Churches frontman Caleb Nichols’ early childhood in Los Osos was tolerable, but when he entered middle school, his life became a living hell. Maybe it was the geeky “Lion King” T-shirt he wore, his ear piercing or the Breeders patch on his backpack. But his classmates bullied him, Nichols says, “and had all these superfluous reasons that I was gay, which turned out to be true later. Read More

In junior high, rhythm and blues singer Aaron Neville chose an unusual location from which to launch a career — the boys’ lavatory. But that’s where he and his first teenage doo-wop group hid to practice their intricate harmonies. Read More

It was a far-fetched plan that English folk-rocker Mike Rosenberg devised five years ago when his quintet Passenger splintered after one critically acclaimed album, “Wicked Man’s Rest.” “Plus, my manager at the time quit, my girlfriend and I broke up, and I had to leave my house,” says the singer-guitarist, who appears today in The City. “It was just one of those bleak moments in life where everything around you just collapses, you know?” Read More

On the road promoting his introductory, self-titled EP, 23-year-old Willy Moon has been meeting immature folks who puzzle him — “people who are supposedly adults, who still haven’t really allowed themselves to grow up and become responsible for themselves as individuals,” says the New Zealand-born, London-based techno-rockabilly cat whose song “Yeah Yeah” was snapped up by Apple for its new iPod commercial. Then again, maybe it’s just him, he adds, “because I became responsible for myself as an individual at a very early age.” The sharp-suited kid has a full-length album on the way. Read More