New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The rock 'n' roll hometown hero known as Nick Higgins has released his debut collection of original songs, titled, "No Laughing Matter." The record contains eleven new tracks for an approximate total of 43 minutes' worth of high-quality rock music by Higgins, himself. The record is ostensibly an upbeat, immediately enjoyable album with positive overtones and a continuous, catchy groove, but its title bespeaks a more serious intent. It is also a powerful and ambitious charity endeavor on the part of Higgins to raise money and awareness about illicit sex trafficking in the burgeoning black market of human slavery.
In spite of this weighty subject matter - which by no means is the only theme of the record, it being mainly an album of praise songs and material related to the Christian Bible - Higgins manages to make an incredibly lighthearted and delightful set. His youthful and jubilant sense of humor runs rampant throughout the tracks and can easily be observed at any random moment throughout the album. He does not stoop to melodrama, and neither does he take himself too seriously. In fact, the only topics Higgins seems to take seriously at all are his Lord the Christian God, and his personal crusade against slavery, yet even in these his earnestness and clever songwriting allow him to have an awful lot of fun doing so.
He names as main artistic influences the likes of Foo Fighters, Weezer, Lenny Kravitz, and
Captain Geech & The Shrimp Shack Shooters, all of whom exhibit elements to be found in his own music, particularly the pop style of song composition and certain similar guitar tones.
Regarding his mission, he writes in his own likeable, personable voice, "This album is 100% to raise money and awareness about human sex trafficking. I had often heard about human trafficking, but didn't think much about it until I saw the movie 'Taken.' I thought, 'There is no way that stuff is really going on, right?' After doing some research I found that 27 million people are currently under forced slavery right now. I wanted to do something. I do not 'possess a special set of skills' like Liam Neeson's character in the movie, and I can't single-handedly take down a trafficking ring. I'm a horrible shot.
But, I had a bunch of church songs I had been planning to record, and decided to record this album and give all the proceeds to an organization that fights human sex trafficking."
The actual production of the record is surprising to learn about, also, when one considers the high quality of the the finished product.
"I played all the instruments on this album and recorded just about everything in the morning hours between 6-8am. It was a sacrifice, but well worth it."
In summing up his aims with "No Laughing Matter," Higgins proclaims in his absolutely serious, yet characteristically jovial way, "Something must be done to fight this great injustice!"
"No Laughing Matter" by Nick Higgins is available online worldwide beginning spring 2013.
The LP "No Laughing Matter" is distributed globally by MondoTunes (www.MondoTunes.com) and is available at iTunes or www.top40-charts.com for convenient purchase and download.
