In this episode we learn a lot about how it is to be a musician in Korea, and the path talented Nick took from playing an old guitar with rusty strings, all the way to be on the same stage as Muse, all while also pursuing his Ph.D.
Songs used in the episode:
HY$TERIC$ - Boost Power
Holiday Shot aka 장호일밴드 - Night Sky
Our links include:
In this episode we learn a lot about how it is to be a musician in Korea, and the path talented Nick took from playing an old guitar with rusty strings, all the way to be on the same stage as Muse, all while also pursuing his Ph.D.
Songs used in the episode:
HY$TERIC$ - Boost Power
Holiday Shot aka 장호일밴드 - Night Sky
Our links include:
Hi, welcome to what matters most to you. In each Hi, good morning, Nick.
Nick Duvernay:Good morning Anna
Anna Cei:So here it's actually evening. Where are you?
Nick Duvernay:I'm in very foggy, rainy South Korea.
Anna Cei:I'll get rainy South Korea. Good evening, then from
Nick Duvernay:Right. Hi, good evening.
Anna Cei:So before we dive in and talk a little bit about what
Nick Duvernay:Sure.
Anna Cei:I think many people want to know a little bit about
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, that's what most people say.*laughter* No,
Anna Cei:A lot.
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, as you already know, but I guess for
Unknown:So you're fluent in Korean too that's like, wow.
Nick Duvernay:Yeah. That's a very important social skill
Anna Cei:Mmm *laughter*So, I hope you don't mind me asking how old are you?
Nick Duvernay:Well, let's see.And this is the kind of thing
Anna Cei:You mean in Korea, you are already one year when you're
Nick Duvernay:Oh, I'm sorry.
Anna Cei:That's okay.
Nick Duvernay:1120, apparently is way too early for me.
Anna Cei:Yeah, I thought so like, wait a minute, like zero,
Nick Duvernay:That's why I got into humanities, and not natural
Anna Cei:Let's make it easy for you since you're not
Nick Duvernay:Okay.
Anna Cei:Which year were you born?
Nick Duvernay:87
Anna Cei:1987?
Nick Duvernay:Yeah.
Anna Cei:So and what month?
Nick Duvernay:August
Anna Cei:so that makes you 32being 33 soon?
Nick Duvernay:Absolutely.
Anna Cei:We've got it right.And so a little bit older in
Nick Duvernay:I mean, so in Korea, I'm 34
Anna Cei:so you were born in Korea then or you were born in
Nick Duvernay:oh yeah, so I was born in Michigan. The first time the hard schoolwork time were spent in Korea basically.
Anna Cei:Okay, so and so what do you do for a living?
Nick Duvernay:just like my dad,I'm a professor at a university
Anna Cei:Wow,
Nick Duvernay:I just recently moved to a new university last you know, I can go and do my work. And the evening is all for
Anna Cei:Whis is...?
Nick Duvernay:musician, rocker.
Anna Cei:I mean, this is kind of cool. Right, Professor by day
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, I have a bit of an identity crisis.that right. And I'll do that my students
Anna Cei:well, I don't know which is better in this case.
Nick Duvernay:Well, actually,that's happened to like
Anna Cei:express yourself very eloquently to the audience might
Nick Duvernay:I'll be a little too horrible maybe me was, you know, drinking and partying. And then there's this
Anna Cei:yes. Yes, I can I can totally see that mixing it up to
Nick Duvernay:Absolutely.There's a lot of fun.
Anna Cei:What is it you're teaching ?
Nick Duvernay:linguistics
Anna Cei:linguistics!!
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, a lot of people think in linguistics You
Anna Cei:yeah,
Nick Duvernay:it's ideal if you're not, but it's alright, if
Anna Cei:If other things like language history, which might be
Nick Duvernay:honestly,linguistics is such a wide, in
Anna Cei:right
Nick Duvernay:You got your social linguistics
Anna Cei:You know, I went to grad school for anthropological
Nick Duvernay:that is very cool.That's very big,
Anna Cei:actually also did cognition and cognitive
Nick Duvernay:Cognitive Linguistics, there you go. So if
Anna Cei:right, right. And also, what I talk about often is language is, it's sounds coupled with meaning
Nick Duvernay:true Absolutely.
