September 2020 – Street Wannabes

September 1 2020

MIKE BORCHARDT OF NIHILOCEROS & TREADS

Hey Mike! What’s going on September 4th at EWEL with Nihiloceros? (w/ Safer, Nadia Kazmi and Hennessy)

Hey Jonny!! Its a show!! Remember those? It’s actually going to be our first live show as a full band in 6 months. Our last show back in early March was a shoulder-to-shoulder packed sweaty basement show at The Willow. If you would’ve told me that our next live show would be 6 months later and without an audience, I wouldn’t have believed you.

But Nadia Kazmi hit us up a couple weeks ago and asked us if we’d like to be part of this benefit show at EWEL (East Williamsburg Econolodge) to raise money for the Marsha P Johnson Institute. Safer and Hennessy were on board, and EWEL is one of our favorite DIY venues, so we were really excited to be a part of it. The show is going to be audience-less and filmed, and there’s also a livestream where they’re taking donations. It’s going to be a killer show and it’ll feel so good to play as a full band again.

Can you tell us how you were approached for the Footlight Kickstarter campaign to give guitar lessons? The kickstarter is finished (they met their goal yay) but can people still get lessons from you?

We have been long-time supporters and patrons of the Footlight. We’ve considered the owners and the staff to be friends of ours for several years, and now we are their neighbors as well. We had been popping over to Footlight a lot when the pandemic first hit when they were still doing sidewalk drinks-to-go. We had been participating and performed in their livestream show format as well which also worked to raise money to pay their staff and artists. Eventually they pivoted from that to focus more time developing their FLTV virtual stage, which as you know is a longer term model for them to continue allowing a creative space for artists. We love just how deeply committed they they are to that pursuit, so when Laura and Kendra hit me up about participating in the Kickstarter, I was more than happy to help in any way I could.

We collaborated together on the idea of my giving a guitar lesson. I’ve given a few rudimentary lessons in the past here and there. This was fun though because it sort of evolved into a sort of songwriting lesson concept as well. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but I’m super happy they hit their kickstarter goal.

What’s new with Nihiloceros?

We have tried to stay pretty active in a number ways throughout the pandemic, but it feels like we are now entering into a new phase. We are just starting to get back into full band activity. We recently started band practices again, which was the first time we’d all been together in the same room since March.

I recently moved into Alex’s (Hoffman, bass) new house and we rent his upstairs floor. So Alex and I have been finishing work on the new Nihiloceros record together at home. We had originally intended to release it in July but we’ve now delayed that until sometime early next year. Since being a live band is such an important piece of our identity, we wanted to wait until we could properly tour or at least play out on its release locally. “Self Destroy” is a concept album that we are really excited about discussing more very soon, and we have some awesome guest musicians on the record like Stephanie Gunther of Desert Sharks and Gillian Visco of shadow monster.

I had also separately been writing some stuff for a few quarantine benefit compilations (Shred City, Dim Things, NYC Musicians for NYC), as well as collaborating with Bands do Bk and the New York Historical Society on a few upcoming projects of which I’m so honored to have been a part.

German (Sent, drums) has spent a lot of his Summer rehabbing his parents house in New Jersey and bouncing back and forth between there and his Bushwick apartment. Similarly, Alex has dedicated most of his free time this year to renovating the the entire inside of our house before he and his wife, Amanda, have their first baby, who is due to be born any day now! We have all been mostly lucky enough to keep our jobs. I’ve been commuting into the city everyday throughout the entire pandemic and shutdown, as you know. Alex, Amanda, and my wife Sarah all work from home. So to make everything even more complicated back at the house amid finishing a record, home renovations, working jobs, and a pregnancy amid a global pandemic, we’ve been trying our best to social distance the upstairs people from the downstairs people as much as possible at least until the baby is born.

But we recently started limited full band practices again because we have that EWEL show coming up this Friday night, a live vinyl recording in a couple weeks, and few other things on the horizon we are pretty pumped about. We are just dipping our toe back into the water. It’ll be quite a while before things are back to normal. Our biggest focus at the moment is putting the finishing touches on the new Nihiloceros record “Self Destroy” and then working on more new material. If all goes as planned; we’ll be releasing two albums in 2021.

How have you been doing without live shows and what would you say has really helped you during these times?

