You had. The pistachio Gallery was screaming in the background at the end of that song.

Nick Gusman: 00:27:59

Pistachio Gallery. I never heard that one before.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:01

Yeah, we left the peanuts behind and we went to the pistachios. Wow. That was great, man.

Nick Gusman: 00:28:07

Thank you.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:08

Now you've got. And I watched the voice and it's always, man, I love your natural raspiness there. That's going on. Then people, they.

Sometimes they put that in there, and you naturally have that.

Nick Gusman: 00:28:21

Yeah, I think So I don't know if it's the.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:23

The early morning or maybe more of.

Nick Gusman: 00:28:26

The years of abuse.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:29

You're not getting nodes, are you?

Nick Gusman: 00:28:31

I don't know what those are on your.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:33

On your vocal cords it will cause from not warming up or straining your voice.

Nick Gusman: 00:28:40

I don't really mean that. Late nights and.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:42

Oh, okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:28:42

Stuff like that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:43

Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:28:44

I've down in my time now, I feel like. But yeah, years of that maybe in the past now.

Arnold Stricker: 00:28:50

Talk about that European tour you guys did. What was the stimulus for going overseas?

Nick Gusman: 00:28:56

We had some friends do it and actually Al Holiday went. The guy, his band went, I think a couple of times. And some other friends have went over specifically to the Germ, to Germany and the Netherlands.

And they talked about how amazing it was and how great everybody treated them and how well it was received. And we're like, let's look into that.

And so we got the booking agent's number that they used and he immediately was like, you are the type of band that we like. Somebody who's not too big, someone that's relatively unestablished over here.

And we bring American bands over here all the time and you're right up our alley. So come over. And we did and it was awesome. We've been twice.

Arnold Stricker: 00:29:42

Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:29:42

Two different years, full band and it was amazing experience. It was so great. We had some sold out shows. It was just so wild. They're just really craving this music right now over there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:29:56

And it's really. I would say it's an eclectic style because some of it's bluesy and some of it's more.

Arnold Stricker: 00:30:03

If you want.

Arnold Stricker: 00:30:03

I don't want to put people in. In a bucket because you guys are all over the place, which is nice.

Nick Gusman: 00:30:10

Yeah. I feel like I've always been that way and that's the way all my records are probably going to be forever.

Just because, I don't know, it's in a way that might hurt you. In the terms of what a record label might see, I don't really know. But I think it's more just forging your own sound.

And I never particularly want to stick to anything because I. When the songs come, I realize that I don't want to bend them into a certain box.

I'm like, they should just blossom and you write them this way and then it should be a more soul sounding song or it should be a rock song. This one's country.

Arnold Stricker: 00:30:52

Right.

Nick Gusman: 00:30:52

Or. And that's just. You should let them live where they are. Right.

Arnold Stricker: 00:30:56

You guys do covers of other songs.

Nick Gusman: 00:30:59

Yeah. We do. Yeah, we do.

Arnold Stricker: 00:31:00

And you put your own spin on it.

Nick Gusman: 00:31:03

Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. With our instrumentation and the way we like to do it, it has our own spin.

We cover everything from the Doors to, like, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan, and we're all over the place. We're in that songwriter genre there still.

Arnold Stricker: 00:31:18

So where do you see this evolving to? Or where do you want it to evolve to? Or do you just.

Are you, like, content with where you are, or do you want to be known more nationally, more internationally, or.

Nick Gusman: 00:31:29

I think, you know, you don't get into doing this stuff normally unless you. You. Everybody wants to be known a bit more, you know. Of course. Yeah.

I want to be more successful with the music, releasing and touring, and have more of an audience. So that is a goal, but it's not the main goal. I guess it probably should be, but I guess I am.

I'm happy making music, and I know that's the main thing that's gonna keep my career alive. I want to just keep making records like this, putting them on vinyl if I can. And I want to.

That's one of my life goals, is to go out with 30 albums out there for everybody to listen to after I'm gone.

Arnold Stricker: 00:32:12

And you're young enough to do that, too.

Nick Gusman: 00:32:14

I think I could do it. I got the songs. Most of them are. There's a lot of songs that I need to release now, still in the coming years. It's great. I just really love it.

So I love recording with the band, performing with the band and writing songs, and so that'll never stop. And that's the most important thing, I think.

