Nick Aguilar: San Pedro’s Busiest Drummer

It’s been a while since we’ve had the extra energy or even the notion to tap the keys about the sounds and shows we’ve been enjoying. It has been rejuvenating as a vaccinated person to sometimes get back to live music, though while watching the Osees double-drum jam blasts at the Troubadour in West Hollywood last week we realized we were wearing a mask, ear plugs, and eyeglasses. Altered perception for everything but touch. It still felt right.

As we wade through end-of-year lists, we now realize we missed some compelling music, and that a lot of young artists, at least the ones with enough sense to stay out of the mainstream, are not even close to alright, and they’re using all that frustration, fear, and disgust to create potent musical responses. The circle of musical life echoes on through circuits and servers – non-fungible, barely even profitable, but still vital as water. 

One of those young vibration creators is Nick Aguilar – a dynamic drummer, DJ, and properly music-obsessed record store employee who loves everything from metal to Afrobeat. As we type this, he’s playing in the bands Slaughterhouse and Neighborhood Brats, but by the end of this sentence he may be playing in two more. He’s putting in work all over. He’s also booking shows at the venerable Long Beach, CA venue Alex’s Bar. Oh, and the 24-year-old has already done a nationwide tour with legendary punk bass player Mike Watt. So he knows what’s happened and what’s happening. 

He was kind enough to grant us an interview between gigs.

JFloyd: You have love for a vast variety of music. You really love a little bit of everything. Where’s that come from?

Nick Aguilar: I had a very big love for music at a very young age, thanks to my dad. My first musical memory is of my dad driving me around in his ‘66 Ford Ranchero and playing music. The first song I really remember is the song “New World Man” by Rush. Not their best album, not their best song, but I remember I heard that song and I was like, “Yo dad, who’s this?” From that moment on on I just started to like music. Whatever my dad would show me: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Sly and the Family Stone, Chicago. You know, shit like that. That’s shit I still very much like to this day. That was when I was about five, six, seven years old. And also from when I’m five until about ten, I’m liking whatever KROQ would play. Linkin Park, shit like that. Plus whatever my dad was into, so I was getting into Maiden and Metallica when I was ten or eleven.

Then, when I turned twelve, I discovered punk rock. Not through my dad, but through a guy named Pete Mazich, who plays organ in Mike Watt and the Secondmen. My dad’s a longshoreman with Pete, and Pete gave a CD to my dad for me. It’s Double Nickels on the Dime [from San Pedro legends, The Minutemen], and I still remember the first time looking at this CD. There’s this guy driving and it says San Pedro, and I live in San Pedro, and I’m looking at this case and I listen to it and I’m like, “What the fuck is this? Is this what punk rock is?” It’s like classic rock – almost. The lyrics are funny. The song titles are funny. But it’s also really good. It’s beautiful. And then you open up that CD and you get the SST catalog and discover Black Flag, Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, and Dinosaur Jr. I think it was that moment when I discovered that record, I was really ready to just eat up everything. Then, when I met Mike Watt by going to shows, you know, he wears this John Coltrane pin everywhere and I’m like “Who the fuck is John Coltrane?” Watt told me to listen to My Favorite Things.

As a huge lover of music, I’m always wanting to discover something new. I don’t really get tired of things, but whenever I hear a new song, a song that is new to me, that’s the best feeling in the world. 

JF: So you just met Watt by going to his shows?

NA: After I listened to Double Nickels, my dad and I went on this…how should I say this? We were kind of like detectives. Because my dad didn’t know who the Minutemen were, even though he was born and raised in Pedro. He went to Pedro High, but he wasn’t a punk guy. He missed punk, because right when he got out of high school he went to go commercial fish for 15 years. But I was like, “Dad, don’t you know these guys?” And he’s like, “D. Boon. Why do I know that name?” So he opens his yearbook and Dennes and Mike and George [Boone, Watt, and Hurley – The Minutemen] are all in class of ‘76, the year my dad graduated. My dad has a recollection of jamming with Dennes when they were like 15 or 16 years old. My dad plays bass and they did Creedence and Blue Oyster Cult covers because Dennes just wanted to jam. 

So after all that, we go see Mike at (Long Beach restaurant and venue) DiPiazza’s. It was the Missingmen, and Watt’s got Raul [Morales] on drums up front, because no man should be left behind. I remember walking in kinda late and they’re playing “The Glory of Man” and I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. I never want to go to a stadium show ever again unless I have to. I love this. 

JF: So how did it go from being blown away by Watt to going on tour with him?

NA: After I fell in love with Mike and his music when I was 12 years old, somehow, Pete and my dad, nudged the idea to Mike. I think my dad joked with Pete at work, “You should get my boy to play a song with you guys on stage one day.” Pete was way into it. 

JF: Had he ever heard you play drums?

