One of our favourite compilation albums of the year was Mélodie de Nelson: A Pop Anthology – a career retrospective of US singer-songwriter, Nelson Bragg, who has been a fixture of the L.A. guitar pop scene since the early noughties – he moved there in 1999 – and, for 14 years, was a percussionist and vocalist in the Brian Wilson Band.
Focusing mostly on power pop and folk rock, the collection is full of super-melodic songs that are influenced by the classic sounds of The Byrds, The Beach Boys and The Kinks, as well as the ’80s indie-rock of R.E.M. and The Smithereens, and early solo records by Bob Mould (Husker Du, Sugar). Bragg also cites Squeeze and XTC as influences.
Mélodie de Nelson: A Pop Anthology, which is on the California-based label, Big Stir Records, includes some of the highlights from Bragg’s three solo albums: Day Into Night (2006), We Get What We Want (2012) and Gratitude Blues (2021), as well as a brand-new track, We’re Gonna Laugh About It – a personal song that talks about his life in the ‘70s and ’80s, but also comes bang up to date to comment on the difficult times in America.
In an exclusive interview, Bragg talks Say It With Garage Flowers through some of the tracks on the new compilation and reflects on his time playing with Brian Wilson, who died in June this year.
“I wanted to leave the ballads, the Americana and the super-sensitive songs behind and focus on the mid-tempo, folk-rock and power-pop songs,” he tells us. “They hang together well on a compilation like this, and I think a lot of people prefer those songs over my singer-songwriter stuff – it makes for a nice listen.”
It certainly does…
Q&A
Let’s talk about your new compilation album, Mélodie de Nelson: A Pop Anthology. I love the title, which is a cheeky nod to Serge Gainsbourg…
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – I kinda had to do it, because the name ‘Nelson’ isn’t anywhere else, except Willie Nelson or the Nelson Brothers… My name is from the ‘60s and the artwork on the cover of the record and the CD is very abstract European – I wanted the whole thing to look very impressionist, and that worked well with the title.
For this album, you wanted to concentrate on your power-pop, pop and folk-rock songs. How did the idea of doing a compilation record come about?
Nelson Bragg: Yeah. I was at the home of Christina Bulbenko [Big Stir Records], hanging out – I think it was on New Year’s Eve – and the subject of doing something with them came up. I said, ‘I don’t really write songs much anymore, but maybe I could do a covers record.’ But they were like, ‘We can’t do that because it would be a lot of licensing money…’ I said, ‘Sure…’ and then they said: ‘What do you think of doing an anthology or a Best Of?’
And I said, ‘Well, I’ve only done three records…’ It seemed a little presumptuous, but, ultimately, my three records came out in like a 20-year window, so, because of that much time, doing a compilation that represents only three records wasn’t weird at all. If I’d put out a record out in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and then put a compilation out in 2010, that would be weird… So, these songs are new to almost everybody – it’s like a new record.
I wanted to leave the ballads, the Americana and the super-sensitive songs behind and focus on the mid-tempo, folk-rock and power-pop songs. They hang together well on a compilation like this, and I think a lot of people prefer those songs over my singer-songwriter stuff – it makes for a nice listen.
You said you hadn’t been writing any new songs, but there is a brand-new song on the record – We’re Gonna Laugh About It, which was the first single to be released from it, digitally. Was that song inspired by Squeeze melodically?
Nelson Bragg: I think so – it’s definitely Difford and Tilbrook, and it also sounds like Andy Partridge [XTC]. It’s a little bit of both – and, as you get into the song, it’s The Smithereens as well. It’s just a power-pop song… When you do an anthology, you have to have one new song for the label, so I agreed to write one and I was amazed that it turned out as well as it did.
It’s a personal song, as it talks about your life in the ‘70s and ’80s – your reflections and memories – but it also deals with contemporary issues…
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – the last verse brings us up to date and is about the status of my country right now. It’s very short – it’s not a whole bunch of words – but it says that we will reach a time where we’re going to laugh about what happened in this country.
I hate to say that we’re going to laugh about all the people that died from COVID-19 because the government decided to ignore it and the remedies, and they were vaccination deniers… I don’t laugh about the people who’ve been deported or will be deported… but, ultimately, a day will come when we will breathe a heavy sigh of relief.
Forever Days, which is on the compilation, is one of my favourite songs of yours. It was written a long time ago for your band Farmhouse, who were from Massachusetts, wasn’t it?
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – it was written in ’92 and it was the first really good song that I wrote for me – you know, my style. I’d written songs for bands that I was in, which were in the style of those bands, and they were good ones, but that was the first song that I ever wrote that was like, ‘I’m on to what I’m going to sound like in the future’ – it was the future of my writing style. There’s a certain kind of folky, Americana vibe about it with the lyrics: ‘Counting steps from Rocky Hill to the farmhouse door.’
It has an R.E.M feel…
Nelson Bragg: R.E.M. were very influential in my life back then, no question. The Document and Green records were definitely a huge influence on my writing, as well as Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple.
‘Forever Days was written in ’92 and it was the first really good song that I wrote for me – my style’
Forever Days is a song about a long-distance love affair…
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – the days are long when you’re away from the one you love…
So, did you that song come out commercially when you were in Farmhouse?
Nelson Bragg: We did a cassette – we maybe did 300 of them… This was in Northampton, Massachusetts – a great music town… We never released anything other than that. So, it did come out commercially, but only on a cassette. And then fast forward 15 years, and it came out on my first record.
Is it one of your favourite songs of yours?
Nelson Bragg: Most definitely.