Anna Cei:Anyway, so linguistics, what made you
Nick Duvernay:The fact that I'm bad at math, I guess? *laughter*really admire my dad. My mother,too, of course. But I wanted to
Anna Cei:That's beautiful. I think it's beautiful.
Nick Duvernay:Well, yeah, I mean, it's a good thing that,a while, your eyes will go bad.And I wanted my eyes to go bad.
Anna Cei:As long as you can remember when you were a child,
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, yeah. And,you know, I had other dreams
Anna Cei:Mm hmm. And how about the other your nighttime job
Nick Duvernay:My night time job?
Anna Cei:The Music When did that come into your life?
Nick Duvernay:Actually,interestingly, that also came
Anna Cei:Mmm.
Nick Duvernay:And my mother,she doesn't play an instrument he came back, he started a sign company. So basically, most of at making things
Anna Cei:like signs for like storefronts or
Nick Duvernay:Yeah storefronts.
Anna Cei:Mmm
Nick Duvernay:Yeah. All storefronts. As a matter of really cool projects that apparently he had been working the HYSTERICS, Our singer there whose name is Guy, he's really influenced at least one of the songs.
Anna Cei:Nice, cool, so you have both music and academia in
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, I didn't have to have any formal training
Anna Cei:So you played harmonica as a kid, too, with
Nick Duvernay:oh, yeah, my grandfather he taught me a lot
Anna Cei:I have tried, I don't know if I agree.
Nick Duvernay:Oh, really, um,you know, it's one of those an instrument at an early age.And of course, it's a little bit She sent me to a piano Institute when I was like nine. I hated flute, and I called the take up basically translates into big for a video game, especially back back at that time, you had pentatonic, but that was it. It only had pentatonic, you know,long time ago, who I guess moved to Australia. It was really it
Anna Cei:It was a thresher in the family.
Nick Duvernay:It was a treasure that I didn't really do anything string. So on the rusty string,I'm just like, testing all these
Anna Cei:Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:to my ears anyway, they sort of sound
Anna Cei:you change the strings before you went on. I guess
Nick Duvernay:I didn't even know how to change strings acoustic guitar all my life you know, playing these soft nice
Anna Cei:like we do as parents.Yes.
Nick Duvernay:Nice songs. Yeah.
Anna Cei:Right.
Nick Duvernay:I think if she knew the kind of the type of
Anna Cei:You got the support and you got the encouragement.
Nick Duvernay:Yes, supportive.Yes, supportive when it came to acting and my mother was very supportive too, although I know
Anna Cei:We might look. Okay,so
Nick Duvernay:yeah, basically that that got me into guitar.
Anna Cei:like Western American music, even
Nick Duvernay:Western American music.
Anna Cei:Yeah not Korean.
Nick Duvernay:No, not not. I didn't know that many Korean they would always stop by Korea even like the really, really big So it was kind of cool, because you could easily get front row time, I was taking my masters in another university. But I was initiated into that aspect of music culture as well. I'd like
Anna Cei:What is it called?
Nick Duvernay:Pentaport. It no longer exists, but it was one of
Anna Cei:and J-Rock being rock from Japan.
Nick Duvernay:rock from Japan.Yeah, right. Definitely. Sorry
Anna Cei:that's Okay, that's okay
Nick Duvernay:..extending yeah Rock from Japan. And there's
Anna Cei:Mmm.
Nick Duvernay:And so he was playing this. He was singing
Anna Cei:now curious, I want to know which one
Nick Duvernay:it was one of their later songs "new world".this festival "Pentaport" that I was invited along to,"
Anna Cei:Mmm.
Nick Duvernay:So we went to Seoul. We were at ,we're in
Anna Cei:Mm hmm.
Nick Duvernay:Larc en ciel was like the band, their actual drummer, he asked me if I wanted to go up to Seoul to audition audition. We go up. And it's actually this company that has
Anna Cei:Oh, oh, wow.
Nick Duvernay:Now, I don't know how much listeners might know
Anna Cei:Yeah, yeah,
Nick Duvernay:yeah. You can't do anything else aside from continue to pursue your education. And I just had a
Anna Cei:I mean it's one thing to be allowed to. But there's
Nick Duvernay:it's stated basically that every single
Anna Cei:give up on the contract, but you didn't give up
Nick Duvernay:I didn't give up on my studies. And I also didn't
Anna Cei:Maybe it's my stereotype, but isn't idol
Nick Duvernay:they're absolutely more popularly? Sure.and so on, because our drummer,he's half Thai, half Korean, he Vanilla Unity, which was my first band here in Korea.
