Posts Tagged ‘Charlie Nieland’

Watch: ‘Howard Johnson’s’ by Jessie Kilguss

Posted: 15 September 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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NYC singer-songwriter Jessie Kilguss presents her latest single ‘Howard Johnson’s’, previewing her sixth album They Have A Howard Johnson’s There, with an era-inspired nostalgic video by Deborah Magocsi. This album was engineered, produced, mixed and mastered by Charlie Nieland (Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Blondie, Scissor Sisters) at Saturation Point Studios in Brooklyn.

For this single, Kilguss is accompanied by John Kengla (David Byrne, Ben Kweller, Serena Ryder) on guitar, bass and keys, Rob Heath (Madison Square Gardeners, Julia Nunes) on drums and percussion, and Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Gramercy Arms, Lloyd Cole) and Charlie Nieland on backing vocals. Other tracks on this album features Andrea Longato (Duncan Shiek, Jeremy Jordan, Alphonso Ribeiro), guitarist Kirk Schoenherr (Tegan and Sara, Elle King, Chet Faker), and Rembert Block (Rembert and the Basic Goodness).

“This song originated from some writing I did in a poetry workshop with performance artist Karen Finley. I had seen her read at the fantastic On The Verge Festival, which celebrates women artists of all disciplines at the Wild Project, produced and curated by my friend Heather Litteer. I was drawn to Karen’s writing and saw a post of hers on Instagram advertising an online poetry workshop inspired by the movie Dog Day Afternoon, as well as dogs in general. I had never taken a poetry workshop before but I am a huge dog lover and thought “what the hell”. I like pushing myself out of my comfort zone,” says Jessie Kilguss.

“In the movie, Al Pacino is speaking with his lover about what he’ll do to prove his love and he says something like “I’ll charter a plane to Algeria. They have a Howard Johnson’s there”. It stood out to me because it was so ridiculous and also, my father Howard had passed away a month earlier. So the song is a tribute to my father, Howard Kilguss, and is also inspired by Dog Day Afternoon. My father had a deep connection with dogs, so I thought it was even more appropriate to write this song for him".

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Watch: ‘Drown’ by Charlie Nieland

Posted: 9 May 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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NYC-based producer indie music veteran Charlie Nieland presents his new single ‘Drown’, a stunning reverb-laced offering and the first taste of his forthcoming The Ocean Understands EP, set for release on June 20. The expansive and visceral music video was directed by NYC-based multi-faceted artist Hypnodoll.

“The track ‘Drown’ was inspired by Monique Vescia’s book Hole In The Sky, which I read for the Bushwick Book Club songwriter series in 2021. It depicts a dark world, where an authoritarian won the US presidential election of 2020. So I made this mythical tale from the past, told in the future, where all the stories are jumbled up – a celebration of destruction,” says Charlie Nieland.

“Of course, it all feels quite prescient as we sift through our present wreckage, searching for grace in the violent forces underneath. It’s a white-hot psychedelic siren song with an oceanic undertow.”

It’s been four years since Nieland released his 2021 widely acclaimed Divisions with its sweeping melodies and restless rhythms. Renowned for tastefully blending post punk, dream pop and progressive rock, he has been writing, playing and producing music for decades, with a focus on the atmospheric and the imaginative.
Nieland’s musical backstory is extensive, having played dream pop with Her Vanished Grace for over 20 years before establishing himself as a solo artist with a mix of nuanced songwriting and sonic exploration, initially releasing Ice Age (2014) and Hopeful Monsters (2016). He is currently half of the literature-inspired songwriting and performing duo Lusterlit with Susan Hwang and produces and participates in the podcast ‘An Embarrassment of Prog’.

Along the way, Charlie wrote and produced material with such notable artists as Debbie Harry, Rufus Wainwright, Dead Leaf Echo, Blondie and Scissor Sisters. He scored the feature film The Safety of Objects (starring Glenn Close), the pilot episode of ‘The L Word’ on Showtime and the VH-1documentary NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell. Charlie was awarded a Gold record (UK) for his production work on Blondie’s ‘Greatest Hits Sight & Sound’ and achieved a Top 10 Billboard Dance Chart Position with Debbie Harry’s single ‘Two Times Blue’, which he co-wrote and produced.

Charlie Nieland shares his impression of the accompanying video: “With its mind-melting imagery, the video for ‘Drown’, created by NYC multimedia artist Hypnodoll, is beautiful and deranged. She conjures storytelling just out or rational reach, playing tag with the ancient and futuristic in a way that perfectly compliments the song. Collaborating with her is such a thrill”.

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Charlie Nieland – Divisions

Posted: 24 February 2021 in Albums
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5th March 2021

Christopher Nosnibor

Inspired by a passage in the novel White Teeth by Zadie Smith, NYC’s Charlie Nieland describes the lead single, ‘Land of Accidents’ from his new album as ‘a dark anthem to not-belonging’. Divisions certainly presents an eclectic mix that doesn’t really belong anywhere, and perhaps encapsulates that sentiment of unbelonging most perfectly within its very fabric. Traversing between a host of styles spanning post-rock, neo-prog, folk, indie, and further afield, if any one genre has an overarching influence, it’s 70s prog.

A stuttering, jittering rapidfire drum machine snare jolts like an electric current through the easy strumming clean guitar that leads the instrumentation on ‘Always on Fire’, the first song on the album. He’s gone all out for the grand curtain opener with this expansive, emotive, cinematic effort that lures the listener into a spiralling, psychedelic experience, and it’s effective – there’s a lot going on and a lot to explore. The same is true of the album as a whole, as it reveals more with every track.

A swell of sweeping strings add layers to the rolling drums and mid-pace melancholy of ‘The Falling Man,’ which contrasts with the uptempo punk-tinged indie drive of ‘I Refuse’ which comes on a like a blend of The Wedding Present, The Fall, and Mission of Burmah.

Aforementioned single cut ‘Land of Accidents’ packs it all in, and has the twists and turns and explosive dynamics of Oceansize at their best and builds into a muscular wall of sound, with dense waves of guitar dominating. ‘Tightrope’ is pure REM, only it’s probably a better take on REM than many of the band’s own later years work, and spins into a soaring shoegaze climax that is nothing short of absolute gold. It’s one of those songs you could easily play on repeat for hours – but then that would be to underexpose the broody magnificence of ‘Skin’ which immediately follows. ‘Some Things You Keep to Yourself’ has hints of Mansun but also later Depeche Mode about it with its dark brooding and also its soulful feel, not least of all the backing vocals. Things continue to get darker and starker on the synth-led closer ‘Pawns’ that goes all weirdy as it stretches and twists out of shape.

Neiland sustains the interest and the variety throughout, and there’s no let-up in quality either: there’s not a throwaway or duff song on Divisions, and with thirteen tracks, that’s no small achievement. That Divisions is almost impossible to pigeonhole is no issue: after all there are only two kinds of music – good and bad. And this is most definitely good.

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Charlie Nieland - Divisions (LP cover)

Watch: ‘Lost in Space’ by Lusterlit

Posted: 31 December 2017 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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‘Lost In Space’ is inspired by the novel My Life As A Dog by Reidar Jönsson, and the character Ingemar’s meditations on Laika the space dog. It was written for Bushwick Book Club, and it taken from the EP Hopeful Monsters.

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Listen to the EP in full here:

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Lusterlit - Hopeful