Spider Nick & the Maddogs
Interview with "Spider" Nick Martielli
1996
Who's in the band and what do they do?
Nick: At this very moment there is me, Nick Martielli, and you can call me Spider Nick, and I am lead vocalist, tenor sax, I do a lot of the arranging, song writing, and pretty much run the band. Then there's, at this moment, Tyrone Jones, who's like a temporary man, who is really one of our founding members, but he's so busy with his life that we're going to have to use him as a sub for future work, but he's going to record with us. He plays the alto and he writes a couple of songs, does a little bit of back-up vocals. The other main guy in the band is Derrick Kornnish and he, me Derrick are both full time bonafide members, he plays the keyboards, He does lead vocals on the songs he writes. He also sings backup vocals. I do backup myself, so we all do backup. The other main guy in the band is Jay Hackett and he plays guitar. He's writing a couple of songs for us although we don't do them yet. Once he gets them finished we'll do that. On drums is his brother Glenn Hackett, and Glenn wrote a song for us that we do called "For You" and that's the only one so far that he's given to us but he says he's got more and he'll probably write a couple more and he's another full time bonafide member of the band and then there's Tom McGee, he is the trombone player and bass player. Now of course he can't do both at the same time, he was the trombone player for the last couple of months he was our original bass player (tape got cut off, static) and now he got other avenues that he's pursuing as of Friday, that is a very big, recent change, and Tyrone, the alto player, came back to sit in with us for our next four gigs. We consider him a full time member, hopefully he'll record with us, but you know he's really not, so let's see is there anything else. We usually call Tom McGee the bass playing trombone player, we call him Dr. Wonder, and the drummer we call Glenn "the Hammer" Hackett, the guitar player we call Jay "the Hatchet" Hackett, then there's Derrick Kornnish who is the VooDoo Witch Doctor, and I'm Spider, and Tyrone we call Tyrone T-bone Jones. I think that just about covers it.
How long have you guys been playing for?
Nick: We had our first show on St. Patricks Day of 1996 at Carrington's or Nostradomus in Long Island, whichever you prefer, and we've worked a lot since then, and we are very aggressive with our booking, we are aggressive with our playing, we try to play as much as possible up until like December and January because we are gearing up to record in February. Our first rehearsals were in January of 1996. We were founded on January 14th, 1996 which is basically my Birthday, and our first show was St. Patricks Day, March 17th there, that's about it.
What is your favorite BeeGee's song?
Nick: My favorite BeeGee's song, well, I guess if I had to pick one, well, you know there is nothing after 1975 by the BeeGee's that I like. Everything before, I didn't like much of it. But I guess "How can you mend a broken heart" is a pretty song and "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" is kinda a cool tune. That was a kick ass tune. That would be my favorite. "How can you mend a broken Heart" would be the second one, the rest of them suck. I'm not a big BeeGee's fan.
Disco just sucks in general.
Nick: Oh yes, I'd say so. You know I grew up in 19.., well I was 16 in 1978 you know, so I waiting to hear something decent on the radio and I never, ever did. So, I turned to college radio immediately, and that's when I found some good music.
When did you first get into Ska?
Nick: I guess it must have been when I was 18, 1980, I was a big Buffalo Springfield, Doors, Neil Young, you know, Black Sabbath, kind of fan, you know what I mean, the Who, well I still like the Who. Even Punk Rock I didn't know that much about, but then I heard "Ghost Town" by the Specials, and "Message to you Rudy" by the Specials and that changed everything, my entire life changed from that moment on. That was it.
What song would you most like to cover?
Nick: Well, I cover all the songs I really would like to cover, I cover generally any song I want, but I like doing the ones we do we do the "Midnight Special", you know, the Credence Clearwater Revival arrangement, we do "Going up to the Country" you know, the Canned Heat version of that, most people don't know that that is an old, old song. "Ride Captain, Ride" by Blues Image, I was totally psyched to do that, so any song that I would most like to do I do. But there's something I am trying to do now, it's called "There ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" by Louis Jordan, but we will be covering that pretty soon. And "When you Rock 'N' Roll with Me" by David Bowie is one that I'd like to cover but we have to work on it. Ooo, and "Yasasine" by David Bowie too, that's another good one I wouldn't mind covering.
So how did you wind up writing "Spider on My Bed" for the Scofflaws?
