Nick DiSalvo of Elder on Through Zero, 20 Years of Making Music & Life in Germany | Ep. 34

Check out our latests newsletter on ELDER HERE: www.thesonicroad.com Nick DiSalvo — vocalist, guitarist, and founding member of Elder — returns to The Sonic Road Podcast for a full conversation ahead of the band's seventh studio album Through Zero, out May 29th via Blues Funeral Recordings in North America and Stickman Records in Europe. This is a wide-ranging episode covering the full arc of Elder's career, the creative philosophy behind Through Zero, and a lot of the real day-to-day reality of being a working musician two decades in. Nick speaks openly about burnout, creative intention, what mainstream even means in 2026, and what twenty years of doing this actually looks like from the inside. Here's what gets covered: 🎸 Twenty years of Elder — what it feels like, what it's built, and the honest admission that not hitting the mainstream still stings sometimes 🌍 Life in Germany — working for a European record label while playing in two active bands and barely finding time to pick up a guitar 📚 Books, biographies and pop culture — Kraftwerk, Cameron Crowe and Almost Famous 🎵 The heavy music renaissance of 2026 — why the resurgence feels different this time, and the community being built around it 🏟️ Playing smaller venues by choice and why that matters for the connection with an audience ⏸️ What a full break does to a musician — and why COVID proved stopping isn't actually an option 🎚️ The making of Through Zero — self-produced, recorded at Big Snuff Studio, co-mixed with Richard Behrens, and what makes it Elder's most immediate record to date 🎹 Mellotron, arpeggios, and the sonic palette that makes Through Zero different from anything Elder has made before 🏰 Medieval imagery, modern technocracy, billionaires and why the image of peasants looking up at the castle hasn't changed much from then to now 🌐 Three labels, one album — Blues Funeral Recordings, Stickman Records, and Bird's Robe handling global distribution and why that model works 🎤 Whether Elder will ever play Through Zero in its entirety live — and what it would take to get there 🎸 The Black Crowes, Clutch and Neil Young playing full albums live — and the ticket price conversation 💬 Ron Nevison, Ronnie Lane and Led Zeppelin — a deep dive into recording history 🎯 Always be the boss — the most important lesson for any young band ❤️ Why the underground scene runs on love of the creative process — and why fans, creators and musicians are building the world they want within a broken system Through Zero is out May 29th on Blues Funeral Recordings. 🎵 PRE-ORDER THROUGH ZERO: Blues Funeral → bluesfuneral.com Bandcamp → beholdtheelder.bandcamp.com Stickman Records → stickmanrecords.com 🔔 SUBSCRIBE to The Sonic Road Podcast: thesonicroad.com | linktr.ee/thesonicroad 📲 FOLLOW THE SONIC ROAD PODCAST: @thesonicroad on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook & X thesonicroad.com 📲 FOLLOW ELDER: beholdtheelder.com | @elderofficial ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 00:00 Intro & Free Newsletter Announcement 00:00 Nick Returns — Life in Germany & What's Been Going On 00:00 Books, Kraftwerk Biographies & Cameron Crowe 00:00 The Heavy Music Renaissance of 2026 00:00 All Them Witches & Building Community in the Scene 00:00 Playing Smaller Venues & What That Connection Feels Like 00:00 Twenty Years of Elder — Mixed Feelings & Quiet Pride 00:00 What Mainstream Even Means in 2026 00:00 Scaling Back to Avoid Burnout 00:00 Being a Maximalist & Learning to Pull Back 00:00 Working a Label Job & Two Active Bands 00:00 Barely Finding Time to Play Guitar Anymore 00:00 The Song About Feeling Removed From Why He Started 00:00 COVID Proved Stopping Isn't an Option 00:00 Why Are You Writing This? Product vs. Passion 00:00 Create First, Package Later 00:00 Do It With Real Intention & It'll Shine Through 00:00 Always Be the Boss — Advice for Young Bands 00:00 Medieval Peasants, Billionaires & Modern Technocracy 00:00 Building the World We Want Within a Broken System 00:00 The Making of Through Zero — Self-Produced at Big Snuff 00:00 Mellotron, Arpeggios & the Sonic Palette of Through Zero 00:00 Ron Nevison, Ronnie Lane & Led Zeppelin Deep Dive 00:00 Three Labels — Blues Funeral, Stickman & Bird's Robe 00:00 Will Elder Ever Play Through Zero in Its Entirety Live? 00:00 The Black Crowes, Clutch & Neil Young Playing Full Albums 00:00 Ticket Prices & the Live Music Conversation 00:00 Closing — Tour Plans & What's Coming Next ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━