NA: No. I went over to his house one time when he was practicing with his other band called Johnny Angry, and he wanted me to learn the song “This Ain’t No Picnic.” I was 12 years old, I get in the garage and run over the tune with Pete, who sang it, and this guy named Scott [Cieszki], who actually passed away unfortunately. It was just to see if I could actually do it. And I did it. A week later, I think it was September of 2009 or 10, and Mike is playing a show at DiPiazza’s, like he would do once every four months. Anyway, Jerry [Trebotic, drummer for the Secondmen] gets up and leaves the stage and I get up and I’ve never even really met Mike before, and I’m sitting next to him on this stage. I was twelve fucking years old. I was a little boy. He gives me a fist bump and he just starts going right into it, and I do the song, and Watt was super into it.

After that, I go up to him in the parking lot and he asks, [Imitates Watt’s voice] “Do you want to learn another one? Do another one with us? I got this show in Pedro in a couple months.” Two months later he’s playing this crazy sold-out benefit show at Harold’s [a dive bar that would host shows in San Pedro]. My dad has to drive me, and he has to tip the door guy 20 bucks to sneak me in and I open the show. Mike introduces me as “12-year-old Nick” and we do “Glory of Man” and “Little Man With a Gun in His Hand” This is one of the best moments of my life. I’m like this chubby motherfucker with a bowl cut. I’m wearing a hoodie the entire time, trying to cover my man tits. So from that moment on, whenever I would go see Mike, he would bring me up for a tune or two. Up until it stopped being cute when I was like 15-16, I stepped away from doing that. But when I was 19, Jerry broke his arm and Raul had to go to Mexico for a month, so Mike had me fill in for two whole gigs. I think, from that moment on, I proved myself to Mike that I can hold it down for real. So he wanted to do a Missingmen tour in 2019, and Raul couldn’t really tour at that time because he just had a baby. So Mike brings me in and says, you’re not going to be full time, but can you do this tour?

JF: Where did the tour go? How long was it?

NA: It was 45 shows in 45 days. No days off. It was a big circle counter-clockwise across the US. 

JF: So what’s Watt like out on tour?

NA: We’re working. Touring, as much as you want it to be a party and hang out with friends, it’s work. Watt’s the boss, and rightfully so, because if we didn’t have someone like Watt manning the ship, we wouldn’t play as good every night, we wouldn’t be on time every night. You do what you want until it’s time to play. Then it’s time to go. When it’s time to be in The Boat [Watt’s name for the tour van], you have to be in The Boat.

JF: So driving across the big open spaces of America, is Watt telling stories, is he just listening to tunes?

NA: It’s a little bit of both. He has an old-ass iPod, and he’d plug it in and put his whole entire library on shuffle. You would get anything: obscure shit that people send him for his radio show, Coltrane, James Brown, Wire, Pop Group, you know, anything he likes. Guided By Voices. But he had a couple audio books in there too. He had an audio book of [the James Joyce novel] Ulysses, so once every six hours or so, throughout the entire tour, you’d get a fifteen minute chapter of Ulysses. Mind you, it’s out of order, and that book is literally thinking out loud, as Mike likes to explain it. It was so hard to not laugh when that would come on because Watt would be driving and get all into it saying some shit that God only knows what it means. 

And, you know, there’d be lots of stories, lots of wisdom, lots of keeping me in check. But you know, the preparation for that tour, honestly, wow. For a month and a half straight before we hit the road for that tour, him and I practiced every fucking day. We live five minutes away from each other and if Tom [Watson, Missingmen guitarist] couldn’t make it, we’d still meet up. Because of the preparedness for that tour, and that tour itself, I genuinely feel like I could tour with absolutely anybody.

I love everything about Watt. He was the boss. Even though everything was comfortable, it was still very DIY. It made it seem so real. We only had to stay at like four hotels the whole tour because we would stay at houses of people who he’s met. It was awesome. Having home-cooked meals for breakfast, and if I wasn’t hungry the people would put it in a container so I could eat it in the van. I had a place to shower and a comfortable place to shit every night. 

JF: Any cities really stand out?

NA: This show in Frisco at a place called The Chapel was a really great show. I had some friends come out. It was a mix of older people and younger people – people who looked like you and people who looked like me.

…We were playing at this place called The Black Cat in DC. We were playing in the smaller room, the red room. So it’s sold out. We’re on the second to last song before the encore and we’re playing the song “We Are Time” – it’s a Pop Group cover – and there’s a part where we get super synergies there. Watt’s in my face and I’m getting super low and quiet. I’m trying to focus and I see some bald guy in the back, and I’m trying to focus but I’m like “Oh shit. That is who I think it is.” It’s Ian MacKaye. When the show’s over, Watt gets punished by everyone coming up to him and going, “I saw you with fIREHOSE in ‘94” or some shit like that, to which he always responds, “Thank you for being here now.” And so that’s going on and on, and I’m trying to pack up my shit and Ian is talking to Tom on stage and I’m trying to roll up my carpet but I don’t want to bother him. He’s Ian MacKaye. He’s like the punk god. Him and Henry [Rollins].”

JF: And Mike!

NA: Yeah. Except Mike’s like my uncle. Ian’s like, “Hey, you, I want to talk to you.” And he came at me with guns blazing telling me I’m a great drummer with great dynamics, and that I can play super hard and soft, and how he’d never seen such a synergy on stage. Hearing that from him was, wow, I just said thank you. He asked me about touring with Watt, and I told him how it is, and he told me Fugazi’s method. [They] would play a show and then drive all night and then sleep all morning and afternoon in the city that we were going to play in later. I said we’re doing the opposite of that. But he gave me his email and told me to look him up whenever I was in town, and come have a cup of tea. Ian, if you’re reading this, I still want to take you up on that cup of tea one day. 

