︎︎︎Info
Artist
Nick Stevens
Title
Catching Falling Knives
Format
CS, Digital
Date
2022.09.23.
Label
Galtta
Publisher
Total Time
38’52”
Status
︎︎︎Tracklist
01 Terminal Case
02 Pain Of Your Love
03 Whiskey Wind
04 Will Love Have A Place
05 The World Has Changed
06 I Heard It All Over Town
07 Love Will Show You How
08 Silver Cloud*
02 Pain Of Your Love
03 Whiskey Wind
04 Will Love Have A Place
05 The World Has Changed
06 I Heard It All Over Town
07 Love Will Show You How
08 Silver Cloud*
︎︎︎Credits
All songs written by Nick Stevens and Adrian Knight except (06) by Nick Stevens, Adrian Knight and Jenny Mörtsell and (08) by Gary Stewart.
Nick Stevens
vocals
rhythm guitar
lead guitar (03)
clave (03)
ARP (05)
tape echo (05)
rhythm guitar
lead guitar (03)
clave (03)
ARP (05)
tape echo (05)
Adrian Knight
producer
engineering
mix
drum machine
bass
synthesizer
Rhodes
piano
keyboards
lead guitar
rhythm guitar
percussion
backing vocals
engineering
mix
drum machine
bass
synthesizer
Rhodes
piano
keyboards
lead guitar
rhythm guitar
percussion
backing vocals
David Lackner
saxophone
clarinet
flute
clarinet
flute
Erik Kristiansen
pedal steel guitar (05)
Jenny Mörtsell
cover art
Carl Saff
mastering
︎︎︎Note
In the already-risen sun the morning aroma of warm garbage begins to rise in its tactile heat – the busy bustling day already well under way. A man with a pressure washer cleans the pavement in front of a bodega. From a fold-out table full of scented candles and incense a street hustler cranks some fresh pop track (“I Heard It All Over The Town”) from an iPhone bluetooth-tethered to a large active monitor. A baby in a flimsy stroller sucks fervently on a Disney-branded pacifier. The young and old, the broken and the born-again, the dreamers and the schemers hit the pavement and make moves to places across town. The music floats above the taxis, electric bikes, ambulances, and delivery trucks beneath the elevated tracks of the Myrtle-Broadway metro-station.
I buy a single trip ticket for half price from a guy hawking them in the station and slide through the turnstile. As I bounce up the steps and pass by a skinny fellow wearing a rodeo cowboy hat on the platform I overhear his partner, “I didn’t realize PJ Harvey and Elvis Costello had a son.”
Her black hair was long and looked freshly braided with chartreuse accents and she wore a black cotton baby t cut off at her ribs. ”THE GLOVE” was silk-screened on it bubble letters. Against her dark skin was a navel ring. Just then the train screeched into the station and I couldn’t catch the response.
I stepped into the train and sat down. Pulling the other half of my roast beef, tomato, lettuce, and mayo deli sandwich out of the plastic bag, I began to devour it. Someone was playing Fingers Inc “Decision” on an iPhone 12.
“This is a skip stop train, next stop is Broadway Junction. Broadway Junction next stop,” muddled the operator distorted from overhead.
As we passed one of the local stations a guy that looked like an undercover cop or the singer from Dire Straits walked between the cars and entered ours. He was asking for some donations to buy a pizza because his wife and kid who were in a shelter hadn’t eaten.
“Why worry
There should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now
Why worry now”
• • •
It’s a warm and wet layered cake of vintage synthesizers and backing vocals on Nick Stevens sophomore solo offering on Catching Falling Knives. Guitar lines serving the slices that either stand tall or fall, predicting you to be forever alone, within the moods producer Adrian Knight has cut. He takes an even more central role in co-writing on the release, but this set of Stevens’ romantic auto-fiction guides us through his personal dredges of “The City of Panic”. Maybe it’s the Gotham City of their own hearts – the New York influence is there. It’s a record steeped in history – but yet something new.
