When did you discover that you wanted to be a musician?

I'd always been around the music industry...but I never really thought I was going to be a musician until a song materialized very quickly one day when I was living in San Francisco in around 2001.

How did you start playing music and which instruments do you play?
When I started getting interested in music, I brought an old guitar to the local music shop...they replaced the machine heads, bridge, and strings. I started taking guitar lessons, followed by piano, then voice.

How do you write songs?
It changes. On my debut album, most of the chord progressions were written on guitar and the melodies & instrumentation formed around them. Guitar is most comfortable for me and it's a quick way to try new ideas, even if the recorded version ends up with no guitar track at all. Lately, I've been writing more on the piano and in sequencing software.

What aspect of making music excites you the most?
Each phase of music making packs its own special joys and grievances. It may sound contrived, but I think the most exciting is when someone tells me a song I wrote helped them with something in their life...because that has always been my main motivation. I have control over what my music sounds like and what the artwork looks like, but when it's released to the world I have no control over what it does. That's very exciting.

What aspect of making music gets you the most discouraged?
Like most things about which people are passionate, music is competitive. From the millions of bands out there, there are only a handful of bands at the top. It takes a lot of faith and patience. It can be difficult to appreciate personal milestones when comparing myself to others...I want to be the best at what I do and sometimes the response to my work does not reflect that. It makes me try harder, though, so that can be a blessing. I also work hard at being happy for others who succeed in music.

Why the name 'Nomadic Sun'?
I used to play under my name, Kevin Burke, until I learned that Kevin Burke is an Irish fiddler living in the Pacific Northwest- he owns kevinburke.com and has been performing for a while...so I came up with Nomadic Sun instead. It has a few points of meaning to me: it starts with N-O to remind me of New Orleans. I owe a lot to the culture of New Orleans and I want that to always be a part of my persona. While recording my CD, I lived in many other cities, most notably San Francisco, Paris and New York. Being a nomad was, and still is, my way of life, so that's the 'nomadic' part of it. In a greater sense, I think of Nomadic Sun as a metaphor for God's love...in all of my travels, no matter how far away, how alone, how destitute, or how hollow I was, I still always felt an intimate sense of divine love and protection. To me, it's like the sun...no matter where you are on Earth- you just have to look up to see the sun. Moreover, my birthday falls on the summer solstice, so it's an icon with which I've always associated.

Who does your artwork?
I do. I've been working as a freelance multimedia designer for as long as I've been pursuing music, which has helped me greatly when I've needed design.

You mixed your debut album yourself, but then had it mastered by Tony Dawsey (Jay-Z, Moby, Nine Inch Nails). Since you seem to have a habit of doing things on your own, can you explain why?
Yes. My debut album was originally being mixed by the studio's engineer, Mike Harvey, but then Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and flooded the studio. He'd evacuated with the masters on an external hard drive to Ohio, so we agreed that it would be better for me to take over the project since we had no idea how long we'd be kept out of New Orleans- I had evacuated with my family to Nashville. When we were finally let back into the state, I spent the next few months trying to get a long stay visa for France. After about three months of living in post-storm Louisiana, I received it in the mail from the Consulat and got really nervous with excitement. I packed up my home studio equipment, moved to Paris, and finished the album over the next year. Rather than delay the album's release any longer while I learned to master, I found the best mastering engineer I could. I relocated to New York for a few months and worked odd jobs while having the CD mastered and manufactured. The amazing part is: I told the mastering engineers I contacted before Tony that I wanted the album to have the brash power of Jay-Z's 'The Black Album'...and no one could quite get it right. Never did I think that the person who'd mastered that album would also master my album.

Which musicians are your biggest influences and to whom do you listen for inspiration?
I'm a big big fan of Stevie Wonder. He's number one for me...his music has the soul that I want my music to have. He overcame so much to get where he is and, while I don't know everything about his life, he's still alive, making music, married, and doing what he believes to be good for this world, so I believe he is a role model. I was very lucky to have seen him at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in 2008. Some other big influences are Radiohead, Björk, David Gray, Depeche Mode, Tom Petty, Manu Chao, The Flaming Lips, Tori Amos, Modeselektor, DJ Shadow, and Telefon Tel Aviv.

Who is a band or musician to whom you feel more people should be listening?
As a New Orleanian who has a great affinity for electronic music, I'd say The Buttons. There aren't many live electronic acts from New Orleans, so I have a lot of respect for those guys as I know they've been at it for many years. I should mention Telefon Tel Aviv again as they accomplished a lot and are from New Orleans also.

What's the most unusual place you've ever played a show or made a recording?
Hahahahaha. I can think of one very desperate show. I once spent month and a half in France before living there, and my wallet was stolen beneath the Eiffel Tower. As I didn't have but a hundred Euros or so to last me until I could get money wired from home, I took my guitar into the Saint Michel metro station, opened my guitar case, and played the songs I knew. Fortunately it rained, so many people were forced underground to take the metro. I learned later you're supposed to have a permit for such activity.

As for recordings, I was living in Palo Alto, California and commuting via the Caltrain to work at a radio station in San Francisco every day. Beneath the train tracks there is a pedestrian tunnel that has the most amazing reverb. I was recording my demo CD at the time, so in the middle of the night, I brought my guitar, a small digital four-track, and a mic down there to record the guitar overdubs & solo for 'Please Say.' While I was recording for the sixth time or so, a very drunk man, who I guess had just gotten off of the train from San Francisco, stumbled up to me and started dancing to my solo. It was kind of funny because there wasn't any strong rhythm or beat for him to dance, but he went ahead and did this cha-cha move while I played. And at the end, he wound up clapping, which I thought was really nice. Oddly enough, that was the best take I'd recorded so in the mixing I had to fade the track out before his applause.

In what ways has New Orleans affected the music you create and your taste in music?
Since I released my first demo CD, I have been integrating samples of field recordings I've made in New Orleans: streetcars, dishwashers at Café du Monde, jazz ambience from Frenchmen Street, air conditioning units outside Jax Brewery. On my debut studio album, Nomadic Sun, I used them several times- whether it was to create atmosphere or slicing them up to make organic beats. The sounds of New Orleans will always be a part of my musical palette.

My taste for Louisiana culture is a more recent development. Having grown up in Mandeville, Louisiana, I took New Orleans culture for granted for a long time. Something happened on the road where I was aching to get back to New Orleans. It was such a strong feeling. Traveling can often give one an identity and whether you want it or not...you become a diplomat of your city, your state, and your country on the road. It allowed me to see New Orleans from the outside in: where we excel and where we need work. Leaving New Orleans and returning gave me an appreciation for Louisiana's folk traditions...I can now see why second line, zydeco, gospel are so vital to the America tradition.

Where do you see your music going in the future?
I've got some things I want to try...some new styles of music that I'd like to create, God-willing. I want to share my music with the world, tour to new places and hopefully help as many people as possible.