Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Neibauer.
Hi Nicholas, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Although I have always loved music, I was a pretty late bloomer to start my involvement in the music community and didn’t start writing until around 25 years old. After teaching myself guitar, I began writing and performing solo at open mic nights and small venues. I spent several years playing with different musicians in the Des Moines area and met my now bandmate, Sean Bremhorst. We became good friends and started playing live as a duo when he introduced me to his friend Nick Maurer to help record and produce some original songs. Due to the connection the three of us had, we formed The Midlanders in January 2020 and started booking shows. Unexpectedly, Covid-19 hit in March and we cancelled all the shows we lined up for the spring. Obviously, this was a bit disheartening but the silver lining in this journey was the time we were given to complete an album from songs I had written in the beginning years of my writing. This was a goal I was striving to achieve but did not have the right people to support me with completing the project in the way I envisioned, this is where Nick and Sean come in. We released our first album in October of 2021 named “Some Kind of Future” sarcastically referring to humans’ continued path down the roads of bigotry and hate forcing our future generations to follow in our neglectful footsteps. We are currently playing shows around the Midwest and putting together songs for our next album.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
To be honest, as Cliché as it sounds, I am pretty grateful for all the ups and downs. I have played gigs in my early years where I was too embarrassed to show my face after the performance and I have played a show where someone gave me a handwritten note telling me how much my music meant to them, saying the lyrics helped them through some very negative thoughts. Just like any aspect in life; relationships, jobs, whatever, we are molded by our experiences and being resilient in those tough times allows for you to live through the good times later on. Had I stopped playing live music after my poor performances in the first year of playing, I would not be able to live through the amazing times The Midlanders are currently having today. Now, do I feel for those people who had to sit through some of those early shows, yes… yes, I do. Due to starting so late in my music journey it was apparent when collaborating that I had less knowledge to work with while writing/performing. Although I have always loved music, I played sports growing up and let’s face it, college was a blur. After college, I had this new passion to create something and music has always been a big part of my life. The problem with this was I wanted to write songs before I know how to write and I wanted to get up on stage and play live before I know how to run a sound system. I have stayed resilient with my passion and throughout the past 11 years, I am grateful for all the support and knowledge I have received from fellow musicians in my community. I am constantly learning, taking advice and I feel more competent with my music than ever before. I am really excited to see where the future goes with some of the new songs I have been working on.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I would say I am most proud of our first album which, like I previously said, was a collection of songs I had written in my early years. I had been looking to record these songs for a long time but was not able to find the individuals to make it happen. Once the guys and I started diving into this project a lot of the ideas came to us while in the studio and because this was self-produced by Nick we had the ability to mess around with all the recordings. This allowed us to take our time and get creative on how we wanted the songs to sound but also created a lot of trial and error in the process. We spent a lot of late nights together to get this completed and like anything else you work hard for, when it’s over you have the proud feeling of accomplishment but also complete exhaustion.
How do you think about luck?
I am very lucky to have met the people I have during my journey. Once you met someone it’s up to you to strive to build the relationship, let it dwindle or take advantage of the limited time you have with someone. Sean, Nick, and I will always be friends but we also put a lot of time and energy to keep the band going, especially with all the other obligations we have. I have a wonderful wife, Katie, who is supportive of me/the band and is very patient with all my rehearsals, late nights after shows and traveling. I also have friends who come out to almost every show to give us support, some of which suffered with me during those early years. Although I believe we all work hard to keep our relationships as valued as they are, I am very lucky to have met all these people and lucky they share the same interests in our relationships as I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: ndneibauer.wixsite.com/themidlanders
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.midlanders/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMidlandersIowa
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNhzdYdCInc
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/album/779JNUc7pDqT43kvbexygw
