With three Spring Sings already under his belt and a UCLA degree imminent, fourth-year cognitive science student Nick Valentini is in the midst of working towards the future. But Valentini said his life is all about the present and a bit about the past.
“You listen to my first Spring Sing and I’m rapping in it,” Valentini said. “The song I’m doing now is light-years different. The four years have been this evolutionary change, but also something that can be predicted by the people that know me.”
Valentini describes that song, “Mr. Mister,” as a tune which he wrote with a band in mind. He will be performing twice at Spring Sing, including once with his band Loop Garou. But for his act as a solo keyboardist, Valentini said he will be going darker in tone.
“It definitely isn’t a ballad,” Valentini said. “It’s not just saying, ‘I love you, I love you,’ – I have a lot of songs like that too – but for this stage and this time in my life, I thought it would be cool not to just sing about that one girl.”
Valentini said that, though he has no concrete plans in the long run, he doesn’t see himself forever working as a solo act. In terms of music, he values collaboration with others above all else.
Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly,” for example, is a work that Valentini said is an example of producing an actual difference in the genre. Through working with the best musicians possible, he cites Lamar’s social implications as a perfect way to utilize talent.
“With music, it’s just continual gigging, playing, networking and connecting with everyone,” Valentini said. “That’s the one thing: you play with everyone because you learn from everyone. One day down the line they might say, ‘Come play with me again.’”
For Valentini, one of those people is David Villafaña, an alumnus who plays in UCLA band We the Folk. Villafaña said that, in their weekly gigs, Valentini likes to take a sincere approach to reinventing songs and taking risks.
“(Valentini) can easily please a crowd, but he also likes to be dynamic,” Villafaña said. “There are songs that I have that are in Spanish with a very Latin sound, and he’ll improvise and do a good job.”
Valentini said most of his inspiration comes from other instrumentalists who know how to jam – two of his favorite solo acts are Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix. He said that if he could make “Mr. Mister” a seven-minute performance similar to Vaughan and Hendrix’s work, he would.
“I guess if I went on stage and did that, they couldn’t stop me,” Valentini said.
Villafaña said that since he and Valentini don’t rehearse together, rocking out is an essential part of Valentini’s repertoire. He commends Valentini’s ability to challenge himself and the listener with his music and mood, but also to assert himself and get things done.
But for now, Valentini also said he’s really stoked for Spring Sing, where he will open the ceremony with a keyboard drop in front of 9,000 students.
“You continue to gig and hand out your cards and float your name around there, but you have to give time to this creative output,” Valentini said. “The future is unknown musically, but that’s where hard work comes in.”