Q&A: Nick Wagen Paves New Musical Pathway With The Space Between
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY FAITH LUEVANOS ☆
“I HOPE FANS CAN SEE A NEW SIDE TO ME, A MORE THOUGHTFUL AND METICULOUS SIDE…”—Indiana-based artist Nick Wagen has rediscovered his love for music through the creation of his new artist project, The Space Between. Born from his desire to reconnect with music and escape his indie pop box, The Space Between brings forth a new layer to the Nick Wagen we know and love.
Inspired by creative powerhouses like David Bowie, Radiohead and Tame Impala, The Space Between is the next man who fell to earth. His new single, “Divine Machinery,” is one of many songs to come from his upcoming album, following a story that will soon be revealed upon the album’s release.
“Divine Machinery” is the fourth single from The Space Between, and listeners can already feel themselves getting pulled into its orbit. This marks an exciting new chapter for Wagen, and luckily for you, you’re one of the first to be a part of it.
The Luna Collective received the opportunity to chat with Wagen about his intention behind the project, his musical inspirations, lessons he’s learned with The Space Between, and more. Read the full interview below.
LUNA: After pursuing music under Nick Wagen for years, what inspired you to form The Space Between?
WAGEN: I really hit a wall with the way I was going about pursuing Nick Wagen and realized that something needed to change for my love to be reignited in music. I wasn’t a fan of the intense face-forward promotion I was doing; it felt a little too much like “Hey, look at me! Look what I’m doing!” instead of it actually being about the music. Starting fresh from the ground up has been really fun for me and allowed me to create more freely without the box I felt I was putting myself in with Nick Wagen. I’m sure I’ll release more music in the future under Nick Wagen, but right now I’m very excited about The Space Between.
LUNA: Do some of the same musical inspirations still resonate like The Neighbourhood?
WAGEN: My musical inspirations are constantly changing. When I first started writing the album for The Space Between, I was listening to a lot of David Bowie, Radiohead and Tame Impala. Recently, I’ve been into Ween, The Flaming Lips (who have always been a big one for me) and The Neighbourhood still.
LUNA: Can you walk us through “Divine Machinery” and what it represents for you?
WAGEN: A lot of the songs on the upcoming project follow a story that I was coming up with for this album to follow, so some of them might not make the most sense without some context. This one is a little different because, to me, it’s about how all of this machinery we’ve been granted throughout our lives has really acted as our sort of God. We let social media and our phones dictate a lot of aspects of our lives, and in a lot of ways, as many people feel, our lives would’ve been better off without them. In the song, one of the lyrics is “divine machinery, weaponize my heart,” and to me, that represents how social media has been a space of hate, jealousy, and resentment. The next line, being “take the evil in me, flush it ‘till it’s gone,” is a plea to the universe to rid us of the pain that social media causes us.
LUNA: What came first in this project? The sound or the visuals?
WAGEN: The sound usually comes first for me, and this was definitely the case this time around. I have a lot of ideas for visuals surrounding this project, but since I’m starting from square one again, I’m trying to think of the best way to execute some of these visuals without breaking the bank.
LUNA: What do you hope fans learn about you through this new project?
WAGEN: I hope fans can see a new side to me, a more thoughtful and meticulous side to my music, while also keeping it fun through weird production and lyrics. I think this project has opened and will continue to open many doors for me creatively.
LUNA: What’s something you’ve learned about yourself?
WAGEN: I’ve learned that I will always pivot to something that makes me excited for music and creating art. I wasn’t enjoying my whole way of going about music before, and now I have a fresh perspective on how to promote my music and myself. I’m taking more risks production-wise, and that’s something that I’m not sure I would’ve done if I continued down the “indie pop guy” lane.
LUNA: Who would you love to collaborate with?
WAGEN: My dream The Space Between collaborations would have to be Djo, The Flaming Lips, or Rüfüs Du Sol. I don’t even know what I’d do if I ever got in the room with any of them. I would feel like I had no music knowledge.
LUNA: Do you always write from personal experience, or does anything else ever set up the story for you?
WAGEN: I definitely write from personal experience when I feel the song calls for that kind of emotion, but I more often than not make up little stories or scenarios in my head and write along to that. It allows me to flow more easily without always being stuck on the “What does this mean?”
LUNA: What can fans expect to see from you in the near future?
WAGEN: Fans can expect a lot more The Space Between content, including an album, date TBD, sometime this year. I would really love to get back into doing live shows, but I’ll have to see how this new project develops before diving back into that world. I would tell the core Nick Wagen fans to keep checking back in with my main project because you never know when I might drop music on there for fun.
