Nicholas Hamilton may currently be best known for his acting, such as playing the bully in the movie IT, but that's all about to change. He also happens to be an incredibly talented musician, as clearly demonstrated in his latest single, "Spins", which is sure to be a popular wedding song.
I recently got to chat with Nicholas about his music career, the origin of his hit single, "Spins", and more!
INTERVIEW
MSM: Hi Nic! Thanks for chatting with me! First of all, what came first, acting or music?
NIC: Chronologically, acting came first. I've been acting since I was 11, crazy enough. I did a fifth grade play like a musical, which was I went to a very small Christian school. So we did a musical about a talent show for Jesus. <laugh> I played an Elvis Presley impersonator within the talent show in the musical, and I had a blast. I had like zero history in that world, but I loved it. And then I started acting at that point, and yeah, like seven years later I started writing music. And then I've just been doing that since.
MSM: Do you feel like the acting that you had done, do you feel like that helped prepare you for the music industry in any way?
NIC: Yeah, I guess so. Industry wise, for sure, I think they are completely different beasts, like with acting, I have zero creative control. Like I control what I do on screen, but even then you're saying other people's words and you're directed by someone else, and it's all very other-people-based, and then you're edited by someone else. And, with music, I have full creative control. I'm not under a record deal at this point, so I can release what I want whenever I want and write what I want and it feels very freeing. So after a long time of acting, it just felt like I needed to do something that was mine.
MSM: Yeah. Was there something in particular that ignited your passion for music to start creating?
NIC: I mean, I've always loved music. It's always been in my blood. I was just surrounded by entertainment consistently as a child. So, I was singing since I was a very young kid, even in that musical when I was 11, but I was never good. Not even in the slightest. I just like, make everyone's ears bleed until I was, you know, I just kept doing it. And until I was slightly better than I was. Then I started writing songs when I was like 17-18 and joined up with a guitarist friend of mine back in Australia. We just wrote a few songs and again, they weren't very good. And, I just kept going and kept writing. I moved to LA when I was 18 and started writing with other people. And it was about two years later that I released my first song. So it was a long time coming, but it allowed me to like, hone those skills and become a better singer-songwriter.
MSM: Yeah. So, speaking of that, your latest single "Spins" was just released and is definitely an instant classic, I think.
NIC: Thank you.
MSM: Is there anything you would like to say about that song in particular?
NIC: Yeah, so, "Spins" is the second single of this kind of new batch of singles. I wrote it the day after my second date with my now long-term boyfriend. And we'd been out once and then a few days later, I was out in the city and he texted me and he said he was about to clock off work and he wanted to meet up and I'd already been drinking quite heavily in Manhattan. But I really liked him so I agreed and met up with him in Hoboken. And I got to the bar early, so I had a drink, and then he got there and we had a drink and then we were about to leave, but the waiter thought we were so cute so that he wanted to order a shot. So, we got shots, two shots each, which is great. Then we left. So by the time we left, we were pretty worse for wear, and he walked me around his campus, which he just graduated from in Hoboken. And we sat down on this bench that he really really loved and used to go to and just kind of take phone calls and it was a gorgeous spot overlooking the New York skyline. And we just kind of sat there and talked and then started kissing. And I was at that point so drunk. I'm still a lightweight. I'm pretty bad, even though I drank a fair amount cause of my other job. I'm still a pretty awful lightweight and so I was kissing him and I couldn't really close my eyes to kiss him cause I was spinning. My whole equilibrium was off. So I had to tell him that I was too drunk to kiss him. So we just sat there and I had to stop myself from letting my drunk blabbermouth tell him that I was already in love with him. And that was why I wrote the song, too, just to kind of just like stave off that desire. <Laugh>
MSM: Yeah. It's a beautiful song. Thank you. So you do write about personal topics like that. How do you balance being vulnerable with maintaining a sense of privacy?
NIC: Yeah, I really do struggle with it because part of why I love songwriting is that it's like a type of therapy for me. I can sit down behind a keyboard and I never think about what I wanna write about. It just kind of spills out and I can't stop that. You know, you can't really change what a song's about once it's started and if the song's good enough, you know, if it sounds good enough, much like the stuff that I put out. Like I can't really pull myself back from releasing that stuff. But being in a relationship now with Jackson, who's a very private person, and I've lived my whole life in the spotlight, so I'm trying to learn to pull back and keep some stuff just between us. And the main thing is just communicating through this, especially through this press cycle of "Spins". The song is about him and about us, and I'm really letting everyone in on a lot of specific facets of our life and our relationship. So yeah, trying to balance that is tough. But I want to give everyone the most in depth experience as possible into my music and into my life.
