SONG PREMIERE: Nicholas David Lays Into Funky R&B Groove on “I’m Interested”

Nicholas David is excited to bring his original music to listeners. The pull of the American heartland has been ever increasing in recent years, bringing this gifted pianist/singer/songwriter to the point where he can deliver, as he likes to say, “music from the heart for the heart.”

Nicholas David is at this point through two related major events that led to this debut on Samantha Fish’s Wild Heart Records. That album, Yesterday’s Gone, produced by Fish is due out on November 29th. David is a family man with young children who had a strong regional following in Minnesota, having released a steady output of albums and EPs over the past 15 years. He had begun to work on the songs heard on this album when he took a solo opening spot for the Devon Allman Project in 2015. The chance meeting led to a 2017 invitation, which he accepted, to join the Devon Allman Project on a 2018-19 world tour.  Among the many notable musicians David met during the 14-month-long trek across the globe was musician Samantha Fish. David was struck by the beautiful sincere quality of Samantha’s music as she was touring behind Belle of the West.

David has always considered himself a talented singer but his touring with the Devon Allman Project and his role as sideman reminded him in a major way that he was a piano player first and this album brings together both his vocal talents and keyboard skills unlike anything he’s done prior. Allman’s band also established tremendous camaraderie and brotherhood that reaffirmed David’s outlook on the music business. It rebuilt his trust. He doesn’t miss the music of those two years of touring as much as he misses the bonding and brotherhood that was formed. David has long been a band leader and one to recruit his own players but this new feeling of trust in the music and the direction it was taking enabled him to let others call some of the shots this time.

David headed to New Orleans to commence work on this album, with Fish in the producer’s chair. That week in January resulted in 13 tracks, to be trimmed to 11 for the record, and a collection of songs that displays beautifully both the heartland tug and Crescent City yearning possessing David’s musical mind, body, and soul. 

Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of “I’m Interested”, one of the standout tracks on the upcoming album. With a funky guitar groove and smooth, soulful organ, the song puts David’s vocals front and center. It’s easy to hear the Crescent City stamp on the music, as David blends the hepcat cool of Dr. John with the funky R&B of the Neville Brothers. Between the vocal interplay between David and his background singers, and an eclectic array of organ, keyboard and guitar, the song is loaded with voodoo mojo. The real beauty of the tune is how natural it feels, as if the band is just lost in a jam while a crowd dances in front of them, but instead they manage to bottle that energy and magic up in the studio. Unlike the faux neo-soul of artists like Nathaniel Rateliff, David and his band exude a more in-the-moment authenticity that sends a clear signal this shit is for real. By the end of listening to the tune, one can’t help but wonder why David isn’t a much bigger name. Clearly, Samantha Fish knows talent when she sees it. 

David offers his own take on the inspiration behind the song:

“In life sometimes some of us have other halves. A person that helps fill in our cracks. Like puzzle pieces. A soul mate, a star-crossed lover,..Someone that quiets the world around us. I’m interested is about meeting that person, it’s destiny and undeniable everything else disappears and all you see is the other.

‘their presence fills the room’

It’s about honesty n passion n vulnerability. ‘I wanna have u next me, want u to be the best to me, n keep it fresh n beautiful like I know you will, never felt this way before, never had so much to say before I feel my hearts an open door’. In the vulnerability leads to the invitation. It’s about inviting that person into your heart, into your life.”

LISTEN:

Yesterday’s Gone is out November 29th on Wild Heart Records. PRE-ORDER LINK

Photo Credit: Devon Williams

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