Nick talks about the 90's

I grew up in Surrey, North Dakota (just outside of Minot, North Dakota). Surrey
has: 800 people, 2 bars, a City Hall, a post office, a gas station (where I worked), a couple of churches and the school I graduated from (K-12th grade). Not a lot to do as you might imagine. It was a great town to grow up in. Nobody locked their doors and kids played together outside without fear. We had a great baseball team (State Champions!), a struggling football team and a decent basketball team. From the age of 5 years old I had wanted to own a guitar. I never did get that electric guitar at that time. After all it’s a helluva lot of money to spend on a 5 year old. I took some piano lessons with my miniature fingers when I was young but that was the extent of my “training” as a youngster. However, I was a huge fan of music. At five I was a huge fan of Prince, the Beatles (John Lennon especially), Joan Jett, Pat Benatar and whatever my parents would throw on the turntable. Sixth grade I had a pretty healthy dose of Gun’s n’ Roses going on the stereo. Then Nirvana hit when I was 12. I first saw them on Saturday Night Live and didn’t like what I heard. What’s this slop? Days later I became a HUGE fan. My friend, Mike, whom I had known for most of my life but didn’t hang with often, was also a big fan of Nirvana. Mike was the school band’s drummer and could blow you away with some “Wipe Out” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine.” He also owned a guitar. When I was 14 I would go over to his house after school and listen to him play his songs while our friend “Petie” played the drums. It blew my mind that you could turn a guitar up that loud and yell and scream and have a good time. I wanted in on that. One day, Mike asked if I wanted to go to a coffee shop called “Sweethearts” and see some of the bands that were playing. I had never seen live music beyond past generation acts (Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Huey Lewis and the News). That night my life literally changed. The bill included the Minot bands Wade, Abner and Mercy Seat. Not long after Mike became the drummer of Wade and I ended up spending the summer going to their band practices, hanging out and seeing their shows. Those guys turned me on to some great bands: Samiam, Knapsack, Archers of Loaf, Spoon, Lifter Puller and many others. In the summer of 1995 they traveled to MPLS to record their debut cassette (remember those?) at OBT Studio with a guy named Jon Tranberry (original High on Stress bass player). Later that fall the guys took me over to the local pawn shop in Minot where I bought my first guitar. I played it every day. I learned a few Nirvana songs from Mike and also from Joel (Wade guitarist). Learning other people’s songs never really kept my attention so I turned to writing my own almost immediately. My songs were never much to write home about at the time but they definitely got me through my teen angst years. Mike soon left Wade and we started a new band that included myself and “Petie” and a Loren. I played in the band for 6.5 years. Many of our early shows were played at the City Hall in Surrey. In fact, we practiced there one summer as well. Our imaginations outgrew our surroundings. Like many people in their late teens we wanted to see what else was out there. I wanted to see rock shows. I wanted to see the bands that I learned about. Two days after I turned 20 I moved to MPLS. A few years later I left my band and started High on Stress.

Next week, High on Stress will be kicking off our North Dakota “World Tour” that will take us to the Sidestreet Bar in Fargo on Friday, April 20th and Budget Music and Video in Minot at 2pm and Surrey City Hall at 7:30 PM in Surrey both on Saturday, April 21st. Surrey City Hall is a strange place to play a rock show but I can’t wait to return to the site of where my teenage dreams were hatched. I’m hoping to catch up with a lot of long lost friends. Come on out if you can!