Q&A: Nick Wagen Talks Chicago Music Scene, Finding His Sound & New Single “I Want Your Love”
LOOKING FOR YOUR NEXT FAVORITE — indie-pop summer love songs? Chicago-based artist Nick Wagen is ready to deliver. Fresh off the release of his latest single, “I Want Your Love,” Wagen makes music you’ll want to drive to with your windows down on a sunny day. With a sound reminiscent of somewhere between Current Joys and The Neighborhood, his tracks will make you the main character this summer.
For Wagen, the music community — especially in Chicago — has been a huge source of inspiration and connection. Fresh off supporting Mickey Darling at a handful of shows on their tour, Wagen is coming into his own as a performer and connecting more with the community while he does. For him, community is what makes the music world so special. In his words, “It's super fun to have that kind of camaraderie and people that have similar experiences to you.”
Looking to experiment more with his sound, Wagen doesn’t want to be put in a box sonically. As he continues to experiment, he widens the interest of his audience. With an EP on the way this summer and new projects on the horizon, Wagen will continue to be an emerging indie name to watch.
Read below to learn more about the new track, Wagen’s inspirations, and what project he’s most proud of.
LUNA: You just wrapped up a show supporting Mickey Darling — I’d love to hear more about that!
WAGEN: Yeah, so basically I've known them a little bit as internet friends throughout the past couple of years. I saw that they were doing a couple of shows, and they were doing one in Chicago so I asked them back in September if I could open for them, and they were like, “Oh yeah, for sure.” So we met up, we hung out a little bit, I opened for them, and it was great. Now they're starting to do some more shows and I really loved the first experience, so I reached out to them again and asked if we could set some more shows up and they said yes, and we just played a show out in Philly and it was a great time. They're just the sweetest dudes ever. I'm playing Toronto with them this weekend, which I've never been to before. I'm super excited and super grateful that they've done that for me. We just kind of became buddies, so I'm really happy with that.
LUNA: Could you tell me a little bit about your background as an artist and how you got into making music?
WAGEN: Yeah, for sure. I started learning how to make music and make beats and stuff in high school. There were some kids in my high school [who] were doing it so I learned from them and started picking up my own ways of doing it. When I got to college I started really getting into indie pop, and that's when Omar Apollo and Clairo were all starting to blow up. I was really in love with that sound and wanted to try it out for myself. Ever since then I've been looking for new artists and inspiration from different people and just evolving the way I make music and whatnot. I do everything myself pretty much from my bedroom here in Chicago. It's been a fun couple years meeting different artists and making music.
LUNA: You mentioned Clairo and Omar Apollo. Do you have any other big musical inspirations or people whose sound you try to emulate?
WAGEN: Yeah, for sure. I'd say I try not to emulate people's sound but I definitely always am looking for inspiration from The Neighborhood — their music is always one of my favorites. Their sound is something you can probably hear in my music. I also really like Role Model, and again Omar Apollo and Clairo and all the big indie names. There's so many people that can do it now — it's just so accessible. Like with TikTok and everything, I'll just scroll on my For You page and see a fire song from someone [who] doesn't even have any listeners or anything and I’ll save it to my phone — it's really fun. It's a cool evolution of the way that music is going.
LUNA: How would you describe your sound?
WAGEN: I would say it's definitely inspired by the whole bedroom pop/indie-pop wave but I take inspiration from many different people who I wouldn't really specify as a bedroom pop [artist]. I tried some different sounds, like more acoustic, slowed-down [stuff] with one of my newer songs. I don't know, I really like indie pop and everything, but I also don't want to be stuck doing just bedroom pop forever. So I'm trying to branch out a little bit and see where that takes me.
LUNA: What kind of sound are you looking to experiment with more?
WAGEN: I've been really into synth stuff and ’80s music, [as well as] some older stuff recently. I've been listening to a lot of Tame Impala, who is definitely a big name in indie, but I don't know, just more… sophisticated, maybe. I'm just trying to experiment more and not just confine myself to a bedroom pop box.
LUNA: Yeah, totally, I can see some of those influences in your newest song, “I Want Your Love.” Can you tell me more about that process?
WAGEN: Yeah, that one that is definitely one of my favorites that I've made so far. It's funny because I said I'm trying not to be in the bedroom pop box, but that song feels very bedroom pop to me [in] the way the guitars and the synths are. But it's definitely one of my favorites — I had a lot of fun making that one. It was one of the first times in a long time that I have just had a lot of fun making it. It's one of my favorites to do live too.
