I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Tired Of The Music On This Album”: Nick Hakim On Hitting Creative Heights On New Record I Can’t See.

Nick Hakim sits at the intersection of analytical philosopher, mystic poet and constantly evolving singer-songwriter; to hear him discuss his latest project is as illuminating as the craft heard on the album itself.

Nick Hakim will never be known as a one-time wonder, or represented by one singular body of music. He has a handful of projects that embody the vision and output of an artist who sees music as its own form of magic, never underestimating the ability of the medium to create miracles. To hear him perform is to feel these truisms in real time. It’s a spirit that the 35-year-old has carried throughout his tenure as a composer and as a collaborator. 

From early LPs like 2017’s Green Twins and 2020’s Will This Make Me Good, to his new album, I Can See, Hakim has pursued the truth in every note he’s written, every lyric he’s shaped. “This record feels like every record I have ever made, all the ideas, even stretching back to my first EP are evident here,” he tells Man About Town live from the London office of his record label, Earseed. By connecting the dots with his previous projects, Hakim is able to use this feeling as a launchpad to make I Can See his boldest outing yet. 

Standout single, “Real Here Now”, offers insight into the way Hakim wrote, imagined, and recorded I Can See. The track tells the story of a house; a house not dissimilar to the one Hakim grew up in, but in this domicile, he can interact with family members who have since passed away. It’s a lo-fi subdued soul-pop jam and features some of Hakim’s most direct lyricism to date: “Haven’t seen you in a minute, I’m good,” he begins. In describing the composition, Hakim refers to the “feeling of a song”, how he wanted “Real Here Now” to exist as a nostalgic reminder of the sensation he has when imagining this space; a place in which those who have left find their voices again. “It’s connected to hearing someone sing songs you used to always hear. Now, you just have a memory of them”; how sweet it would be to hear them just one more time, Hakim expresses on the song.

“I Can See” is infused with an unearthly R&B, genuinely mind-altering. The eerie ambience that Hakim so adeptly shapes together takes on a life of its own. As the album is released to the world, Man About Town sits down with the musician to discuss shaping his cosmic vision, his evolving songcraft, and music existing in the realm of healing.

With this project being your fourth solo record, how do you continue to search and mine these new creative visions?

It took a long time to finish and I needed the time to understand it fully before releasing it. I was listening to the instrumental versions for at least a year before trying to put some of my vocals on the songs, I know the music well. It’s a blend of many previous ideas, that could be my previous albums and collaborations I have had in the past as well.

The Nick Hakim that released Green Twins all the way back in 2017 will be a very different musician than the one releasing I Can See in 2026.

Green Twins will always be a very special album for me. It has a lot of things that are set in stone for how I create to this day, it’s all very connected to my process and always will be.

On a similar wavelength, It’s interesting to note this album was recorded around the same time period as your previous album, Cometa.

Tell me about it! It’s been such an interesting process, everything feels like it moves so much faster than it has done before. To have something that you are protecting, that you are in love with, continuing to explore, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the music on this album and that has been one of the most special parts of this timeline, the process of producing and finishing it. I intentionally took my time and I’m glad because of it. I started working on the last album and this album back in 2020 and it’s been a journey for sure. 

With the roots going back to 2020, six years is a long time for a song to start in one direction and end up completely different at the finish line, is that a feeling you had with this album come to the conclusion?

Honestly, yes and no. I say no because a lot of the vocals, melodies and the structures were already set in stone initially which was the foundation of these compositions. The things that have been edited and changed are the production and the instrumentation. A lot of the original melodies were improvisational works. 

One week in 2020, I ended up producing around 30 demos and every track on this album was a part of that collection, aside from “The Reason”, that is a song that has been kicking around since 2016, there’s a recording of it on Soundcloud under the band name The Velvet Nipples and it’s just called “Man”, that’s the second version.

I put it on Soundcloud when I was subletting a room in Montreal, which really dates how long the process can take sometime. 

What was it about “The Reason” that meant it had to wait a while before being introduced to the world?

Sometimes you have a song that will just sit around for a while, you love it, and it’s like a plant, it takes time to grow! I’ve always listened to it and considered including it on a project but would always think it can wait a little bit longer. That track has gone through many different versions, but in terms of it changing and evolving, the melodies and the chords were the foundations; it's the lyrical content that went through the most amount of changes.

I Can See was shaped in the exotic territory of Sonic Ranch in the Texan desert, was this a shake to the system for a New Yorker like yourself?

I learnt about Sonic Ranch through my collaborator Andrew Sarlo who has always assisted with the mixing and production, he recorded the Big Thief album Two Hands there plus some work with Bon Iver. Andrew is one of my best friends and when I was releasing my second album Will This Make Me Feel Good, he helped me with this urgency to start working on music again.

A lot of the technical recording was incredibly creative, and it was done with a computer present but it wasn’t the main tool that was being used to record everything, it was more of a safety net. We had a lot of fun recording to tape and everything was completed in three weeks. 

Previous records such as “Cometa” and “Small Things” have had celestial comparisons to the work of Marvin Gaye and Harry Nillson, did you approach this record having been influenced by anything slightly unexpected?

I really love the quality and the recordings of Red House Painters. I love Mark Kozelek’s vocals, his lyrics and his tempo. There’s a beautiful balance between calm and this intense energy that runs through the music, caused by these complex frequencies. 

I Can See is full of these beautiful guest vocalists, and I’m sure of the voices of many collaborators. I'm curious how you find the right people to share your creative vision?

“The Reason” features June Mcdoom and Moses Sumney. I share a studio space with June and she has always been incredibly friendly to me. I’ve known Moses for a long time and we have been friends since before either of us released music officially, that’s the track that I mentioned had been in the works forever and Moses actually sung on it all the way back in 2017.

Moses and I have at least 30 plus songs that we have written throughout the years. So I would say it just involves people that have been around for a long time. June has been a big part of some of these songs, including “Know My Name” as well.