Nick Pynn (born 17 November 1962) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

noted for his use of bass pedals and live looping with electroacoustic stringed instruments. He has been described as an ‘avant folk’ artist, whose early interests were in world folk and experimental music.

Career

Having made many of the instruments he still uses, Nick Pynn started his musical career in the mid-80s with the Leigh-on-Sea 'soil music' barn-dance band, The Famous Potatoes. He played fiddle, banjo, mandolin, mandocello and viola on their albums, ''The Sound of the Ground'', ''It Was Good for My Old Mother'', and ''Born in a Barn.'' JaneBomBane

Pynn joined

Steve Harley Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice (27 February 1951 – 17 March 2024), known by his stage name Steve Harley, was an English singer-songwriter and frontman of the rock music, rock group Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Cockney Rebel. The band achieved ...

in 1990 on

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

and fiddle, taking the

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

role in 1996. The 'Stripped to the Bare Bones' tour of 1998 with Pynn accompanying Harley on

mandocello The mandocello () is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paired courses, with the strings in each course tuned in ...

dulcimer The term dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

, acoustic guitar and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

was released on CD '' Stripped to the Bare Bones'' from the

Jazz Café The Jazz Cafe is a music venue in Camden Town, London. It opened in 1990 on the former premises of a branch of Barclays Bank and has had several owners throughout its history as a music venue. The venue holds 450 people across both floors. ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and the two-man show received a 5 star review at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...

. The success of these led to Harley and Pynn playing over a hundred dates in 1998, performing under the explanatory tour-title "Stripped to the Bare Bones". Pynn’s debut solo CD on the Roundhill label In Mirrored Sky (1995) is a collection of autumnal pieces, and features bass player Herbie Flowers and

Adrian Oxaal Adrian Oxaal (born 20 March 1965) is an American-born English musician and music educator, best known for being the lead guitarist in James from 1997–2002 and 2015–present. He has also played with the bands Sharkboy, Oysterband and Goat. ...

of James on cello. Flowers introduced Pynn to Richard Durrant, which led to the joint album Nick and Dick (1997). In 2000 Nick joined the new acoustic version of

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown The Crazy World of Arthur Brown are an English rock music, rock band formed by singer Arthur Brown (musician), Arthur Brown in 1967. The original band included Vincent Crane (Hammond organ and piano), Drachen Theaker (drums), and Nick Greenwoo ...

. Pynn contributes most of the instrumentation and

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

s on the 2007 release The Voice of Love. In August 2001, Pynn went to

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

with The Life and Death Orchestra for a

Festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

production of

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

, written by survivors of the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

put to

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

. During the second half of the month, he joined

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

Perrier Award Perrier ( , also , ) is a French brand of bottled water marketed as coming from its source in Vergèze, located in the Gard ''département''. Perrier was part of the Perrier Vittel Group SA, which became Nestlé Waters France after the acqui ...

winning

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

Rich Hall Richard Travis Hall (born June 10, 1954) is an American comedian, writer, director, actor, and musician, first coming to prominence as a sketch comedian in the 1980s. He wrote and performed for a range of American networks, in series such as ...

in his band, Otis Lee Crenshaw and The Black Liars. Pynn also met Jane Bom-Bane, and together they

wrote Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

and produced ''Rotator'', a CD of

palindromic A palindrome ( /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or '' racecar'', the date " 02/02/2020" and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Pana ...

(forwards and backwards)

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s for 2002, and the Fringe show 'Year of the Palindrome'. Further collaborations followed with comedians

Boothby Graffoe Boothby Graffoe is a village and civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 223. It is situated approximately south from the city and county town of Lincoln, ...

Jo Neary Joanna Neary is a British comedian, writer and actress. Her solo, character-based stage shows include ''Youth Club'' and ''Joanna Neary Is Not Feeling Herself'', which received a Perrier Best Newcomer award nomination in 2004. She has also appea ...

Simon Munnery Simon Munnery is an English comedian. Early life Born in Middlesex, Munnery grew up in Bedmond and was educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys, where he earned four A Levels. He read natural sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge but s ...

Kevin Eldon Kevin Eldon (born 2 October 1959) is an English actor and comedian. He featured in British comedy television shows of the 1990s including ''Fist of Fun'', ''This Morning with Richard Not Judy'', ''Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge (TV ...

