Nickel Creek shakes things up

Rick Rubin would seem like one of the most unlikely producers for a group like Nickel Creek. While Rubin gained acclaim in recent years for his work with the late Johnny Cash, he is best known for producing a variety of heavy rock bands and rap acts, including System Of A Down, Slayer and the Beastie Boys.

Nickel Creek, meanwhile, came up through the bluegrass scene, after the three San Diego natives — Watkins, mandolin player Chris Thile and Watkins’ sister, fiddle player Sara Watkins — met in 1989 at a local eatery, That Pizza Place, which sponsored a weekly bluegrass night. And while the trio’s music has since branched far beyond that style, their melodic acoustic sound is about as far afield as one can get from the pulverizing death metal of Slayer.

In the end, Rubin did not produce the new Nickel Creek CD, Why Should The Fire Die? Still, guitarist Sean Watkins credits him with spurring the group to take steps that played a critical role in improving the final results on the CD.

“Rick Rubin told us, he listened to a bunch of songs one time, but he’s like, ‘They’re really great, but I think you should co-write and then you should also be each other’s critics,’” said Watkins, who, at 28, is four years older than his bandmates. “We’d never done that before. That really helped a lot. That was the main factor in the songwriting getting better.”

Watkins stopped short of saying whether Nickel Creek actually wanted Rubin to produce the record, but it’s clear he was under consideration.

“I’m not sure if that’s something I should talk about,” Watkins said. “We were talking for a little while, but there were schedules and it doesn’t always work out. But we met with him a few times and we gained a lot of useful information.”

The group, as it turned out, had more time than planned to consider Rubin’s suggestion.

“We tried to make the record for like two years,” the guitarist said. “And there were a bunch of hang-ups with producers and situations just kind of didn’t pan out. The good thing is it gave us a lot more time to write some extra songs and talk to more people, to write together more. Most of the songs came about a few months prior [to recording]. There is a whole batch of songs that we had a year before, and I don’t think any of them made it on the record. So it was really good, a blessing in disguise.”

In the end, five songs co-written in various combinations by the three members of Nickel Creek made Why Should the Fire Die?, while six of the remaining eight songs were written individually by one of the group members.

The internal critiquing, Watkins said, also representing a shift from previous practices within Nickel Creek.

“Actually, a lot of that has to do with Glen Phillips, too,” Watkins said, mentioning the former Toad The Wet Sprocket frontman, who, in 2004, joined forces with Nickel Creek to tour and record under the band name Mutual Admiration Society. “We showed him a bunch of songs one time to see what he thought. He said, you know you guys are allowed to critique your songs.

“Before, if more of it [a song] was good than bad, then it was something we did,” Watkins said. “It was never like the chorus needs a lot of work. So it was really natural the way it started. We just got with each other and said, OK, we’re all on the same page here. Nobody’s going to get their feelings hurt. We’re just going to talk about how could we [make the songs better]. Everybody was open-minded and nobody was defensive about stuff … You kind of get used to it as a good thing. Then it’s really easy to be creative together.”

The production on Why Should the Fire Die? also plays a key part in the quality of the CD. The conversations with Rubin show that the members of Nickel Creek were thinking outside of the box, after having had bluegrass star Alison Krauss produce their first two CDs — 2000’s Nickel Creek and 2002’s This Side. The latter CD won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album.

Like Rubin, the man chosen to produce, Eric Valentine arrived without any production projects that resembled Nickel Creek. Instead, Valentine is best known for producing the rock acts Queens Of The Stone Age and Smash Mouth.
Valentine, in turn, also recruited Tony Berg, whose eclectic resume includes producing Michael Penn, X, Squeeze and Edie Brickell, as well as serving as an A&R representative for Geffen Records.

Berg especially made his presence felt in song arranging and suggesting ways to further improve the material.

“It was really cool because he was just kind of there as a take it or leave it guy,” Watkins said. “I’ll throw out an idea, and if it’s good, take it. If you don’t want it, then move on.” Valentine, meanwhile, took the lead on the sonic end of the project, focusing some of his efforts on ways to bring out a bigger sound in Nickel Creek than the band had attained on the first two CDs.

“That’s the beauty of having a producer that comes from a different side of music than you,” Watkins said. “He’s used to making things rock, so he looked for ways to make us rock in a way that would satisfy him. That takes a lot. It took some creativity and some trying new things. We did tons of experimenting.”