Nick Rallis

Nick Rallis has a dynamic personality with an extraordinary knack for entertaining people with his raspy vocals and acoustic guitar. Rallis continues to establish himself as an engaging performer, captivating local audiences with his ranging musical style and clever, between-song banter. Contrary to many artists being played on the airwaves today, Nick writes all of his own music and lyrics. Following a brief hiatus from playing music live, Nick recorded his first solo album. Half of the album was recorded in a professional studio, while the other half was pieced together in his basement. These basement demos include December’s Calling, Is it Love, Symphony, and Broken People. Aside from the mastering, Nick engineered and played everything on his own in order to create the prior mentioned tracks.Rallis’s passion for music wasn’t always apparent. Born and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, his early interest was golf. Rallis won his first golf trophy at the age of two. It wasn’t until his freshman and sophomore years of high school that he put his three iron on the back burner and started taking music more seriously. There were certainly musical influences along the way, though. It was in the fourth grade that Rallis fondly recalls receiving The Beatles “Help” album as a Christmas gift. In the sixth grade, Rallis auditioned for a school talent show, performing The Beatles song, “We Can Work It Out.” However, he didn’t make the final cut. To this day, Rallis asserts he was victim to an elaborate conspiracy. Either way, the awkward musical beginnings of early junior high would be washed away in the eighth grade when Rallis picked up a guitar. With The Rolling Stones and Dave Matthews providing inspiration, Rallis’s guitar skills evolved quickly throughout high school. Occasionally, Rallis and a group of high school friends would perform at a local college bar, receiving beer as compensation, which any high school kid will tell you is pretty much “kick ass.” Back then, performances were mostly limited to jam band covers (Phish, Widespread, DMB, Strangefolk, etc.). Included in this circle of musicians was Kevin Truckenmiller, now of Quietdrive fame.Of course, the next step for any aspiring musician is to go to college and get a chemistry degree. That’s exactly what Rallis did, enrolling at the University of South Dakota in fall 2001. Toying with the idea of graduate school, Rallis admits that music was sort of lost in the mix of figuring out his future plans (fortunately he was able to stay sharp by performing OAR cover songs for sorority girls at 2:30 in the morning). In December 2006, Rallis graduated from USD and moved back to his hometown of Sioux Falls. Since graduation, Rallis has become more aggressive with performing live shows and recording his own music.Biography contributed by Nick Kotzea -friend, occasional roadie, constant fanContact Band @: [email protected] ..