(The following was originally printed in Trendex Magazine, June 2014 and is used by permission here)
Such a Nice Record: The Boys of Nice Nice Records
by Whitestone Thornycroft
The Oak Bar is a nice play to catch a drink, if you’re the kind of person who appreciates the frugality of an early-bird special, and finds that the music played in hotel lobbies is just a little too fast. This is where
Fanning Nelson, Larry Wade, and Herman Weltner, founders of Nice Nice Records, wanted to meet me though, and since Trendex was paying for the Somerset martinis ($12, lunch special), I decided to get started right away. I was perhaps three martinis into my lunch when the interview subjects arrived. In keeping with previous reports on his style, Fanning was impeccably and oddly dressed. Calf-length shorts, yellow socks and white hightops probably couldn’t have been saved by any combination that began above the waist, but a loose lavender silk shirt (most likely not purchased on the side of the store that normally has the buttons on the right, if you follow) mostly covered by a grey tweed blazer and yellow tie somehow managed to achieve the effect of making the outfit seem a coherent whole. Then again, it’s hard to notice the clothes when one’s eye is drawn to a towering bouffant of tousled black hair that would cause Edward Scissorhands to maybe give it another go. Wade and Weltner, perhaps in deference to their partner’s eccentricism, had gone the other route by donning what can only be described as English public-school chic, except adapted for thirty-somethings. If a photo is worth a thousand words, let us hope that this one at least does justice to my 140 or so:
[note: the referenced photo is owned by Trendex Magazine, and we were unable to receive permission to show it here. However, it is the same photo that graced the cover of the June issue]
I informed the gentlemen that I had a bit of head start on them, and they laughed and Fanning told me “That won’t last for long”. Fanning Nelson: We may be slow in starting, but there's nobody fast...
Herman Weltner: WHAT? Larry Wade: He’s saying that…
Fanning Nelson: Jesus. DUDE, [waving his hands in Herman’s face] FORGET IT.
[An uncomfortable silence fell, and we all shifted about]
WT: You’ve got the fidgets. FN: Yeah, I need my PA to call my moms but that ain’t happening. FN: She’s playing poker with her homies. WT: Your assistant? FN: No, my moms. WT: Maybe you could send her a TeleGram. FN: A...what did you say? WT: The app? TeleGram? Where you send a message and phone number to someone, and they forward it along from their phone? I always assumed you guys were cutting-edge with technology - you’ve always been at the forefront of digital marketing and distribution…
LW: [laughing] Is that our segue? HW: What? LW: I can answer that one. I know about TeleGrams, I actually worked with [Amit] Sar [Keesian - app designer and creator] about developing a Nice Nice app that would automatically play one of our artists songs whenever someone sent a text containing lyrics from our catalog. We ultimately decided it was too expensive though. HW: Are you talking about the party? LW: [ignoring him] I think what we sometimes get too focused on what’s innovative and next-level, you know? Then really thinking about what’s needed to push our artists to the place they need to be. It’s really easy to get caught in the next big thing, like air-drop, digital vinyl, or what’s the new thing...phase run...phase two…
FN: Phase-rip Sideloading. LW: Right! Like, it would be nice to have that tech where our stuff can be encoded onto a piece of glass, like a windshield or something we were thinking [FN nods], but how will that help our artists, you know? I don’t know...it’s a balancing act. WT: And one that you sometimes fall from, isn’t that correct? LW: Of course. You’re referring to…
FN: Springfield. WT: [I nod]
FN: Yeah, f**k that s**t man, I’m tired of talking about that s**t. WT: It’s fine. LW: [sighing] No, let’s get it on the final record. Yeah, Springfield was a mistake, but in the end I’d actually say it worked out. Sure, the press ate us alive for having them on the label, but now look - everyone has to scan their exports for Class III chemicals now. And not only that, but they never would have found a cure for that if the whole thing hadn’t gone down. I mean obviously it’s important…
HW: Are you guys talking about Springsteen? LW:...to remember how many people were affected, but I actually still keep up with most of them. S**t, thirty or forty are still loyal customers. FN: Well, free records and s**t. LW: True. WT: I’m sorry, but is Herman OK? HW: Am I a gay? FN: [laughing with Wade] Naw man, he ain’t even close to OK. Motherf**ker has uhh...what do you call it…
WT: Tinnitus? FN: No, he’s a f**king idiot. WT: Anyway, we came to talk about the label, yes? Tell me how it is that you got started. FN: S**t…
LW: Damn, that was bit...that was like, twelve years ago? And we were all going to school together at Sloan [the Sloan School of Management at MIT] and we kept seeing each other at all the same shows. FN: Yeah, for sure. I remember specifically seeing your ass at Bishop Allen….or was it Clarence Carter? LW: Clarence Carter. And we were high as s**t, too, talking about pretending we had a record label so we could get backstage and talk to Clarence, and the guy wanted us to prove it, which we couldn’t, but then we got back and started talking and then it was like…. FN: One thing leads to another…
HW: A mother? FN: ...and like, next thing you know we’ve signed what’s his name that got that big hit. LW: There you go. It’s just that easy, kids. [laughter]
WT: Any final thoughts before we wrap this up? FN: Yeah man, I wanna say hi to my kids, and also, seriously, who picked this place?
