The Comateens member — AKA Nic North and Nic West — chats about founding the '70s new wave/punk band with Ramona Jan and the artistic merits of a challenging time for New York City.
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The Spotlight shines On musician and songwriter Nicholas Dembling, aka Nic North, aka Nic West, of seminal New York CIty New Wave Pop band, Comateens.
The New York that birthed Comateens was in the midst of a particularly vibrant musical moment. There was new music everywhere. Jazz cats were staging loft concerts in pre-glitz SOHO. The punks and no wavers were holding court on the Lower East Side. Philip Glass and the minimalists were premiering new works and way up in the Bronx, hip hop was coming on strong.
Nic was working at New York’s MediaSound recording studio where he and co-worker Ramona Lee Jan began to write songs together. With necessity as the mother of invention, Nic and Ramona began to play gigs with only a bass, a guitar and an electronic rhythm box, so that the band and its equipment could fit into one New York City taxi cab. This self-imposed constraint led to the original Comateens, a concept shared by Alan Vega and Martin Rev, who were doing something with a similar lineup with their duo, Suicide.
Nic takes us through both his and Comateens musical upbringing and development, as well as how he is documenting and preserving the band’s legacy.
(the musical excerpts heard in the interview are taken from the Comateen's reissued 1979 single "Danger Zone"/"Elizabeth's Lover")
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00:00 Welcome to Spotlight On: A Journey into Music and Arts
00:35 Spotlight Shines on Nic Dembling: The Musical Journey Begins
00:47 The Vibrant Musical Scene of New York City
01:10 The Birth of Comateens: Innovation Out of Necessity
03:45 Nic Dembling's Musical Influences and Creative Drive
05:05 The Unique Dynamics of Nic and Ramona's Collaboration
11:02 The Evolution of Comateens and Their Legacy
19:27 The Art of Preserving a Musical Legacy
26:11 Reflecting on Technology, Creativity, and the Future
28:35 A Personal Journey Through New York's Artistic Landscape
33:34 Closing Thoughts and Future Endeavors
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Check out the exhaustive Comateens archive at https://comateens.com
Listen to the Comateens' 1979 single "Danger Zone"/"Elizabeth's Lover" on Bandcamp → https://comateens.bandcamp.com/album/danger-zone
Follow Comateens on Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/comateens
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/comateensnyc
and YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/user/comateensnyc
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