Nick Valensi
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| Nick Valensi | |
|---|---|
| Image:Http://www.britishpunk.com/images/Strokes/mojo9.jpg |
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| Background information | |
| Born | January 16, 1981  New York City, New York |
| Genre(s) | Rock |
| Occupation(s) | Guitarist of The Strokes |
| Instrument(s) | Guitar |
| Label(s) | New Line Records Rough Trade Records Scratchie Records |
| Associated acts | The Strokes |
| Notable instrument(s) | |
| Nick Valensi Riviera P-94 Gibson Les Paul |
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Nick Valensi (born Nicholas Valensi, January 16, 1981, in New York) is a guitarist for the American alternative rock band The Strokes.
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[edit] The early years
Valensi's father was born in Tunisia, and his mother Danielle is French [1]. He has two sisters, Celine (who appeared in the video for "Juicebox") [2] and Alessandra. He was raised Jewish. His parents gave him his first acoustic guitar when he was 5, and his first electric at age 8.[3] His father died when he was 10. By the time he was 11, he had mastered such advanced songs as Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode", and at 13 years old he felt comfortable enough with his skills to stop taking lessons.
Valensi went to public schools his whole life except for one year at the Dwight School in Manhattan.[4] It was there that he met future bandmates Fabrizio Moretti and Julian Casablancas.
Before starting the band Valensi would hang out in Central Park with his elder sister picking out favorite songs on the guitar — including Jimi Hendrix. "I always thought I wanted to be able to play any song you could name," he says. "But once I started playing with Julian, that's when I really started to understand music"[5]
Quotations about Valensi's youth include:
"Yes, I was bullied a bit as a youth, I was. I got to a point when I was 11, 12, 13 years old where I didn't care, made myself an outsider to avoid that - stopped trying to be one of the guys - sort of said, 'fuck you, if you guys don't want me then I don't want you either.' And that's when things started to work out for me as a kid. That's when I found out who I was as a person" [6]
"Nick would walk in stoned every day... One time, the teacher asked, 'What did you think of the books?' Nick raised his hand and said 'I thought they sucked' [7]" Fabrizio Moretti
Valensi graduated from the NYC Lab School in 1998, and later attended Hunter College with fellow band member Nikolai Fraiture, but eventually dropped out to play with the Strokes full-time. Before they gained attention, he also worked as a part-time waiter in several upscale Manhattan restaurants. He is the youngest member of the Strokes (and at 6'4", the tallest). Being only 19 years of age when they formed, he had to borrow Nikolai's ID to gain admission to many of the clubs they played in.
[edit] Instruments and influences
Valensi's main guitar, which he uses for nearly every live show and recorded song, is a 1990s Epiphone Riviera with Gibson P-94 pick-ups. In a 2004 interview with Epiphone, he called it "the greatest guitar never made" [8] because Gibson had never produced a semi-hollow with P-90 style pickups. He has several models in different colours (all with P-94s), including multiple naturals, one in vintage sunburst, one in red, and a 12-string in red. In 2005, Epiphone released a signature model of his guitar, the Elitist Nick Valensi Riviera P-94, and followed it up with a standard model Nick Valensi Riviera P-94 in 2007. Back-up/warm-up guitars include an Epiphone Dot fitted with 2 P-94s, an Epiphone Casino, and a Gibson Faded Special Double Cutaway with 2 P-90s. Valensi often borrows fellow Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.'s backup guitars, which include a Gibson Les Paul Jr. and Les Paul Special. New guitars used for the First Impressions of Earth tour include a Gibson Les Paul Custom in black, a Fender Telecaster Custom, and a Duesenberg semi-hollow. Valensi's main amplifier is a 2x12" Fender Hot Rod DeVille, used with Fender 4x12" extension cabinets during live shows. He also recently purchased a Carr amplifier to use on the last few stops of the First Impressions tour. His pedalboard consists of a Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde Ultimate Overdrive pedal, Demeter TRM-1 Tremulator, Vox Cooltron Bulldog Distortion, MXR Micro-Amp (2) and a Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner.
He cites his influences as The Velvet Underground, The Cars, George Harrison.[9]
[edit] Personal life
In Spring 2006, Nick married his girlfriend of five years, Amanda de Cadenet. De Cadenet published a book of photographs entitled Rare Birds in 2005, which includes several pictures of Valensi, whom she refers to as her "muse" on her website.
Valensi has described his wife as "The coolest person I know." [10]
Amanda de Cadenet gave birth naturally to their fraternal twins, a boy (Silvan) and a girl (Ella)[11], on October 19, 2006.
[edit] Collaborations
Nick Valensi did backing vocals and also played guitar for Devendra Banhart's song 'Shabop Shalom' on his new album Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, which was released September 25, 2007.
He also played guitar for Regina Spektor's song 'Better' which was released on her latest album 'Begin to hope' and also published as a single in a slightly different version on which the guitar parts are rearranged.
[edit] External links
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[edit] References
- ^ (The Face Magazine August 2002 )
- ^ (As stated in an interview with Fuse.tv January 2006)
- ^ Interview with Nick Valensi. Epiphone.com (2004). Retrieved on 2007-02-11.
- ^ Interview with Epiphone 2004)
- ^ Rolling Stone 2001 Interview
- ^ (Sand Peebles Interview November 2005)
- ^ (Blender Magazine May 2006)
- ^ (Interview with Epiphone 2004)
- ^ (Interview with Epiphone 2004)
- ^ (Interview with Swedish magazine)
- ^ (Confirmed by Amanda in Hello Magazine January 2007)
