Jon Nicholson has come a long way since his days in a skater-punk band when he was 12, playing music reminiscent of the Dead Kennedys and Sex Pistols. He has gone through phases of playing gospel, soul, rock and punk that have led him to the music he performs today.

“I play strong elements from both soul and rock now. It has really become a hodge podge,” Nicholson says.

Before he could even form words, he was singing. He says his love for music began early in life.

“When I was 3, my mother would force me to play the violin for five or six hours a day,” says Nicholson, who, at the age of 5 also began to play the piano, and now, at 31, can play the guitar and bass, as well.

Nicholson says his new album, “A Lil Sump’m Sump’m,” is a dose of reality that contains ideas from his life. He writes about everything from being in the music business on “Rock & Roll” to doing drugs with his grandma on “Grandma.”

“I started making up some lyrics and I was about half done and I was like, ‘Holy shit, I’m writing a song about getting stoned with my grandma.’ I didn’t even realize it. But it’s not really about my grandma smoking with me. It’s about life,” Nicholson says.

Nicholson says writing lyrics comes easy to him. He says he tends to just sit down at a piano and music and lyrics start spontaneously pouring out.

His lyrics, Nicholson says, are what sets him apart from other musicians.

“The songs I write are so personal that when I look at them, I think, ‘How could anyone else play these but me?'” he says.

He says he also takes a new approach to the instrumentation on his new album by mixing in instruments most people wouldn’t think belong in a band playing soul and rock music.

“I really just said screw guitars for about 70 percent of the songs,” Nicholson says.

Instead, he uses instruments such as the saxophone and tries to manipulate it in a way to sound like a guitar.

“After people hear my music, I want them to think, ‘Wow, this is the first time I have ever heard this type of sound,'” he says.

Nicholson says being on tour gives him freedom to play the type of music he likes for his audience.

But he admits there are downsides to being on tour – he only gets to see his wife and two sons about four or five days a month while he is on tour.

“My boys understand what I’m doing, though,” he says. “They’re little rock ‘n’ rollers.”