Nickel Creek celebrate 'Celebrants' in The Current studio
by Mac Wilson
September 09, 2023
Nickel Creek — the string band comprising Sara Watkins, Sean Watkins and Chris Thile — have been delighting audiences since they were in their teens, but with long-running and wide-ranging music careers, they hadn’t released an original album together since 2014.
That changed during the pandemic, when they suddenly got that spark to work together again. The resulting album is Celebrants, released on March 23 of this year.
While Nickel Creek were in town to play a show at the Palace Theatre, they visited The Current studio to play songs and to chat with host Mac Wilson. Watch and listen to the complete session above, and read a transcript below.
Interview Transcript
Mac Wilson: Hello friends, my name is Mac Wilson from The Current, and I have a very special guest in The Current studio: Nickel Creek. Welcome!
Sara Watkins: Hello!
Mac Wilson: Sara Watkins, Chris Thile, Sean Watkins. Welcome back to St. Paul.
Sara Watkins: Thank you.
Chris Thile: So good to be here.
Mac Wilson: So I have a question right off the bat. There's no right or wrong answer. But have you always identified it as "creek" or "crick"? Or does it depend?
Sara Watkins: Always creek!
Sean Watkins: Definitely creek.
Sara Watkins: Yeah.
Sean Watkins: Every time I hear someone say "crick," I think to myself, "I've got to figure out where that comes from." Because you know...
Sara Watkins: It's definitely doesn't come from Southern California, which is where we are from.
Sean Watkins: No, it doesn't come from Southern California.
Chris Thile: That's true. Yeah, generally a bit more creeks than cricks in Southern California.
Mac Wilson: Yeah. Generally the Midwest way, like I thought of the way that Bon Iver sings it, I went back and listened, he goes creek. So I said, "OK, that's the one I'm gonna go with" today.
Chris Thile: (singing) "Down along the creeks..."
Mac Wilson: "The creeks," yeah, so he's very, very clear in saying that. So welcome back to town. I've crossed paths with some of you in various capacities, whether with I'm With Her with Sara or Live From Here with Chris; you've come in with Punch Brothers. Longtime friends of The Current and Minnesota Public Radio, and we're happy to have Nickel Creek in today. And Nickel Creek back in action with the new album Celebrants. Is that the correct pronunciation?
Chris Thile: Nailed it.
Sara Watkins: You're doing great with the pronunciation. So far.
Chris Thile: It's really good.
Mac Wilson: It's one of those things where you work yourself up, and I'm sitting here I'm like, "Is it ce-LEE-brants?" No, it's celebrants."
Chris Thile: Celebrants.
Mac Wilson: So the genesis behind essentially reuniting the band and getting back together for the record, it all comes back to the COVID 19 pandemic, it seems, as always, though the story that I read that you were doing, as we all do these Zoom interviews, and once the Zoom interview ended, you hung on with each other. Can you walk through that chat that you had with each other a bit?
Sean Watkins: This was, I don't even think it was Zoom. I think it was just on the phone.
Sara Watkins: Yeah, it was just on the phone.
Sean Watkins: It was just a—
Sara Watkins: Little conference call.
Sean Watkins: Conference call. Good old-fashioned conference call.
Chris Thile: Old school.
Sean Watkins: We hadn't realized it, but it was our 20th, the 20th anniversary of our first album. And NPR ended up writing a really, really sweet thing about it, and we did an interview for it. And afterwards, we just kind of hung out and we were like, "Hey, this..." It was you know, us being playful again. And you know, we hadn't been on the phone, the three of us for a long time. Yeah, that's kind of what what started the conversation, I think.
Chris Thile: Probably because no one had to say, "You need to unmute yourself." You know? Just like, spirits were high. Just like, "This is going so well. Let's let it ride, make a record!"
Mac Wilson: You hadn't become completely burned out by Zoom interviews yet at that point?
Chris Thile: Well, no, no. I mean, we probably were but since it was an actual conference call, it was just so good.
Sean Watkins: So easy.
Chris Thile: So nice.
Sara Watkins: Yeah.
Chris Thile: That we were like, "Maybe making a record'll be so nice and so easy as well." And it was so nice. It was not so easy. But it was so nice.
Mac Wilson: So a couple of weeks ago, the band Joseph came in, where there are three siblings.
Chris Thile: Oh I love Joseph!
Mac Wilson: Yeah, they're wonderful.
Sara Watkins: Yeah!
Mac Wilson: Wonderful conversation, wonderful band as always. And they were talking about the writing process, how each of them submitted different ideas, and they did collaborate on Zoom through the whole thing. And I asked them, "Did you put together the harmonies on Zoom?" And they said, "No, absolutely not. We actually did do that in person." So how did your writing process go? Like pandemic wise? Did you get together in person? Or were you putting together these incredibly intricate instrumental parts on Zoom?
Sara Watkins: No, I mean, there was no Zoom as a part of this whole process. And we were able to, because of the pandemic, we were able to be together. Our schedules were obliterated, and...
