Web Exclusive: A conversation with Lucero's Ben Nichols

Take one glance at the activities of his veteran counterparts and you’d think it was inevitable Ben Nichols would try the solo thing. But while his day job Lucero first established themselves as a band more than ten years ago, the fruits of Nichols’ potential solo labor weren’t tangible until he recently unleashed his solo debut, The Last Pale Light In The West. The seven-song EP/mini-album is closely based on Cormac McCarthy’s 1985 Western novel, Blood Meridian. Brian Shultz recently spoke with Nichols, who stresses that experiments like this–and his recent acting debut–are just that.

Having been in bands and written songs all this time, what took so long for something solo of yours to come to fruition?

Everything I was always writing was going into [Lucero]. Brian Venable, my guitar player, wrote a few songs for the first record. But really since then, I’ve been the sole songwriter of the band, and so really, it just took everything I had to keep Lucero playing songs. So it just came down to the time and the energy and the songwriting. I needed pretty much everything I could get my hands on for the band. With this, The Last Pale Light In The West, I deliberately took some time for myself to do this project all on its own. I guess, really, it also took reading the book, Blood Meridian, and just deciding that it affected me enough to actually write about it. Once I had that idea, I decided to do it on my own. I could work on that project without taking anything away from Lucero. I could still write Lucero songs, and they can exist in one area; and then, I could write these new songs based on the style [of the book], and they can exist in their own area.

So you weren’t really thinking of doing anything solo until you had the idea to base it off the book?

Yeah, actually that’s kinda true. Really, [this] project [popping] up into my mind was really the first time I ever thought about doing anything solo, because there hasn’t been much need. Lucero kind of function as my vehicle for getting all my emotions out. But, I don’t know. I think because these songs were based on a book, I felt comfortable doing them outside of the band. But it’s definitely not the beginning of any kind of a solo career. This is definitely not the beginning of the end of Lucero or anything like that. It was just kind of an experiment and a project that limits itself to a simple [set] of instruments–there’s only three instruments on [the EP]: keys, guitar and pedal steel. The whole atmosphere around the idea lends itself to being a solo project. And Brian had a baby, so we were kinda taking time off anyways, and I was doing [the Revival Tour]. The timing worked out right. We’ll see. It might be a little while before I do another solo project.

The Last Pale Light in the West – Ben Nichols




When did you first read Blood Meridian?

Probably in 2000 or 2001. It was awhile back–probably [during] the first few years of the band. We all still had jobs, and I [had a job] making furniture. The girl who was teaching me how to weld recommended the book to me, and I read it and it immediately made a huge impact on me. It quickly became one of my favorite novels. I re-read it maybe a couple years ago, and then read it a third time while I was writing new songs.

Did you deliberately try to write music to specifically fit the themes and characters?

Yeah, I guess I did. Usually, when writing Lucero songs, I start with a guitar part, then the lyrics kinda come later; I’ll kind of fit the lyrics to the song and the style of the guitar part–the feel of the music. But with this thing, I wanted stuff that didn’t sound too cheesy and too country, but it was a chance for me to go back to the type of songs that Lucero were doing more often when we were younger–a less rock ‘n’ roll, more roots-based type of song. So the [feel of the] songs is sorta traditional in a way, but not hokey. I didn’t want it to be cartoon-ish. I wanted pretty straightforward, sincere songs. I think I achieved that goal. With "The Judge," which is the last song on the record, it’s an instrumental song. It was really just kind of written in the studio off the cuff. Actually, I got really lucky with that one. I think that’s kind of the moodiest song on the album, and just the fact that the character [of the judge is] such a huge figure and has such a huge presence in the book, the fact that the song is instrumental kind of suits him. It’s tough to put the judge into words, or define him. I definitely wrote music specifically to sound a certain way.

The Judge – Ben Nichols



You recently acted in the MTV web series, $5 Cover. How was that experience?

It was a whole new experience. [Creator] Craig [Brewer] is a really cool guy, actually. Of course, he made Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan, and he’d always been a big advocate of Memphis and Memphis music, especially. He’s had the idea for something like $5 Cover for a long time, just to kind of highlight an underground music scene in a city he loves. It was definitely a cool thing to be a part of and it was nice that he asked me to be one of the folks in it. But, yeah, I’m no actor, that’s for sure. Just like there isn’t really gonna be a solo career for me anytime soon, there’s not gonna be an acting career either. But it was fun to pretend for a little while. Of course, I was just playing myself. It’s not a reality show, but it’s kind of a pseudo-reality show.

You can tell it’s not a reality show from the filming style.

Yeah. Basically, he would make up these kinds of scenes and say, "All right, this wasn’t in the script or anything but just kind of react in the scene the way you’d react normally." And I’d just kind of go with it. It wasn’t hard to prepare for the role. It was fun. I got to make out with a hot chick. It was all right. [Laughs.] That sounds really stupid, but it’s true.

You didn’t get an acting coach?

No. No. No voice coaches for Lucero and no acting coaches for $5 Cover. [Laughs.] If I’m ever involved in something like that again, maybe I should.

Chambers – Ben Nichols



Did you write original songs for the show?

No, [I didn’t write anything] for it. Craig used a song called "San Francisco" off of the last Lucero record [2006’s Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers] and a song called "A Dangerous Thing" off the first Lucero record [2001’s Lucero]. Basically, he had all these songs that he really liked, and asked us if they were good to use. We said, “Yeah, anything you want.” So that was maybe the strangest part; we had to film a show which was basically us lip-synching to one of our own songs for about two hours, while they did the filming. That was a little awkward and weird. But I think it came out looking okay. I haven’t seen it yet, but I trust him.

So there will be a certain number of online episodes?

If I remember correctly, it’s like 15 episodes or something like that–which really is a feature length, broken up into eight-minute segments that they’ll show on MTV.com or something like that. I don’t know–I heard that it might actually air on MTV proper for a week, which would be great. That would be really cool. But we’ll see. I’m not exactly the most informed [person when it comes to] $5 Cover.

How was the Revival Tour?

Man, that was really fun. It was actually really long and grueling. I think we did like 52 shows in 56 days. We were playing every night. It was a great group of guys to be out there with–Tim Barry, Chuck Ragan and Austin Lucas for a bunch of it and Tom Gabel for a good portion of it. We were all on a bus, which was the first bus tour I’ve ever done, and possibly the first bus tour that Tim Barry had ever done. It was full of new experiences. I think as songwriters, the three of us made a pretty good mix, actually. I had a really good time.

It was in bigger venues than what Lucero normally play, right?

Yeah, I guess so. Some places were slightly smaller in certain towns but it was pretty much a regular-sized tour.

Between being out there by yourself and playing bigger places, were you intimidated at all?

It took a while getting used to it just because I don’t play by myself very often. I did take Todd Beene with me–pedal steel player from a band called Glossary from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He’s a really talented guy. He was along for the whole trip, so I at least had him kind of backing me up. Even still, I’m so used to playing with a band and being able to kind of melt into that. In a way you’re kind of hiding behind the loudness of it. With an acoustic guitar, it’s pretty intimate. If you screw up, it’s pretty plain to see. That took a little getting used to, but I really enjoyed myself for most of it. It was kinda like the solo record–it was a really cool experiment and a nice change of pace, but it’s not something I’m really gonna do regularly.
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