Last week, Nuni recorded his first studio album in 5 days, and it’s already received critical hype in New York and New Zealand. A 22-year old performing artist, who’s set to graduate drama school in May we here at Scallywag and Vagabond were encouraged after happening upon one of those 5 songs to sit down and meet with him. What follows is an expose on ‘cock blocking,’ ‘satire’ and the creative process that goes on once a song leaves one’s imagination and pervades the wider culture.
That said, I caught up with Nuni at Harris Grill in Shadyside, a neighborhood east of downtown Pittsburgh, close to the drama program Nuni attends at Carnegie Mellon. Wearing skintight acid-washed black jeans and cowboy boots one could be forgiven for momentarily wondering if he was one of those brash kids that one comes across at one of those heavily guarded hotbeds that only kids like him ever know about. Sporting a vibrantly colored, leather zip-up hoodie, with a grey screen-printed Barack Obama t-shirt underneath he stopped for a moment to consider me before coolly reaching for a cigarette.
SCV: What’s new, Nuni?
Nuni: I got a call this morning from a producer I’m working with in New York. He notified me that one of my songs –“Sex in Mansions,” is kicking ass in New Zealand.
SCV: New Zealand?
Nuni: Yeah ….a radio person in New Zealand (SOURCE) got a hold of 90 seconds of it and played it on the radio.
(he stops to consider what he has said before taking a long drag)
It’s exciting to get a positive response from another part of the world when I’m still in Pittsburgh finishing school.
SCV: Well that’s got to be good news?