Billy McNicol on Drumming, Diversity, and Rocking Louder Than Life

0:04 Hi, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio, and I'm here with. Billy McNichol. Nice, here at Louder Than Life, or as I renamed it today, Hodder Than Life. Yes, it is much... Much humidity. There is a lot of that going on. Oh, yeah, no doubt. So tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and why you're here at Louder Than Life.

0:44 So my name is Billy McNichol. I'm originally from Louisville, Kentucky. I'm an alumni of the University of Louisville. Played drum set. I was like the featured drummer for the University of Louisville Cardinals for the pep band and played yesterday. I'm a drummer and a lead vocalist. I do drums and lead vocals at the same time. Yesterday we played, we brought up the University of Louisville Pet Band with us, and it was an amazing time. It was really, really hot. It was super humid. And we finished our set right before the thunderstorm, so that was really cool. Nice. That's pretty cool. That means somebody was watching over you to make sure you got your whole set in. Yes, sir. It was very divine. Another divine intervention is the fact how God brought my bandmates into my life, my guitarist, Vargov Chowdhury. I'm from Guwahati, India, and my bass is C.J. Wilson from Fairbanks, Alaska. We have a power trio. We do our thing, you know. I do drums and lead vocals at the same time. We collabed with the University of Louisville. We just released a single called Real with them. It is believed that we were the first independent rock group to release a single with a Division I university. Wow. It's been done with bands who have been signed, obviously, Fleetwood Mac and Tusk. OK Go had one about a decade ago with Notre Dame.

2:10 They were both signed to major labels. We were independent. We also did a halftime show with the University of Louisville about two years ago. And we were the first rock group to do a halftime show with the Division I University and the NCAA. So we brought... rock and roll to the NCAA, and yesterday here at Louder Than Life, we brought the NCAA to rock and roll. Yeah, there you go. Now we're a combined force. Oh, listen, thank you for doing what you do and being here. So your bandmates, obviously all from different places here, how'd that happen? How'd you come together?

2:55 We met in Los Angeles, California. I started going out to like open jams and things like that. I wanted to find players to play with. That's how I met CJ Wilson. I met him at an open jam. We vibe so well. It was in Venice beach. He believed in what was going down. He started bringing, he started bringing like recording equipment, things of that nature out to rehearsals. And he saw the vibe. He saw, you know, I could do the vocals at the same time. And he was like, dude, let's, Let's keep pushing. Let's keep pushing. And about a year later, we met a really, really great guitar player, Bargov Chowdhury. He was attending the L.A.

3:35 Musicians Institute there in Hollywood. Yeah, yeah. And now he's teaching there, which is awesome. And so, you know, you hear this a lot. You hear this a lot, you know, about you hear a lot about diversity. And that's one of the great things that I take a lot of pride in with this group is that we're from all different corners of the planet. Yeah. Universal is the ultimate common ground, you know. We're in the making people feel special business, you know. We're in the bringing people together business. So, again, the pleasure is all mine to be playing with these guys. I love it. I love it. And so you're like a serious Louisville musician, homegrown.

4:15 100%. I love it. So what is it that's great about being a musician in Louisville? What are the great? The greatest aspects about being a musician in Louisville and being from Louisville is the fact that there are a lot of really, really amazing bands that have come before us. There is a huge legacy of talent that have come out from this area. I have to be frank and I have to be biased. My family, my dad, my uncles, they had a group called the Rugby's. They were the first rock group. out of Louisville, Kentucky, or actually out of the state of Kentucky, to have a Billboard hit in October of 69 with the Rugby's. They had a song called UI. And there was a lot of competition back then. It was right out of the Woodstock era.

5:05 So we had Led Zeppelin on the charts, Jimi Hendrix, The Temptations, Elvis Presley. And this band out of Louisville, Kentucky, cranks out a number 24 hit. I think it went up to 21 on Cashbox. So there's a lot of heritage, there's a lot of great musicians, and there's a very, very abundant legacy that has come out of this town, and it's an honor to actually be a part of that family tree. Absolutely, and you're carrying the torch well. Thank you so much, Dean. So I also want to ask that somebody that drummed for like nine years, how the hell you sing and drum? Well, my dad did it. So I watched him do it a lot. And so that was one of my favorite things to do as a kid was just like watching him do his thing, you know, because he didn't really give me any formal lessons. I just kind of sat back and I was like, OK, all right. I see what he's doing there. He's got the bass going down on one, and he's hitting the hi-hat at the same time. Now there's a hi-hat in between. Now there's a snare and a hat on, too. It's like, did you ever see the movie Drumline? I'm pretty sure I did. Yeah, like the character that Nick Cannon's playing, he didn't know how to read music. But you see him, he's just watching, and he's watching, and he's watching. That's kind of how I.

6:27 Was when I was a kid. But it's the singing part while doing it. Like, to me, doing drums and anything else is like rubbing your stomach and your head at the same time, man. It's hard, you know, because especially when you're drumming, you're, like, really active. And to be able to be focused on that mic. while drumming and still be like a very active drummer, my mad respect for you. You have to keep yourself in shape. You know, you have to like do a lot of cardio and you have to be mindful about your diaphragm placement and your posture when you're playing. Yeah. And it's, it's a lot of it is, is so pretend you're a marionette, a marionette, like a puppet, right? So you're going down. I don't want to move the microphone to what you're going down and you pretend that you're coming up like that. Somebody has strengths, right? That's kind of how you have to be.

7:19 You have to be graceful with your posture, but utilize your diaphragm. Utilize your diaphragm. You're coming in. It's almost as if you're going to dive underwater for a bit and hold your breath. You've got to be conservative with your breath, but you also have to be mindful and project. That's how you execute it. Wow. Nice, nice. So, ladder to life afterwards, now what are you doing? What are you doing to follow this up? Well, I was planning a world domination. Nice. No, I'm just kidding. No, no. I think you should. I'd like to finish this record that we have going on, and I would like to make some more releases, and just keep it going, keep it pushing.

8:01 Nice. Tell everybody how they can reach out to you on socials, on the web. check out everything you do? It's everywhere. If you just type in my name, Billy McNichol, it'll take you to Spotify or Apple Music. It's everywhere. It's all out there. I love how you have the drum key on your necklace. Oh, thank you. When I got my regional endorsement with Yamaha, when I first got on with them, when I got my kid, I had this key. My dad played Yamaha, so it was very special to me. I took the key and I put it on. This necklace nice is there any other things you want to let the listeners know that we haven't covered already.

8:43 God is good today is a new day yesterday is gone so don't worry about it tomorrow might not even come so live in the now be present love your life. No better words could be said and so thank you for being you thank you for being here at ladder in life and thank you for being on the adventures of pipe man Thank you, brother. Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.