Erik Shicotte is set to release his new EP – Miss’ry Pacific – on the 16th July through Shooter Jenning’s label Black Country Rock Media. Pre-save the project here.
02:29
Good morning, Erik. It’s the final countdown for Miss’ry Pacific – how excited you to release this and get it out into the world?
I am pretty damn excited, if I do say so myself. It’s been a long time coming, you know, making my own music happen.
Can you talk a bit about the journey to the record’s release? When was it recorded and how long have you had the songs for?
I think the oldest song I wrote about four years ago, for a while last summer we started the process of actually recording it in the middle of the COVID craziness and I was working across the country at the time. We were sending files from the West coast down to Nashville and it’s very interesting to piecemeal this thing together.
It’s been a long journey to getting music out there – it’s like putting your whole life into a record. How difficult was it to choose the songs and choose the songs to shape out this EP?Â
It all started with a couple of tunes that my manager wanted to re-record because I had done a very stripped down recording of two of the songs on the record. On my first real effort – which was just me and my buddy in his living room recording two of those songs that she wanted to hear done with a full band. We were like, ‘Alright, let’s re record these’ and then there was another one I had written at the time. She’s like, ‘Oh, we should do that one too’. So, we started recording all those notes and realised we’re basically making a record.
The heritage of outlaw country comes through completely in your music. I feel like there is a movement back toward that more traditional sound, is that style something that you’ve grown up loving? I guess who’s inspired you both traditionally, and now contemporaneously?
Well, my parents raised me on Patsy Cline and The Weavers and that kind of music – they were children of the late 50s. So, I heard a lot of Fleetwood Mac too. I was shaped by drives going up to up North and into Wisconsin, and all those drives, I always remember because my dad would play Johnny Cash songs. We’d have like 20 hours worth of this stuff to listen to all that stuff. In high school, I started getting into Delta Blues and actual outlaw country and really finding out what all of those genres were about – now all of that comes full circle and that stuff still drives and inspires me.
One of the songs I really want to talk to you about – which I felt brought back that nostalgia – is ‘Niners’ that has that major storytelling element. Can you talk a little bit about writing that song and what it means to you?
Yeah, I was stuck in the middle of Wyoming, building a tower and one of my co-workers made some less than well-advised decisions out there and that song is pretty much about him – his antics as we all brave the winter in Wyoming and built a steel tower together. It’s all about the time we spent out there.
That authentic and real voice really comes through in your music. Is that something that’s always been important to you and your music – to have that authentic element?
Absolutely, I played in a cover band for a lot of years and we always tried to write and come up with our own stuff – part of it was the fact that we were all very different musicians, so we never could get a coherent sound, but my writing was always unsuitable for the the poppy riffs that they wanted to play. I’ve always found it very important to stay true to. It’s very difficult for me to write about things I haven’t felt or seen or listened to, or believed in.
I guess that is one of the things that they say – write what you know, I think that’s where you get the most relatable music in talking about things that you know. Then other people can simply read themselves into that.
That’s the hope. I mean I can’t really write for anybody but myself, but the goal is that it does resonate with someone and that could be one person or 100.
In terms of this project, what do you hope people take away from it?
Tough question. I really hope that they come away with something that either they really enjoyed listening to it from a purely oral perspective. If the songs do go deeper for them, I would love to just have a song that someone plays and adds to their favourites and plays on repeat, because I do that with songs that really get to me. There’s been times where I’ve listened to the same Dire Straits song for like three hours, in a solid chunk, while I’m driving. For lack of a better term, it screws me up emotionally, I have to just keep listening to figure out what that emotion means. If one of those songs could do that for someone that would be the highest honour.
I guess my final question was if you’ve been able to get out touring yet?
We have not been able to play for very COVID related reasons. We’re looking forward to getting into it and I think sometime around September, we’re actually gonna be able to do that.
Well, I’m excited for this project to be out. I think it’s just the sound that I just love the tradition of it, and it just brings you back to another era. Congratulations and I hope you have a great rest of your day.
Thank you and thank you for your time.
