Nicholas Hirst - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Nicholas was born in 1979, and grew up between Essex and Detroit. His mother took him to his first piano lessons when we was seven. He also started (and abandonded) playing classical guitar, took up the bass, and was taught to play drums by his father. He began writing songs when he was ten.

He moved to London when he was grown up and began playing the small clubs and bars around the acoustic circuit. Then he joined London band The Conway Story after meeting them on the city's fertile live scene and going into the studio as a guest keys player on their first recordings. He has been recording and touring with them ever since. He also plays with London ten-piece postrock orchestra Revere and emerging alt.folk singer/songwriter Kat Flint .

The songs on this site are all rough demos and were recorded in a flat near the river in London, apart from Sweet Angel which was recorded at 2am in Notting Hill after a bottle and a half of wine, and Home and Away, which was recorded by Joel Armsden of Earmusic above a pub in Chalk Farm while other people watched. Sometimes they're up, sometimes they're not. Nik Owens from The Conway Story helped with recording.

Nicholas also has a twin on iSound:

and a bunch more songs on Broadjam .

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/1/2006
Band Website: nicholashirst.com
Band Members: Nicholas Hirst (vocals, guitars, piano)
Influences: Ani diFranco, Paul Simon, Astrid Williamson, Billy Bragg, Radiohead, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Cormac McCarthy, Bill Viola, Mr Mister, Powers Irish Whiskey
Sounds Like: "The true magic is his voice and his tremendous musical ability ... will ground the pretentious and dumbfound the cool" - Soma Soma Scene . Apparently.
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Voting

No, no, nothing to do with politics.Well, a little to do with politics, maybe. But not in the pure, moral sense.Anyway. Diversions.A couple of my associates have been nominated for things - things for...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:33:00 PST

doing it for ourselves

short, but sweet: kristen hersh of throwing muses writes a brilliant blog entry/manifesto/blurb here about how to survive in the increasingly fractured, difficult place that is making music. it's here...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Thu, 13 Sep 2007 06:17:00 PST

Bill Stickers is guilty

They've banned all outdoor advertising in Sao Paulo: look. There's also an eerily beautiful flicker set devoted to the denuded landscape left behind here. Author Roberto Pompeu de Toledo writes t...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:35:00 PST

Scenes

Most of the time, a "scene" would be the last thing I'd want to attach myself to. I'm sure most of the people I know would say the same thing. I know Kat Flint has a healthy suspicion of anyone w...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:24:00 PST

4th best song in the world

i've just had an automatically generated email to tell me that, according to voters on broadjam.com, cinderella (by me) is the fourth best song in the world. well, fourth favourite. for now. ok, so th...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:08:00 PST

multicoloured living

i am uncharacteristically excited today owing to the purchase of a pair of multicoloured running shoes and a green cashmere scarf. these items are hardly what you'd call important or even particularly...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:31:00 PST

Adverfuckingtising

So a short, snappy and slightly angry blog, brought on by an unfortunate man whose name escapes me. He has a moustache. Beware moustachioed men with forgettable names. Whenever I add people it's becau...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:53:00 PST

Blog number two

Significantly titled, as it's all about numbers. This is kind of a little self-congratulatory pat on the back mixed with a thank you to everyone for helping me get to 100 friends and 1000 plays on the...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Thu, 15 Jun 2006 04:15:00 PST

New Boy

Chances are if you're reading this first blog, you've stumbled across this site in its first few bambi-like days of life. It's still staggering around the forest bumping into trees and narrowly avoidi...
Posted by Nicholas Hirst on Thu, 01 Jun 2006 08:10:00 PST