Biography

i started recording and performing music in 2004 as russell (solo project) playing mostly acoustic covers of other people’s music. as i began to write my own music, i changed the name to nice guys finish first. my idea behind the name at the time was that i didn’t like the idea that bad people seemed to be getting ahead at the expense of good people, so i decided to make a play on the popular phrase “nice guys finish last” to say that they should finish first! over time the name made less and less sense for me to use. shortly after my debut album came out in 2008, i also came out… as non-binary. besides not being a “guy” there is also an unfortunate prevalence of crappy dudes saying “but i’m such a nice guy” who are anything but, and those two elements combined make me feel icky to have my name be nice guys. additionally my new music i’ve been working on is very different than my previous music so i’ve decided that it will be released under rollercoastervegan going forward. thanks for listening and i hope you enjoy both my previous and future work!