Artist description Nicholas Koby is the independent musicians musician. He has proved as others have that the big wig record production industry doesn’t have complete dominance over all the artistic talent in the U.S. After releasing his debut CD “Caffeinated” in February of 1999 on his own independent label Distracted Records, his percussive guitar, haunting vocals, and inspired imagination have been touring from coffee shop to corner pub across his home state of Michigan. As his fan base and career grows, he is now already advancing to attack the rest of the country as if it were just another odd tuning on his guitar.

Music Style agressive folk

Musical Influences ani difranco, tori amos, frank zappa, harry connick jr., tool, patty griffin, bob dylan, primus, morphine, steve vai, sarah mclachlan, king crimson, king's x, dave matthews band, ben folds five and wynton marsalis to name a few

Similar Artists peter mulvey, dave matthews, ani difranco

Artist History Nick received a double bachelors degree from Oakland University in 1997, in philosophy and psychology. He then pursued a degree at Michigan State University in Computer Science for a year and a half until giving into his dreams and devoting all his time and attention to music where he feels it belongs.

Group Members Nicholas Koby

Instruments Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Vocal

Albums Caffeinated

Press Reviews I nearly shrieked with glee as the first jumpy guitar strums of Nicholas Koby struck my ear drums. "Caffeinated," the latest creation from the bedroom studio of the computer science senior contains 13 tracks of introspective, political, skittish and melodic folk music. Basically, he’s a boy Ani. And he lives right here in East Lansing. Woo hoo! He also has the folk goddess’ talent of making cliches cute and not cliche. In "Brainswing in 7/4" he opens with "I stepped out of my brain for a minute yesterday. I told it I wouldn’t be gone long. I mean I’ve been out of my mind before many, many times. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong." Now that there are a few artists embracing this style of music, as a music journalist, I feel the need to title it. I’m sorry. It’s in my nature. So here it is: Popcorn folk - a little poppy, a little corny, a little buttery, and a little jumpy - like popcorn. "Sweet Agatha" is an endearing little coffee-shop, hum-along tune about a sweet girl named Agatha. "Sitting in a cafe all by herself two tables over from mine. She stops for a coffee. I ask her name. Offer my ear for some of her time." Some of the songs have a few glitches, others need to be reworked and some others could be dropped, but this is inevitable when your’re making your own record. Koby wrote, arranged, performed, produced, recorded and mixed everything himself. Now that’s motivation. And a lot of it is really good. Yeah local music! You can get a copy of "Caffeinated" by e-mailing Koby at kobynich@pilot.msu.edu. Mellissa Gianninihis review apreared in the MSU campus paper, "The State News"on Tuesday April 6, 1999, in the entertainment section.

Location Lansing, MI - USA

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).