I think you know I tend to run way too hard, so honestly it’s been a really nice break. Don’t get me wrong, I desperately miss shows, and I feel incomplete when I’m not performing, but I have to admit it’s been a much needed reset. Often when I get too busy and tunnel-focused, I can lose healthy perspective. Especially in these times, politically, socially, and mentally it’s important pull back and see how we fit into the human component of our lives. I take a lot of long walks to clear my head and organize my thoughts. I’ve learned to slow down not sweat the details quite so much. When I’m not so obsessed with the next stop of my destination, I actually come to appreciate the journey little more. I’m still extremely goal oriented and I have a very specific vision and action plan for our band. But I’ve been a little kinder to myself when we don’t meet self-imposed deadlines, which in turn makes me a little kinder to those around me. Additionally, it’s been great getting to spend a lot of time with Sarah. She’s literally the coolest person ever, and we normally don’t get to share as much time as we’d like.

Can you tell us about the interview/treporting you did for Blonde Records Music News team powered by Left Bank Magazine (youtube)?

That was a lot of fun. Blonde Records Music News is a weekly music news show with an MTV News vibe, and Rebecca Sansom who runs that is just so chill and cool. She’d been asking me to do a news segment for awhile and I’d been stalling her out because I’d been busy. But we both thought it was important to get the word out about NIVA and #saveourstages with the upcoming Cares Act legislation and Bring Music Home project all rolling out in the sane week. I had been advocating in that space already, so that’s how that all came to be. I also promised her that I’d come back on periodically in the future and be a part-time correspondent. The whole team over there is just killer and we’ve worked with Sam Sumpter (Bands do BK) and Kristyn Potter (Left Bank Magazine) on previous projects before. So definitely stay tuned for a lot more cool stuff from Blonde Records and Left Bank Magazine.

You always had a reputation of being at 2-4 shows in one night or going to a lot of shows during the week. Does that mean you’re on 2-4 zoom performances and how do you replicate that rush of going to so many shows while taking photos?

(Chuckles) When the pandemic first hit, absolutely. I think along with everyone else early on, we were over-saturating the market with live-streams, just looking for ways to express ourselves and connect with each other during the lockdown. It was a pursuit to gravitate to something that felt normal, even though nothing about it was normal. At the same time many people had lost their jobs or were now working from home, our entire music scene also vanished in an instant. So I think a combination of panic and a lot more free time funneled us all onto Instagram live as a reactionary way to fill that void. But it simply became way too much and burned itself out rather quickly. I know I was performing at least weekly myself, and people were live-streaming all day and all night. I would have to sneak into the bathroom at work to try and catch part of someone’s stream. Or I’d be making dinner with Sarah and have to stop what we were doing to try and catch a piece of a Twitch feed. It was a constant 24 hr stream cycle running across too many platforms and it was just too much. And people eventually lost interest.

It did, however, provide an interesting arena for some people to get particularly creative and attempt to stand out amongst the cluttered medium. Colatura and Desert Sharks both used some smoke-and-mirrors technology tricks to perform live together while in totally separate places, and those shows actually sounded the closest to real live performances for the first time since all the stages shutdown. Kissed by an Animal and Ghost Funk Orchestra each made some really cool and elaborate remote quarantine videos that are pretty frikin dope. Gillian (Visco, shadow monster) and I started the #TagNSplit series which was a weekly splitscreen hangout performance and game of tag that made its way around the Brooklyn scene which was fun for awhile. And Manny Nomikos with his Ilithios project, took the whole live-stream performance art medium to a whole new level of awesome. He was the first act to incorporate multiple cameras, a mixture both of live and pre-recorded instruments, and full-on light show and visual projections. While the rest of us we talking into our phones and asking viewers if our acoustic guitar or keyboard sounded ok, Ilithios was putting on a goddamned show!!

But there was an abrupt shift of focus after George Floyd. That week changed everything. The push for true social justice and the amplification of the #BLM movement became a real priority in the community. All the live-streaming suddenly felt rather trite and silly, and the spotlight turned to something far more important. It was awesome to see so many people radicalized get out into the streets to speak up and speak out for change. Collectively it was a tipping point calling for justice and human rights long past due. White people began to explore where we had fallen short in the past and recognizing the inequities and blindspots created by our privilege and social comforts. We finally started having the uncomfortable conversations, educating ourselves and connecting some of the dots. It’s been a really cool and incredibly powerful cultural shift and I hope it stays in the forefront of conversation and a real part of our new normal moving forward.