Anna Cei:*laughing* It's...Yeah, the English name
Nick Duvernay:I later asked them, you know, what's the
Anna Cei:Yeah, we take this cool word, and we add another
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, exactly. I mean, one of my favorite bands apparently. So yeah, you know,whatever. Sounds good, I guess.
Anna Cei:Mm hmm.
Nick Duvernay:So they were already established here in
Anna Cei:Oh they were a punk band?
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, they were a punk band. So I actually I
Anna Cei:so you auditioned as a singer or as a guitarist?
Nick Duvernay:as a guitarist.Apparently, the manager of the a few other people. So I started playing with them. We started
Anna Cei:And what kind of music was this? It was not punk?
Nick Duvernay:the closest thing would be Pearl Jam. So 90s?
Anna Cei:You're like, all over the place. You talk about Kpop
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, grunge yeah
Anna Cei:and then before that you had the Korean flute and
Nick Duvernay:*laughing* Oh and I also played trumpet in uh?...
Anna Cei:say, How about your jazz gene?
Nick Duvernay:Oh, honestly,like, again, when it comes to later. In the end, you know,music is language too. So they
Anna Cei:exactly
Nick Duvernay:the same, exactly the same. And
Anna Cei:but this band was grunge music and Pearl Jam kind
Nick Duvernay:It was grunge music, and we had a few retrospect, being tested with this test band as well. I was and playing the bass and I love the bass sound. Like one of the Hearing bass that was just going all over the place but at the in that punk band.
Anna Cei:You were inspired by Tatsuya in Laruku then?
Nick Duvernay:I was so inspired. He has this red bass throw, like, you know, they're kind of like, ah, can't go for has and hey I want this one. And they're like, Okay, and so they
Anna Cei:Oh Wow,
Nick Duvernay:I played it on stage all the time. So the
Anna Cei:Wow. And you never painted it red.
Nick Duvernay:Oh Jesus.*laughing*So actually, it's a it's a very,very attractive, sunburst. The,types of wood that are used and the guitars and stuff was kind
Anna Cei:and what was the name of that band?
Nick Duvernay:Okay, so yeah,this original band, again, it's they're really nice. So the band that was going to be on the same
Anna Cei:Wow,
Nick Duvernay:I already liked Muse anyway. So I was like, oh particular model. And they're like, Oh, yeah, we'll get it to
Anna Cei:Yeah.
Nick Duvernay:And one of the things I realized, though, doing
Anna Cei:Ah ah Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:it's, it's 80,000people, you can't necessarily
Anna Cei:right. You can't see them. Right.
Nick Duvernay:Yeah. And the larger the stage, the more point that I actually felt more of an appreciation for the was number one, their sound systems are just perfect. Like,
Anna Cei:Even in very, very small. I mean, sometimes
Nick Duvernay:probably
Anna Cei:absolutely
Nick Duvernay:no they can control the sound the smaller
Anna Cei:Yeah, that's true too
Nick Duvernay:but just the atmosphere in those clubs, you
Anna Cei:Did you ever compare your bass with Chris Walstenholm
Nick Duvernay:Honestly, I mean,incomparable obviously, but then they use a lot of effects and stuff. So that got me into using that time we sort of decided to go our separate ways anyway.
Anna Cei:So Vanilla Unity had to dis-Unite.
Nick Duvernay:We had to dis-unite. That's a very nice name is Guy and he's, he was also in this pretty big band in
Anna Cei:They play more what we think about like K-pop , K-rock
Nick Duvernay:Yes
Anna Cei:, it's not a Pearl Jam style. And it's not punk for
Nick Duvernay:No, no, no very,very Korean rock. Honestly now I said he wanted to make a new band. I was like, hell yeah.So we weren't gonna, but then I got a call from him again, they
Anna Cei:Mmm,
Nick Duvernay:that's when we had our first our first band
Anna Cei:And you were on guitar there, or you were on base from
Nick Duvernay:Oh, yeah. So I was on guitar there. They guitars are pretty expensive,due to import and customs like"Night train". Honestly, that would end up shaping
Anna Cei:wonder why Guy picked a Guns N' Roses song? *laughter*
Nick Duvernay:Well, yeah, I mean, you know, nothing to do
Anna Cei:Right. *laughter*
Nick Duvernay:The only thing that he has a little bit person. That was actually the thing that really attracted me
Anna Cei:Guy was on vocals there, right?
