KT20 Tour and Summer Tour Update

Hey All! Happy to announce that the 20 Years of Kona Town tour with Pepper was an absolute smashing success. We managed to sell out most of the shows and put on one hell of a show every single night. Definitely the best tour I have ever been on.

Next up we have an epic summer tour planned with Stick Figure and the Elovaters which kicks off in Hawaii. All shows are listed on the tour tab above, and all tickets are currently on sale. Hope to see you at a show!

What the F*** Have You Been up to?!

Well I’m glad you asked. As I sit here quarantining through my second Covid-19 infection, I have had nothing but time to ponder this. The short answer is, a lot. The long answer is as follows…

Most of my day-to-day is focused on being both a musician and a business owner. Since the start of virus season in March of 2020, I have had over 100 gigs canceled (that’s actually a low estimate). As a result, I’ve had to take a step back and figure out what to do in the wake of such a huge cluster fuck. I decided to turn my attention first to Kona Town Recording. I have been renting this space for over a decade now, and when I first started there, it was a shared unnamed rehearsal spot that I utilized right out of college. It wasn’t until the band Pepper moved in circa 2015 that it little-by-little turned itself into a recording studio. 

Kona Town Recording

Kona Town Recording

By 2020 we were fairly busy, but it was mostly band rehearsals, and we would use it to record here and there. Outside of that, it wasn’t really utilized to its full potential, mainly just because we were always so busy touring. For lack of better word, “thanks” to Covid-19 I finally had the time to turn our little jam studio into a legitimate business. From website building, to accounting, to internet presence, to social media, marketing, booking… I decided to take it head on and see what happens.

Fortunately what happened was we got so beyond busy by the start of 2021, that it actually became a problem. At one point we had a month’s worth of sessions booked solid, and also had 65 tracks in our mixing/mastering queue. Good problem to have, but still a problem, and I am eternally grateful to our house engineer and master-of-sound, Jeff Bates, for working around the clock to get us all caught up. Our schedule hasn’t let up, but I have at least learned how to manage our work flow and client expectations a little bit better. Our clients now range from Little Tikes, to Fox Sports, to any style band you can imagine. You name it, we do it.


2021 also let me play some gigs again which was pretty surreal… especially considering that 6 of the gigs were massive sold out shows with Pepper. I guess after writing and producing with them for the past 6 years they just couldn’t stand the thought of not seeing my smiling face on stage with them. A couple highlights were selling out Pacific Amphitheater in Orange County, and Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. Check out these walkout videos below.


Finally, I started yet another business which officially opened today, Total Access Rehearsal. It’s located just a few doors down from Kona Town Recording, and it is a dedicated high-end rehearsal studio. I partnered with Steve Ornest who owns Total Access Recording, and we went all out transforming this space into something that honestly blows my mind every time I walk in the door. Check it out at www.tarehearsal.com.

As for everything else 2022, who the fuck knows right? As long as Covid and Bird Flu don’t start making out, I plan on releasing a solo album, a Cheers to Nothing EP, and it looks like we’ll see a Pepper album in the mix as well. I have a good feeling that by summertime I’ll be back out on the road with one band or another, and as always I will keep going where the music takes me.

I hope you have enjoyed this presentation. 

Total Access Rehearsal

Newly Opened Total Access Rehearsal

New Sublime Cover Out Now!

Hi all, just wanted to share a new cover that I did with my band Cheers to Nothing. This is for a compilation album celebrating the music of Sublime, and also raising money to help those struggling with addiction. Check out our cover of “We’re Only Gonna Die” on The House That Bradley Built available on any streaming site!

Listen to We're Only Gonna Die on Spotify. Cheers to Nothing · Song · 2021.

New Single, I WILL, Out Now!

Hey folks, just checking in to let you know that I’ve released my final single of the year. This is a bittersweet song that I’ve pieced together over the past couple years. I finally completed it over the summer and we really took our time with the production of it. For music nerds like me: It has an intricate string composition that culminates in a big heavy bridge section, in fact I think it’s the first time that I’ve passed on a big guitar solo in favor of an orchestra break, so maybe I’m growing up a little bit 😆

In all seriousness, it felt like the perfect song to release for heavy times. While it’s a dark song in tone, it does have an underlying message of hope, and my hope is that you dig it!

Listen to I Will on Spotify. Jeff Nisen · Song · 2020.

New Single, Time's in Life, out now!

Hey all! Here’s the Spotify link to my new single, Times in Life. The song is a fun blues/rock tune that features Mista Bad Seed (aka Moi from Tomorrows Bad Seeds) on guest vocals and Chris Bartholomew on drums. Recorded at Kona Town Recording by Jeff Bates who engineered/Produced/Mixed/Mastered it. Hope you dig it!

Listen to Times in Life on Spotify. Jeff Nisen · Song · 2020.

New Bret Bollinger Track, Colors, Out now!

New song alert! Here’s one I co-wrote and produced for Bret Bollinger called Colors. It’s a feel good song for the sake of feeling good! 

Here’s the song story for music nerds like me: Colors was actually the first song we wrote together a few years ago. I think it was originally written for a commercial, but we ended up just keeping it in our arsenal, and we’d tinker with the production every now and then. It was a little tricky to get this song dialed just right, not only does it modulate a few times throughout, but the feel totally changes too… it was a real challenge making it all work, and we threw a lot of ideas around. I played each of the parts a bunch of different ways in search of the answer. 

Finally, about a month ago, we cracked the code and finished off the production at Kona Town Recording with Jeff Bates. I’m super happy with how it came together. I hope you like it!

Listen to Colors on Spotify. Bret Bollinger · Song · 2020.

New Solo Release: Stuck Inside with You

Surprise song alert! Here’s a short and sweet tune that’s now streaming everywhere. This is one of the most organic and quickest songs I have ever recorded. A few months back when we were all “stuck inside”, my wife wrote a poem and sent it to me while I was working up in the recording studio. I happened to be sitting at the piano… and about an hour later I had this song completed. I fell in love with the melody so much that I ended up tracking it and adding some production with the help of Jeff Bates at Kona Town Recording. I had no intention of releasing this song, but it came out great, has a positive message, and you know… 2020… So hopefully it makes you smile, or gives you some feels for a minute!

Listen to Stuck Inside with You on Spotify. Jeff Nisen · Song · 2020.

New Sand Section Live Album

My first band, Sand Section, released a live album today! We scoured our archives and found some fun live recordings from a selection of venues. We think they’re from around 2010, but don’t totally remember since nothing was labeled. Hence the title: Live… from Somewhere. Hope you dig it! Here’s the spotify link, but it is also available on all other platforms.

Listen to Live... from Somewhere on Spotify. Sand Section · Album · 2020 · 10 songs.

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