Wow a month left for people to order their very own personalized Nihiloceros live recording cut directly to vinyl specifically recorded for them! 100% of your proceeds are going to theThe Marsha P. Johnson Institute and we get a 1-of-a-kind 7 inch! How did you come up with this idea?

Leesta Vall is a record label and recording studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They actually hit us up awhile back about the idea, and we were originally scheduled to do this in April. But then after Covid hit, everything was postponed. They’ve recently reopened the studio and we are going in to record Sept 19.

So each recording is different, do you decide on the songs beforehand or consider who it’s for?

There’s a link for preorder, and we gave a list of Nihiloceros songs that people can choose from. The morning we go in to record, we find out each person’s order and what song they chose. And then we bang them out one by one until we’ve finished everyone’s orders. Each record is cut live directly to vinyl as a unique performance with a personalized message, and their copy is the only one ever made. At the end of the session, each individual record is mailed out to be delivered.

What’s the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and how did you choose it? (MPJ protects the human rights of Black transgender people)

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people. Following tragic death of Marsha P. Johnson in 1992, it began as a community response to the murders of Black trans women and women of color and how that is tied to exclusion from social justice issues, namely racial, gender, and reproductive justice, as well as gun violence.

We are careful to research every organization to which we contribute and support as a band. We already knew that the MPJI was a great org that does important social justice work in NYC and we’ve supported them in the past. Additionally we had just signed on to do the EWEL benefit show for MPJI just a couple weeks before, so donating the vinyl proceeds felt like a good way to double down support for a great organization that’s doing crucial work right now.

Have you/ Nihiloceros ever done this type of personal recording to LP before?

Never. It’s a really cool idea and we’re really excited about it.

I see you still support venues and the community on a regular basis, what are some spots you enjoy in and out of the city?

Well this has nothing to do with music or the community, but I just read that Coney Island is on the brink of financial ruin due the losses this season because of the pandemic. Coney Island is probably my favorite spot in all of NYC. It’s like stepping through warp of magic and whimsy and I could disappear down there forever. It would break my heart and the soul of this city to lose it. I spent the last 6 years living in Sunset Park, Brooklyn so a lot of my places of zen exist way down there in southern Brooklyn.

Additionally, I really miss theater and not just big Broadway. All the off-Broadway and downtown theater houses were regular haunts of ours and just amazing venue for the local arts. Man, I do miss going to Lincoln Center too. My ideal NYC night is dinner and a play in the city with Sarah. Some of my favorite memories are those nights. Maybe it’s because I’m in music, but I consider theater to be one of the most authentic New York City experiences. We have a lot of friends who work in theater and are struggling just like the music industry.

We did just recently move to the Glendale/Ridgewood area right on the Brooklyn/Queens border shortly before the NYC shutdown, so for obvious reasons have been spending most of my time and my money the last several months in the immediate vicinity of Nihiloceros Castle. There’s a lot of great neighborhood joints we’ve been making a point to support around here. A lot of the thrift stores in the area like Gotham were perfect spots for picking up some quirky and unique odds and ends for our new home. While in Kathmandu, Zenith Thai, and Fajita Sunrise are offhand some of our favorite authentic food spots that do outdoor dining in the hood. We’ll often grab a cool refreshing juice from Kings Juice Bar on a hot Summer day or walk over to Cafe Mocca for a coffee drink. My wife works from home right now, so often times her lunch break is an iced coffee at Cafe Mocca.

Normally touring and traveling are a big part of our lives. But this Summer, anywhere we could get out of the city for a few days safely, away from people, near some water and grass where we could run and play with our dogs was absolute heaven.

Do you ever play solo or have any plans to play or put out an album?

I do play solo from time to time. Usually a few times a year, I’ll do a few solo acoustic performances for songwriters salons and small festival settings or for live radio. It’s a great exercise for me because it breaks me out of my comfort zone, and helps me work out kinks on new songs I’m writing for the band. I actually just recently performed solo again on Radio Free Brooklyn’s Brooklyn Beat a couple weeks ago, and all the Nihiloceros livestreams all throughout quarantine have been just me playing solo. So I guess I’ve played solo more in 2020 than any other time in my life. But I’d have to say the 3 quarantine songs I released this Spring and Summer are the closest thing you’ll ever get to a solo release from me.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’m from Chicago. My wife is the coolest thing about me. I’m the least talented member of Nihiloceros. Most of my life is an open book by design. I do however, keep a very small part of me private, and only allow a very select group of people to know my secrets.

