Caleb Nichols joins KRS + releases EP
What better way to close out a holiday week than with the news of poet and songwriter, Caleb Nichols, joining the Kill Rock Stars crew. Caleb (he/they) is from San Luis Obispo, CA. Having spent time recording and touring with several bands in the 2000's and 2010's, Caleb took a break after 2012, got Master's Degrees in Library Science and English Lit, and started writing poetry. His chapbook Teems///\\\Recedes (Kelp Books, 2021) was called "a gorgeous abundance" by acclaimed poet Chen Chen, and his writing has been published by dozens of print and online journals. Caleb is currently working on a PhD in Creative Writing at Bangor University in Wales, runs the SLO Book Bike (a queer owned pop-up bookshop on a bike!) and is busy getting his KRS full-length debut ready for release in 2022.
We don't have to wait for 2022 to hear what's in store - Caleb's EP, Clarion, is out now. It's a four-track collection, including the recently released Tele Novella cover.
-> The title track is accompanied by a music video. Watch it here.
Caleb says,
We started off just wanting to make a well-lit, simple performance video. I was very focused on trying to match the lighting of the video to a photo shoot we had done that ended up being used as the image for our KRS 30th Anniversary cover of Tele Novella’s “Words That Stay”. But then the idea evolved into having a bit more fun, with multiple Caleb’s all performing together in different outfits. It felt a bit apropos in terms of how the song originally was written and demoed— in the middle of the pandemic, during lock down, just recording alone in a bedroom— all these Caleb’s singing and playing guitar together in a virtual space.
The video is also a nod to Paul McCartney’s video for “Coming Up” - one of my favorite McCartney solo songs, shared with me by my musical twin Joshua Barnhart, who also sings on this track. We noticed, during the editing, that the colors of the backdrop were also a bit reminiscent of the Beatles “Get Back” sessions at Twickenham. Not an intentional choice, but probably a subconscious one.