This past Tuesday, I was lucky enough to sit down with DU student Nick Anderson, the founder and musical lead of his group, The Northern Empty. We went to none other than Beans Coffee Shop, and I got to pick his brain on his current indie folk project.

At its simplest form, The Northern Empty is a folk band, but Anderson has heard genres from pop folk to urban folk. He, however, would simply say that they are an indie folk group. Many friends have told him his music sounds similar to Passenger, who is one artist he finds a lot of inspiration from. Other artists he pulls from include Gregory Alan Isakov and Horse Feathers. He also finds pulls from Judah & The Lion, which has a member that Anderson grew up with and who recently performed on Letterman.

The idea for The Northern Empty started back while Anderson was in community college before transferring to DU. He actually had a previous project back in high school that was more pop oriented. He would play shows, he wrote his own music and he even had a promoter. “It was fun, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to play the music that I love and that I listen to,” said Anderson of the previous project, “I began pushing out basement demos of songs I really didn’t believe in, cause I felt pressure to. Now I’m putting out music that I can’t wait to show people.”

This is when his musical drive changed. He took two years to improve at guitar and really hone down his songwriting skills. At DU, he began just jamming with people but didn’t really start a project until this school year. Back in the fall, he had a song, he had the money and he was ready to record something.

That’s when we got our first taste of The Northern Empty back in November 2014 with the song “Off The Floor.” When I first heard it, I had no idea this was an independently produced song by a DU student; actually, I thought it was far from that. The production quality, the amazing lyrics and beautiful instrumentation puts this song up on the level of any other popular indie folk band.

You might notice that the song features some lovely violin melodies as well as sweet female harmonies. That is DU and Lamont music student Raven Underwood. Before being an official member of the group, she was part of the recording session for “Off The Floor” mainly as a studio artist, but after hearing the final product, Anderson had to have her on the project to continue with violin. He also plans to have her take over in more of a lead vocal role. In the past few days, another member was added to the group, DU graduate Brendan Schuster, who is the new piano player for The Northern Empty.

As of the most recent news, people want more, and Anderson was actually quite shocked. He thought this song would only get about 100 plays, but on Spotify, they are now up to over 3,500. They were even featured in Yellow Scene Magazine just this past week. “A lot more has come out of [the song] than expected,” Anderson says, realizing that new music is in high demand. Luckily this March, they have scheduled recording time. We should be expecting a new single very soon. I was fortunate enough to hear a stripped-down version of the new song in his apartment a couple weeks back. I didn’t think it could happen, but this song is going to be even better than the last.

The Northern Empty is also in the process of writing a full EP. Independently producing music is very expensive, which is a pretty big wall for them to overcome, but I fully believe that these talented musicians will prove themselves to the point that funding won’t become a problem anymore.

They love what they are doing. The simple act of playing music gives them bliss. Anderson put it the best, “I put [“Off The Floor”] out because I love music and I wanted to share it with my friends and family. Obviously, playing music for a living is the dream, but it wasn’t a necessity.”

I have a lot of respect for these artists and I’m a huge fan of what they’re creating. Be sure to check out “Off The Floor” and give them some love. You can find them on Facebook and Twitter and you can get their music on iTunes, Bandcamp and Spotify.

http://open.spotify.com/user/dutastyjams/playlist/265r1FsXvef2nO16kN2818