People of the Pop!
Interview #2: Nichola Scurry
Another week means another interview for you all to check out. Who is on deck for today? It’s none other than Nichola Scurry!
Charlie: Which song has been stuck in your head lately?
Nichola: As it’s December, I’ve got my Christmas playlist on. “Backdoor Santa” by Clarence Carter is a rockin’ Christmas tune I play on repeat. I recommend it to those of you looking for a funky Christmas.
C: You hail from Australia and I see you’ve written a lot about your homeland. Is there a particular artist from there you think deserves to be bigger and have more worldwide recognition?
N: Roland S Howard.
At the age of 16, Howard wrote the Australian cult hit “Shivers” for his band, the Young Charlatans. Howard then joined the Boys Next Door (later known as the Birthday Party) and the band re-recorded “Shivers”, this time with Howard on guitar and Nick Cave performing vocals. Many credit “Shivers” with setting Cave on the path to international stardom, although both musicians later distanced themselves from the song.
Howard was known for his discordant guitaring and was one of the pioneers in the Australian post-punk scene. Bands like Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine credit Howard for influencing their style.
Howard was a musical genius — creative, romantic, and fragile. Tragically, he passed away at age 50 in 2009. He’d been getting ready to support the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on their Australian tour.
“Rowland was Australia’s most unique, gifted, and uncompromising guitarist.” Nick Cave
C: You have a whole story dedicated to International Tea Day. I’m a huge tea drinker myself, so I gotta know — what does your ideal cup of tea consist of?
N: I love a nice strong tea, like an English breakfast with just a splash of milk and no sugar. If you need sugar, have a chocolate biscuit with your tea.
C: You moved from Australia to Spain at the start of the pandemic. In your piece about it, you describe your pull toward Barcelona as too much to wait till things calmed down more. Why that city? What is it about Barcelona that made it where you have to be?
N: I’d been visiting Barcelona every second summer since 2014. I loved the weather, the culture, the fact you have both the sea and mountains nearby, the expat community and other people you meet, learning Spanish (even though the locals speak Catalan), the size of the city (walkable, not too big and not too small), and being able to live a fun life on a small budget. Also, unlike Australia, I can visit a bunch of different countries with a fairly cheap flight and just a couple hours in the air.
So instead of taking a few months off my Australian job every second summer, I decided to look for work in Barcelona and live here permanently, at least for a few years. I ended up getting a job offer in 2020, so I moved over.
C: I found your article about Generation Jones fascinating. That is the time period in which my parents were born, and I’ve never really known how to classify them (not that we need to). It put a lot into perspective, and also made me relate as I think I, too, was born during a weird, transitional time as well. Generally, we seem so obsessed with where we place on the human timeline. Why do you think we’re so preoccupied with generations, to begin with? Do you think these distinctions are more helpful or harmful or somewhere in between?
N: I don’t think we should pigeonhole people just by the decade in which they were born. There’s so much more to all of us than our year of birth. But I do think there’s something about shared cultural and political events, especially the ones that occur when we’re coming of age, that shape us. They might shape us with different opinions and life trajectories, but I reckon there is an influence.
C: What is the best movie you’ve watched recently?
N: I enjoyed Nomadland. If you’re not familiar with the film, it’s about a widow (played by Frances McDormand) who travels the US while living in her van. I’m torn between the freedom of being on the road and living a minimalist life and the sadness that some people are forced to live in their cars because that’s all they can afford.
C: You seem to be a fan of podcasts, I am too! Which one would you recommend people listen to right now?
N: For music lovers, Sombrero Fallout is brilliant. Every couple of weeks, Ian Deeker Forth presents a playlist of excellent songs (mostly alternative music) centered around different themes — kind of like some of our music writing challenges here on PoP!
C: I enjoyed your writing about Very Special Episodes of television, a bygone staple of cable’s golden days. Tell me, if you had to create your own Very Special Episode, what would it be about? I imagine at some point you’d yell at your parent, “I learned it from you!”
N: When I was little, I imagined I was the star of a soap opera called Nichola (kind of like The Truman Show) and there was a camera following me around filming my very boring life. In one Very Special Episode, I got a bit of broken plate in my foot that my dad dropped while washing the dishes. My mum had to pry it out with tweezers, and I howled and thought to myself, “This is the worst thing that’s happened to me in my entire life!” If only.
C: It’s so important to not become inundated with all the doom and gloom of the 24/7 news cycle. You discussed this a bit when talking about the topics you try to avoid when online. So, what is the reverse? What topic do you see and instantly click on?
N: If the story is by one of my favourite writers, I barely notice the title and click on it right away. For writers I don’t know, I usually click on topics related to pop culture, personal stories, and anything that sounds funny.
C: Lastly, what has your time on Medium meant to you?
N: I’ve loved “meeting” other writers, especially the music writers. They are a very nice bunch who have expanded my music repertoire. Also, the regular contributors to the smaller publications I follow. If any of you are ever in Barcelona, I’d love to have a coffee with you!
You can check out more of Nichola’s writing in all of the links below:
Please join us next week for our third interviewee, make sure to give Nichola’s work some love, and rock on!