What’s up with Treads and how is it trying to stay connected as a band during these times?

Treads was actually going through some transitions, and we were playing shows with a temporary bass player right before the pandemic. Our buddy Chris Nunez was filling in for our last few shows, and he moved back to Texas right before lockdown. Madge and I talk pretty regularly but haven’t had a chance to hang out in what seems like ages. She moved uptown and got a new job that’s kept her pretty busy the last few months. Glenn and I hang out pretty regularly all things considered. Between catching Covid and breaking bones, and piles of misadventures and random other random havoc that only happens to Glenn Gentzke, he definitely knows how to keep life interesting. He and Madge have also hung out a little bit. Glenn’s in the East Village so geographically he lives in between us. We know it’s important that we make an effort to stay connected even though we aren’t playing music right now, since like any good band, we are friends first. Treads will also be recording some new stuff via The Footlight’s virtual stage. That will be the first time we’ve played as a band since March, so that’s exciting. And we’re also all getting together for Glenn’s birthday in a couple weeks which I’m really looking forward to.

How do you think people can support musicians without live shows?

I think the biggest thing we can do for musicians now is listen and share their music. Buy their merch. Bandcamp has been waiving their fees one day every month, so artists get 100% of their music and merch sales that day. Many bands are taking advantage of that to in turn raise money to support various causes for the community and for social justice organizations. It’s a really cool time right now where supporting bands doubles as supporting a lot of causes that are more important right now than ever.

and how about supporting venues?

Venues obviously are really struggling right now. They were the first to close when the pandemic hit, and they’ll be the last to reopen. The average NYC venue has $50,000 in monthly expenses, and are currently making zero revenue. NIVA (National Independent Venues Association)// NYIVA (New York Independent Venues Association) launched #saveourstages, and the Restart Act is working toward legislation and federal funding to help venues stay afloat. Otherwise 90% of them will likely close their doors forever before the year is even out. Please check out the NIVA site saveourstages.com and get involved in any way you can.

Alternatively, many of our favorite venues have been getting really creative to generate some revenue and help pay their staff costs. Our Wicked Lady has been doing killer food and drinks (from Seasoned Brooklyn and Dirty Bird Scoops) on their rooftop and sidewalk. TV Eye has been doing the same thing directly from their very own bar and delicious kitchen served out on the patio. Alphaville and The Broadway have been schleping drinks and food while selling merch from local bands so you can help out both the venue and bands at the same time. As I mentioned earlier, The Footlight quit the sidewalk drinks racket to focus their resources on their new virtual platform. But no matter what your favorite spot, many of them have launched Kickstarters and livestream events to help keep the lights on and their staff paid. So check them all out and check out ways to get involved with NIVA and #saveourstages because these spaces have all done so much for us and our artistic communities over the years and now they need our help.

Does Nihiloceros have any merch?

We sold out of all our for-sale merch. A lot of people have been asking me for T-shirts. We sold out late last year, but we’ll have a run of new t-shirts and designs when we release the new record. Alex is also starting to make custom Nihiloceros guitar pedals that will be for sale. German and I are working on Nihiloceros soaps and Nihiloceros chia pets too which are gonna be super fun. We still have stickers and pins though which are free, so if you want some of those then n the meantime, just hit us up.

Nihiloceros has experience performing on BTR, which that type of in front of a camera is the norm. How was it playing at BTR and do you think it’s similar to zoom/other filmed performances (without a crowd)?

BTR was an absolute blast!! We had a lot of fun doing their live session and we look forward to going back in when the new record comes out. It’s been a little while since we did BTR. The day we did those sessions was the day before we left for a little tour, and I just remember just closing my eyes and imagining we were playing to a crowd. But at the same time, we were very aware that it was being taped and filmed, so was also thinking “ok don’t forget to look cool” but also “oh shit, don’t forget to sound good”(laughs). It was a lot of fun and their studio sounds soooo good. I know Alex wants us to record a Nihiloceros record there someday.

