THE SNEAKY NIXONS – Ocean Waves Productions

THE SNEAKY NIXONS

Well well well, The Sneaky Nixons. I heard one of their demos online and I liked a lot what I was listening. Rough. but very catchy tunes. So I met them and started to go at their rehearsals to check their live playing and their sound.

Only afterwards I discovered that somebody sprayed the name of the band on various Liverpool’s walls. In the city centre but not only! Probably it was their first promotion campaign, they made some enemies but it is also true that a lot of people were talking about their name. Anyway I was focused on their music and that, for sure, I knew that I liked it.

We started recording an Ep at the iconic Parr Street Studios in Liverpool and that resulted to be a quick and organic process. There were 2 songs that really hit my attention since I heard the demo version, ‘Baby Just Do What You’ve Got To’, gritty, ‘In Your Face’, wild and very catchy at the same time. The other, ‘Thick Thin and Thinner’, for some reason, I couldn’t get it out of my mind and I was never tired to listen it.

Creative ideas were something the band did not lack, in writing music but also in promoting their band. The only think I could not understand was the fact that the position of guitarist in the band was pretty often vacant. I saw different guitar players joining the band with enthusiasm and then leaving the band abruptly with no will to retrace their steps. Curious that.

The Snixons managed to get various gigs in different places of UK but also abroad without having a manager, something not everybody can do. I remember I was with them in Hamburg, where they had some gigs booked and showed up at some open mics too. They played their music everywhere, on the streets, out of the bars and who know where else and it was really fucking cold!

The band did not take so long to write enough tunes for an LP, so we started to work together at our favourite place, The Motor Museum Studio in Liverpool, with the amazing engineer and friend James Mellor. The result was an album with various influences like Pop/Rock, Indie, Grunge, Punk, Alternative, Ska, if these labels help to give an overview of their music.

In the cover art you can see a picture of a Ten Pounds banknote where it’s printed a Sneaky Nixons’ inscription beside a stylized image that depicts a woman, with her boobs out, wearing sunglasses right on the face of Queen Elizabeth’s picture. Some people found it regrettable while I still find it brilliant.

You can say many things about the Sneaky Nixons, good and less good but one thing is for sure, they were definitely provocative, something that modern Rock lacks, in my opinion.

The Sneaky Nixons is the band we produced more songs with and likely the band I spent more time in the rehearsal room to improve their overall sound. Unfortunately not long after the LP was released the band split. I still love all the music we produced together and still think they could have done very good things if they continued with the band.