I can’t quite believe it’s been ten years since we first picked up Nic Armstrong’s debut album, The Greatest White Liar. In fact, you have to go back nearly eleven years to the beginning of the story. The date was Saturday 11th October 2003, the venue, The Cockpit in Leeds. Nic was on the bill with Crispian Mill’s The Jeevas that night and it was his live show that really blew us away.
Ever since that day we have tried our best to keep in tune with the latest Nic Armstrong news and releases. Nic Armstrong - sometimes also known as Nic Armstrong & The Thieves, and less occasionally as The IV Thieves, hails from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England. He counts Miles Kane, Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller amongst his fans (and has toured supporting the latter two at various times). Now based in Austin, Texas, Nic’s latest record, the excellent Pocketless Shirt EP is out now and he’s is currently working on a follow up EP and an album. He’s a busy man!
Up&Atom caught up with Nic, who kindly took time out of his hectic schedule to chat with us
Up&Atom - How old were you when you first picked up a guitar? What made you want to play?
Nic Armstrong - I was a young lad, picked up the guitar to beat agoraphobia or some massive form of anxiety in public.
U&A - The Greatest White Liar is a brilliant album. We’ve listened to it so many times that we could write a thesis on it, but that’s not the same as hearing the story from the man himself. Tell us about the album and recording it. Oh, and just who is that lying son of a gun you refer to in the title?
NA - Thank you. Still so grateful for the opportunity to make The Greatest White Liar. We really had a great time making it. We didn’t really do any pre-production.
I remember it was a hot summer in London. We had two weeks to record. Liam [Watson, record producer who has also worked with The White Stripes and The Zutons] would come round in the morning and pick us up. We would start early, record, have great lunches, resume, then wrap up around eight. We would then go out and get absolutely ragged on drink around East London. There’s a memory of dining this 16ft cardboard tube in the street and mounting some mannequin’s head or clown mask on it. In the studio it was all business and a million cups of tea.
One Little Indian [Nic’s record label] asked how I wanted to record. I told them I’d play all the parts except for the drums. I’d spotted a fantastic drummer - Jonny Aitken - in Nottingham a couple of weeks earlier and he was onboard to play. The night before we were due in Toe Rag Studios, my best mate Sam picked us up in his car. We loaded up all this really shitty, wrecked equipment - knackered guitars, half a sitar, broken percussion, my sister’s plastic keyboard and headed to London. All these things were used in the studio - for example, the answering ‘na-na na-na’ on She Changes Like The Weather is that funny keyboard.
Ah, the lying son of a gun, eh? Never handled a gun in the UK, honest guv...! Texas is a different kettle of fish. We’ve shot AK47’s, rifles, pistols, uzis..!
