"Live at Lake Effect" is our music series featuring local and nationally touring artists performing in the Lake Effect Surf Shop in Shorewood, Wiscosnin.
We brought the Lake Effects together, along with Visionary Studios, to showcase musicians once a month through an interview with the band exclusively on Lake Effect, plus filmed performances. Today, we have Milwaukee’s own singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Carl Nichols, who performs and records as Buffalo Nichols.
Nichols says he felt like he started to really discover Milwaukee through the music scene as soon as he started to play in venues all over the city — from the North Side to Riverwest. He played a number of different genres growing up all thanks to simply being drawn to the guitar and learning music by ear.
"My older sister had a guitar and I just kind of picked it up out of boredom and started learning the songs that I heard on the radio, and that kind of just opened my mind up to guitar music, which is a lot of music. So I've been just chasing that thing ever since," Nichols explains.
Lately he's been trying to "get outside of the world of vibrating metal and wood" by incorporating his portable sampler into his music and live shows. From using natural found sounds or even sampling voices, Nichols can go beyond the limitations of the guitar.
"The guitar can get frustrating because you're limited by your own technical ability, but with samplers you can kind of just, whatever you hear, you can just turn it into music," he notes. This kind of approach is particularly evident in Nichols' cover of the Blind Willie Johnson song, "You're Gonna Need Somebody on Your Bond" from his latest album The Fatalist.
I’m just really trying to promote an open-mindedness for audiences ... and I think everybody would be a lot happier if we kind of just let artists express themselves and not live up to any expectations.Buffalo Nichols
Blues and folk music can appear simplistic on the surface, but Nichols says the complexity comes from the emotions of it. "It's kind of easy to put a lot of things into a song if you use a lot of words, but to try to limit that is the real challenge," he notes. "And it's really all about being connected to your emotions and being an effective communicator."
Nichols adds that he enjoys playing with melodies and lyric composition not just for his own creativity, but to challenge audiences as well.
"I’m just really trying to promote an open-mindedness for audiences, and some people expect certain things and I think everybody would be a lot happier if we kind of just let artists express themselves and not live up to any expectations," he says.
Nichols is often cited as bringing blues and country-folk into the future, but he admits that he regrets ever saying that.
"People who know me from Milwaukee know that I did so many things, and 'Buffalo Nichols' wasn't even a thing that anyone in Milwaukee knew about — but it just happened to be the thing that kind of worked for me in the commercial music space," he explains.
"I was playing Blues because it's fun, and then people started to know me for it so then I had to explain why I'm doing it and 'because it's fun' wasn't good enough," Nichols adds. "So I had to do all this stuff about 'bringing the past into the future,' but that's really just like the way that I approach creativity — taking everything that I've learned and figuring out how to bring it forward."
I had to do all this stuff about 'bringing the past into the future,' but that's really just like the way that I approach creativity — taking everything that I've learned and figuring out how to bring it forward.Buffalo Nichols
Nichols left Milwaukee and moved to Austin, Texas after the pandemic hit and pursued music full-time. "I had to make that difficult choice and there were a lot of opportunities for me in Texas," he explains. But Nichols recently returned to Milwaukee not only because he missed being in the Midwest, but because he wanted to challenge the idea of industry towns and their importance.
"I don't like the fact that people have to leave where they're from to go to Nashville or Austin to build a career. So I wanted to come back and see what it's like to just work where you're from and it's really difficult and I was wrong and those people are right," Nichols half-jokes.
Nichols is one example of the creative forces and talent Milwaukee has to offer, but when asked what Milwaukee has to do to foster and support artists like him, he notes it's hard to give a straight answer since the issue is so deeply rooted.
"There's things politically and culturally that don't foster art. We talk about it as like a blue-collar, kind of working class place and that's because you just have to work so hard to survive. So it makes art and music seem like a luxury," Nichols explains. "So if we could get art and music to be just appreciated more that would be be the first step, I think, is to see it as a valuable thing in itself and then try to apply monetary value to that and support artists."
In the meantime Nichols continues to tour with his music, and he notes that a lot of the experimental elements he's working on gets incorporated into his live shows. "I think the people who come out to see me live get to see where I'm at creatively and it changes constantly," he says. In the near future, Nichols plans to make an effort to record and release more of his experimental work to express himself through "all types of sounds," not just guitar. But no matter the style or genre, Nichols plays music because it's fun — and that's reason enough.
SET LIST
- The Long Journey Home (0:08)
- The Difference (3:23)
- Broken Heart of America (7:19)
MUSICIAN
- Buffalo Nichols: vocals, guitar & banjo
Live at Lake Effect Team:
- Executive Producers: Audrey Nowakowski & Trapper Schoepp
- Audio Engineering: Jason Rieve
- Location: Lake Effect Surf Shop in Milwaukee
- Production Company: Visionary Studios
- Camera Op: Jessica Wolff & Kelly Pudroski
