Nicholson

All Things Trance, from 138-150, Carl Nicholson /Nicholson just aims to put a smile on everyones face, and seems to be doing a bloody good job too. .

There are few that can say they were there when the acid house boom fully erupted in the early nineties, most artists have a very short career span and many ride the wave that they have caught until it reaches fruition, then pack up their headphones and return to their everyday life. But there are a small handful of artists whom never seem to disappear, these few, are the true soldiers of sound, the ones that no matter how hard things get, and how tough the hills are to climb, they always manage to stay on their path whilst others fall by the wayside.

London born & Bred Carl Nicholson is without doubt one of these people, Carl started his journey way back in 1990 as an Hardcore MC, and after months of watching top end DJ’s at the time such as Micky Finn & Carl Cox, Carl decided to see what all the hype was about and give it a shot himself, and after 6 gruelling months of his very own brand of ‘Wild Horses’ mixing, Carl got a feel for it and the rest as they say is history.

In the summer of 1994, Carl came across a tape, a tape that was to change his life forever, this tape was the Tony de Vit mix on the massively popular ‘Retrospective of House’ compilation by Fantazia, and Carl simply could not believe his ears. From that day forward Carl lived, ate, and slept all things TdV, he used to follow him around London whenever he was playing, find a good spot near the decks and just stand, watch and listen.

After about 6 months, Carl finally got the courage up to speak to Tony, and bear in mind to Carl, Tony was a musical God of monstrous proportions, so this was no easy task to say the least, but after a few minutes of chatting with him, Carl realised that this man was just like any other guy, he wasn’t a god, he was a normal friendly bloke who had just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and that gave Carl a confidence, something he had lacked in early years, and it dawned on him that with hard work, dedication and a burning passion for the music and the people it attracted, anything was possible.

Since 1995 Carl has been on the forefront of the UK Underground dance scene, he began his journey living in a doorway in the west end of London, learnt his craft from the undisputed king of Hard House, Tony de Vit. He’s played alongside everyone from Fatboy Slim, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Frankie Knuckles & Chemical Brothers to Judge Jules, John ‘OO’ Fleming, Paul Van Dyk & Lisa Lashes for virtually every major hard edged brand and festival in the UK & Worldwide including Cream, Judgement Sundays, Frantic, Fevah, Glastonbury Festival, Insomniacz, Bulldog Bash, Miss Moneypennys, Soundscape (NZ), B2T, Traxx (SA), Timeless, Hard Dance Ibiza (IBZ), Sundissential, Trance port Festival (ARG), Round Bass (NL) & Tasty to name only a handful, plus he is the only Hard Dance DJ to have received a residency at the world famous Fabric nightclub in London for DTPM.

On top of all this Carl’s production has made him a worldwide phenomenon with over 120 original tracks and remixes on all the biggest labels including Tidy, Nukleuz, Riot, Elasticman & Impact. These have then gone on to be featured on more than 60 compilations including the infamous Euphoria series and earned him countless Radio 1 plays, 5 UK Dance chart Top 10 entries & a silver BPI award.

He’s had two bestselling compilations in the form of his debut album ‘Storybook’ which claimed bestselling Hard Dance album for nearly 3 weeks on both Trackitdown.net & Juno, he received major Radio 1 airplay by Kutski and was featured in clubbing bible, Mixmag, plus not forgetting 7 of the single releases hit the No 1 spot on Trackitdown.net. The second was ‘Ultimate Hard House Anthems’ released by Riot! Recordings which smashed straight to No 1 on the biggest DJ Portal on the internet, Beatport, and the exclusive track that he released with the album ‘Up 2 No Good’ took the No 1 spot on the singles chart for three weeks and has stayed in the top 15 for over 9 Months.

So, as you can see, Carl has been there, done it and got the T-Shirt on all fronts of Dance, he was there when it was created, he was there when it evolved and it’s very clear to see that he will still be here for many more years to come.

2013 was without doubt his most epic year to date with international bookings already in played in South Africa, Russia, Ibiza, Argentina & Scotland, plus UK bookings for Paul Van Dyk’s Final show of his 2013 world tour, Reading Pride’s Dance Tent, Frantic, Basingstoke Live Festival, a two thousand man tent at Bulldog Bash, Sunny Side Up, E: Volve, Bioshokk & Tasty to name only a few, and each and every one was to rapturous response & applause.

So far this year, 2014 has been the year where Carl has come into his musical maturity, casting aside the old shackles of his Hard Dance days, Carl has evolved into a new melodic Psy-Trance edged sound, taking all the power and emotion from his Hard Trance ideals and fusing them with a slightly slower yet more prominent beat and with this evolution came his new guise ‘Nicholson’.

With big things planned and tracks already completed, Carl’s work is receiving huge support from all for corners of the globe from the likes of Aly & Fila, Christopher Lawrence, Allen & Envy and Lee Osborne to name only a small handful, and as the days progress, Carl’s light is and will continue to shine bolder and brighter than ever before.