—Galtta
In the already-risen sun the morning aroma of warm garbage begins to rise in its tactile heat – the busy bustling day already well under way. A man with a pressure washer cleans the pavement in front of a bodega. From a fold-out table full of scented candles and incense a street hustler cranks some fresh pop track (“I Heard It All Over The Town”) from an iPhone bluetooth-tethered to a large active monitor. A baby in a flimsy stroller sucks fervently on a Disney-branded pacifier. The young and old, the broken and the born-again, the dreamers and the schemers hit the pavement and make moves to places across town. The music floats above the taxis, electric bikes, ambulances, and delivery trucks beneath the elevated tracks of the Myrtle-Broadway metro-station.
I buy a single trip ticket for half price from a guy hawking them in the station and slide through the turnstile. As I bounce up the steps and pass by a skinny fellow wearing a rodeo cowboy hat on the platform I overhear his partner, “I didn’t realize PJ Harvey and Elvis Costello had a son.”
Her black hair was long and looked freshly braided with chartreuse accents and she wore a black cotton baby t cut off at her ribs. ”THE GLOVE” was silk-screened on it bubble letters. Against her dark skin was a navel ring. Just then the train screeched into the station and I couldn’t catch the response.
I stepped into the train and sat down. Pulling the other half of my roast beef, tomato, lettuce, and mayo deli sandwich out of the plastic bag, I began to devour it. Someone was playing Fingers Inc “Decision” on an iPhone 12.
“This is a skip stop train, next stop is Broadway Junction. Broadway Junction next stop,” muddled the operator distorted from overhead.
As we passed one of the local stations a guy that looked like an undercover cop or the singer from Dire Straits walked between the cars and entered ours. He was asking for some donations to buy a pizza because his wife and kid who were in a shelter hadn’t eaten.
“Why worry
There should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now
Why worry now”
• • •
It’s a warm and wet layered cake of vintage synthesizers and backing vocals on Nick Stevens sophomore solo offering on Catching Falling Knives. Guitar lines serving the slices that either stand tall or fall, predicting you to be forever alone, within the moods producer Adrian Knight has cut. He takes an even more central role in co-writing on the release, but this set of Stevens’ romantic auto-fiction guides us through his personal dredges of “The City of Panic”. Maybe it’s the Gotham City of their own hearts – the New York influence is there. It’s a record steeped in history – but yet something new.
—Galtta
︎︎︎Comments
‹‹ Victoria Bergsman (Taken By Trees) ››
“John Cale does this too, sings in a very low register. It sounds like the voice is about to go out of tune but he handles it elegantly. When I listen to Nick’s album I get that same feeling. The way Nick drags out the words as he sings also reminds me of Cale. The music on the other hand brings on an 80s feel, as do the melodies of the songs. There is something dark but still light in the music. It reminds me of China Crisis – catchy melodies and a lot of little tropical percussive sprinkles, drum machines, keyboards sounding like fake vibraphones or bells. The guitars are very tastefully spread out here and there. I love the airiness and the lightness of the music in contrast with the deep and dark vocals. It is a beautiful album.”
‹‹ Grace Berger (Musician and Visual Artist) ››
“I didn’t realize PJ Harvey and Elvis Costello had a son.”
‹‹ Jan Ekholm (Clubland and founder of B-Tech) ››
“Nick is a true house artist – at the wrong speed. Every time we play his tracks on 45 rpm instead of 33 rpm he is smashing the dancefloor. Respect. Long live house music.”
‹‹ Anna Ahnlund (Dina Ögon) ››
“I dove into the world of Nick Stevens, and it made me love myself a bit more. The music is honest and soothing, yet never boring. History is breathing thru Catching Falling Knives, still it’s something else, something new. My favorite tracks are: ‘I Heard It All Over The Town’, ‘The World Has Changed’, and ‘Whiskey Wind’.”