LUNA: You also have an EP coming out soon! I’d love to hear about that project.
WAGEN: Yeah, it’s gonna be a lot of compiled songs that I've released already with some new ones. I plan on having that come out this summer. I don't have an exact release date yet, but the title of it is going to be called Whatever Helps you Sleep at Night. I'm super excited to finish that because I already have songs that I want to release after that. It's been fun — I've been dying to get music out there. I feel like most years I just released a couple singles or an EP, but this year I want to release so much. And I'm just gonna do it. Mickey Darling inspired me. They have so many different side projects and they are constantly dropping music, and I just realized I don't know why I sit on music so long — I should just release it. So I’ve kind of [been] feeling inspired to do that.
LUNA: Are there any prominent themes that come up in the EP?
WAGEN: It's weird because with a lot of the songs that I've made over the past year, some things have changed but some things are similar. With the cover art especially I've been doing cutout [art]. So I've been keeping the look kind of similar with these single releases. It's definitely a summer indie-pop album, for sure. It's supposed to be fun and songs that I really liked to play live. Because that's kind of what my favorite part of this is … to play the live shows. So I definitely want my songs to be more upbeat and have the energy for the live shows.
LUNA: Yeah, I love that. It’s like music to listen to at the beach.
WAGEN: Exactly. And I always love driving — driving with the windows down or whatever — and just blasting the music. It’s one of my favorite things to do.
LUNA: Do you have any frequent muses or themes in your work?
WAGEN: Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I definitely mostly write love songs. I take inspiration from my personal life. But also I think it's fun to make up little scenarios or just write about things that I haven't written about before that I haven't necessarily experienced. [I’ll be] inspired by a movie or someone else's song or whatever, but it's usually a love song just because that's what's easiest for me to write about. And I have a lot of personal experience I can draw from as well.
LUNA: What is the project you’ve done that you’re most proud of?
WAGEN: Definitely all recent things. “I Want Your Love” and “Lay Me Down” are definitely two of my favorite ones to date. And then these shows that I've been doing with Mickey Darling have been my favorite because each time I do a show I get a little bit better, a little more confident, and try a little bit more with interacting with the crowd and giving different amounts of energy and whatnot. I'm super excited to just keep releasing and keep playing shows and see where it takes me.
LUNA: So you're based in Chicago currently. Are you from Chicago?
WAGEN: I'm actually from Northwest Indiana, about an hour outside of Chicago. I go to school right now at Columbia [College Chicago] for music recording. It's been fun — I've been here for about a year now. I was here a little bit before but my whole college experience has been weird. I took gap years, and then with COVID and everything it's just been strange. But I'm here now and finishing out school and trying to do music, and Chicago's great.
LUNA: Have you been influenced at all by the local music scene?
WAGEN: Oh, yeah. The people here are fantastic. There's some really cool artists here — I gotta shout out a couple of them. Adan Diaz is here, he's great, Heartgaze is here and he's fantastic. Victor Internet, Dreamer Isioma, all those people are cool. It's been great to interact with them at different shows and whatnot. And yeah, there's so many. I mean, Ax and The Hatchetmen are here too — they're a fantastic band. Yeah, there's a great music scene here, for sure.
LUNA: Do you think that community is a big part of your love of music?
WAGEN: Yeah, I love meeting artists and bonding over the connection of music. With Mickey Darling, they're from Texas and I'm moving from Indiana, and we meet and just have so much to talk about because we've experienced similar things. It's just super fun to have that kind of camaraderie and [have] people [who] have similar experiences to you just trying to make it and make music. I love meeting new people [who] are involved in music in any way possible. Not just musicians, but different magazine operators or photographers — anybody around the scene is super fun.
LUNA: When you're making music, do you have a certain audience of people you're writing for?
WAGEN: I definitely previously have written with the intent of the bedroom pop audience, but recently I've kind of just been making music that I really enjoy and that I hope other people will enjoy, but I've tried to switch it a little bit. I know probably a lot of artists say that, but I'm trying to just enjoy it for myself and release what I love, which has been fun.
LUNA: What are your biggest aspirations as an artist, your biggest long-term goals?
WAGEN: This is definitely what I want to do — I'm gonna try to do whatever I can to make this possible, just release as much music, play as many shows as I can, and see where it all takes me. I don't think that I could ever do anything else because this is just kind of all I like to do. So hopefully something works out and I'm just able to do it for the rest of my life because I would be very blessed to do that. So that's kind of my biggest goal.
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