JF: Wow. What about [Minutemen drummer] George Hurley? Has he seen you play?

NA: Yeah, yeah. He saw me play the songs when we did a warm up show at a punk rock bar-b-q in Santa Monica, and he said I do the songs justice. Then a few months ago Neighborhood Brats, we played the Big Foist festival in Pedro and George’s new band The Wrinkling Brothers played right before us. I think George was kind of buzzed, and after the show I walked up to him and told him what a pleasure it was to play with him and he says to me, “I don’t know anyone else who plays Minutemen songs as good as you.” And I just couldn’t help but laugh because how many people would die just hearing that. 

JF: I’m dying hearing about it. That’s high praise. Maybe this is a question for Watt, but why doesn’t Hurley play with him anymore?

NA: Mike wants people who can tour, and Hurley doesn’t want to tour anymore. That’s really it. 

JF: So you’ve got all this talent. You’re an amazing drummer. You’ve proven that. You are an in-demand DJ in Southern California. Back when I was writing a lot more, I would be sure some label would give you a million bucks, but those days are long gone. You have to hustle just to get anything going. How’s it going? 

NA: Yeah. Hustle. There’s two big reasons why I can hustle and I do hustle. One, I’m young. I feel like I have all the energy in the world. But let me tell you right now, it’s catching up to me. And, two, I still live at home.

JF: You still live in Pedro?

NA: Yeah. I moved out for a bit to go to college, and that just didn’t work out, and I moved back home. I felt like a fuckin’ loser. But I started hustling more and playing in bands, and trying to do the thing, and then I started to get more opportunities and more tour dates. So I can do the record shop and Alex’s part time and when I have time I can hustle doing music. Someone can look at me and call me a privileged motherfucker for that because I don’t have to pay rent right now. But I’m starting to get tired of spreading myself around and I’m craving that comfortable gig. 

JF: I finally saw your band Slaughterhouse a month or so back, and that’s such a great band live. Excellent energy. 

NA: Thank you. I call it kind of a goth-inspired punk thing. I’m really excited to see what the year is going to bring about. I don’t know if you saw, but we got an opportunity to open up for Bad Religion at The Palladium. 

JF: Wait. With Alkaline Trio?

NA: Yeah, were you there?

JF: Yeah, but –

NA: Were you there Friday or Saturday night?

JF: Friday. 

NA: We didn’t open that night. That was a band called The Paranoyds. But we got to play The Palladium and Jay [Bentley] really loved us!

And, you know, thank you for what you said about how the drums pop out. For most of those songs, Eddie would come up with something on bass, or Taylor with a riff on guitar, and me, I’m just like OK, how do I play along to this and make it interesting. I don’t want to be same-y. 

JF: So, you got a favorite drummer?

NA: Probably Bill Ward. Yeah. Bill Ward or Hurley. [Ward] is the first drummer who forced me to get out of my comfort zone. When I was listening to a bunch of Black Sabbath at a very young age, I was like, I don’t know if I can ever emulate this guy. But then I realized I don’t have to do what he’s doing note for note, but if I can kind of play like him. Because he came from jazz. Same with Mitch Mitchell [Jimi Hendrix Experience]. It’s all improv. The foundation of my drumming comes from the album Paranoid. “Fairies Wear Boots” specifically. He’s all [makes drumming noise]. That’s me. That or “Manic Depression.” Or “The Glory of Man.” Those three songs define me as a drummer. Ward. Mitchell, and Hurley. Dave Grohl gets honorable mention. 

JF: [Makes surprised noise] I feel like he doesn’t get a lot of respect anymore. 

NA: He’s a dad rocker now, dude. He’s an amazing drummer. He’s in one of my favorite bands with Nirvana. I’m sure you’ve listened to [Queens of the Stone Age album that features Grohl] Songs for the Deaf.

JF: That’s the best drumming performance of the last 20 years. 

NA: Don’t get me started. I emulate that record so much as a drummer [makes faster drumming noises]. Yeah. I fucking love that shit. 

We ramble on a little longer about great DJ gigs, his favorite places to play (Zebulon Cafe in Los Angeles), and I mention something about Todd Congelliere’s awesome venue in San Pedro called The Sardine, which leads me to ask

JF: Did [Todd’s label] Recess Records put out the Slaughterhouse record? 

NA: Yeah, and they do distribution for the Neighborhood Brats, too. A label called Dirt Cult put the Brats record out in the US. And in Germany a label called Taken By Surprise put it out. Taken By Surprise, of course named after the Poison Idea song. You into Poison Idea?

JF: I know of them, but never really listened to them much.  

NA: And that’s the beautiful thing about music. There’s probably a hundred bands that you know about that I don’t. 

JF: Not so much anymore. I think you have me beat. 

NA: Well, like I said, I’m very privileged that my life right now is to live, breathe, and play music. I’m very lucky.