Biography:

Nick Zaino is a Boston-based singer/ songwriter with a deep appreciation for the roots of American music. The song’s the thing, whether it’s a country weeper or charging four-chord rock and roll. Zaino is a multi-instrumentalist often plays solo acoustic, and though he enjoys quiet introspective songs and the lonesome sound of a harmonica, he also likes to push his Tacoma through a fuzz pedal and get loud, when the situation calls for it (he did start his musical life as a drummer, after all).

Zaino has released an acoustic EP called Here’s A Moon, currently available on Bandcamp, and is working on an expanded follow-up with a stockpile of songs he has workshopped on stages around his adopted home of Boston. Inspired by artists like The Band, The Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, Elvis Costello, and Alejandro Escovedo, Zaino’s music has an elemental feel, sometimes searching for the simple answer to a complicated question, sometimes making fun of himself for asking the question in the first place.

A freelancer writer during the daytime hours, Zaino is constantly writing, covering notable comedians for local and national publications or penning the occasional zombie short story, and writing new songs all the while. A good line could come at any time, day or night, and Zaino works on keeping his mind open to it. “I have a phone full of voice files waiting to be honed into songs from things that come to me on long car trips,” he says. “And piles of notebooks that need harvesting.”

Zaino finished recoding his new full-length album, Blue Skies and Broken Arrows, in September and is mixing and mastering for a late-fall release. He's looking forward to finally bringing to light some songs that he’s been playing for years, and some he’s only been playing for a few weeks. “It’s time to give the songs a proper introduction,” he says. “There are new ones knocking on the door every day.”