Off the Record

Speaker 1 0:00
Val

Valerie Gorham 0:05
Hello. Hello to all our listeners. I'm Valerie, and this is WKNC Off the record podcast where we interview North Carolina's very own musicians. I was recently able to interview Christian from a band called newtie, which is an indie freak folk band, but it's also a kind of not a band, because Christian is the only member and writes all the songs. Newtie has an album coming out March 7, and you can find them on Instagram at Nudi music spelled n, e, w, T, I, E, all right. Well, let's get started. How are you today?

Christian H 0:37
I am doing absolutely fantastic for having me on. I hope you are doing good as well.

Valerie Gorham 0:45
I am, I am alright, so I listened to your music, and can you just introduce yourself and talk about what kind of music you make.

Christian H 0:56
My name is Christian habermeier. I am basically the only person in a band called nudie. We make, I say we but really just me making kind of everything and anything, honestly, any everything and anything full really, is kind of how I would describe it. We sort of started out making freak folk, or anti folk. I think that's what you want to call it. Then we sort of devolved into country slash folk. And now on our newest release, which I think we're going to talk about, we're now into, like in default, or like Lo Fi full. So kind of just everything and anything full

Valerie Gorham 1:36
I wanted to ask about on your Spotify profile it, it says I make music that is somehow both bad and good at the same time. And I just was wondering, what you mean by that?

Christian H 1:48
Oh yeah, I'm very self critical. I can be very critical of my music and my work. So there's some songs that I've put out that I'm like, this is horrible, this is terrible. But then I've had other people tell me, like, Oh no, it's actually really good. You should be proud of what you've done. I've had other people ask me about that too. You're not the first

Valerie Gorham 2:05
all, right, so you mean, like, no matter what you make, you always criticize yourself, like you tend to think it's not good, or,

Christian H 2:14
yeah, I think not everything. I mean, if I thought it was all horrible, I probably wouldn't be putting it out. But I feel like every artist goes through this sort of process with their work, where they'll make something and they'll be super proud of it, but you just listen to it over and over and over again, and you just start to notice all these little imperfections and mistakes that you've made, and you can try and fix it or go back and re record or clean it up, but at some point you kind of just have to accept what you put out. And sometimes, as a hard as an artist, it's hard to accept what you've put out, but I'm still pretty proud of my work and what I've done, really just by myself and with another friend.

Valerie Gorham 2:55
I don't mean this in a mean way. I mean this and the nicest way possible. Your music, it's got a pretty sad sort of vibe to it. And I was just wondering, are You doing all right? Does that come from your soul, or is that just from inspiration?

Christian H 3:11
No. I mean, first off, this music that I'm putting out recently or currently on a label, I think they described it as like sad core or slow core, which I wasn't even aware was a genre, but yeah, I mean, I agree it's definitely downtrodden and a little depressing. I'm okay. Personally, I don't want to be a downer all the time. But you know, I mean, between my last release, which was in 2020 which was forever ago, and this one, which is coming out in March 2025 I've just had a lot of stuff happen in my life. I've always kind of been like a glass half empty sort of person. So even if there's a lot of good stuff going around or going on in my life, sometimes I tend to just focus on the negative things, which I guess reflects on my music, but mentally, I'm okay, all right,

Valerie Gorham 4:05
good, yeah, of course. Um, I mean, there's enough happy music out there. When did you start making music? And why

Christian H 4:12
good question. Um, I've dabbled in and out of instruments, like when I was a kid, I think in first grade, I was in like, Guitar Club or something. In middle school I did like piano. I didn't really get serious about writing my own music until high school. I was probably like 15 or 16, and I really, really, really, really wanted to learn an instrument, and I've just never had like I beforehand had tried again to learn piano, but I just couldn't pick it up. So my dad had a really old, crappy bass guitar, like horrible, horrible guitar, but he was like, Yeah, you can have it. You can practice on it. And that's where I. Started. I started on bass because I and I've said this to other people who have asked me, like, oh, where should I start with an instrument? I always recommend the bass guitar, because it's part of the rhythm section, and music and rhythm is super important. So having like a rhythmic under, like a rhythmic foundation is really important in developing as a musician. And also it has four strings instead of six, which is like way, way easier to wrap your head around when you're just learning. So I started with bass guitar. I think the first base line I learned, I think it was by the police. Really, the foundational bassist for me was Chris Novoselic of nirvana. Nirvana's bassist. They have some killer, killer bass lines, really, really groovy stuff. And I became obsessed with Nirvana and like Green Day, like those, like classic teenage bands, like really angsty stuff. So I just learned a bunch of their bass lines. And I eventually wanted to learn their guitar parts too. So I My dad also had another crappy guitar, and he lent me it, and I still have that one. It's a Gibson, but, yeah, I think started with bass guitar, graduated to electric guitar, and I eventually bought my own acoustic and that's kind of what started the whole folk process? Well, I

