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Richie Nieto

GIANT ROBOTS AND SUNSETS - OUT NOW ON CDBABY.COM!

About Me


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Originally from San Jose, Costa Rica, Richie Nieto has been an active musician and songwriter for more than 20 years. His bands and projects have spanned diverse genres, from pop to hard rock to progressive and experimental music, and they have taken him on several tours of Central and North America. Over the years, he has played hundreds of venues and has opened shows for artists like Sting, Jethro Tull, Yes’ Jon Anderson and many more. As both a band member and session player, he has left his mark on many albums for indie artists as well as major labels like Sony Music and BMG in Latin America. In addition to his composing and performing contributions to the Costa Rican musical landscape, he has also produced and engineered several of the pop and rock albums that are now considered musical landmarks in that country’s history.
Recent developments include a collaboration with UK producer / remixer Lee Fletcher , who produced and remixed 'The Hill Of Holes' for Richie's new album. It features vocals by Lisa Fletcher and Warr guitar by Markus Reuter .
Also, Richie has collaborated with drum programming on 'Bajos Reversibles' , the new CD from long-time colleague and friend Chalo Trejos , as well as on three tracks for [halo] - 'Free-Da-Sonnet', 'Above My Eyes' and a new version of 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. [halo] is Lee Fletcher, Lisa Fletcher and Markus Reuter's experimental pop project.
Some notes on the songs above:
I played all the instruments here myself, more out of necessity and convenience than anything else. I love playing and writing with other people, but this one project is more personal and quirky. If I have an idea late at night, it's easier to just hop on the computer and record it right away before it floats away back into the ether. I just have a lousy memory that way.
Grind
The very first track I have written since releasing GRAS. It features a blistering Stick solo (literally - I got blisters on my fingers) and a bit of playful 'spy theme' guitars. The title comes from my own love/hate relationship with work - it can be a pain when there's too much, but it is worse when there is none. The grass is always greener when you're not the one mowing it, I guess.
Low To Ground (GRAS version)
The "guitar" and "bass" parts on this piece, including the solo, are actually played on a Chapman Stick . This is the first track that was written for the album, and it has gone through five or six versions, this being the latest one. It's also the basis for [halo]'s beautiful song, 'The Hill of Holes', which is also included in my album.
Caffeine
This is the very last track written for my album. I threw everything I could on it - bass lines with bass AND Stick, a Stick solo, a 'metal guitar' solo. It's called 'Caffeine' for obvious reasons - no pulling punches on this one. The longest track on the album, it took about 4 months and 5 incarnations to complete.
Down The Rabbit Hole
Another track featuring the Chapman Stick as the lead instrument - no guitar at all on this one. My Trey Gunn influence shows a lot here. The whole middle section is so far removed from the rest of the track that it's kind of like a tune inside a tune. Hence the 'Alice in Wonderland'-inspired title. I could have written two separate pieces, but I like that turn-on-a-dime quality - it's just more interesting to me.
UnSub
Wrote this a while ago, and I decided to pull it out of the trunk, dust it off and post it here. This one shows my heavy Belew influence. The title (short for Unidentified Subject) came from watching too much Criminal Minds
, the TV series about those witty FBI profilers. The piece is older than the series, and it didn't have a name, so it sounded like a good fit to me.
My band Neurotica 's album is out for sale, finally. This trio was founded in 1991 and recorded this album in 1998 - it only took 9 years for it to be released! We should have waited one more year and made it a 10th Anniversary release, but so much for that plan...

(Layout adapted from Mike Industries .)

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/10/2006
Band Website: richienieto.com
Band Members: Richie Nieto (Chapman Stick, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards, drum programming, miscellaneous noises, machine that goes 'ping').

Influences: King Crimson
Stewart Copeland
Mick Karn
Rush
Dalis Car
Cornelius
Adrian Belew
Robert Fripp
Trey Gunn
TU
BPM&M
Peter Gabriel
The Police
Liquid Tension Experiment
Devo
David Bowie
Manu Katche
Simon Phillips
Japan
Trent Reznor
Primus
Oysterhead
Josh Freese
Yes
Bill Bruford
Earthworks
Ozric Tentacles
Zachary Alford
The Mars Volta
Mr. Bungle
John Zorn
Fantomas
Marillion
Frank Zappa
Missing Persons
Propellerheads
David Arnold
Terry Bozzio
Living Color
Danny Elfman
Monty Python.

Other influences include:
Robert Rodriguez
Will Eisner
George Carlin
M.C. Escher
H.R. Giger
Jon Stewart
John Carmack
Steve Jobs
Jonathan Ive
Stewie Griffin
Andy Ihnatko
Parmenio Medina
Gary Larson
the Black Knight
J.K. Rowling
Jack Handey
Bill Plympton
Don Martin
Stephen King
and the guy who invented pizza.

Sounds Like: A bunch of silence with some weird music on top.

Record Label: Satellites Sound Post

Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

'GRAS' review in Progression Magazine

Hi all,Issue 54 of quarterly prog-rock magazine Progression will feature a review of 'Giant Robots and Sunsets'. The issue will hit newsstands in late July.I was told that GRAS made the cut with other...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:00:00 PST

GRIND - NEW TRACK!!

There is a brand spanking-new track on my player called 'Grind'. This is the very first track to be written since the release of my album, 'Giant Robots And Sunsets'.'Grind' is a free download for tho...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Sat, 09 Feb 2008 07:18:00 PST

Im on the Artist Spotlight @ The Prog Files.com

I was chosen for this month's Artist Spotlight article at The Prog Files's website. Hande Burdg wrote this cool piece. You can check it out here.Hope you like it too. Have a great Holiday season!...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Sun, 16 Dec 2007 08:37:00 PST

Album version of 'Low To Ground' on the music player

The previous version of LTG I had here was really long in the tooth, so I just replaced it with the version that comes in 'Giant Robots And Sunsets', which includes a Stick solo, a rerecorded bass lin...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Tue, 11 Dec 2007 09:31:00 PST

Giant Robots And Sunsets available from PayPlay

And the distributor list for 'GRAS' keeps growing! Now you can also buy individual tracks or the whole album from PayPlay at http://payplay.fm/richienietoYou can also check out the ministore at my mai...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:08:00 PST

GRAS now also available from the Apple iTunes Store!

A bit quicker than I expected, but I'm not complaining! ;-)The link is http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum? playListId=266480099Cheers!
Posted by Richie Nieto on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:52:00 PST

Giant Robots and Sunsets is OUT NOW!

At last!After 5 years, 3 house moves, 4 writing/recording set-ups, thousands of cups of Arabica coffee and more than a few Hawaiian pizzas, the new album is finally available for purchase.You can get ...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:36:00 PST

'GRAS' CDs are on their way to CDBaby

Well, it's a matter of days now. The first batch of CDs has been sent to CDBaby, and should arrive, be logged and stocked for sale very soon. The CDs look and sound very good. I'm particularly happy w...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:45:00 PST

Giant Robots And Sunsets - COMING SOON!

So finally the audio master and the artwork will be off to the manufacturing plant tomorrow morning. The album is called 'Giant Robots And Sunsets', and the title is based on an illustration I did, wh...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:24:00 PST

Mastering is done!

I just finished mastering the album and it sounds great. It's actually the first time I'm completely happy with the way one of my records sounds. I'm going over the artwork right now, which will be co...
Posted by Richie Nieto on Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:25:00 PST