Nardwaur: More Than Just Annoying
It’s quite undeniable the effects YouTube has had on the music industry.
The format has changed the way music aficionados choose to obtain their information, whether it be through music videos, leaked tracks, rare cuts or even live performances.
Though, more than any other of these outlets, it’s the interview that has been revolutionized by YouTube. It’s quite scary. In a simple search you can find anything and everything — from a scarce Led Zeppelin dialogue to a one-of-a-kind backstage question and answer session with Nirvana.
I bring this up f
or one reason and only one reason – Nardwuar the Human Serviette.
If you’re as much a rabid interview watcher as I am, then you definitely know who I’m referring to.
If you are completely clueless to the “Nard,” follow closely.
Ever wonder what you get when you cross a flannel wearing, beret donning, ultra-proud Canadian with the vocal stylings of a prepubescent child that has an astute understanding of the history of music?
The easiest answer would be Nardwaur, a personality from Vancouver, British Columbia who quite possibly is the greatest musician interviewer I have ever seen.
Nardwaur, who has said his name is just “A dumb silly name, like Sting; Human means human, as in Human Fly; and Serviette is something you can’t get in the U.S. because down there they’re called napkins,” not only has an endless knowledge bank that makes him one of kind, but his crazy antics and silly quirks make him extremely entertaining.
The Nard (who’s real name is John Ruskin and is also the lead singer and keyboardist for The Evaporators) interrogates musicians from a broad-spectrum of genres (from hip-hop, indie, rock and funk, etc.) and drills them with arcane questions. His research is second to none. If an artist read a book when they were ten years old and implemented an idea from it in any part of their music, Nardwaur knows about it.
It’s not your standard interview where you’re forced to listen to the same questions rehashed over and over again. The point is you’re always picking up something new, even if you dread the subject being interviewed.
Sure, there are some that don’t necessarily like the way he handles the opportunities he has been given to question some pretty powerful acts in music (including Jay-Z, The Mars Volta, Fleet Foxes and even a 1994 interview with Nirvana just months before the death of Kurt Cobain). However, if you give his unique approach a chance, you’re bound to expand your musical awareness.
Below is my favorite interview conducted by the Nard — a nine-minute chat with N.E.R.D that is some of his best work. Also check out his feature with The Mars Volta and his four-part session with Questlove of The Roots.
P.S. — Keep on rocking the free world and Doot Doola Doot Doo….Doot Doo!