Omid Djalili Omid Djalili (; born 30 September 1965) is a British comedian, actor, and writer. Early life and education Djalili was born on 30 September 1965 in St Mary Abbots Hospital in Kensington, London, to Iranian Baháʼí parents Ahmad and Parvane ...

and

Stewart Lee Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, and deadpan delivery. Lee began his career in 1989 and formed the comedy duo Lee and Herring with Richard ...

. Pynn premiered a solo show in 2003 called 'Music from Hotels Rooms, Forests and Submarines', using wine glasses, playing cards and live sampling in addition to his various stringed instruments. In May 2004 Pynn's third solo album ''

Afterplanesman ''Afterplanesman'' is the third solo studio album by British avant-folk musician Nick Pynn, originally released in May 2004 by Roundhill Music, and re-released in November 2008. Recorded after Pynn helped restore submarines in a Southampton mil ...

'' was released, the reissue of which made it into The Sunday Times 100 Best Albums of 2008. In the following year at the Edinburgh Festival, Pynn won a 'Spirit of the Fringe Award' for his music. 2007 started with sell-out shows at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

with The Lost and Found Orchestra (a creation of

Stomp Stomp may refer to: *Stomp (strike), a downwards kick using the heel Music and dance * ''Stomp'' (album), by Big D and the Kids Table, 2013 *Stomp (jazz), a type of rhythmic jazz tune popular in the 1920s *Stomp (theatrical show), a percussive ph ...

) in which Pynn played musical saw, bed bass, bellows organ, bottle bellows, metalophone, traffic-cone berimbau and squonkaphone amongst other instruments. Later that year, Pynn won the 'Star of the Festival Award' in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, and was co-winner of the '

ThreeWeeks ''ThreeWeeks'' is a magazine that covers the Edinburgh Festivals in August. It has covered the Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The ...

Editor's Award' with Jane Bom-Bane. In November he played solo shows in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

and

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

. An album of original Pynn compositions ''The Colours of the Night'' released in October 2009 was recorded above Bom-Bane's Cafe in Brighton in which a 12 piece orchestra recorded their parts ‘one at a time’. Nick often tours wit
Kate Daisy Grant
with whom he won The Latest Award for
Best Music Act
in the Brighton Fringe in 2013. In 2014 Nick was celebrated in the show ‘Stewart Lee & Friends: celebrating the music of Nick Pynn’ at the Brighton Dome in which Nick was joined by guest artists Arthur Brown, Kate Daisy Grant, Boothby Graffoe,

Mike Heron James Michael Heron (born 27 December 1942) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his work in the Incredible String Band in the 1960s and 1970s. Career Heron was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and attended t ...

, Georgia Seddon and Jane Bom-Bane in an evening of comedy and music. His 2015 self-released album ‘Waterproof’ showcases Nick’s songwriting side.

Selective discography

Solo recordings *'' In Mirrored Sky'' (Roundhill RHLCD43) 1995 *''Music from Windows'' (Roundhill RHLCD99) 1999 *''

'' (Roundhill ROUND004) 2004 *''In Mirrored Sky / Music from Windows'' (Roundhill ROUND007) reissued as double package in August 2007 *''The Colours of the Night'' (Roundhill rhlcd09) 2009 *''talktapes'' (Roundhill rhlcd011) 2011 *''Nick Pynn Live at the QEH and Edinburgh Fringe'' (Roundhill rhlcd012) 2012 *''Waterproof'' (Oscar Records Osc002) 2015 *''Buffalo Orbison'' (Oscar Records Osc003) 2018 *''Flipside'' (Oscar Records Osc005) May 2020 *''A Fiddle Album'' (Oscar Records Osc006) August 2020 *''Visions/ Revisions and Impressions'' (Oscar Records Osc007) June 2024 Collaborations *''Nick And Dick'' The acoustic collaborations of Nick Pynn and Richard Durrant (LongMan 026CD) 1997; re-issued 2006 *''Rotator'' (Roundhill ROUND2002) Nick Pynn and Jane Bom-Bane 2002

References

External links

Nick Pynn biography at nickpynn.co.ukNick Pynn page on MySpace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pynn, Nick Outsider musicians 1962 births Living people British male guitarists British male violinists British record producers British composers 21st-century British violinists 21st-century British male musicians British male songwriters