John Nilsen

John Nilsen's mother taught piano out of their home throughout Nilsen's childhood. His mother taught private lessons so there was a constant stream of students coming in and out that piqued Nilsen's curiosity and soon he was taking lessons from his mother. His musical career began with these piano lessons when he was just six years old. Nilsen believes while you seek out things in life some things happen to find you; he believes that music was one of the things that has found him. 

Since practically birth, he has had a fairly in-depth exposure to music through his mother, but as he got older he has been exposed to music that his mother did not share with him; his mother shared mostly the classical music that she taught her students. So naturally he has always been drawn to classical music, that is until The Beatles hit the scene. When Nilsen was in first grade The Beatles came to America, he was immediately interested. His parents on the other hand did not care for them, that did not stop him from listening obsessively to the Fab Four. Eventually his mother came around, telling him he had always been right about The Beatles. 

For as long as Nilsen has been writing he has put as much integrity and work into making sure everything he makes is the best it can be. Although music is extraordinarily subjective, he still finds value in people being able to connect to his music. Part of what makes Nilsen's music good is that he has never had any interest in trying to be like anyone else, or have his music fit into what the sound of the day is. 

Nilsen took a few years off of piano in middle school when he began playing guitar. He is currently working on his next studio album that explores these two sides of his musicianship. The concept of the record is a guitarist and a pianist who are neighbors in the same building. The pianist lives downstairs and gets the most visitors as he is on the ground level; Nilsen tends to play shows mostly as a pianist. While the guitarist lives upstairs and gets fewer visitors. The record will be his 20th studio album in the last 40 years. He has recently begun work on it so it will not be out for a while. Nilsen is hoping to meet his average of a record every two years.