Official music video for ‘Clarion’ by Caleb Nichols.

Caleb Nichols’ played guitar, bass, and sang in bands as disparate as DIY folk-punks the Bloody Heads, mid-2000’s Port O’Brien, and Rogue Wave side project Release the Sunbird, not to mention his own projects, Grand Lake, CHURCHES and Soft People.

He’s published poetry in places like the Longleaf Review, Redivider, Queerlings, and Dear Poetry Journal, and his debut chapbook of poems was called “a gorgeous abundance” by celebrated poet Chen Chen.

In 2021 Caleb was signed to legendary indie label Kill Rock Stars. His new EP ‘Clarion’ is out now, and he’s been playing shows with an epic cast of rotating band members that includes Adam and Alex Nash (Goodnight Texas), Kevin Middlekauf (Proxima Parada), Pat Spurgeon (Rogue Wave, the Dandy Warhols) and Joshua Barnhart (Port O’Brien, Strange Pilgrim). The shows are joyful, contagious, and electric, and mark a stunning return to music from a poet and musician who’s just never given up. Kill Rock Stars will release Caleb’s full-length debut solo album on all formats in 2022.

<a href="https://calebnichols.bandcamp.com/album/clarion">Clarion by Caleb Nichols</a>

“I recorded this EP at New, Improved Recording in Oakland, CA, a city which I used to live in many years ago, with friends who I’ve worked with for as many years. So in a lot of ways ‘Clarion’ is a return of sorts: a return to a certain style of playing and writing, a return to a certain simplicity (play guitar, point microphone at guitar, sing) and a return to making music outside of the context of my own bedroom. It also marked a return to the world, as this was really one of the first trips I’d made away from home since the pandemic began. How surreal to remember that other places exist after nearly two years of being confined to a few spaces in my own town. “Clarion” then makes sense, lyrically, in this context. All alone/ you wait/ for silence. The lyrics to the song, which I sort of wrote about a poet friend of mine, are probably more of a projection about me and my experience than an examination of another subject. I guess the point might be about solitude and the clear, truthful ring of silences. ‘He’ll Love You Better’ which is the other stand-out track also comes from that place of silence and contemplation but is more about the experience of uncertainty and anxiety, particularly in the context of relationships. What if I’m not good enough for love? I guess we all feel that way sometimes – like we don’t deserve love. But we do, and this song is my attempt to write through those feelings; to be vulnerable and admit that I feel this way sometimes, and maybe even for no good reason.” Caleb Nichols

In fall 2022 Caleb will be in the EU and UK working on a PhD in creative writing at Bangor University in Wales, playing shows in support of his Kill Rock Stars releases and giving readings in support of his forthcoming nonfiction chapbook “Don’t Panic” out in August 2022 from renowned UK press Broken Sleep Books.

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