A Way to Calm the Storm

Harvard is one of the most diversely talented colleges in the country, and many times students don’t even know the extent of their peer’s abilities. In our new series, we interview and showcase some of the college’s best artists and their work.
Harvard Political Review: Let’s go with the classic freshman details – hometown & concentration.
Nick Mendez: I’m from Washington, D.C., just outside of Arlington, Virginia, but I went to high school in D.C. I’m interested in concentrating in Gov, probably with a secondary in Economics.
HPR: How and when did you get started with your playing and singing?
NM: I got started with guitar in summer camp, in ninth grade….I learned “Mad World,” which is a pretty depressing song from Donnie Darko. That was the first song I played and performed….The fall of senior year, I got a guitar for Christmas, and it was really tough because I was writing all my college apps, and I had this new guitar that I wanted to play all the time, but I couldn’t because I had to write my apps. That’s when I got really serious about guitar. It was senior year.
HPR: Do you have any specific musical inspirations? I remember you did sort of a John Mayer, Eric Clapton kind of thing when you came to the HPR the other night.
NM: I like John Mayer a lot, he’s a good guy, but I really like Bob Dylan. I really like the basics, I really like acoustic guitar. I really like a sort of a really simple sound. I turn to Bob Dylan as someone who’s sort of more of a role model.  I love Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, ACDC…it really ranges. Then, as a classical musician, I love Vivaldi: he’s one of my favorite composers of all time. It’s a tough question. I listen to pretty much any music that you’ll throw at me.
HPR: Do you want your music to have any special significance for the people listening to it? Do you want it to serve some kind of function?
NM: Well, what I think is really cool is that I’m also really interested in government. On my gap year, I actually worked on a political campaign in Colorado for five months. I went out and interned during the primary for Senator Bennett’s campaign. He’s the Democratic senator in Colorado now, got hired when we won the primary. I was the youngest paid staffer working for the campaign in Colorado. When you’re doing field-organizing work and you’re doing a lot of phone banking, you realize how venomous politics can be.…I really like playing music because everyone—you know, within reason—music is something everyone appreciates and it’s sort of a unifying thing. I’m very interested in music because of its restorative powers. It can heal. But I sort of like it because it brings people together.
HPR: I also remember you said during your performance that you went to the Sidwell Friends School in D.C.—do you think you have an interest in government because you basically grew up and went to school in the heart of government? What do you think about the intersection between music and politics?
NM: [Sidwell Friends] was a very political school, and politics has been a part of my life pretty much since—you know, when you grow up in D. C. with the federal government in your backyard- everything everyone does in D.C. is somehow related to the government, to The Hill.  A lot of my friends had parents who worked on The Hill, a lot of my friends interned on The Hill with me….I guess it’s always been part of me when I was growing up. I’ve always been exposed to it, so I really like it. My family in the Philippines was pretty involved in politics there as well, so when I grew up I was interested in the United Nations and stuff like that because my grandpa worked there.
I guess that the fusion of music and politics is tempering the venom—I think it’s hard to have music that’s very venomous, and that kind of music I tend not to listen to, but you know music is something that can bring people together, whereas politics can really drive people apart.
HPR: How was your Freshman Talent Show experience?
NM: I think I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. It was by far the biggest crowd I’ve ever played in front of. When I auditioned it was a very chill process, because it was when the hurricane was going on.… the whole audition was so low key, I didn’t notice how many people you play for, so when you started to see the video feed of how many people are in Sanders, I thought, “this is so many people, I’m going to school with everybody for the next four years, so I really can’t screw up. I really can’t be that guy.”
It was a lot of pressure. Thankfully, everyone else who did the talent show was really supportive. We were all sitting in a room underneath Sanders together. Rehearsing, just jamming. We all played “Lean on Me” together for a while, which was very fun.
HPR: Where would you like to take your music playing, either in college or afterward? Do you have any thoughts about a career in music?
NM: The music industry is really tough, and it’s not as straightforward. I’m pretty comfortable with government and politics and that scene especially because I know how to navigate it a lot better….When I was working In Colorado, for instance, when you work for a political campaign, you get to the office at 8:30, set up and from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. you have call time, so all you do is call, recruit volunteers….You can be at the office anywhere between 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. in the morning during the week and then on weekends it really depends….
So when I went home at night, it’s really nice to feel you did something else in the day for yourself other than just work. I play a lot of guitar right before I go to bed, and it’s a really great way to relax and kick back and feel like you do something really constructive….
I don’t see myself as being a professional musician in the future, but I like music because it’s a great way to sit down with people and just play. Paul Hodes, who lost the Senate race in New Hampshire, in 2010…he’s an incredible musician. You can use it as a tool to relax, a tool to have fun.