Valerie Gorham 6:22
think it's interesting that you mentioned bass, because when I was listening to your music, I noticed that a lot of them don't have, like, bass in them. Like, for example, I listened to your album The Texas seance, like, a lot of it was just like spoken word poetry and stuff like that. And, like, not typical music, it was, like, very experimental, like, sounds and stuff like that. Yeah,

Christian H 6:43
no, I for sure. I think on that album, honestly, it kind of sounds like I went a little insane. There's some really weird tracks on that album. A big inspiration for me with that kind of music, that anti folk music, I'm sure you know, the artist back he did that song, loser. He had a really weird career in like, the early 90s, late 80s, where he did a bunch of just bizarre tape recordings, uh, messing around on like cassette decks, just recording the most weird, absurd music, like weird screeches and field recordings and messing with the pitch of his vocals and his guitar. And I found it really, really bizarre. And even before that, if you want to go before that, people like Daniel Johnston and R Stevie Moore, people that were doing really Lo Fi, sort of freaky music, underground sort of musicians that was a really big inspiration, so I kind of wanted to pay homage, but also put my own little spin on it. For those of

Valerie Gorham 7:49
you just now joining on the radio, I'm Valerie, and I'm interviewing Christian from a North Carolina group called newtie, which is an indie freak folk band. They have an album coming out March 7. Do you write everything and record everything alone, or do you have more people typically help you out?

Christian H 8:06
So for my first two out, for our first two albums, I had a drummer named Alex, and we recorded, or he recorded, really, all the drum parts. I don't have a drum kit myself. They're very expensive and loud, so I don't have one, but yeah, he was there for the first two albums. For this third album, I pretty much did everything myself. And for the previous two albums, I wrote and recorded all the music myself, except for the drum parts. On this one, I did everything, including the drum parts. So I have a habit of saying we or our, because that's how I've always kind of thought of the band as having other people in it. But yeah, it is just kind of me, if and when I ever do shows, though, I would definitely have, like a backing band of at least. Uh, about your shows? Do you play a lot of show? I used to, yeah. So back in our very first show, we played for some web series that went and traveled across the country. Really interesting project. I never really followed up with them after they came out and recorded for us, but we did a web series then we played at an underground venue in Charlotte that doesn't exist anymore. It was really, really cool, but we did that. We played at a bar slash tavern, and then COVID happened, and then it all just kind of shut down. We were supposed to play another show after that, and do a bunch of stuff, but kind of just never got back around to it. And I just had so much stuff going in my life, like I went to college, got a job, which was really tough, and adjusting to that, so I'm hoping to get back into the world of playing shows. Hopefully this album at least attracts some attention from other bands and people that want to play shows, because I'm very open to it. It's just, I just haven't done it in such a long time. I so you

Valerie Gorham 10:01
said you went to college and you got a job. Did you go to college for music?

Christian H 10:06
I did not. No, no, no, I did not. I and no offense to any people who do. I just don't think I could make a career out of it palatable. But no, I didn't

Valerie Gorham 10:20
like, ideally, would you, like, rather just live off your music? Like, would that be, like, your dream, or do you like what you do? I

Christian H 10:28
mean, I like what I do because I have some downtime at work and that allows me to work on music and do other things. I mean, my true first passion is music. I love music even as a kid. I've always, always, always, always, always, always, always loved music, on all kinds of music, it'd be nice to live off my music, but I think for a lot of people, just with the way the music industry is now, I mean, it is an industry, and it's a business, you have to be like the complete top of Everything to really make a living off of it. I feel like it's very difficult for independent artists to really live off of their music unless they're super, super, super successful. I feel like for 99% of 99.9% of people, it's basically impossible to live off your music.

Valerie Gorham 11:16
Earlier, you said that you are with a label now. Yeah, so

Christian H 11:20
with record labels, and I use the term record label very loosely here, there's like, the really, really big ones, like capital, Columbia, Sony, I don't know if electro is still around or Rhino, but there's a lot of really big labels, and they obviously have like, super massive, like stadium filling artists, then you have like, a step below that, which would be more, I guess you I guess you could call them, like independent labels, stuff like Sub Pop in Seattle, I think that's where they're based. And we have, I think the big one in North Carolina is like merge and Chapel Hill, but below that, so we've gone down a step even further. Are like, really DIY labels, where this is where I feel like a lot of underground and independent artists flock to are these DIY labels? They either go to a label or they release it themselves. I decided to go with a label for this release because I think labels can really help out with promotion. They really, really help out market your music, get the word out about it. And specifically the label that I'm with, which are the most lovely people in the world, candle pin records up in Boston, they're actually doing the a cassette printing of this album. And that's super, super, super cool. And I feel like that's what a lot of very DIY labels do, is they deal with cassettes. The first label that I worked with, which was based in Charlotte, I think they were called who knows records. They also did a cassette printing of our first album, Pony back in like 2019 or 2020, so, yeah, I'm on a label. I am not able to live off this label, though, and I would be shocked if anybody else on the label is good for them.