I’m In No Mood, from the compilation, has an R.E.M. feel as well – it’s that jangly, 12-string guitar sound…
Nelson Bragg: I would have to say that I’m In No Mood is probably the most R.E.M. thing I ever did – it’s gratuitously R.E.M, but, back then, these songs got written and they accidentally sounded like R.E.M…
That thing that happened with so many bands after R.E.M – they came out in the early ‘80s and the whole college-rock / indie-rock movement was almost spearheaded by them, and 1,000 bands were born because of that band. That sound was invented by R.E.M, and then accidentally adopted by all of us.
‘I’m In No Mood is probably the most R.E.M. thing I ever did – it’s gratuitously R.E.M!’
There’s one cover version on the album – She Used To Love Me, which is a song by The Green Pajamas that’s originally called My Mad Kitty. Is that a song you love?
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – I couldn’t believe it when I first heard it. I took out the title of the song – the refrain ‘My Mad Kitty’ that they sing – and I retitled it She Used To Love Me. It was just my preference – I felt like I didn’t really want that element in the song, even though it’s cool as hell…
Jeff Kelly [The Green Pajamas] was really nice about me doing it – he’s just one of the great unsung heroes of pop music in this country. He’s so prolific – he’s done over 40 records. It’s an incredible odyssey of 40 years of music. They started in ‘82 and they’re still putting out new music – it’s amazing.
Death of Caroline, which is on the CD and the streaming version of the album, but not on the vinyl, is a great song. It’s like the Beach Boys doing baroque pop and Americana – there’s pedal steel on it…
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – that one and a song called Every Minute of the Day were both influenced by Brian Wilson, as was Whitechapel Girl.
You wrote Whitechapel Girl with Thomas Walsh of Pugwash, while you were in Portobello, London. It was a song you recorded on a portable device, lost and rediscovered 10 years later. You had to piece it together…
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – I found it on this little digital recorder – there were tiny fragments of ideas, and I said, ‘I think there’s a song there…’ Thomas and I had just created enough music for me to actually kind of hear a song.
I knew the subject was going to be about this girl that I was with for a while – she grew up in Whitechapel, which is part of East London, and I needed songs… That was when I was doing my third record, and I almost ran out of music. Thomas said it was like the raising of the Titanic in songwriting, but when I put the fragments together in GarageBand the whole song was there. I couldn’t have done it without Thomas.
It’s a very English-sounding song – like The Beatles and The Kinks – but with a bit of The Beach Boys as well. There’s also a touch of The Bee Gees…
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – the song was most definitely Ray Davies and the Bee Gees. It’s that sort of Carnaby Street music – a music hall kind of thing. I had all these old instruments on it, like a dulcimer, a calliope, a harpsichord and a keyboard with a carousel sound.
You mentioned The Smithereens earlier… Your song The Last Girl I Ever Loved, which is one of the moodier and heavier tracks on the compilation, is, musically, a tribute to Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens, isn’t it?
Nelson Bragg: Yeah, most definitely – in every way possible. I sing like him on the song… I loved Pat – he was a good guy and a great artist.
Were The Smithereens a big influence on you in the early days?
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – I couldn’t believe that band… I liked every song and they were in the middle of the ‘80s, but they didn’t look or sound ‘80s… I was amazed at how successful they became, but their songs were so good that no one could ignore them. They proved that it doesn’t matter how you are aesthetically, if you have great songs that’s all you need.
You’re a keen record buyer, aren’t you?
Nelson Bragg: I’m definitely known for my record-buying habits – I like crate digging in old record stores, getting my hands filthy dirty. I love that process – it’s really exciting to me. I don’t always buy something, but that’s fine – when you do buy something, it’s even better…
We mentioned The Beach Boys earlier… I was sad to hear about the passing of Brian Wilson this year. When did you first start playing with him?
Nelson Bragg: I was with him from 2003 to 2017 – 14 years.
How did you first get involved?
Nelson Bragg: I got it through a friend – Darian [Sahanaja – Wondermints, Brian Wilson]. Mike D’Amico, the percussionist, was unable to tour that year [2003] – but he re-joined later as the main drummer. I replaced him as the percussionist / vocalist on the advice of a couple of friends in the band.
‘I’m definitely known for my record-buying habits – I like crate digging in old record stores, getting my hands filthy dirty’
Have Brian and The Beach Boys always been a part of your life? Did you grow up with their music?
Nelson Bragg: Actually – no. I grew up in the ‘70s and I knew the songs because they were on the radio, but I was never a fan of the music… and then in the ‘90s I heard the Smile bootleg tapes, and those really turned my head.
I moved to L.A. in ’99 and discovered all these people that were playing with Brian, and I investigated much more of his solo music, as well as Pet Sounds and Smile, and found out that it was important stuff. So, I was a late bloomer as far as being a Beach Boys fan.
What are your memories of playing with Brian? It must’ve changed your life…
Nelson Bragg: Yeah – playing with Brian Wilson is a life-changing event. When I posted my eulogy for him [online], I talked about how I paid my dues for so many years – 25 years of playing the drums – and I would’ve played for 35 or 45 years because I was determined that something was going to be my break – where I could make a living professionally – and it was that gig in 2003 that gave me that break…
‘Playing with Brian Wilson is a life-changing event’
It was a beautiful thing, and knowing Brian was wonderful – he was a great guy. He was very much all about love – the classic love and peace kind of guy in the ‘60s. He was a very spiritual and intuitive person, and I was surrounded by and immersed in those incredible songs.
And you got to play them live each night…
Nelson Bragg: I travelled around the world, going to cities and towns and countries that I’ve never been to before, for 14 years.
We played the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and Glastonbury. That was why I started playing music in 1978, so that one day I would do those things.
Mélodie de Nelson: A Pop Anthology is available now on Big Stir Records.
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