Interview: "Sticks" 2009
"Extreme tightness and crystal clear beats may be an indicator for having had a taste of the mystery of groove. But one thing should be clear: The band around Jan Delay ranks as one of today’s hottest funky hip-hop acts. On drums: Jost Nickel. After bustling days he has arrived where he’s always wanted to be: away from the stale taste of stereotyped drumming towards the clear trademark of the Disko No. 1 drummer. Jost Nickel doesn’t do a typical sideman job in this band. Instead he has arrived at his real home – in a role that is constituted by a high-level art of drumming. After two years of teamwork on the Jan Delay album, his new Sonor SQ2 drum kit has already been warming up on the summer festivals. Now the new “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Soul” tour is about to start soon. We met Jost Nickel to talk about grooves, sound concepts, and the genesis of the new album, whose iconic-seeming title potentially reveals a shot ofsoul within the recent funky hip-hop cocktail…?"
...continue reading? Click here: Sticks 2009
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Interview: "Drums & Percussion" 2007
"When Jost Nickel currently enters the stage together with Jan Delay, it first of all requires some little, at least visual quick-change ceremony, because instead of baggy Hip-Hop outfits, the show of the 11-piece Disko-No.-1-band demands a classic suit together with a tie as well as fine footwear and, most naturally, the disco mirror ball floating majestically above the whole scene.
And this drummer living in Hamburg is similarly adaptable in terms of his various different musical spheres of activity: Once Jost Nickel started his professional drummer career in German “Schlager”-heaven, he made a name for himself with his own Band “Matalex” in the Jazz-Fusion scene – and is now having a free mind for various most varied projects: Besides his work with the Delay Lama, which at the moment is certainly covering the largest share of his musical-creative work time, Jost Nickel is the musical director for Mousse T. and Marla Glen, or he works as a studio drummer in America, England, France, and, of course, Germany. Here, he takes care of the right rhythm for bands like “Ostkreuz” and, once in a while, for “Seeed”. Almost as a sideline, he is also one of our workshop authors and lecturer at the legendary “Popkurs” by the “Hamburger Musikhochschule”. It is therefore a complex musical personality Jost Nickel brings along in an unobtrusive appearance – before metamorphosing into a finely-dressed, funky-souly gentleman."
...continue reading? Click here: Drums & Percussion 2007
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Interview: "Sticks" 2007
"After exactly 10 years we meet Jost Nickel again – a German top drummer who gave his first interview in this magazine already back in 1997 and who, at that time, hit the drums that tightly and expertly in such differing fields like Fusion music and “Schlager”-accompanying, that you wished him the greatest possible public attention. In 2007, his everyday business has turned out to be both successful and varied. Besides major live gigs with “Jan Delay & Disko No. 1” and Mousse T., he is involved in international studio productions, gives lessons at the “Popakademie Mannheim”, and has recently become a producer and co-owner in a recording studio in Hamburg. This fall, he is going to play an extensive workshop tour for Sonor Drums."
...continue reading? Click here: Sticks Interview 2007
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Interview: "Sticks" 2004
"Living each moment consciously sharpens the senses...and also the feeling for time, groove, and sound. Insights like these don't just come from nothing, they are a matter of experience. And experience is something the drummer Jost Nickel undoubtedly is provided with, as he has already entered various different and even odd spheres of the music biz and his credits reach from the Drummers Collective N.Y., over the German “schlager” scene, up to the fusion-arts Band Matalex and the dancehall-groove-engine Seeed. But currently it is getting more and more difficult to meet the Hamburg drummer in the North German metropolis. After he had worked in London and played the New Pop Festival 2002 together with the British singer Ayak, he now already has one foot in the door to France. At the moment he is working with the artist Maxim Nucci and the French pop band Linkup, whose album and single recently celebrated a number one hit in the French charts with the song “Mon étoile”. Therefore, it is not surprising that Jost Nickel appreciates and enjoys the luxury of living on drumming."
...continue reading? Click here: Sticks Interview 2004
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Interview: "Sticks" 1997
"Jost Nickel, living in Hamburg, definitely belongs to the small group of German drummers that are able to assert themselves on an international level. He toured Germany and Europe with the fusion band Matalex and recorded two fantastic CDs, adding great value to them by technically sophisticated playing and his great musicality.
It all started with the 1995 CD “Jazz Grunge”, euphorically celebrated by both musical colleagues and critics. This CD was recorded at ATM-Studio, run by the musician, producer, Matalex founder and guitarist, Alex Gunia. At that time, besides trumpeter Randy Brecker also American top drummer Steve Smith was asked to join the studio to serve as a “sales promoting special guest”. But already on this CD, the differences between yet unknown Jost and renowned Steve are not that big and since the “Jazz Grunge Tour Live '96”-CD, released in October 1996, containing nearly unedited materials of a gig in Rome and recordings of a Dusseldorf concert, it should have become clear that there is no more reason for further remittances to American bank accounts.
Just as this energetic band, that is going to present a new studio album (again on Lipstick) this April, offers an absolutely fresh and powerful live show, Jost Nickel has grown to be a name vouching for perfect quality in each and every musical situation.
Further information about the career and other projects of this likable musician can be gathered from the following conversation that took place in a cozy restaurant close to the nucleus of all Matalex activities, i.e., the ATM-Studio in Cologne."
...continue reading? Click here: Sticks Interview 1997
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Interviews:
Sticks 2009
Batteur 2008 (french)
Meinl 2008 (Video)
Sticks 2007
Drums & Percussion 2007
Sticks 2004
Sticks 1997
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Pressdownloads:
presskit.zip
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Jost_Nickel.jpg
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