We are thrilled to bring another member of the Sleeping Souls into the Music Meets Travel mix today. Nigel Powell is not only the jaw-dropping percussionist for the brilliant band with Frank Turner, but also a very talented solo artist and producer. Nigel has been a guest member with our friends, Koo Koo Kangaroo, traveled around the globe, performed in the opening ceremony at the London Olympics and rocked a House of Blues, more than a time or two.
Nigel, thank you so much for making some time to be a part of things, here on GoAbroad!
1. How did you come around to making a career for yourself in music? Is it something you always felt passionate about?
Since I was 12 or so I have been very focussed and passionate about music. I had been banging pots and pans for many years, but got my first drum-kit because my older brother needed a drummer, and convinced our mum to get me one. I wasn’t very involved in the decision! But it turns out I took to it quite well.
Beyond that, turning my passion into a career has involved a positive attitude and not being able to take the hint that it was time to give up (over and over again). I’ve also tried to always be open to anything that was offered to me, which is sometimes daunting, but never less than challenging fun!
![Nigel Powell Drumming & Singing]( "Nigel Powell Drumming & Singing")
2. You are an incredible drummer, but also play other instruments. What is your second favorite to play and did you take music lessons in order to become so skilled?
[blushes] I don’t actually consider myself a particularly incredible drummer. I’m entirely self-taught, except for a couple of years of early piano lessons (piano / keyboards is my second favourite instrument), and I would be much more skilled had I been drilled in some techniques early on. What I do know about my playing is I am musical – I am skilled at making a band sound good, and making people feel good about what they’re playing. And I think that comes from experience and listening, rather than lessons.
3. What is the most unexpected or bizarre place you have ever found yourself playing music?
Without a doubt on top of a fake grassy hill in the Olympic Stadium in London for the Opening Ceremony. The whole experience was very exciting but incredibly surreal – watching all these things going on in front of us (farm animals, games of cricket, windmills), playing some songs and knowing that there were 25 million people watching on television. But I’m certainly glad we did it!
4. Why do you think it’s important to travel? Is there a particular way that you like to try experiencing different cultures when you travel- through music, food, history, photos, language?
Strangely enough I was never much of a wanderer, and wouldn’t have travelled as much as I have done had I not been passionate about music. But having done it, a very great deal, now I appreciate it, usually more socially. I think anyone who travels would find it much harder to internally justify racism for instance. The world is so marvellously, splendidly, diverse (and for the most part I’ve only travelled in westernised cultures) that it blows away the idea that ‘my country is the only proper way of doing things!’ from which stems fear of other cultures.
I’m typing this in a hotel room in Budapest, Hungary, my first time in this country. I’m about to head out and see the city properly (so far the architecture looks fabulous) as a tourist, but as a human being I’m an alien in their town. Which is fine. I don’t mind that. But it means I will try to never see someone from the remote point of view of a news report and fail to put myself into their place, instead of judging them from wherever I happen to be.
5. What culture or country have you found most surprising and why? That is, a place which did not line up with your initial expectations. Have you ever felt uncomfortable in a new place?
China was an incredible experience. I was in Moscow not long after Glasnost, when the place was a mess of ‘communist’ control mixed with free market corruption and craziness, and I expected China to have that same, oppressive, slightly scary, vibe. But it wasn’t. It was a vibrant society with it’s own distinct culture, which seemed to be trying to mesh with the encroaching westernisation without losing unique identity. The interface between the historical and modern was also striking – we saw The Great Wall and The Forbidden City, and then malls and technology and skyscrapers, but they didn’t seem too culturally dissonant.
6. With so much touring and an extensive working schedule, what place or activity makes you feel most at home. Is there a single place, or do you find that you can create a sense of home in the different places you visit?
My kids make me feel most at home. They’re getting older so they’re less into cuddles now, but just being in the same house as them, maybe watching a film or hanging out while they do their own thing, is my heaven.
7. What is one piece of advice you would offer a student or any person so interested in traveling that they make it their goal to find a job which incorporates traveling?
Knowing what you want to do is the most valuable currency in the world. Don’t make your ambition vague (“I want to travel”) – be specific. Travel doing what? For whom? And then once you know, pursue.
8. What is the most challenging part of your work/lifestyle and how do you manage it to maintain a personal sense of balance? Can you imagine what you might be doing if you weren’t in music?
I think the people who survive longest and healthiest on the road are those who know how to give other people space, and to claim space for themselves. Being on a tour bus with the same 6, 7, 8 people for 10 months is like being on a submarine, and interpersonal friction is inevitable. How you deal with it is the measure of whether you can get on in this business, or if you should do something with less close-quarters, face time.
9. Did you ever experience study, volunteer, or another type of traveling abroad at a young age? If so, where did you go and what did you learn?
As I’ve said, I didn’t do much international travelling. Apart from a smattering of school trips and a trip to the USA with my dad nothing much went on, and then as soon as I left school I was in a band. We travelled a lot, but only in the UK. Even that helps your perspective. The further you go, the more the world shrinks. Everything seems more possible.
10. What is one activity or cultural experience you have never tried, that you would like to?
At some point I’d like to hike somewhere dramatic. A mountain range in the US or New Zealand for instance. Wilderness, the open air, a long time, solitude. This appeals to me.