Nick Duvernay:Guy was on vocals. I was on guitar. I
Anna Cei:right.
Nick Duvernay:And we we had the bassist who's just kind of the first time that I met you.
Anna Cei:Mmm
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, we did a lot of things with the Japanese song that I had been just working on just for myself song. And so apparently, it clicked. So we turned that song
Anna Cei:And the title was Falcon kick?
Nick Duvernay:, Falcon kick,which obviously in our in our Well, apparently, they liked it.So I started writing more songs.
Anna Cei:We've been talking for a little bit. Maybe we can
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, absolutely.Absolutely. As far as our songs
Anna Cei:Yay. I love that song!
Nick Duvernay:*laughter*Honestly, like when I first
Anna Cei:No, but seriously,it's one of my favorite songs. I
Nick Duvernay:Yeah,
Anna Cei:it can turn you on to into fire right away. It's like
Nick Duvernay:I should try that. I should try that with the
Anna Cei:it's really like it puts you into gear, it puts
Nick Duvernay:you into gear. So that's a nice analogy there.
Anna Cei:Mmm
Nick Duvernay:There's one game where the, if you pass a lap,different things together. Like for example, the boost power is And then the boost power related stuff and the lyrics and like
Anna Cei:There is something that, especially in the chorus,
Nick Duvernay:Oh, yeah, I actually, honestly, I wasn't maybe I'm in the middle of class, and I have this melody in
Anna Cei:know two identities again. Yeah.
Nick Duvernay:And or, you know,especially for some reason, when to sleep.
Anna Cei:Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:I'll have this dream where you know, there's
Anna Cei:Ahhhhh
Nick Duvernay:I'm not necessarily sure if I can rely
Anna Cei:and not remember.Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:I always choose number one. I always choose to sleep, wake up regret. Then I started realized, well, number
Anna Cei:to kind ofsupport yourself
Nick Duvernay:sort of tried to figure out okay, maybe this was to record it .that's why I said it's worth it's worth it. Yeah,
Anna Cei:It's worth it so far, I haven't ever been in one and I don't intend on being of like just extended family life paths. Yeah.
Nick Duvernay:Even after that we disband. We still keep in All right,
Anna Cei:and then you want another fun band again. So your
Nick Duvernay:Yeah,
Anna Cei:after hysterics, is what?
Nick Duvernay:after the hysterics while I was changing band 015B. It actually has a meaning to the name, but it's
Anna Cei:a living legend
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, basically,I would say that they were HYSTERICS. So I knew that he was you know, kind of a big guy just when I wanted to get back into music somehow. It was good
Anna Cei:not finished. Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:when you make demos, you're not necessarily
Anna Cei:It depends on your process, I guess
Nick Duvernay:yeah pretty much I kind of tend to, I'm more of So our chorus actually has some English in it. But then it's
Anna Cei:and what was the name of this band?
Nick Duvernay:Okay, so actually, this wasn't a band. At
Anna Cei:t'was just, guys coming together and making music
Nick Duvernay:just him and me.That was it. He, he actually,bit further after the release of the single. He and I both wanted quickly, my capacity as a singer, I got so much experience
Anna Cei:Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:I, I gained so much experience doing all these
Anna Cei:and exposure
Nick Duvernay:and exposure too
Anna Cei:Mm mm,
Nick Duvernay:and I started to feel really confident as just a song that we're Oh, by the way,our songs also are have been to get YouTube exposure by covering some famous songs, our
Anna Cei:But I mean, it's not that's not your goal, right?
Nick Duvernay:not to be YouTubers. But yeah, for the
Anna Cei:and can people find you also on Spotify and other
Nick Duvernay:as it is right now we're mostly going by the
Anna Cei:Melon like the watermelon.
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, like watermelon. So just go to
Anna Cei:and know how to spell maybe?
Nick Duvernay:And how to spell.Yes, absolutely. We've been only going to be out for maybe a couple weeks, and it was called
Anna Cei:yeah energetic.
