Bio

Richy Nix would be the first to tell you his brand of hip hop-cropped alt-rock flows from a range of formative experiences tailor-made for fusing a unique sound both unifying and uplifting to others.

His first single, the scorching, keyboard-tinged anthem “In My Head” may emanate from those under the radar places, but somewhere in his gritty amalgam of street-tempered beats and rousing choruses - a soul-stirring river runs through it. The Detroit River, that is, with the Windsor, Canada native having grown up on the Ontario side of the Detroit/Canada border in a town considered by locals to be another scalded suburb of Motor City. Signed by Universal Republic Records, thanks to the self-propelled, Top Ten placement of “In My Head,” via Detroit’s popular Radio station 89X/88.7 FM Detroit/Windsor, Nix has just released his signature song nationally, backed by an acclaimed band and coveted status as Canada’s previously rated number one unsigned myspace artist. Nix’s debut EP, “Note To Self” will be released this spring .

But Richy also affirms it hasn’t been a boat ride getting there.

A product of divorced parents, he learned to navigate the bi-polar social status of a split household, spending time in two completely different environments while searching for his own musical roots. “I’ve always been a survivor, an adapter,” he says. “My parents broke up and there I was. My mom lived in a small town, my dad in the inner city. The small-towners they called me Ghetto – the inner city cried ‘Hick.’ I didn’t know where I belonged so I did my own thing. I would listen to hip hop and I would also listen to alt-rock and metal. When they’re playing Tupac over here, and Nirvana over there – you instinctively get a ‘feel’ for both.”

A proficient rapper and vocalist, one listen to “In My Head,” and you realize it takes an artist with Nix’s keen instincts to calibrate simultaneous paths and somehow create a lane all his own. Citing influences from Dr. Dre to Incubus to Kanye West to Protest The Hero, (he grafted his own moniker from an Elmore Leonard novel), he managed to grind out two start-up releases in mid-decade, garnering enough of a local following to forge the 2009 self-launched eye-opener Richy Nix: Hell City (Nix’s nickname for the shadowy Windsor). Along the way he adopted a penchant for live performance, preferring to leave sampling to others and craft his beats live, (Nix credits an early relationship with noted Windsor rapper Kannibalistic for teaching him to forge beats on the keys). His accomplished live band raucously rounds out Richy’s adventurous sound, including an original song Nix penned inspired by the movie Twilight. He has performed live with an eclectic mix of artists, such as Proof /D 12/, Silverstein, and fabled Michigan thrashers, Pop Evil, another Universal Republic signing who Richy has shared the stage with on multiple shows.

When asked if there’s any message to unique offerings like “In My Head,” Nix hits pause: “I always write about what’s in my head at the time. The trial and tribulations people go through. You might be depressed, you might even feel hopeless some times, but out of that comes strength. A lot of my music seems to hit on that other fact of growing up constantly tested. You’re not alone. You can get through this.”