In Conversation with Zac Maloy of The Nixons
This past Friday, Intercept Music went Instagram Live with iconic songwriter and rockstar Zac Maloy of the Nixons. Aggressively entering the rock scene with unquenchable passion, pulsing energy and an electric sound, The Nixons presence in the music industry was unwavering. They were quickly recognized and made their mark on groves of dedicated fans for their legendary live performances. Their upcoming single “Kaleidoscope” is part of an EP which will be released in the coming months, paired with their summer tour with bands Everclear and Fastball.
During the IG Live, Zac discussed his past and present career both with The Nixons and in personal songwriting (check it out on the Intercept Instagram). He answered a few of our questions surrounding their latest release, his career, and advice to other artists. Here are a few words from Zac:
Intercept: Not only are you releasing an EP, you’re kicking off a tour with Everclear and Fastball so this is a double special release! Here at Intercept one of the perks is getting to listen to the music before it drops, so I was checking out the EP earlier and there’s some really awesome stuff in there. I think my favorite is “Atmosphere.”
Zac: Oh wow! Well this is just a classic ‘what i love about music’ situation because that’s not my favorite. It’s not even in my top couple, but I’m really happy to hear you say that because we could’ve done a four song EP, we were thinking at one point we’ll just do a single right now and we all just kind of put our heads down and got to work. The bummer part of having me in Nashville, Ricky in Utah, John and Jesse in different parts of Oklahoma City is that we didn’t get to do what we did back in the day. I didn’t get to sit there and watch John bang out his drums, and make suggestions. I always loved it when my band was on the other side of the glass when I was cutting vocals, you know, because I’d say ‘what do you think of what I did at the end of that verse?’ And they were always super helpful with that.
And you know, we did it long distance. There was one song that I won’t mention that Ricky just did not like very much, so I think I rewrote the lyrics a couple different times, but we do interact and give each other feedback, but man I appreciate you saying that about “Atmosphere”! “Atmosphere” and “Kaleidoscope” are the two that Jesse sort of presented to the band musically. That’s how it usually goes – each member will come to the band with a blueprint of an idea. So yeah, those were the two that Jesse sent to me, out of the blue I just get a little alert that I’ve got a piece of music in my Dropbox, loaded it up, and wrote some lyrics and the melody.
So yup, we’re excited about this release man! I should also mention: the EP is called “Kaleidoscope”. So the EP will be out June 24th.
Intercept: Do you want to talk a little more about the tour? What are some of the spots you’re hitting up?
Zac: I’ll back up and even go a step further, and say that we’ve played shows with Everclear going all the way back to 1994/1995, I might’ve told you this story but we got a couple mentions in Rolling Stone and the first mention we had in Spin Magazine there was an article about Everclear, and it talked about how since they don’t drink, members of The Nixons were sneaking in to steal beer from their catering area. So that was our first mention in Spin, which is maybe not the most glamorous way to be shouted out in Spin Magazine, but it’s rock and roll! We’ve known Art and Everclear for a long time but didn’t stay in touch, because you know the Nixons went away.
As you know I’m a full time songwriter. That’s my day job, as they say, but I have to tell this story because I think it tells a lot about Art, but I was lucky enough to have a co writer on a number one song with the band Shinedown about a year and a half ago, and I posted a cheesy picture in front of the “#1” banner in front of my publishing company, and Art commented. He’s like ‘dude I’ve watched your career from afar, I’m really proud of you, congratulations’, you know, something super sweet like that. I messaged him, we DM’ed cell phone numbers and we got to rekindle a friendship. We played a show in Oklahoma City about a month or so ago and just to sit down next to him and give him a big hug, you know he’s fought some health issues over the years and gosh, he put on an amazing show, so yeah here we are – after a compliment on Instagram going on tour!
It starts and ends in Idaho, you can get on our Instagram a few posts ago – I’ll probably post again soon, but all the dates are listed – I won’t mention all the dates but just what’s off the dome:
– Denver, CO Colorado Springs
– Odesza, Texas Waco, Texas
– Nashville, Tennessee in July
– New York City (which we haven’t played NYC in 20 years – it was an important city for us, we played some key shows there, including opening for Joan Jett, so we did some cool stuff back in the day and we’re doing some cool stuff again!)
It’s on our Instagram, Facebook, website, Bandsintown, so it’s pretty easy to find ‘em. But I keep getting messages like ‘you’re not going to my town but so-and-so South Carolina is only so far away’ so I’m driving in for that or whatever it is. We’re stoked!
Intercept: What was the creative process for the song ‘Kaleidoscope’?
Zac: Man, that’s a really good question. Basically, it was Jesse. We released ‘Sonic Boom’ two years ago, and I’d get a couple tracks of music from Jesse. And I’d load them up into my ProTools, I sang ‘Kaleidoscope’ almost in one sitting, sent it to the guys, and said ‘what do you think?’. I’ve had the title ‘Kaleidoscope’ for a long time but that’s kind of a weird word, so I had this idea that ‘you are the beautiful, broken pieces that are held together by everyone that cares about you. My kaleidoscope.’
So that’s sort of the thing, you know, it’s not an overtly positive thing, but we all feel a little broken sometimes, and we all look at the world a little bit differently. There’s some language about mirrors tilted at just the right angle, help you see what you want to see. So again, the inspiration was Jesse.
