Get to Know Nick Vyner [Interview]
Alt-pop artist and songwriter, Nick Vyner, has gained traction from his song, “Mood Swings,” which has 22 million plays on TikTok and almost two million streams on Spotify. His most recent single, “Foundation,” progresses his sound to another level with an incredible vocal performance and otherworldly harmonies. Get to know more about Nick Vyner below:
Congrats on “Foundation.” Take me through the creative process of the single and what it means to have it out now.
That one was started in late 2020 during a Zoom session. It was the first Zoom session I had during quarantine. I worked on it with two producers, and it was a really refreshing change of pace when we made it. We worked for six or seven hours that day, and it flew by. We made it in 2020, sat with it for a few months, came back and tweaked it a bit more, sat with it for a few months, and came back at the end of last year to wrap it all up. It felt like a proper first one out the gate. It is a little more stylized then some of my other stuff. Has more of that glossy pop with a little bit of edge. It was a fun one to send out of the gate first.
As an artist, what does it mean when you are working on a body of work for so long for it to finally come out and for people to hear it?
It is so crazy. For me, I feel like I have a curse where I listen to all of the demos. I’ll listen to it so much prior to the release, and when I put it out, it is kind of hard to listen to it. It is always super cathartic to put something out. It is nice to know there are no more tweaks, and it is just there.
Being born and raised from Houston, the music scene is very vibrant, how did being from Houston influence you in following in those footsteps.
I feel like I was really lucky to have so much exposure to all sorts of stuff. Houston is obviously very well known for hip hop, but there is so much amazing music. There is so many indie bands, Jazz, and soul stuff. I feel like I got to see so much live music. By the time I got to LA to start working on stuff on my own, I felt like I had the musical language to make the stuff I wanted to make. I felt like I could do anything at any time. I feel so lucky that I was born and raised in Houston. It is such a special place for culture, music, and art.
How did growing up playing in a choir and listening to classical music lead you to a point of wanting to make music as a career?
It was so helpful for me. I was really passionate about classical music for about a good eight or nine years. Halfway through high school, it became less interesting to me, and contemporary music really came to the forefront. Choir and classical music in general was huge. I had all of the technical tools such as music theory to operate on instinct. It gave me a bunch of tools to make my process easier and less technical.
What was the process of finding your sound, image, and what works best for you as an artist?
A lot of Logic sessions that nobody will ever hear. A lot of trial and error. It was a lot of churning out songs. It was writing as much as I could to work out the kinks of what worked for me. I started producing and writing my own stuff junior year of high school. I kept doing that through moving to LA. It has been making as much stuff as I can to see what feels right and most natural. I have been out here in LA for four years now. I hit a point about two years ago where I really felt like I had my formula down. It has been an interesting process of writing my songs and seeing what feels right.
How did the move to LA help you? What have you learned since being out there?
It was huge for me. I originally was going to go to music school and get a degree in music. I kind of felt like I had a decent enough base of people I knew out here that my time would be better spent on coming out here to work on stuff and meeting people then it would be in classes. I am super lucky my parents were super supportive of me. I felt like I got to dive into adulthood before a lot of people. I felt like I had a lot of context of what I wanted to be.
Your single, “Mood Swings,” went viral on TikTok. How does it feel to see the recognition come and propel what you are doing?
It was crazy. That song is super special to me. It is the one people have heard the most. It has allowed so many people to find my music which is all I can ask for. It has gotten me opportunities with producers and writers that I wouldn’t have gotten in the room with before. That song is huge.
What did you learn working with Yung Bae and take me through that collaboration.
It was super fun. I got the track at my day job. I wanted to go home. I went home and tracked it out that night. It was super fun. It is really cool for me to be able to fit into other people’s sounds. It is a fun exercise for me. It teaches me new things such as being able to do a certain sound I wouldn’t have gone for on my own. That was a great time. That was when work didn’t feel like work.
You kind of took a year off of releasing music in 2021. What did you learn in 2021, and how did you grow as an artist and a person?
It was huge for me. My team was amazing in understanding that I felt like some of these songs needed time to sit so I could figure out where to take them. It was huge not to move on to new projects immediately. It was big for me to sit back, live my day-to-day life, and I am going to work on these songs as I feel the inspiration come.
You came out hot with this single so what can fans expect from you for the rest of the year? What goals do you have?
A lot of music this year. For me, my biggest thing is making sure that I am being cohesive and intentional with what I am doing. For me, never staying in one place for too long and getting bogged down in any one sound or style. I have a good idea of what the visual and musical language of these new songs will be.
Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years?
Hopefully a lot of Nick Vyner albums. Tours. All of that.
What do you enjoy outside of music?
Movies are huge for me. They are the art form I enjoy the most outside of music. If I couldn’t do music, I’d work in film or television. I spend time journaling about movies. They can be these fairytales or punch you in the face realism. I love basketball and football too. I also try to spend as much time outside as I can.