Arnold Stricker: 00:32:31

So all these songs, do you still have some in your head or. There's some that are, like, on the back burner that you guys. You've played, but they didn't make it to the album.

Nick Gusman: 00:32:39

There's a lot that we play live that we know that is unreleased.

Arnold Stricker: 00:32:43

Okay. Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:32:44

Yeah, yeah. So they just float around and one will get replaced by a new one. And then if we don't record it, it just gets lost. But they're not lost forever.

They're still there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:32:56

Do you ever change them a little bit?

Nick Gusman: 00:32:59

Maybe?

Arnold Stricker: 00:33:00

Yeah, Maybe the lyrics will change a little bit. Maybe some chord progressions or how the band members are handling a certain portion of the song or something like that.

Nick Gusman: 00:33:06

So the band really helps out with that. Evolves. A song will evolve. I usually bring a song in to the band completed. And the chords, that. The general structure is all there. The music's there.

But for six people to play, it has to be arranged. And we all take part in that. Everybody, we. First, we just learn the core of the song and we're able to play it.

And to be quite honest, I'm always excited when that happens. I come in with a new song and everybody learns it. And the first couple run throughs. I'm like, this sounds good, you guys. And they're like, no.

They're like, this sounds horrible. And I'm like, I'm excited because you.

Arnold Stricker: 00:33:47

Heard it in your head.

Nick Gusman: 00:33:48

And they're playing it, and I'm like, this is amazing. And they're like, no, we got a lot of stuff to, like, change about this. And I got to figure out my part here.

Arnold Stricker: 00:33:54

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:33:55

And then that happens, and everybody settles in somewhere and has ideas like, oh, maybe we should do this stop here. Maybe we should cut this instrumental. Maybe we should change the chord here. Maybe, you know, everybody has an idea.

And then after maybe, you know, a month or so of rehearsing a song, we're usually are able to dial it in.

Arnold Stricker: 00:34:17

That's the beauty of working with really good musicians, is that they bring their portion of the puzzle to make the whole puzzle fit together. And they're obviously the bass player. It's not the main thing. Or the drummers. It's not the main thing. Or the keyboards. It's not the main thing. It's.

Everything is the main thing. And it's what they bring to the table. And your song is like the. The support if you're. I like to do puzzles.

So if you have a table, like, that's the song. And then everybody puts their piece of their puzzle onto that. And then now we can put a puzzle together.

Otherwise, they're putting a piece of puzzle onto air and it won't support itself. So it's just. It's really great that you have wonderful musicians to work with that.

Nick Gusman: 00:35:02

I'm so grateful to have everybody in the band. It's truly a blessing. It's just so great. And this album is a good example of that. Like, this is really our sound.

We didn't bring any outside players in here other than Maddie Schell saying some backup vocals on three songs, right? And she played some tambourine, too, which kicked it up a notch. It was really cool, but that's it. So this is exactly what we sound like.

And this album, if I would have just went into the studio with other musicians, not a group of guys that works together all the time, it would sound completely different and not have this cohesion. I Don't think we're all really proud of how it turned out.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:43

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:35:44

And it's. The more it's live and it's us.

Arnold Stricker: 00:35:46

The more you guys work together, the more you know and you can anticipate that somebody's going to be doing that. So I'm going to have to do this here or. You don't even have to. It's a non communicative verbally. It's more of a musical communication.

I know where he's going to go with this, so I'm going here with this.

Nick Gusman: 00:36:04

It's crazy how that happened. It is really. And it's. We see it on stage all the time. It happened at a show the other day or at practice the other day.

Someone does something and it's like milliseconds that you analyze it and you naturally catch on to what they're doing. And then it changes what you do.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:21

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:36:22

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:22

Or you're just not playing your part. You're listening. So you can accompany the other parts.

Nick Gusman: 00:36:28

Yeah. You're always trying to accompany each other. At rehearsal the other day, it was just a good example.

Like Jeremy, I think he was goofing around and he changed the ending of the song to be really. These really staccato hits and stops. And I didn't even think. But somehow I was able to. I caught on even on the first hit because he hit it different.

And then the stop came and maybe I was a millisecond behind, but I was right with him.

Arnold Stricker: 00:36:53

Wow.

Nick Gusman: 00:36:54

But he didn't tell me. But it's just. I just. I know what he sounds like when he plays. So I caught on immediately. And it was just kind of wild.

I was like, dang, we're locked in here.

