About Jonathan Nicholson:

By Julia Lipscomb

I caught up with finger-style guitarist Jonathan Nicholson at Leonardo’s Coffee and hereby invite you to eavesdrop on our conversation. For this interview, I also invited Mack Rife of indie trio Isenheart. Mack and I first heard Jonathan at a Caterina show last November and we were hooked and awestruck from the moment Jonathan played his first note and the candlelit evening at the fine winery shifted to this powerful atmosphere of artistic ambience that inspired us to either play music or write.

JULIA LIPSCOMB: Jonathan, who would be your musical heroes?

JONATHAN NICHOLSON: The Cure is a big one. That was one of the reasons I started playing music, was the Cure, Depeche Mode, some piano music, not really any guitar ... But really the Cure was kind of the thing that really made me want to play music. It’s so expressive and emotional and beautiful that I wanted to do that, just in a different way.

MACK RIFE: Did you start out with a guitar?

JN: Yeah! Well, I actually started out with this really cheesy Casio keyboard, and I was trying to learn Cure songs and video game music. I was teaching myself to play piano by Nintendo songs and the Cure. A couple friends of mine had picked up the guitar, and for some reason, I picked up an acoustic, and I haven’t touched another instrument since because I fell in love with it, and I can’t stop playing it.

JL: So what do you think of the Spokane music scene?

JN: I love it; it’s amazing! And I’m really fortunate because people from all over will send me demos asking what I think, and by far, I always come back to, ‘It’s cool, but you need to listen to this guy in Spokane or this band from Spokane,’ because we have such a diverse musical scene going on. I’d do some touring, and I’d go over to Seattle and do some shows over there, and I’ll meet some great people and some amazing musicians, but I’d say note-for-note Spokane has its own unique, great thing going on. There are great musicians everywhere, but consistently, there’s so much quality and emotional stuff and really honest music coming out of here. I think there’s a “Spokane Sound.”

JL: Do you feel you’ve achieved your ideal tone and sound, or do you want to keep evolving?

JN: Definitely keep evolving. I’m happier now than I was a year ago, and then I was happier before that, but I still have a long way to go. I hope I’m never satisfied actually. I really hope that there’s always something to strive for, and I think I could never do everything that I want to do. I love the journey.”