BR: Hello Nicki, This is Brian Ripple with Bozeman Magazine.

NB: Hi. How Are You?

BR: I am doing just fine, thanks.
How are you doing?

NB: I am good. We (The Gramblers and I)   are just driving from Amarillo TX to Albuquerque.

BR: Cool, so you are out on the road, and you will be here in Bozeman on July 12 for a special show on Live from the Divide at Peach Street Studios, before heading to Big Sky. Is that correct?

NB: Yeah I think that is right. We are stoked. We love Bozeman. I haven’t looked that forward, but I am glad to hear you say Peach Street. That sounds great.

BR: It is cool. It is a nice studio with a performance stage. You have a smaller more intimate audience and they can interact with you and the band to some extent. Maybe ask a few questions or whatever you want…

NB: Cool, we love stuff like that. That is right up our alley. That should be fun.

BR: I know a lot of our readers have heard of your husband Tim’s other band, The Mother Hips. How long have the two of you been playing music together?

NB: Tim and I have been playing music together since 2006 and the band (The Gramblers) was put together in 2008. We have only really been touring hard since 2011 so it has kinda been an organic progression of seriousness until now.

BR: Well it seems like you are hitting a good stride with the band. A lot of people now know who you are due to your “Van Sessions”. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

NB: Just touring. It started from us doing longer tours in our van that didn’t have a radio and bringing little instruments with us. We wanted to show family and friends back home how we spent our day. Everyone sees a live show and we kinda just wanted to show people what happens in between.
It was mostly a way to keep in touch. I think the first one was for Tim, because he wasn’t with us, and it was kinda like “lets show Tim what we are up to.” He must have been out with the Hips or something.
It has now turned into something really fun to do and people like it so it is kinda a nice exchange of energy.

BR: It really adds a personal kind of touch to your band. Letting people see what you do off the stage as a group. I think that is why a lot of people connect with it.

NB: Yeah, I think so. I think people want to hear real music and there is not a lot of ways you can fake it with that low of production. I think people really appreciate that aspect of it.

BR: Tell me about the effect it has had on the bands career and your gigs and your notoriety.

NB: Well, definitely after the big one went kinda viral on Youtube our booking agent was kinda infiltrated with gig offers. So that kinda just sparked the need for us to just get on the road and start doing some more serious touring. Now we had all these people whose interest was heightened in who we were, and we are certainly not a cover band. So it was really important for us to kinda use that energy that had developed from the van sessions and share what we really are about, which is our original music. You know we love cover songs as much as the next person but it was real important for us to get OUR real music out there when we had everybody’s attention.

BR: Well, lets talk about your new CD coming out August 7th. I love the track Ravenous. It reminds me of some great sounding old stuff, even though it is brand new.
When you start the song writing process, do you usually consider the finished sound or tone of the song upon starting the process, or does that typically evolve with the band?

NB: Not in particular. That song was kinda born from a riff that Tim just started playing on the keys, you know that repetitive part, and then I just started singing a melody over it and we were at a rehearsal and the band started playing to it and it was really kinda, you know, organic.
Then Tim and I went back and really dissected it and arranged it and wrote the lyrics. Tim came up with this great concept for the story line and it kinda morphed over a few months until it ended up being what it is on the record.
It is not always that way. Sometimes we’ll write independently of each other and bring a finished song to the band, that the band will learn, you know. It happens a lot of different ways. Ravenous was a bit unique on how it was conceived.

BR: It seems in the press, people have kinda made you out to be a throwback to the 70s. Do you consider yourself this way or do you feel you are more of a modern pop, contemporary type. Where do you classify yourself?

NB: You know I am certainly influenced by older music. I listen pretty much exclusively to vinyl when I am at home. You know the vinyl I have found that is typically cheap tends to be from the 60s and 70s. I will buy a new vinyl if I really like the band, but it is just so easy to get your hands on samples of great records for such a little amount of money.
I don’t think I can deny any of the influence of that, but I certainly you know… I don’t have any musical training or vocal training or anything like that, so I am kinda just trying to do the thing I do the best I can. I don’t think too hard about it. I don’t know how I ended up sounding the way I do. I think it is just a mix of different influences of those old records from the 70s but also like 90s radio. I mean that is really what I grew up listening to in my younger days. That is kinda a strange combination, and that is where the Van Sessions start to pop in too. All those Van Sessions we do are all songs from our childhood. The Madonna and the Whitney Houston, George Michael… There are a lot of different influences, angled influences coming out of us. I think that has sort of crafted what we are, or what I sound like, you know?

BR: Well whatever you are doing, keep it up. It seems to be working. Tell me about the GAP ad campaign.

NB: Honestly it was as simple as my manager calling and saying “now don’t get excited, but the GAP is interested in having you as part of their new campaign”.
And I said “Really, huh, that is interesting.” Cuz I have worn GAP clothes since I was a kid. It was exclusively what I wore as a kid for a period of time.
They ended up saying yeah we want you and it all happened really fast. I flew out to New York with my best friend and did the shoot. Hung out with the Avett Brothers. Went to see their show at Terminal 5 and there I was on the big billboards about a month later. I went to Paris with Tim and we are walking down the street and there was the picture. It was a very fast thing that happened, and very exciting, but not a lot of time to think about it. It just all kinda happened.
It was cool. I can’t say the GAP campaign did anything particularly for the music, but it was something I was honored to be a part of, so that was cool.

BR: Awesome. Well, this upcoming show at Peach Street Studios, for an intimate show like this do you typically play more toned down or do you like to keep it as close to a normal show as possible?

NB: It kinda depends. It depends on the gear and the space and the size of the stage. If we can fit everything, despite it being small, we will do our regular thing. We can definitely adapt. If the stage is really small or the soundboard doesn’t allow for as many inputs or something like that we can definitely be flexible and go acoustic or whatever is necessary. There are a lot of ways we can arrange ourselves to fit into the environment.

BR: Great, well I look forward to seeing you there on July 12. I know it is going to be a great show.

NB: Cool. I look forward to seeing you all there.