Chris Thile: We tested and quarantined and did the whole nine.
Sara Watkins: Yeah, we lived at a friend's house for the first two weeks, and then just in the L.A. area for another two and laid the foundation, like built the foundation of what we collectively in that time decided this record, what we wanted from this record. Certain goals that we had in terms of flow and arc and returning themes, and some sonic aspirations that we had. And also in that time period, we were able to talk to Eric Valentine, and ask him to come back from retirement and produce the record with us — for us — as well as Mike Elizondo, who plays bass on the record and also had, he's got his fingerprints on a lot of these songs.
Mac Wilson: Very cool. Sorry, Sean, what were you going to say?
Sara Watkins: Did I interrupt you?
Sean Watkins: No, no, no, I had a thought, and so I took a breath. But then I forgot my thought, my thought when you... I think I was gonna say that we spent, you know, it was the first time we'd ever spent that much time writing by far. We spent a solid month together. And we only took Sundays off, I think, maybe. And we would work from like, 10 to 5 or something, you know? Pretty, you know, solid schedule, and that's just something we've never had time to do before.
Chris Thile: Yeah, it was something like that. So we got to lay the foundation for all the songs together as opposed to people coming in with like a, you know, a pretty well-formed thing going, "Is this a Nickel Creek song?" Instead it was, we were able to make the Nickel Creek songs all together, really for the first time.
Sean Watkins: We sort of, like, poured the foundations for all of them. And then they kind of came up separately.
Sara Watkins: All the songs.
Sean Watkins: Yeah, all the songs, versus, like, finishing one song, moving on to the next.
Chris Thile: We would do individual work on on things for a while and then come back together and do more. So it was, as they both said, it's by far the most time that we've ever spent making a record.
Sean Watkins: And because we did that, because we started, you know, at the base level, you know, I keep making this like house reference, but because we started, you know, with like a foundation, we were able to be more nimble and incorporate elements from certain, you know, from songs into other songs, which was really fun. And that's something you can't do if you arrive with a fully formed song. But if it's, if it's barely there, a baby song, then you can play with it, and...
Chris Thile: Or you'd have to, like, graft it on in way that wouldn't feel natural. There's a little magic that can happen when when you're composing a large body of material together, then you can, you just seed little things throughout. You pick themes that seem important, both musical and lyrical, and flesh them out, recontextualize them as they go, so that they develop more; like, kind of more facets, more, there's just more nuanced meaning over the course of, you know, the record's about an hour.
Mac Wilson: So from what I'm hearing, like going back 20 years to the beginning of the band, this is almost like harkening back to like a CD that you would go out and buy and it's almost meant to be listened to in one piece.
Sara Watkins: One hundred percent.
Mac Wilson: Rather than on shuffle on Spotify or other streaming platforms. This is a cohesive body of work that all these songs are speaking to each other. This is the impression I get.
Sara Watkins: One hundred percent. And we know that a lot of people will, on purpose or on accident, listen to the album in shuffle, which is the nature of streaming.
Chris Thile: Yeah! Which is fine...
Sara Watkins: But we made the effort. We decided that regardless, we wanted it to be its best self or be its fullest vision of itself, with the sequence and with these lovely little connective tones and chords and notes that really set up the next song. And so if you listen on shuffle, it might sound like a certain given song starts very abruptly. Because it's completely connected to the previous song, but we just decided it was worth it to have this kind of, this greater vision.
Chris Thile: Isn't it funny how often the streaming services just sort of accidentally kick into shuffle mode? And they're just in it.
Sean Watkins: I find it's hard to get it to not be shuffle.
Chris Thile: Yeah, yeah.
Sean Watkins: It's also like, that's a way that it could have affected our songwriting a lot. Like Spotify could have affected our songwriting had we chosen to just appease the assumption that it's going to be in shuffle or individual songs, you know? And I think that it affects a lot of music in not positive ways, but I'm sure some positive ways, too.
Mac Wilson: It's funny, we're talking about Spotify in Zoom. Let's go back a couple of decades now. Now you've been together as a band for a very long time, back to when you were very, very young. And Sean, you made the remark a few moments ago about how you had more time to work on this record than other ones. If you were going back 20 years, when you were relatively fresh, did it feel like you were being rushed? Or did you have like other people like giving you a lot of the inputs, so to speak, on what they needed Nickel Creek to sound like 20 years ago?
Chris Thile: I think you're just in a hurry when you're young. You just want things to, you just need everything to happen all at once. And it's, you don't have as much patience for the process. You just can't wait for the thing to be a song. And you get it there as fast as you can! And you can't wait for the thing to be a record. And, and yeah, so I don't think it's natural for that, for it to, to go quicker when you're younger; you're just metabolism, your creative metabolism is faster.