Arnold Stricker: 00:37:04

That's great to see your evolution of not only your personal talent of writing and guitar playing, but how that grows within a group and how the maturity in a group can grow of the sound. And then that really refines who you guys are as a group.

Nick Gusman: 00:37:23

Yeah. It is really interesting. I've never experienced it. I've experienced it now.

Arnold Stricker: 00:37:27

Right.

Nick Gusman: 00:37:28

But never before. I never really evolved with a group of guys. And what I think is. Created our own sound. I think it's really getting there. It's finally gotten there.

And I think it's still evolving and it's gonna get there further. And that's reason why I put the album cover there with the big St. Louis on it. I just really think that if I think that our sound is very St.

Louis, it's become really St. Louis and I wanted to make sure that was known on the COVID Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:37:58

So I'm looking at the COVID right now, and he does have Saint. Where were you standing in front of that.

Nick Gusman: 00:38:03

That's an old auto parts store. That's on the corner of Gravoy and Cherokee.

Arnold Stricker: 00:38:08

Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:38:08

It's right there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:38:09

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:38:10

And I ever. I was driving by it for years, and, like, I was always like, dang. I just love the lettering on the side of this building. You don't really see.

It says St. Louis Auto Parts full, but you don't really see a good St. Louis stencil like that. Real big on a building.

Arnold Stricker: 00:38:26

No, you don't.

Nick Gusman: 00:38:27

There. And looks pretty. And I was like, dang. I just want to take a picture of that one day. And then that was the coldest day of the year this past winter.

Arnold Stricker: 00:38:34

It looks like it.

Nick Gusman: 00:38:35

It was, I think, negative 7 degrees outside or something like that.

Arnold Stricker: 00:38:38

It looks like it.

Nick Gusman: 00:38:39

And it was on a Sunday, and half the guys were at work or a couple of the guys were. And I was like. I was. Today's the day. I was like. I told them about, I want to get this picture for the album cover for a while.

And I bugged them on a Sunday and was like, can you get here? And let's take this picture. It's just going to take 30 minutes. And we got it if that long.

Arnold Stricker: 00:38:58

Because we're all cold.

Nick Gusman: 00:39:00

Yeah. It was freezing.

Arnold Stricker: 00:39:01

Want to catch another song here?

Song Lyrics Speaker: 00:39:14

There's people all around me But I don't know where to stand the sound of a broken heart the sound of a broken heart the sound of a broken heart Is really something.

Arnold Stricker: 00:39:41

Now, one thing I notice about your lyrics, personal experience comes into these things. Personal life situations.

Arnold Stricker: 00:39:53

Do you.

Arnold Stricker: 00:39:54

Or do you draw from things where you observe other people? I know you.

Nick Gusman: 00:39:58

Oh, yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:39:58

You were talking. I watched an interview that you did. Maybe it was down in Lafayette park, and you were talking about the Tokyo Hotel.

Nick Gusman: 00:40:07

Yeah. Benton park over there.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:08

Okay.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:09

Benton Park.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:09

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:40:10

Yeah. A lot of the songs are a mix. They're often a mix of myself and then other people.

I think when the ideas maybe come, sometimes there may be probably more specifically me.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:24

Mm.

Nick Gusman: 00:40:25

But then after thinking about it for a while or putting it on the back burner, other things will come up, and then you'll be able to kind of patchwork this more rich telling of what you want to say.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:38

Gotcha.

Nick Gusman: 00:40:39

Because. And that's what's good. Then it relates to more people. And then.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:43

Yeah.

Nick Gusman: 00:40:43

Some songs will be specifically just me, but I Think a lot of times, yeah, it's more of like a mixture. Even fantasy comes into play. I think it's all important in order to create a good song. If you just were, like, factual about yourself all the time.

Arnold Stricker: 00:40:57

Right.

Nick Gusman: 00:40:58

Boy, those would be really boring, mundane, just songs, colorless. But if you include more and yeah, it just gets richer that way.

Arnold Stricker: 00:41:08

So when you take the lyric, these lyrics. Some people. I ask this question to musicians that we have come in. Is it the lyrics, then the melody? Is it the melody, then the lyrics?

Is this combo together? How do you. Or you sit down and you plunk around on the guitar? Oh, I like that chord progression.

Nick Gusman: 00:41:24

It does always happen differently. But I would say more times than not, the melody comes to me first. So the music will come to me because the music already has a mood.

