Nick Jaina

HISTORY:
Nick Jaina was born in the fertile golden valley of California. He lived for a time in New Orleans, where he worked as a waiter in the French Quarter and painted people's faces on the streets during big events like Mardi Gras. Since 2001 he has lived in Portland, Oregon, where he has been challenged and inspired by the wonderful music scene. Quieter folk acts such as Laura Gibson, Loch Lomond and Horse Feathers have encouraged the more delicate side of Nick's songwriting, while more powerful bands like Menomena and Run On Sentence have pushed Nick to be more boisterous.

Nick plays most often with his seven-piece band, which is comprised of wonderfully talented musicians. Every show is a uniquely thrilling experience, with new arrangements and surprises every time. The band includes clarinets, vibraphone, violin, drums, upright bass, electric guitar and other new innovations every time. The lyrics and the depth of the songs themselves are what hold everything together tightly. He has dragged his band around the country, playing wild carousing shows in every town, often two times a night. The band also plays on the street, gathering attention with their improbable set of instruments, and then getting people to dance and clap and sign along, while photographers take pictures and trolley drivers ring their bells.

Jaina's most recent album, WOOL, was released in March of 2008 on Hush Records. It is a quiet, bedtime album, much different from the usual live show that the band puts on. All of the songs have deceptively simple storybook lyrics and very clear, plaintive melodies.

Delusions of Adequacy said of WOOL, "It has the spark, it has the majesty and mystery to keep me coming back to hear more."

Coming this September on Hush Records is another new album, this time featuring the entire band and full of agressively memorable songs. That album is being recorded at Type Foundry Studios in Portland, in a very live manner: everyone in the same room at the same time, playing and singing everything live, everything going straight to two-track tape, watch the levels, watch the levels!

Nick and his band recently completed a 50-date tour around the United States. In September and October they will tour the country again, and visit Europe in November.

PRESS FOR THE NEW ALBUM 'WOOL':

"A beautifully interwoven effort… depicting elements of human loss, He perhaps puts it best by stating that the lyrics are 'as economical as the words in children’s stories, as emotional as journal entries, and as deep as the Bible'…Wool will certainly appeal to a niche that recognizes quality as a form of emotional sincerity, regardless of volume or tempo.” - Obscure Sound

"The album opens strongly with "Maryanne," which evokes in me something akin to the simple pleasure of trailing your fingers over craggy bits of brick and mortar, abandoned and weather beaten old furniture, and overgrown plant life as you pass each in turn, dancing lightly down a fairytale street. The sun begins to set ahead of you, the world transformed into a shimmering playground of the senses. If you don’t find yourself walking around for days with this charmingly haunting your internal soundtrack, I suspect there is something wrong with you." - Delusions of Adequacy

“But the very thing that causes many classical aficionados to stiff at the simplicity of pop music is, I would contend, pop’s very strength–what Proust, of all people, referred to as 'the magic appeal to the imagination' found in things that those interested only in 'intellectual weightiness' would condemn as 'frivolous.' Or maybe it’s compelling simply because Jaina–itinerant, whimsical, a former archaeology student–is himself compelling, in a quirky sort of way." - Fingertips

"Wool is the moment that Jaina arrives. Simple in structure, the album resists the crutch of whistles, bells, studio trickery, or even volume, for the most part—instead it's just Jaina, his piano, some mild instrumentation, and a whole lot of delicate words, with which he weaves his magnificent songs." - Portland Mercury

" A collection of lush, intimate, piano-driven 'ballads and lullabies,' Wool has been on repeat in my house for two days straight, with no end in sight.” - Fabulist

"Rather than try to control his music, Jaina seems to allow his songs to guide him, as if he is but the vessel.” - Berkeley Place

"The one-word titles ("Power," "Bicycle," "Luck") throughout suggest simplicity, which his melodies are, as are the orchestrations. Themes burrow into your brain -- loss, death, truth, freedom, love, obligation, childlike musings on the scariness of life." - The Oregonian

DISCOGRAPHY:

As Nick Jaina:

WOOL - (2008)
Untitled Band Album - (fall 2008)
The 7 Stations - (2006 - re-issued 2008 - currently unavailable online)
The Bluff of All Time - (2005)
Snakes & Umbrellas - (2000 out-of-print)
The Secret Language - (1999 out-of-print)

As Binary Dolls:

Too Much Thinking Sinks Ships - (2005)
Seesaw Sunday Nights - (2003)

Nick Jaina has produced the following albums:

The Maybe Happening - "I Will Find You" (2008)
Run On Sentence - "Oh When The Wind Comes Down" (2007)
Gill Landry - "The Ballad of Lawless Soirez" (2007)
Heroes & Villains - "Turn Your Swords" (2006)
Kitchen Syncopators - "Underwood" (2006)
Kitchen Syncopators - "Yazoo City Strugglers" (2005)
Frank Lemon - "Frank Lemon" (2003)
Orangestick - "Phoenix" (2003)
Thais Perkins - "Tactile" (2002)