Nick Duvernay:Yeah. And might give you a hangover in the
Anna Cei:That's awesome. I like it. I mean, it's energetic. It's
Nick Duvernay:Exactly
Anna Cei:Right, cool. So now we know a little bit about you, or
Nick Duvernay:Oh, man. In the end,you know, you only live once. So what matters most to me is your life is kind of a collaborative thing, especially
Anna Cei:That sounds super easy. But you know, to be happy,
Nick Duvernay:It's very, I mean, no, you could say that
Anna Cei:would you consider yourself being a lucky guy? born
Nick Duvernay:I think I think luck has a lot to do. As a So he was he said, he was very lucky when he got a proposal to
Anna Cei:But do you think that's the same thing with
Nick Duvernay:Oh, absolutely.I mean, happiness is how you view the world. So no matter will carry you towards a positive outcome
Anna Cei:So there's like two sides of the coin in here.
Nick Duvernay:There's always a way to make something bad
Anna Cei:Or the break up of your band here. HYSTERICS, for
Nick Duvernay:of the man? Yeah,absolutely. I never, I didn't band. But at the same time, in somewhere, somewhere deep
Anna Cei:which It did.Yeah,yeah
Nick Duvernay:actually, if you listen to our two songs that we wrote songs thinking about his voice. Also, I played chorus in even the even the negative experiences are good do it next time, if they're smart enough.
Anna Cei:Will you say overall,that South Korea or Seoul is a
Nick Duvernay:I am definitely I, I've always surrounded myself got older, they learned to let go of some things and to embrace invading or, you know, just basically winning
Anna Cei:now they've been invaded, instead of
Nick Duvernay:always been invaded. So there's a thing in
Anna Cei:That's different Han from Hangul right ? from Korean
Nick Duvernay:is different from Hangul, right.So basically,this Han is even pervasive
Anna Cei:Mm mm bamboo flute I was talking about earlier.Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:that was in the blues scale.
Anna Cei:So where did you get your happiness from them, or
Nick Duvernay:my family,
Anna Cei:your family,
Nick Duvernay:my family, I've had a very fortunate background
Anna Cei:you know,
Nick Duvernay:the people I surround myself with, I mean,
Anna Cei:So they have a positive outlook on things.
Nick Duvernay:positive outlook,what's the negative outlook
Anna Cei:Mmm, I think positive outlook as being something very
Nick Duvernay:it's productive
Anna Cei:and forward thinking like changing things not going
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, it's, you know, it's absolutely fine to think, anyway, you should fully go through everything. And that
Anna Cei:So this happiness or this positive outlook,
Nick Duvernay:Honestly, the first two songs that we made,
Anna Cei:oh, how happy oh how happy
Nick Duvernay:and the second one, lyrics are a little bit in that we're trying to find themes and lyrics that kind of
Anna Cei:Yeah,
Nick Duvernay:in the end. Yeah,you know, you realize that
Anna Cei:Right right. You're not alone
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, exactly.
Anna Cei:It's a shared emotion.And that can give the, be the
Nick Duvernay:Yeah, if you think about it that way. Those
Anna Cei:Because they're medicine. Yeah, they're medicine
Nick Duvernay:Exactly. Exactly.
Anna Cei:helps people. Oh, I'm not alone in this. People have
Nick Duvernay:Seriously, like one of my favorite bands in they were so depressing, like,all of their songs, not only
Anna Cei:Almost like a satire or
Nick Duvernay:satire, but you could tell that you could tell that
Anna Cei:he was genuine.
Nick Duvernay:He was really like he meant it. And listening
Anna Cei:Well, the talk would you have certainly inspired me
Nick Duvernay:Oh, you know,it's all it's all shared.
Anna Cei:Mmm, sounds wonderful.I wish you I wish you a
Nick Duvernay:Absolutely. Thank you
Anna Cei:And I thank you for your time.
Nick Duvernay:Thank you. I hope I haven't gone on too many
Anna Cei:Yeah. Such as yours such as Holiday Shots
Nick Duvernay:I was totally not pandering.
Anna Cei:I really wish you the best Nick. Thank you so much.
Nick Duvernay:Thank you Anna.
Anna Cei:Okay, bye bye.
Nick Duvernay:Bye.