And so if you're always.

If you're always plunking around on the guitar or the piano and creating moods and melodies, depending on what mood you're in, depending on what mindset you're in.

Arnold Stricker: 00:41:48

Right.

Nick Gusman: 00:41:48

You'll have this. I got endless notes of just music on my phone and stuff that I'll take it take down after I create them.

And they all have different feels and vibes, and they all have a different. What you would write to them would be different. So then comes the words. Usually. Sometimes the words do come first, but mostly it's like this.

And then.

So then later I'll have time to write an actual song and I'll look through my notes of music and I'll be in the mindset of how I want to write, like the mood. And then I'll find the mood of the music, the melody that I like, and then I'll just start writing to that. I'll usually just start playing it.

And then words will start coming to my brain as I'm playing it that kind of fit with the mood.

And then once I get a couple of words that I like, then I'll maybe look through my notes of lyrics and I'll find an idea I had or a snippet of something somebody said or. Or a few lines of a poem that I was writing or something. And then something usually fits. As long as you're constantly accumulating all these things.

Arnold Stricker: 00:42:57

Right.

Nick Gusman: 00:42:58

You can use them at different times.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:00

Interesting. You play keyboards also?

Nick Gusman: 00:43:02

I play piano.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:03

Okay.

Nick Gusman: 00:43:03

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:04

Back from when you were like knee high to a grasshopper.

Nick Gusman: 00:43:06

No, no, piano came. Actually, I did get a keyboard for Christmas early on, and I played that thing for sure. So I learned some stuff back then.

Then Piano fell off for a while and then I bought a real piano years back and I've moved it all around since I got a baby grand. George Deck, Baby grand piano. I love playing that thing.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:29

Good sound.

Nick Gusman: 00:43:30

Yeah, it's nice. It's old and beat up, but it sounds real cool.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:35

It's a lot easier probably to move than an upright.

Nick Gusman: 00:43:37

The baby grand.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:38

Yeah.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:38

You just turn it on its side, get the piano, I guess.

Nick Gusman: 00:43:41

I don't really know. They're all hard to move. To me, it looks expensive, too.

Arnold Stricker: 00:43:45

Yeah. Other than a portable keyboard. Wow. Folks, you gotta go see Nick Gusman and the Coyotes. They're going to be at the Rock House. The old Rock house.

And that's December 13th. Friday the 13th. What a great day for a show.

7:30pm Tickets you can get at bandsintown.com bandsintown.com Art Holiday, Al Holiday and the east side Rhythm Band will also be there. Don't Forget Nick's website. NickGussman and the Coyotes. Dot com. That's n, I C K G U S M A N D T H E C O Y O T E S.

And I do that because Nick can be spelled several different ways. I'm sure Gusman can be spelled with two S's and two n's, but it's only one S, one N. And it's not the ampersand, Ann, it's the A N D.

So that's why I did it like that, folks. Thank you, Nick. Thanks for coming in. We really appreciate it.

Nick Gusman: 00:44:35

I had such a blast. I hope we can do it again.

Arnold Stricker: 00:44:38

I would love to. Please feel free. When you guys are going to cut something new, you're going to be going on tour or something.

I'd love to be able to come down and talk to all the band members and give them all the dirt that I learned on you.

Nick Gusman: 00:44:49

Let's do it. Yeah, I would love to do that. Yeah. I'll give a quick shout out to the whole band. Mr. Tony hall on the keys. Thanks, Tony.

Jeremy Reedy on the drums, Garrett Ronji on the lead guitar. Sean Camry on the fiddle. And Justin Haltmer on the bass guitar. Thanks, guys. I wish you could be here with me, but next time.

Arnold Stricker: 00:45:07

Next time, guys. And we're going to dispense with our normal laughter time and go right to our ending.

And folks, I want to really thank you for joining us and listening to this hour.

If you've enjoyed this episode, you can listen to additional shows@stlntune.com consider leaving a review on Apple Podcast Podchaser or your preferred podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue to grow. I want to thank Bob Berthesel for our theme music.

I want to thank our guest Nick Gusman and co host Mark Langston, who will be returning from Assignment. We thank you all for being a part of our community of curious minds. St. Louis in tune is a production of Motif Media Group and the US Radio Network.

Remember to keep seeking, keep learning, walk worthy and let your light shine. For St. Louis in Tune, I'm Arnold Stricker.