Livestream during the quarantine, however, was nothing like that. Mostly because it was just me, an acoustic guitar, and my phone or laptop. And that’s not my ideal situation to perform at all. Though it was a really great way to connect with people feel like a human amidst the shutdown.

You’ll have to re-ask me this question after the EWEL show on Friday. That’s going to be our first show back as a full band with no audience in the room. I’ll probably just close my eyes and pretend there’s a crowd like I did at BTR so that it doesn’t feel so weird.

If Nihiloceros could tour anywhere in the world (no pandemic) where would it?

Well we’ve done the United States and Canada, and it’s always felt that the next logical place that we could feasibly pull off would be Europe. We’ve had a lot of friends tour UK, Italy, and Germany. We’ve been to Europe a bunch and we have a lot of friends over there. But last time we toured Canada, our friends in Pseudo told us how to successfully book an extensive tour in Korea and Japan and how much they love North American punk bands over there, so if we ever come up with the time and the money, we are definitely gonna have to make that happen. I’d also be super down to do an Australian run like TOP Nachos did last year.

But my official answer for this question for today is going to be Egypt. Namely because I was supposed to go to Egypt and Jordan twice this year, but 2020 had different plans. I don’t even know what the rock scene is like over there, but that whole region gave birth to ancient human civilization and I’m pretty sure we could get ourselves into some great adventures.

How important is travelling/exploring to you?

Very important. I’ve been fortunate enough to have grown up in Chicago, and lived in Los Angeles and New York City. Music has taken me back and forth across the country everywhere in between. We’ve played cool big cities and we’ve played little towns, and we’ve been blessed to meet some of the most interesting people in some of the strangest corners of small town America. Music has taken me across Canada and we’ve had some of our favorite shows and best times as a band while touring up there. Playing shows on tour is awesome. Driving between towns on tour sucks. But exploring and having conversations and getting to know the individual people in these communities is the coolest part. We like to walk and wander and check out the local record stores and the coffee shops and the different venues that make up their daily stories. I love checking out different gas stations and various malls around the country. We continue to be inspired by the differences and the similarities that that make up the fabric of humanity.

Sarah and I are big travelers too. We moved to New York because Chicago became too small for us. And we like to travel the world because life within the United States often feels limiting as well. There’s so much vast history and deep culture in Europe and Asia and just all over that I want to see and touch. I have a profound interest in the people who lived and walked and died long before us on the other side of this funny blue planet, and a deep respect for the wide spectrum of cultures.

And if you think about it, humanity and Earth and all of it are just a blip in the entirely of space and time. Imagine just how small everything you can possibly even know really is when you compare it to exploring limitless expanses of the universe. I’ve recently been writing a lot about our human perspective, and cosmic connections and relative impacts to each other and our universe. I’m constantly intrigued how that all ties into our reality and our legacy as individuals and as a species. I’m also extremely frightened by how insignificant and irrelevant that maybe makes me. When I think about how small we truly are, I feel this immediate need to encompass and experience as much as possible. I start to get super weird when I start musing about what history and future even means in the face of an ever-fleeting present. We are all constantly moving forward trying to hold on to a fixed moment in time long enough to appreciate and understand its significance. Man, I can’t wait to go to Egypt or outer space!! 2021 is gonna be awesome.

Can you ask yourself a question and answer it?

What new music are you listening to right now?

There’s a lot of amazing music that just came out this past week that I’m all about right now. I’d been waiting patiently all Summer for the new Oceanator record “Things I Never Said” to drop. It just came out last week and it’s beautiful. The new No Swoon is also epically gorgeous soundscapes. One of my favorite punk bands, Nevva, just put out their first record “Fer Sher” and it’s absolutely sick! “Just Look at That Sky” the new albums by Ganser and The Cell Phones are both heavy in my rotation because it makes me feel connected to Chicago, and I’ve been particularly homesick during this pandemic. Also have you heard Climates’ cover of the Daria theme song? That’s a really cut right now for a lot of reasons. I’m just really excited for when I can hear all these bands live again.

Was this the longest interview you’ve ever done?

Yes. Yes it was. And thanks for asking such unique questions. As someone who likes to talk, I appreciate you taking the time.

Thoughts/feelings or words?

Links:

We are the only Nihiloceros on the internet

@nihiloceros on everything

Direct-To-Vinyl Live Session Preorder: Nihiloceros