Who is Nick Rattigan?

Nick Rattigan, otherwise known as Current Joys, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, journalist, and music video producer based in Los Angeles, California. He started releasing music in 2011 and is a part of Surf Curse (an indie rock band). 

Nick was born on August 6th, 1992 in Henderson, Nevada. He moved to Reno, Nevada, later in life for education purposes. He started taking drum lessons when he was eight and taught himself to play the guitar and a variety of other instruments as well. There is no information about his parents or family. Nick prefers to have his personal life private and out of the media. 

In 2011, Nick started releasing music independently under the name “The Nicholas Project.” He then changed his name to TELE/VISIONS in 2013. In 2015, on a Facebook post Nick stated, “I no longer feel like it represents the music I want to make…” and he began performing as “Current Joys.” 

Almost all songs Nick writes have a music video, he films and produces everything himself. He moved to New York in 2013 for a year, where he worked as a production assistant in the film/TV industry. He went back to Reno, Nevada for a while and left for Los Angeles, California in 2016. 

Surf Curse was formed in 2013 in Nevada by Nick Rattigan and Jacob Rubeck. Nick and Jacob met in eighth grade and formed Surf Curse in high school. Nick is the lead vocalist and he also plays the drums, while Jacob plays the guitar. They write as a duo, but perform live as a band. Surf Curse’s music is described as expressing themes of young and romantic love through a cinematic lens of the 80s and arthouse movies. 

Nick is very open about the struggles with his mental health, in an interview with College Times he states, “In the past few years, I’ve sort of spiraled into that level of Generalized Anxiety Disorder and I think one thing that constantly grounds me is being able to write music or play music so I just kind of use it as a vessel to communicate that anxiety.” Current Joys’ genre of music is overall Indie and Alternative but can be described as new wave, indie rock, and experimental.

When Nick writes music for Current Joys, he expresses all of his emotions, most of which consist of worry, fear, and expressions of tiredness and wanting to disappear. Some of his songs have lines like, “I feel nervous every day of my life, it gets worse the longer I’m alive” and, “I see nothing ’cause there’s nothing left for me, There’s just some grey anxiety.” His music assures fans that they’re not alone if they feel the same as him. 

Today, Nick continues writing music for his solo project, Current Joys. He has released nothing since his last album, Voyager in May 2021. He’s doing a world tour early next year. Surf Curse is writing new music and plans to tour in 2022 as well.