.png)
Nick Normal's street-level crunch rock has long won over the hearts and ears of some of punk's greatest tastemakers, but the recording project of Portland's Nik Barnaby is just getting started. His latest single "Mixed Lettuces 1&2" came out in the spring, part of a forthcoming album that is gestating as we speak. Barnaby's work finds most of its development across live performances, which makes catching him for an interview following his performance at U3 Fest a fitting circumstance. We talked about local malls, performing in a horror movie, and the unexpected pleasures of overbooking.
I have a question about your stage name. 'Cause when I was looking you up, what came up was an old Sesame Street sketch. Is that where it came from?
Nik Barnaby: Yes. My brother had a kid in 2014? 2015? My niece was born and he was showing her a lot of old Sesame Street skits and he sent that to me and was like, dude, this is the ultimate punk name! And I was like, holy shit, that's a great fucking name. And I kept it on the back burner for a few years until I finally felt comfortable being like, here's my solo band, under my name, less than my name, because it's cool. Yeah, I took it straight from that Sesame Street skit. And in my very first tape, I sampled that skit.
You just started an East Coast Tour yesterday? Is there anything that you're looking forward to? Anywhere?
I'm looking forward to it all. North Carolina should be cool. I've never been. Baltimore was cool last night. Cleveland rocks, we're playing in a bowling alley called Maple Lanes. It should be cool.
Speaking of unconventional locations, I was watching a video of your band playing in the mall. Was that approved by security or was it a guerrilla operation?
Absolutely not [approved]. We assembled a team, first, my friend had the idea to do it, and then he went and scouted locations in the mall. Lloyd Center Mall is pretty dead, and he went and tested a lot of outlets. We found a very good, pretty tucked away corner by the Payless Shoes. We made a plan to just get as many friends as we could to load all of the gear. And we had a big team and set up really quick and played. Security didn't even care, they encouraged it too. We planned for a really short set, but we could have played a whole set if we wanted to. Lloyd Center Mall is kind of doing well right now. They’ve got more indie businesses. There's a record store in there right now. All kinds of cool shit. We also have the ice rink in the middle and that's where Tonya Harding trained up back in the day. It's a cool mall. It's really handsome in there too. I wish more small businesses would take over the space cause it's at least pretty to be in there. It's also a skate spot, people have been skating inside which is cool. There are so many forgotten little areas.
You just played over a week straight of shows in Portland. What was that like doing a marathon?
I'm in like four bands, so a lot of those shows were different projects. But a lot of them I've been very busy and a lot of those shows I agreed to and then didn't realize the date until it came close to it. My wife and I were camping and my friend that we were camping with was like, Hey man, you're playing like six shows in a row. And I was like no I'm not. And he's no. You're playing six shows straight. And I was like, holy shit. But yeah. It was just like, fuck it.
Let's go. Like, why not? But it went well. And every show was fun. Portland is a small city when I first started out I used to play shows every week, almost, and that was way over-saturated.
I was pretty shocked to find you don't have an LP out yet 'cause I feel like I've been listening to you forever. Is it coming soon?
I'm almost done with it. I think. It's coming. I'm working on it. It's hard. It's been really hard for me to make time to do it. Which sucks. And, I keep distracting myself, but it's 75% there. I just got to finish tracking a couple songs and then, I'm not sure who's gonna put it out or what we're gonna do with it.
Overall has the process been fulfilling or stressful?
It's hard to explain. It's gotten to this point where it's just, dude, come on, finish it. And I keep sabotaging myself into distraction and procrastination and it's weird. It went from I used to record everything by myself on the four-track and then we went to the studio for this and my friend Vin has a really nice eight-track quarter-inch machine that sounded really good and it's really hard for me alone to match that style. And recording alone is not the same as it used to be for me. Everything is a little bit more complicated. I think I've just gotten more jaded and more hard on myself as the years have gone by.
Let's talk about the positives because you do have something out from that album. What made you decide "Mixed Lettuces 1&2" was ready to share with the world?
That's our oldest unreleased track, and I felt like it was the most appropriate to release first. And basically just had a marathon mixing session to get it ready on time for a couple tours that we were doing this year.
And you released it as a limited cassingle. What else is on there?
The B-side to the tape is a live recording from 2020, right before lockdown. It's with our old lineup. And then two covers that I recorded during the pandemic era. It's got a Germs cover and a Poison Idea cover as well.
Another weird find was that I saw you worked on a horror movie. Could you tell me what it was like? Your song is the title of the movie!
The movie's called I Need You Dead, and my friend [Rocko Zevenbergen] made it, and he asked me to make the title track for it, and it had some riffs lying around, and I'd thrown it together, and made a song for him. We recorded it in the same style we recorded Windows Paint and Shut, which is with my friend Rob on his eight-track. We played in the movie. We have the scene, we have the house show basement scene.
And I saw Lloyd Kaufman is involved.
Yeah, Lloyd Kaufman's in it. Carson [Brom] kills Lloyd. He's a scary doctor.
Some of the songs you play live are things I have not heard yet?
Most of it is the new record, and a lot of people in Portland have been hearing those songs for years. We've been playing the same set for a couple years now, almost. Plus or minus a couple covers and old songs. I always feel like it's okay to keep playing it because most people on the planet have not heard those songs yet. I hate to disappoint because we have such a big catalog of songs and we don't play half of the things that people are expecting to hear.
What's next for Nick Normal?
Finishing the record and this tour with Guitar.
Do you have any parting words for our audience?
You're your own worst critic. But you could be your own best fan, and you should lean towards that.
Mixed Lettuces 1&2 is out now on Bummer Tapes.