MSM: Okay. is there anything in particular that you hope to achieve with creating music?
NIC: Not really. I just love doing it and I'm in a very privileged position where every piece of my career, all four things that I do, I just love doing and I really enjoy it and I've made it a point to not give myself any really strict deadlines or anything. Like, auditions have deadlines and I have to spend a whole day on 'em, and you often don't hear back from 'em. So it's quite a frustrating business unless you have a job. So I wanted, you know with music as well as the TikTok where I make drinks, to not be under anyone's banner. I'm not any under anyone's wing. I can just kind of do what I want to do and I've been trying to kind of maintain that even as it gets more and more serious. So I really just didn't, I love writing and I love putting my life on paper and showing that to people and if it sounds good, that's a bonus.
MSM: Okay. It definitely does.
NIC: Thank you.
MSM: What was the first concert that you ever attended?
NIC: You know, I don't really go to many concerts. I'm that kind of guy. I'd rather go to like a jazz bar with like a lounge kind of vibe. Jackson and I went on our first date to a pub and then out to a music venue in Manhattan that has become like one of our favorite places to go to. It's called Groove. And they have concerts, but it's just these phenomenal artists that hold like two hours a piece every night and they're soul and funk and jazz and you just sit there and have a drink and watch them. It's just an incredible spot. I really enjoy doing doing stuff like that. If I'm gonna go to a concert, it has to be someone that I adore, especially because concert tickets are getting so fucking expensive nowadays. Like, I really want to go see Louis Capaldi in concert. It's more desires and more wants rather than like stuff that I have done, I suppose.
MSM: Yeah. So, what else are you passionate about besides music?
NIC: I guess, again, it's doing what I love doing. I love acting, I love music, I love creating in general, and I like doing stuff that makes just a piece of the world feel more mine. I really like making drinks, like creating drinks. I used to cook when I was a kid and as I grew up and had to actually buy my own groceries and put the effort into cooking, I just got bored with it. So I moved into alcohol as soon as it was legally possible. And I just love putting together flavors and seeing what comes out. The same thing with songwriting, just creating something that I'm really proud of. And doing an audition, like being a part of a film or TV project where, you know, I'm proud to show it to people is something that I don't think any feeling has ever rivaled with that.
MSM: Yeah. Okay. So out of curiosity, you were in IT, are you a Stephen King fan?
NIC: I'm not a horror fan. I love the horror community now that I've come to know a lot of people in the horror community and they're great people. It's this niche community that might not be taken seriously in the grand scheme of movie making but, as you can see, with IT and all the 24 movies, there's this big community that want to see these really good horror films. So I'm a part of that. I'd much rather if I'm gonna get like a thrill, go on a rollercoaster or like go out on the town. If I'm gonna watch a movie, I guess I'd like to cry more than I'd like to be scared.
MSM: Yeah, I understand that. Do you have a motto or just good advice that you live by?
NIC: I do, and that's kind of ever-changing. I've always lived by the motto of treating people with the respect that they treat you with. I think it's very easy to get walked over, especially, I guess, this generation. Like, the Gen Z is looked down upon by older generations, I think, pretty often. So it's very easy just to be kind of walked all over and if someone doesn't show me respect, I'm not gonna show them respect back, they don't deserve it, they don't deserve my time or my effort. Face value. I'll always give everyone the time of day, but you know, they have to give me it back also. And I think that allows me to still be seen as a kind individual, but not have my time wasted by people who don't respect me. And I think that's allowed me to get as far as I have in the certain industries that I reside.
MSM: Okay. My last question for you is, what closing messages would you have for your fans?
NIC: I really imagine that the people who read this stuff and listen to my music and watch my TikToks and watch my shows are really dedicated. And I know a lot of them by name. It's a pretty small community. And I am incredibly grateful and incredibly thankful for people who've stuck around through it, like if someone's a fan of IT and liked my face and then they stick through the songs and they stick through the TikToks and they just wanna be there. Whatever I do, that's why I do stuff, and it makes it a lot easier to do stuff. So it's just a massive amount of gratitude for those people.
MSM: Yeah. That's sounds like an amazing feeling.
NIC: Yeah, it's huge. I did a concert in Manhattan. My first one that sold out, crazy enough, and it was just a lot of those kinds of people who I've seen online over the last six or seven years who came and sung my songs back to me. That's a really incredibly gratifying feeling.
MSM: Yeah. All right. Well, that's all I have. Thank you so much for your time!
NIC: Awesome. Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
FOLLOW NICHOLAS HAMILTON: SPOTIFY
*Studio photos by Mollie Pie; live photos by Amanda Lee Domenech. All photos provided courtesy of Jill Fritzo Public Relations.