And I’ll tell you another story for the rest of the EP: ‘Kaleidoscope’ happened pretty quick, you know, ‘Atmosphere’ was next, and then John, our drummer, called me one day. And he said ‘hey man, you know what I think was missing from ‘Sonic Boom’, and so far from this early batch, is you used to do this sloppy guitar – he was not saying it in a mean way – but I brought in a song called ‘Wire’ from our last album, I brought in a song called ‘Lead’, and they’re a little bit jangly, and the next song that happened was ‘Glass.’ Which was me, just kind of strumming away. Then, interestingly, I had a concept. I saw a documentary about ‘The Invisible Children.’ These kids basically get kidnapped, and brainwashed into being soldiers. Super sad, you know, and the call them The Invisible Children. The lyric ‘I see you, I hear you, so you’re not invisible anymore’ it’s that sentiment. I know if you feel unseen, but if I see you then you’re not invisible. This song’s not about the brutality of some African bad dudes, but that’s where it started.
And then I’ll tell you one other quick story about the song ‘Dad Electric’, which is the weirdest title I’ve ever written. I’m not even really sure exactly what that means but I know what the song is, and the song is sort of about when it feels like the lights in the city have all gone out, and metaphorically, ‘you’ll be okay’. The weird thing I’m proud of on that song is on the bridge. I’d been watching the news and all of the brutal stuff going on in Ukraine. The songs aren’t about really bad things happening in the world, I don’t know why I’m focusing on two really awful things, but there’s a lot of positivity on the album, but the bridge is – I saw a story about a woman who gave a Russian soldier sunflower seeds, and said ‘flowers will grow, so people will know where you are when you die’. So I was kind of proud to slip in a little ‘Ukranian’, we got your back’ thing.
That’s kind of a track by track listing, but I’m really really proud of this thing and I can’t wait for people to hear it. June 24th!
Intercept: What does it mean for you and the band to play live? Do you guys have any traditions or show rituals?
Zac: We used to! The signature thing for me has always been a very simple thing: give the crowd everything you can. We’re the first band on this tour but it won’t be a headline set, which is fine with me. We can just get on and get off, you know?
But yeah we move around onstage, we used to light the stage on fire. We don’t do it so much anymore but we used to light guitars on fire and stage dive, you know? And yes that was sort of a 90’s thing, but for example we used to tour with Kiss in 1996. And they put on a great show! I’m not a big Kiss fan, but I kind of was. Because of the show. They have great songs, but they really think about their show when they write their music and put together their set. And we really do try to do that. We want to make sure that it’s as high energy as it can be. We have some mellow moments, but we’ll get after it. So I’ll just say that! We don’t do any ‘all hands in’ before the show, but just rockin’ out man.
Intercept: Do you have any goals, ambitions, or firsts with this upcoming tour?
Zac: Well yeah, I’ll say a couple of things. We’re always eager to say hi to our fans so we’ll be back behind the merch table, we’re super appreciative of our fans. That’s the biggest thing for me, that I just want to do this release differently than I’ve done any other releases. We’re going to have a video that will be available on our Youtube Channel soon.
The goal is to use this tour to get back out there. It’s a six week tour from Idaho to New York City, down to one of the Carolinas, West Virginia, Nashville. I just want to be out there while we have music out there.
Intercept: I wanted to ask you more about your songwriting career. What led you away from the Nixons for a bit, and what does that overall process look like?
Zac: First of all, the Nixon’s sort of just fizzled and I went off to do some solo stuff. And while I was trying to figure out what I was trying to do my buddy Jared from Bowling for Soup asked me to co-write. And my first cuts were Bowling for Soup cuts. And you mentioned the words Round Hill – which is my publishing home now. It all started there, and we very quickly started getting cuts with rock bands, got on Daughtry’s first album, and have gone on to have #1 songs, one with Carrie Underwood, Shinedown most recently, and Tim McGraw, Three Doors Down, Theory of a Dead Man, the latest Hailstorm album, so really a lot of rock, but a little bit of country mixed in.
Intercept: Do you have any wisdom for young artists trying to enter the music business right now?
Zac: I’ll get the bad part out of the way: it’s hard. I feel lucky that my job is to write songs, and how silly is that, you know? But I love it, and music has just been all I’ve ever done, you know? I would say under that heading, it better be your passion. You better be all in, because it is hard and it’s very competitive. I will say the Nashville community is competitive, but also very open and welcoming. The one thing I tell people is to be creating every day. That’s really the best thing I could tell you. Because even if it’s a riff, or if it’s a ‘pick up your iPhone and sit down at the piano and plunk out a verse, or a melody’ – dude I’ve got a thing in my notes section called song ideas, and it’s hundreds and hundreds of titles. And I’ll go through it occasionally and delete the bad ones, because you know there are bad ones. But in all seriousness I had an interview with Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day and he said ‘just create. Everyday. This is what you want to do so create every day and be all in’. That’s really the best thing I can say.
It was such a pleasure to host Zac Maloy on the Intercept Instagram live. Pre-save The Nixons’ upcoming single “Kaleidoscope” HERE and stay tuned for more from Intercept!