Nick's Bio

Born on December 27th, 1977 at Coupeville General Hospital on Whidbey Island in Washington state, Nick's musical talents lay dormant until taking a semester of choir at South Whidbey High School. At age eighteen, Nick bought his first bass guitar from childhood friend Paul Sarkis and almost immediately formed the grindcore/rap metal band SUBATOMIC with childhood friend Jesse Hall on vocals and Ryan Kirkham on drums. Nick also took bass lessons from local teacher and guitarist David Licastro. SUBATOMIC broke up within a year and after a brief hiatus, Nick was back playing bass with MOLLYCODDLE, a group of high school friends including Darrin Watkins, Barlow Payne and Michael Zuver. The group fizzled with a lack of original
material and once again Nick was back in the woodshed, emulating such childhood idols as Flea, Paul D'amour and Les Claypool. In 2000 Nick met guitarist Gary Timmerman and the foundation was laid for HAND OVER FIST, which shuffled drummers Michael O'Brien and Aaron Leyva before adding rhythm guitarist Tyler Reid and re-forming as SHOGONII. The proverbial "musical differences" and personal changes led to the group's demise in 2004. In early 2005 Nick hooked up with Jason Smith (rhythm guitar) and Caleb Cate (drums), who's previous band, FUSELAGE, had recently broken up. They began jamming and soon after added Timmerman to the mix. Wanting to go in a different musical direction than in the past, Nick decided to make the jump to lead vocalist and the results were almost immediate. The band,rechristened DAMNITAHL, cut a five song demo at 12th Fret studios with friend and neighbor Steve Trembley and played a few local gigs. The word was put out that the band was in need of a permanent bassist, and guitarist Rick Hill, formerly of SHIKSHADLE and POTBELLY, solidified the lineup. Nick currently lives in Langley on Whidbey Island and practices his vocal, bass, guitar and keyboard skills on a daily basis.
VOCAL GEAR: Monster cables, Sennheiser microphones, OnStage stands, Rolling Rock beer
VOCAL INFLUENCES: Maynard James Keenan, D. Randall Blythe, Cookie Monster, Mike Patton, Tom Araya, Glenn Benton, Zorak