by Brielle Coffman
For the month of April, The Phantom is highlighting the talent at BISFA through student spotlights. For our first interview, I am spotlighting Nick Smith-- a junior vocalist and artist.
Introduce yourself! What’s your name, department, grade, and anything else you’d like us to know?
My name is Nick Smith. I also go by Nick Parcs as my stage name. I’m in the vocal department at BISFA, I’m a junior, and in my free time I like to make and produce music.
Where did this passion for creating your own music start? Have you always wanted to do this, or is it a recent thing?
Um, I think around elementary school, I started making little songs that were really bad. But I didn’t start seriously making music until the summer of 2019 when I wrote a song with my friend- who’s actually in the CDGA department- and then we recorded the song and put it on soundcloud. And then after that, we made another song. And then quarantine happened-- like, covid happened, and then I was stuck in my house and started producing my own music by myself.
So that was freshman year when you started?
Yeah.
Ok. So, where do you get most of your ideas for your music? Is it all random, or is there one thing that tends to inspire you more?
I think a lot of it is just personal experiences, and also just feelings that I have all the time. I also get inspiration from a lot of artist[s] that I listen to, so I think it’s kind of all over the place.
What does the process of creating music look like for you?
Well it’s changed over time, because my first EP, my first album, I made by myself. And so that was kind of me figuring out over quarantine like the guitar, and then I put lyrics to that, and then a melody. And then my second album, Rare Form, I started working with different producers, such as Jasper Parks, and so it’s kinda changed over time. I would get instrumental from someone, write lyrics and a melody to that, record over that and then finish the song. So that’s kind of what I’ve been doing recently, but I’m kind of trying to go back to doing some of my own stuff.
So, you’re in the vocal department. Is the music that you sing at school similar, or completely different to the music you create on your own? Are the things you learn at school helpful to your solo stuff, or is it a totally different thing?
So, we are trained classically at school, so we do a lot of classical music and old musical theater- which is basically classical still. And I get personal lessons, as do all of the vocalists, so I think that recently since I’ve been recording music, I’ve noticed a lot of improvement in my voice, so I think that I’ve been getting a lot of vocal help.
And it’s been helpful for your own music?
It’s definitely been helpful, yeah.
The pandemic, and lockdown. Did that have any kind of significant impact, positive or negative, on your motivation, your inspiration, or even the time you had to make things?
I think it was kind of both negative and positive, because I feel like if it never happened, I never would have started making music on my own. Because when quarantine first happened, when covid first started, that’s when I first started making music by myself because I couldn’t go out and make music with other people. So I think that kind of forced me to start working on my own, and then I kind of kept doing that. And like, I couldn’t go anywhere, so I couldn’t make music with other people for such a long time, so I was able to make a lot of music. So I feel like as time progressed, I kind of worked down to that and have gotten a lot more experience making music. So yeah, I think it’s been more positive than negative.
What is your favorite thing about creating your own music?
My favorite thing about, just all of this is, well my intentions aren’t to become like famous or a big popstar or anything, I just like to make music because I think it’s kind of therapy for me. I like to write about what I’m feeling, ‘cause it kinda lets me face what I’m feeling so that I can kind of work with it and understand myself better. And art is up for interpretation, so I appreciate when people can relate to my music. So yeah, a couple things. And I just like to sing.
How do you feel you’ve grown as an artist? Anything you’ve learned, or anything you’d tell someone just getting started?
I think as a young artist, I’m still learning all the time, so I think there’s a lot left for me to learn, but I think the best advice I can give is just keep going. If you need a break, take a break, because, you know, there have been times where I’ve made some stuff and I thought it was really bad, and I took a break and went back to it and added more, and it became a lot better than I thought it would. So I think, you know, just be patient with yourself as an artist, cause it takes a lot of time.
Anything we should know that we haven’t covered already?
I have a new album that came out in January! It’s called In My Dreams, and it’s all on Spotify and Apple Music. It’s probably my best album right now.
Last question, where can we find you and your music?
It’s gonna be on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Music. And you can find me on Instagram under @nickparcsmusic, all one word.
Ok, thank you!
Thank you for having me!
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