Valerie Gorham 13:16
So where does the name nudie come from? Yeah, I

Christian H 13:19
think that's what basically everyone asks it's a really weird name, or at least, I've been told that it's weird, and a lot of people don't know how to pronounce it either. I've had people be like, Oh, is it new Ty, but it was the nickname of my mom and dad's old greyhound. They had a greyhound. His name was Newton, and his nickname was nudie, and I just thought it was very unique,

Valerie Gorham 13:43
once again, for anyone who's just now joining on the radio. I'm Valerie, and I'm interviewing Christian from a band called nudie, which is an indie freak folk band. They've got an album coming out March 7, and you can find them on Instagram at nudie music, spelled n, e, w, T, I, E, I

wanted to ask also about the cover art Spotify and everything. How do you get that?

Christian H 14:05
Yeah, I think cover art is, I think it used to be a lot more important, back in the day when physical media was really, really big, like, obviously, if you walk into a record store or wherever you buy your music, this is like 3040, years ago, and you see this beautiful cover art, you know, on this vinyl record or on a CD or a cassette tape, whatever. It's very attractive you makes you want to listen to it. So I think cover art is really, really important to have good artwork on your music. So where I get my artwork? Honestly, the first album I got that from the Library of Congress. Interestingly enough, they have an online web. I've gotten a lot of stuff from here. They have an online website where you can basically. Just look at a bunch of public domain images, and I just kept searching until I found one that I thought was absurd enough to fit our music. So that's where I found the one of that like German Shepherd smoking a cigarette. I thought that was pretty weird. Okay, so you

Valerie Gorham 15:14
have a new album coming out, and what all do you have coming up? Yeah,

Christian H 15:18
really it is the album. I have been working on this album basically since the last album I put out in 2020 I've kind of had this concept or feeling, I don't know what you want to call it, to put out something a little more somber and more serious, because I feel like the music that I've put out prior has been kind of absurd, and I don't want to say childish, but it really hasn't been, like very serious music outside of like one or two songs, but I wanted to do something that was a little more mature. That's the big thing that's coming up, and hopefully, if it's received, well, we'll try to do like a mini tour, or do some supporting act.

Valerie Gorham 16:01
Have you ever had, like, vocal training, or do you just go in and do whatever you want?

Christian H 16:06
The latter, definitely. I've never had formal music training at pretty much at all. I mean, outside of I told you, I did the Guitar Club in like first grade. I don't think that counts. I took piano in middle school. I don't think that counts either, because I was forced to do that. The only one I actually wanted to do was at this church I used to go to, they had a bassist, and he was like, the only person I knew that played bass. And we asked him, like, Hey, could you teach me how to play bass? And he was like, Yeah, okay, it'll be 20 bucks. And then he came to my house, and we did one lesson, and then I think he ghosted us, because, like, we could never get a hold of him again. But I think that was the only formal music training I've had, but definitely no vocal training at all, which I think is good and bad, because when you're, like, trained as a vocalist, you sort of know what your voice can do, but when you're not trained, you don't know what it can do. So things seem a little more limitless. And I feel like you can be more creative with your voice. I try to sing really high with my voice, even though, like, I don't usually speak that high.

Valerie Gorham 17:20
So earlier you mentioned Nirvana, I think you mentioned Green Day and Beck. Are those, like, your main like inspo for what you like to make, or do you have, like, other favorites?

Christian H 17:33
There's like a billion bands I could name that I'm, like, really, really into. I mean, if you were interviewing me when I was like, 16, I would have been like, yeah, those are the people that are my inspirations nowadays. I just have so so many more artists that I listen to. I'll tell you the inspirations for this album. Beck mount eerie. Phil evreum microphones. Thanksgiving was Adrian orange. Elliot Smith is a really, really, really big one. I'd be lying if I didn't mention him. Sabiel Byer, John Fahey is a really, really big inspiration for me. Six organs of admittance. Yeah, there's just

Valerie Gorham 18:14
a lot. Is there just anything else you want to add or that you didn't get to talk about, that I didn't ask about? No, I think we covered

Christian H 18:20
a lot of it, honestly, thank you for having me on here. I love to talk about my music, and just thanks for everybody for listening to my music. Thank you personally for listening to my music and reaching out and Long live Public Radio. So

Valerie Gorham 18:34
my interview is Christian from Nudi. To recap, it is a one man indie freak folk band with an album coming out March 7. You can find them on Instagram at nudie music, and you can listen to their music on Spotify, until next time. I'm Valerie, and this has been WKNC Off the record podcast. You

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