Ears Wide Open: Nic Hessler
Kevin Bronson on
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[File under Things I Slept on During March Madness:]
Oxnard native Nic Hessler had a good thing going a few years back, making music under the name Catwalk while he was still in his teens and prepping an album for the Captured Tracks label. In late 2012, he was sidelined with the autoimmune disorder Guillain–BarreÌ Syndrome, which robbed him of his motor skills. Months of treatment and rehab later, Hessler went back to work on the album, which he titled “Soft Connections” and released under his own name on March 17. It’s as fine a power-pop record as you’ll hear in 2015, the sparkling guitars and sweet harmonies reminiscent of 1970s songsmiths and some British indie bands from the ’90s who put psychedelic sprinkles on jangling guitar pop. The 23-year-old told Interview magazine that some of the songs on the album date to his teens, but “Soft Connections” seems seamless enough. And he has another album’s worth of songs written? Even better.
||| Stream: “Hearts, Repeating” and “I Feel Again”
||| Also: Stream “Can We Start Anew?”:
[…] of Nic Hessler’s debut album “Soft Connections” was informed by his battle with an autoimmune disorder that sidelined him in 2012 just as his music (then made under the name Catwalk) was gaining some steam. That makes “I […]