Sean Watkins: Also, we weren't really writing together, you know, especially for the first couple albums. We were just bringing the songs. It was like, "Do you like it? Or don't you like it?" You know? And it would be a simple yes or no. Until this one day a producer we were going to work with but didn't told us, he said, "You guys should write together," and we thought, "Oh OK, that's cool. But how's that work?" And he was like — because we were thinking, our thinking at the time was like, "What if I liked his verse, but I don't like the chorus? Then are we going to break up as a band?" And this producer was like, "You know, you can like little elements of some someone's song and not like the rest of it. And it's OK." And we were like, minds blown, you know? So that started us writing together. And my point is that, like, when you're writing separately, it's easier to just, it's like, "Do you like this song or not? Let's do it or not do it," you know? And this was we really, you know, we really had to work hard together. And, you know, we all believed that like, if one person isn't 100% happy, then we'll keep working at it and find a better way. And that, you know, you end up with something that you really like, but it takes a lot time.
Mac Wilson: You're all longtime friends and siblings and collaborators with...
Sara Watkins: Sean and I are very longtime siblings!
Mac Wilson: Very longtime siblings.
Sean Watkins: Longtime siblings.
Mac Wilson: So the point that I'm trying to make is that you all get along well, you work with each other on different records. But I'm thinking about the different projects that you've been involved in; the example I came up with is like, Sean, for instance, when you're at home in the evening, are you like, I'm going to dial up Punch Brothers tonight? Is that, like, is that something that you dive into?
Chris Thile: Yeah, Sean, do you?
Mac Wilson: Or Chris, do you listen to I'm With Her on a regular basis?
Sean Watkins: I think yeah, we definitely listen to it. Yeah, I check out all my friends' stuff when when they put it out. I'm excited to, you know, give 'em a few spins on the old streaming. But yeah, I mean, we're excited about each other's work, and it's fun to see each other work in different scenarios, you know, and see how their music, the music they make, evolves, you know, with other people.
Mac Wilson: And speaking of I'm With Her, Sara, you've got Aoife O'Donovan on the road with you, which is really exciting as always. How has been the experience of welcoming her back into the fold of what you do?
Sara Watkins: Oh, we all just immediately just went to her dressing room and hung out for like 12 minutes and ate all of her snacks. And caught up. That's been the hang so far.
Chris Thile: Why is it everyone else's rider is so delicious?
Sara Watkins: I know! Her hummus is way better than our hummus.
Chris Thile: Yeah, what's going on? Also her LaCroix just has like this extra sparkle.
Sara Watkins: Extra fizz, too, right? Yeah. It's a joy to be able to tour with our friends. We had Gaby Moreno out on this tour as well.
Chris Thile: Hawktail.
Sean Watkins: Monica Martin.
Sara Watkins: Monica Martin was just out with us. It's so fun to get to hang out with our friends and to hear them at night, hear them every evening, you know, when they're playing with us.
Sean Watkins: Also like genuinely huge fans of all these people.
Sara Watkins: Yeah!
Chris Thile: We're very hands-on in the Opening Acts Curation Department! It's just like, when it's an evening, you know, you're presenting an evening to the people who, you know, you're fortunate enough to have attracted into the theater, and you want to take care of them. You want to make sure it's an evening of music that you really, really believe in. And so when someone like Aoife or Monica or Hawktail or Gaby, you know, I'm always tempted not to be practicing but rather to be on the side of the stage checking it out. You know, so that's a problem!
Sean Watkins: Yeah.
Chris Thile: But I figured it out! I listen to one or two and then I go back practice.
Sean Watkins: And then the next night you peek in in the middle of the set.
Chris Thile: Yeah, in the middle, and then you know, yeah, you catch the whole set over the course of an opening act run.
Mac Wilson: We are in The Current studio with Nickel Creek: Sara, Chris, Sean, thank you again for stopping by today. Thank you for playing some songs. And I'm glad that all of your schedules were able to align and we were able to make this happen today. I'm sure you're you're just as glad.
Sara Watkins: Yes, thanks for having us.
Chris Thile: Well, and keep fighting the good fight here. The Current is just a — no brown nosing, I promise I'm not brown nosing — but The Current is a very special place. You guys are rockin' it. Thank you.
Mac Wilson: Well, thank you very much. Thanks again for coming in.
Sean Watkins: Thank you.
Video Segments
00:00:00 Going Out…
00:02:59 Where The Long Line Leads
00:06:26 Holding Pattern
00:09:35 Interview with host Mac Wilson
All songs from Nickel Creek’s 2023 album, Celebrants, released through Thirty Tigers.
Musicians
Chris Thile – mandolin, vocals
Sara Watkins – vocals, fiddle, guitar
Sean Watkins – vocals, guitar
Jeff Picker – bass, vocals
Credits
Guests – Nickel Creek
Host – Mac Wilson
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video Director – Evan Clark
Camera Operators – Evan Clark, Peter Ecklund
Audio – Derek Ramirez
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor
External Link
Nickel Creek – official site