Who is Nick Depuy?

Sitting across from senior Nick Depuy effects your mood. His passion for music is unreal, his songs are nurtured with so much care its almost tangible, and of course we all know he can perform. His signature calm, nonchalant mood and 6’6’’ ambiance tells a story beyond the accomplished musician we all know and bet one day is going to make it big.

Nick began to unfold for me the long saga of the music business. Asking him to give me the details of his journey, he peered up with a smile and responded, “It’s a long story.” And with that, he was off.

“Well, it all started with the songs I had recorded, the ones you can find on YouTube, and I compressed them onto a DVD. I then sent them around to a lot of different labels and I was immediately contacted by a label named Blue Note. The guy who called me was the chairman and CEO of the company. He invited me to come into the city to their offices, and had me play some songs. He was immediately hooked. He wanted to sign me personally, but he didn’t have the final say.”

From here it was easy to tell the atmosphere became a little tense, but with the smooth air of a very professional Nick continued unfazed. “So he sent me into another room to play more songs in front of two other people. Soon enough, they were also hooked. There was a catch though.”

“Blue Note was looking for a new investor, someone to buy them because their former one lost his footing due to the economic turmoil in recent years,” Nick continued. “They kept talking to me though. They organized for me to play at different places and in front of different people. This was for the whole course of the summer but for some reason discussion slowed down by the end of it, and it appeared that Blue Note really had to get their act together financially. I’m still in touch with the Chairman and CEO. I saw him a couple of weeks ago actually. He told me Blue Note is still struggling but that he personally is still trying to get me signed because he has ties elsewhere, too.”

Normally, the conversation diverged into the expected sympathy routine you would attempt giving if you heard the above tale in person from the artist. Nick admits he’s bummed, but brushes it off casually, “I’m going into a professional studio December ninth to record half a dozen songs.” Yup, nothing can stop Nick Depuy.

Out of all of this talk about recording and performing, a natural question seemed to arise. “What does it feel like when you’re performing?” I asked.

I got an answer I wasn’t expecting from the laid-back senior. “Before I go on stage, I’m scared to death. I get very quiet and nervous before, and I close up. I drink tons of water and if I have a guitar, I’ll just play the song over and over out of nervousness,” He said. “Then, usually during the middle of the song I forget I’m on stage and I feel like I’m just playing by myself. I cut myself open and people applaud, it’s a very gratifying experience.”

Nick does add he has worked very hard to get to where he is today. “I had a guitar teacher when I started playing my freshman year. He left me shortly after through to pursue his own career. From then on I was alone. My teacher gave me a good rudimentary understanding and a strong foundation to build off of though. I actually don’t know how to read or write music for the guitar. The reason is that I don’t even have to look at the frets because I’m so familiar with the instrument and the sound coming from it.”

So what is inside the mind producing such likable music? “Sometimes if I’m really inspired I’ll start writing lyrics down in the middle of class, even if I’m supposed to be doing something productive.” He says with an honest laugh, “I mostly get a lot of writing done when I can’t sleep and I just stay up writing.”

Slightly puzzled and half jokingly I asked, “Do you write best when you can’t sleep or can you not sleep because you’re writing your best?”

His answer came after a short pause, “They go hand in hand. I guess you could say I’m kind of an insomniac,” he said with a chuckle.

But as Nick reveals, there is a method to the sleep-deprived madness. “One way is that I write the lyrics first. It has very humble beginnings. (At this moment he looks up with a smile) I start with kind of a convoluted chorus, its not clear what the meaning is when you read it alone. After that I try to find the meaning in the chorus and what kind of direction I can take. I try to rhythmically fit the lyrics into the chord progression.”

“What inspires the lyrics you write?” I ask.

“I usually take an experience or insight that I’ve learned from life and put it into a fictional context. A lot of my songs have elements that are put in for poetic effect, but the emotions and observations are real,” he said. “I had a lot of insecurities and poured those demons into my songs and that’s what it translated into.”

“The first song I wrote was right before Christmas break my freshman year. It was like a fictional story I told about some guy whose woman left him in the middle of the night.”

“What was it called?”

“Lonely days…” Typical lovesick freshman title.

From here our formal conversation ends with some quick question games.

The answers are immediate but there’s this sense of fun. That’s how easy conversation flows with Nick Depuy.

“In twenty years from now…?”

“I’ll be able to support myself with my music. Or I will have abandoned my hopes of being a musician,” he says half-joking.

“My favorite artist…?”

“Is either Nick Drake or Sufjan Stevens. It’s hard to choose between the two.”

“If I could live in any time period…?”

“I would definitely buy a time machine and travel back to the sixties.”

“Stones or the Beatles?”

“Beatles all the way.”

“Guitar or singing?”

“Guitar.”

“Panhandling or going to an American Idol audition?”

“Definitely panhandling, no American Idol for me.”