Nixon Boyd and the propulsive folk sunshine and indie rock mirrors of "Trouble of Your Own" (Official Visualizer)

 

"How much patience did it take / To let me whine away / And keep quiet the whole time..."

The propulsive folk sunshine and indie rock mirrors of "Trouble of Your Own", by Toronto singer-songwriter / musician / producer Nixon Boyd, runs, bobs and weaves in forever ways. The magnetic rhythms, percussive heartbeats, stirring guitar melodies, generational genre blending and Boyd's youthful vocal countenance laced with melancholia can feel as much like a late 60's or 70's folk rocker as it does utterly fresh. Boyd expertly navigates the broad classic folk pop sense against emo folk and early / mid aughts indie rock iterations that reshaped the indie music landscape. I mean, while listening, I felt an amalgam of Elliot Smith circa Figure Eight (specifically L.A.), a smattering of Nick Drake and George Harrison (If Not for You) and even Andy Shauf (no particular song in mind) or maybe splinters of scattered light from all of that iconography together both artistically but maybe, more so, attitudinally. 

Boyd shares this about the track:

"This song took years to write. I had the title and basic chords in my back pocket forever, knowing I would use it for my solo record when I finally had time to make it. But I didn’t really have the arrangement worked out, and I put off writing the lyrics forever because it was about a close friend’s suicide attempt and I don’t think I had the faith in myself that I could lyricize the story with enough grace and honesty. When I did finally start to tackle the lyrics, I worked on them every day for a month, and I still feel like they could be better but I think I came close to getting it right. They talk about realizing that I was totally oblivious to the distress my friend was in, and that I was so focused on my own problems that I failed to see that they were having a way bigger problem. Musically there’s a lot of motion here, a lot of ups and downs in the melody, and to me it reflects the opposing feelings that I tried to capture in the lyrics - guilt for not being a better friend in one hand, and on the other hand, a kind defensive anger. One voice that says 'this is all my fault', and another that tries to shake off responsibility for what happened."

Sonically / dynamically rich, comforting in it's embrace, I could see "Trouble Of Your Own" playing at the end of a movie where the characters have been through the wringer but come out all the better for it.

-Robb Donker Curtius

LYRICS

How much patience did it take
To let me whine away
And keep quiet the whole time

Was it clear I’d never dig
Was it so obvious
That you could look me in the eye

And say you’ve got trouble of your own
You don’t need no trouble of mine

How was I supposed to know
I was clearly so
Underqualified

To catch the pain behind the act
By a cunning diplomat
About to cut ties

Saying you’ve got trouble of your own
you don’t need no trouble of mine

So how much patience did it take
To let me whine away
knowing I would not realize

That you can scream a cry for help
With a scream turned inside out
And then look me in the eye

And say you’ve got trouble of your own
you don’t need no trouble of mine






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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6uCdumKzVD3qp3gOH9QwSM

https://www.instagram.com/nixonboyd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwHIPqTbK9s

https://www.facebook.com/nick.boyd.967


After his car was broken into and his laptop containing all of his ongoing musical projects was stolen, Nixon Boyd faced a choice. He could accept fate, give up, and move on, or he could begin re-recording everything note-by-note. Luckily, he chose the latter.




Nixon Boyd, Toronto Canada, singer-songwriter, composer, producer, "Trouble of Your Own" (Official Visualizer), solo project, recording artist, recording studio collaborator / owner, folk, emo, indie rock,