Live music and touring are on lockdown right now and fans as well as artists are going through withdrawals. We wanted to come up with something fun to help bridge that distance between fans and artists right now. What we came up with is something called The Lockdown Lowdown and it’s a Q&A session with fun questions for artists to answer. They’re not your typical interview questions, so it gives you a peek inside of the artists themselves. We’re big music nerds here at I’m Music Magazine and we love learning things like this about the artists that we love. We’re pretty sure that you’ll get a kick out of these, so we hope you’ll take the time to read them. In this installment, we sat down for a fun Q&A session with one of our favorites, Mackenzie Nicole!
1. 5 albums that changes your life.
The Family Jewels // MARINA
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge // My Chemical Romance
How to be a Human Being // Glass Animals
The Front Bottoms // The Front Bottoms
Rose // The Front Bottoms
2. 5 artists that influenced you as a musician.
MARINA
The Front Bottoms
Tupac
Johnny Cash
Stevie Nicks
3. Your 5 favorite live albums
(I don’t really listen to live albums besides those by Johnny Cash, so I picked my favorite live songs)
“The Chain – Live At Webster Hall” // Ingrid Michaelson
“Cocina – Audiotree Live Version” // Strangers You Know
“Landslide” – Live at Warner Brother Studios in Burbank, CA 5/23/97 // Fleetwood Mac
“Give My Love to Rose – Live at Folsom State Prison, Folsom, CA – January 1968” // Johnny Cash
“Famous Last Word – Live in Mexico City” // My Chemical Romance
4. Life on the road; 5 of your craziest/funniest/scariest tour stories
Most my crazy / funny / scary tour stories get lost in translation in writing, so I’ll describe some of my most memorable tour moments. They’re probably mad boring, so I’m sorry haha. This isn’t a specific memory, but rather, several combined. I’ve signed a LOT of interesting things, including shoes, motorcycle helmets, abs, boobs, foreheads, phones, skateboards, and much more.
The best part of touring is going to new places. The best place I’ve ever went on tour was Seattle. It was Tech N9ne’s Planet Tour 2018, and it was my first time in the Pacific Northwest. It reminded me of an overcast New York. I was obsessed. My dad and I walked the entire city. It’s my favorite memories with my dad.
One of my favorite tour moments was in Denver at a meet-and-greet on Tech N9ne’s Planet Tour 2018. A fan of mine that I am now close friends with named Melissa came up to me in the line and gave me a box and a letter. In the box was a gold necklace reading “Crybaby”. In the note, Melissa explained that the first time I met her at Red Rocks Amphitheatre years before, she was wearing that very necklace and I had complimented it. Now, the necklace was to find a new home with me. I began sobbing. You see, this particular show was in the middle of my infamous 2018 Mental Breakdown. I was suffering, so deeply engulfed in the darkness. This gift was so much more than a beautiful piece of jewelry. I wore it like a nametag. I wore it nearly every day for months. It inspired me to embrace my vulnerability. I cry every day.
I’ve almost been pulled off stage several times over the years, and it never gets less terrifying. That’s why I wear so many rings and bracelets onstage now ― when people pull on me, they’re going to get a handful of jewelry instead of pulling me into the crowd. I was supposed to go on tour Spring of 2020. We played exactly one show before the entire tour was cancelled because of COVID-19. However, during my set on that one show, there were crowd-surfers, a fight, AND a moshpit. SO METAL.
5. 5 favorite movies.
The Godfather
The Shining
The Invitation
Jurassic Park
The Princess and the Frog
