Nick Russel Fowler (born May 11, 1967) is an American author and
musician
A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...
who began making music while studying at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
. In 1989, he moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and teamed up with
Gregg Wattenberg
Gregg Wattenberg is a Grammy Award nominated songwriter, music producer, and musician residing in New York City, New York.
Work
Gregg Wattenberg has co-written and/or co-produced eight No. 1 hit songs that reached the top of Billboard Hot AC, Adu ...
, Michael Haar, and
Greg Smith to form Tonto Tonto.
Fowler has published two novels. His first was released in 2002 entitled ''
A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla'' and was published by Pantheon Books in the U.S. and by Hodder & Stoughton in the U.K.
This novel was followed by ''My Virtuous Sister''. He has also published an essay collection entitled ''Master of DiviniTy: Collected Essays.''
Early life
Fowler grew up in
Tallahassee
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
. He attended
Maclay School
Maclay School is an independent, non-sectarian college-preparatory school in Tallahassee, Florida.
History
In the late 1960s, a group of white parents raised funds to create a segregation academy in response to the federally mandated racial integr ...
before attending
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, where he studied English literature, creative writing and music theory.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature, he moved to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
Music career
Fowler formed the four-piece band Tonto Tonto with
Gregg Wattenberg
Gregg Wattenberg is a Grammy Award nominated songwriter, music producer, and musician residing in New York City, New York.
Work
Gregg Wattenberg has co-written and/or co-produced eight No. 1 hit songs that reached the top of Billboard Hot AC, Adu ...
, drummer Michael Haar, and bassist
Greg Smith. The band secured a
recording contract
A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...
with Victory, who at the time was a division of
Polygram
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...
. The band released their debut album ''Mirror for the Blame'' produced by Ric Wake, which led Fowler and his three bandmates to appear in an episode of ''
The Tonight Show
''The Tonight Show'' is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. The show has been hosted by six comedians: Steve Allen (1954–1957), Jack Paar (1957–1962), Johnny Carson (1962–1992), Jay Leno (1992–2009 and 201 ...
.''
In 2009, Fowler formed the pomp-rock band Maximilian is King with Arthur Lynn and keyboardist
Rob Clores
Rob Clores is an American, New York-based keyboard player and composer who has toured and recorded with Jesse Malin, The Black Crowes, Tom Jones,
Men at Work frontman Colin Hay, Marius Muller Westernhagen, Enrique Iglesias, Blues Travele ...
.
The band released an
extended play
An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record. album, ''Music For The Fire'', which was mixed by
Steve Thompson and placed on rotation on
Anything Anything with Rich Russo
''Anything Anything with Rich Russo'' is a weekly two-hour freeform radio program that airs on Sunday nights at 9 PM in the New York City market. The program's weekly playlists range from deep tracks of known artists, punk, non album b-sides, bu ...
, featured on
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's largest rock radio station, WRXP 101.9. Maximilian Is King's debut full-length ''Songs To Kill Yourself With'' was released shortly after. The album was notably mixed by
Roy Thomas Baker
Roy Thomas Baker (born 10 November 1946) is an English record producer, songwriter and arranger, who has produced rock and pop and songs since the 1970s.
Career
Baker began his career at Decca Records at the age of 14 and later worked as an a ...
, produced by Arthur Lynn with drum programming by
Carlos Alomar
Carlos Alomar (born 7 May 1951) is a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican guitarist. He is best known for his work with David Bowie from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s, having played on more Bowie albums than any musician other than pianist Mike Garso ...
. On September 15, 2011, Maximilian is King performed at The Low Down With Hoyle Jackson at Bloomingdale's 59th Street in Manhattan. In November 2011, Fowler began performing live with guitarist and songwriter
Steve Stevens
Steve Stevens (born Steven Bruce Schneider; May 5, 1959) is an American guitarist. He is best known as Billy Idol's guitarist and songwriting collaborator, and for his lead guitar work on the theme to ''Top Gun'' – "Top Gun Anthem" – for w ...
. In April 2013, Fowler performed the song "Sleep Walking" included in the motion picture ''
The Right Kind of Wrong''. On May 27, 2020, Fowler released two songs he recorded with the band
Velvet Revolver
Velvet Revolver was an American hard rock supergroup consisting of Guns N' Roses members Slash (lead guitar), Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) and Matt Sorum (drums, backing vocals), alongside Dave Kushner (rhythm guitar) formerly of punk b ...
entitled "Long Way Down to Gehenna" and "This Is Not America."
Fowler is a founding member of the non-profit Musicians on Call.
Author
In 2002, Fowler's first novel, titled, A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla was published in North America by Pantheon Books, and by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK.
He contributed illustrations to the novel. Fowler's second novel, entitled My Virtuous Sister, was published in 2019. Fowler's book of essays, entitled ''Master of DiviniTy: Collected Essays'', was published in December 2022.
His story, “Innocence,” was published in ''The Encyclopedia of Exes'', edited by
Meredith Broussard
Meredith Broussard is a data journalism professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. Her research focuses on the role of artificial intelligence in journalism.
Career
Broussard was previously a features editor ...
.
Fowler has also written fiction for Vice-Versa online journal and Pulse Berlin.
9] Fowler's journalism has been published in GQ
and POZ. He has taught fiction writing at mediabistro, The New School and NYU in the Holocaust Museum. During this time, his short story, “A Spider’s Diary” was published in The NYU literary magazine, Epiphany.
His academic criticism has been published in The Antioch Review and his poetry in The Tribecca Poetry Review.
Actor
In 1999, Fowler appeared on The Sopranos. It was the 10th episode of the first season, entitled A Hit Is a Hit. Fowler played the part of Richie Santini, an ex-boyfriend of Adriana La Cerva. In the episode, he also performed in the fictional band Visiting Day, created by Fowler and Gregg Wattenberg.
Bibliography
*
A Thing (or Two) About Curtis and Camilla
*
*''Master of DiviniTy: Collected Essays'' published on Amazon.
*Innocence (short story)– Published in The Encyclopedia of Exes.
*A Spider's Diary (short story) – Published in Epiphany.
*Chase Reprise (short story) published in Pulse Berlin
*Ember Days (short story) published in Vice Versa
*Bruce Jay Friedman:Making Sense of Entropy-published in The Antioch Review
*Getting Laid in Tinseltown-GQ
*Timothy Older, By Design-Tribeca Poetry Review
Discography
* Tonto Tonto - ''Mirror for the Blame'' (1992) released by Victory Records
*Maximilian is King-Songs to Kill Yourself With (2011)
*Real Today – featured in the motion picture and video game Dr. Giggles
*Heroine Girl – featured in the motion picture Undocumented
*You Don't Remember – featured in the 90210 episode Winter Wonderland
*Goodbye – featured in the motion picture Mercy
*Sleep Walking-featured in the motion picture The Right Kind of Wrong
*Hold On Me –DJ Riddler Enigma
*Long Way Down to Gehenna –Nick Fowler The Messiah and Velvet Revolver (2020)
*This Is Not America –Nick Fowler The Messiah and Velvet Revolver (2020)
*
*
*
*
Recognition
Fowler appeared in CODE NYC's first issue.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Nick Russell
21st-century American novelists
American male journalists
Living people
Singers from New York City
Cornell University alumni
American male singer-songwriters
American male novelists
21st-century American male writers
Novelists from New York (state)
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Singer-songwriters from New York (state)
Maclay School alumni
1967 births