Nick: Well, I was taking saxophone lessons from Richie Brooks, back in 1992, and I was doing some of my exercises and while I was doing my exercises this song just started comin' out of the saxophone, and I followed it where it led me, you know, just playing it, so I thought, "O.K. I've got these notes, let me put some words to the notes" so I thought about a funny story that happened to me when I was in College. I went out one night, got totally smashed and my roommate was using my bedroom so I used this other room and there was no, it was just a bare mattress. I emptied my pockets on the bed and flopped down with my suit and jacket on and my overcoat and fell asleep. I woke up and the room had no curtains and it was a really bright day around 11 o'clock in the morning in the middle of the winter kinda like today. I woke up and I opened my left eye and about an inch and a half in front of my eye was this spider, and it didn't flinch or react, it was just looking right at me because it was a jumping spider, they have this stereoscopic vision, they have these two big eyes right out front and I was looking at it and I just lifted my head a little and I just started blowing on it to see if it would back up and it just started bouncing up and down, it was really enjoying it. It made me kinda laugh and I just sat there and played with that spider for about 45 minutes and then I felt reasonable, you know I woke up and I was still drunk basically so I was fucking around with the spider and I got up and left it where it was and I guess, it's probably not alive anymore but one can still hope. So you know how the song goes, the whole story is true. I was writing the song and said why don't I write about a funny incident that happened to me. A lot of funny things have happened to me in my life, and the songs are coming. Like one time I had to jump off a roof onto a ledge, that's another good one. When I wrote "spider on my bed", back to your original question, I had the Scofflaws in mind, but Richie Brooks finds it hard to sing that fast and I don't so when I started the band I said let's do it the way we do it. But the Scofflaws are great they've always been great to us we love them so I was happy to make a song for them and they said that they were looking for songs and I said "Hey I got one" and Richie was so cool that he put it on the CD.
You were in the Insteps, right?
Nick: That is correct.
When did you leave them?
Nick: The Insteps and I parted ways because we had different views on how to run business, on how to run rehearsals, on how to behave at shows, on how to be professionals basically and I had a lot of different ideas than they did and there was a time, I mean, when I started with the Insteps they had about $200 saved, when I was done with the Insteps they had over $6000 saved and they just recently made a CD and they did what they did and they had a different vision of what they wanted to do and a different organizational theory than I believed in so I started giving up all the jobs I had. Like I said "I'm not going to do booking anymore" so I gave away all the numbers that I had and contacts to somebody else in the band, like Regina, whose no longer with the Insteps, Al Moon, the bass player, is no longer with the Insteps, so the Insteps have changed quite a bit since I was with them. But, I gave away all my booking information and all my phone numbers and then I said "I'm not going to carry around the P.A. anymore either, or load and unload, and take care of the equipment" so I gave that to somebody else in the band. I said "I'm not going to do the mailing list anymore" because to do the mailing list anymore" because I was responsible for the mailing list because they didn't have one and I told them that if they wanted to make money they should do this. I was right about how to make money. People can say what they like about making money and music but I feel that people sell out much more when they work for McDonalds, a company that destroys rain forests to grow beef, whereas if I'm selling out because I want to make money doing what I love well then Fuck You I'm a sell out I don't play that fucking game, all I want to do is have a job where all I do is play music, I'd rather have a job doing that than serving pieces of the rain forest to hungry American consumers. I like making money with music, and I don't think I'm making all that much frankly! I'll make more as a high school teacher, I am a high school teacher I just don't want to do that any more, because, teaching high school I look around and see these wonderful young children, all my students are fantastic human beings t sitting there watching the high school system fuck their heads up. It's not right and I don't think I can be part of a system that doesn't work, I'd rather be part of something cool and interesting like a band and make a living doing that, you know I have alot of high values in that regard and I don't want to waste my time doing this other thing, teaching high school is a wonderful profession but I'm not into it any more, it's a good way of making cash but that is selling out. Working these regular, stupid jobs that are right at the vanguard of destruction of the planet and the species, those are sell out jobs. Making money doing something like music is not a sell out job. That's the way I see it anyway. I like making money with the band but the Insteps didn't really know what they wanted to do when I was in there and I think maybe they are getting a clearer picture, they slowly are focusing on what it is they want to do. Now that they've made their CD I wish them all the luck in the world. That's basically it.
Any words of Wisdom?
Nick: My advice is don't get good grades in school, that doesn't really matter, but pay attention to every single thing that is going on around you. Be aware. Listen to everything that you can possibly, try to remember everything that somebody is trying to teach you because it will become useful at some point in the future. The other thing is, learn how to make shelter, to find water, and to build fire, with no steel or flint, just from wood, learn that, and learn how to find a forage for food, because we are going to need those skills in the next fifty years. Just be nice to each other, people are all right. Be cautious.