The rock 'n' roll hometown hero known
as Nick Higgins has released his debut collection of original songs,
titled, “No Laughing Matter.” The record contains eleven new
tracks for an approximate total of 43 minutes' worth of high-quality
rock music by Higgins, himself. The record is ostensibly an upbeat,
immediately enjoyable album with positive overtones and a continuous,
catchy groove, but its title bespeaks a more serious intent. It is
also a powerful and ambitious charity endeavor on the part of Higgins
to raise money and awareness about illicit sex trafficking in the
burgeoning black market of human slavery.
In spite of this weighty subject matter
– which by no means is the only theme of the record, it being
mainly an album of praise songs and material related to the Christian
Bible – Higgins manages to make an incredibly lighthearted and
delightful set. His youthful and jubilant sense of humor runs rampant
throughout the tracks and can easily be observed at any random moment
throughout the album. He does not stoop to melodrama, and neither
does he take himself too seriously. In fact, the only topics Higgins
seems to take seriously at all are his Lord the Christian God, and
his personal crusade against slavery, yet even in these his
earnestness and clever songwriting allow him to have an awful lot of
fun doing so.
He names as main artistic influences
the likes of Foo Fighters, Weezer, Lenny Kravitz, and Captain Geech &
The Shrimp Shack Shooters, all of whom exhibit elements to be found
in his own music, particularly the pop style of song composition and
certain similar guitar tones.
Regarding his mission, he writes in his
own likeable, personable voice, “This album is 100% to raise money
and awareness about human sex trafficking. I had often heard about
human trafficking, but didn’t think much about it until I saw the
movie 'Taken.' I thought, 'There is no way that stuff is really going
on, right?' After doing some research I found that 27 million people
are currently under forced slavery right now. I wanted to do
something. I do not 'possess a special set of skills' like Liam
Neeson’s character in the movie, and I can’t single-handedly take
down a trafficking ring. I’m a horrible shot.
But, I had a bunch of church songs I
had been planning to record, and decided to record this album and
give all the proceeds to an organization that fights human sex
trafficking.”
The actual production of the record is
surprising to learn about, also, when one considers the high quality
of the the finished product.
“I played all the instruments on this
album and recorded just about everything in the morning hours between
6-8am. It was a sacrifice, but well worth it.”
In summing up his aims with “No
Laughing Matter,” Higgins proclaims in his absolutely serious, yet
characteristically jovial way, “Something must be done to fight
this great injustice!”
“No Laughing Matter” by Nick
Higgins is available online worldwide beginning spring 2013.
-S. McCauley
Staff Press Release Writer
MondoTunes
The LP “No Laughing Matter”
is distributed globally by MondoTunes (www.MondoTunes.com)
and is available at iTunes for convenient purchase and download
MondoTunes
(www.mondotunes.com)
supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides
upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout
artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50
retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees,
MondoTunes reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100
world regions without any monthly or yearly fees.
ARTIST CONTACT INFO:
eMail -
nick.c.higgins@gmail.com
website -
Facebook.com/NickHigginsMusic
No comments:
Post a Comment