Current Joys - Altered States

Biography

Utilizing the Windows media players and webcam during his sophomore year in high school, Nicholas Rattigan began to record and compile his music as a one-man-band. Having a passion for music since infancy, Rattigan had long explored a variety of different musical acts, ranging from The Beatles to the Pixies, beginning in middle school whom he was introduced to by his close family. In November of 2011, Rattigan officially put out his first album under the moniker The Nicholas Project. Rattigan would later record and release four singles, a compilation album, several studio albums, and an extended play between 2011 and 2012.

In 2012, Rattigan abandoned The Nicholas Project, and began a new Bandcamp page, entitled TELE/VISIONS and joined Surf Curse as a vocalist, writter, and drummer. On January 2nd, 2013, Rattigan released his beloved debut, Wild Heart, which included almost half of his They Are Evil extended play, which he has released several months prior. The lyrics of TELE/VISIONS were heavily inspired by old films and rock music, namely The Breakfast Club (1985) and The Dreamers (2003). A follow up studio album would be released the next year, along with a compilation album, which featured live recordings of a full TELE/VISIONS band. Musically, the sound of TELE/VISIONS reflected the vintage 80s pop rock sound, with heavy reverb. In 2015, Rattigan felt the need to get away and distinguish himself properly, and rebranded as Current Joys. In an interview with College Times, Rattigan said of the name “Current Joys”:

The name is from a song by Liam the Younger and the song is pretty much a short poem and the poem is: “I’m glad I know I had it good, so when I’m old and sad I can say I understood it was easy being free.” I’ve always loved that song and that poem and that sentiment. Everyone’s either trying to live in the past or live in the future, but with my music I’m always trying to almost create a meditative presence.

In 2015, Rattigan released his first album, Me Oh My Mirror under the Current Joys name, which showed a major shift in instrumentals, ditching the stereotypical vintage sound for a more modern and representative one. In 2016, Current Joys' popularity spiked due to the track “New Flesh” was played in the influencer Emma Greer’s final Vine, before her untimely passing due to cancer. Throughout 2016, Rattigan took a hiatus from music, and returned in 2017 with a collaborative single. In 2018, Rattigan suffered from writer’s block, and the result was both a visual and audio album entitled A Different Age, which was met with commercial acclaim from fans online. An official tour was then announced, where Rattigan would play with a triplet of other vocalists and instrumentalists, completing the full Current Joys line up. In February 2020, Current Joys released their first double album and live album, which was recorded at Salt Lake City during the band’s tour, which teased a new track. Over a year later, several singles were released within a few weeks several months prior to Current Joys' ensuing album, Voyager, which focuses on his filmmaker influences such as Alfred Hitchcock, Lars Von Trier, Terrence Malick, Agnès Varda, and Andrei Tarkovsky and sprinkles in Rattigan’s musical influences such as the Pixies, Jeff Buckley and Nick Cave.