A musician whose various projects have navigated indie folk-rock, tripped-out indie pop, acoustic singer/songwriter fare, assertive indie rock, and dense, Beatles-inspired psychedelia, Caleb Nichols' music CV includes Port O'Brien, Release the Sunbird, Grand Lake, Soft People, and more. Their first full-length release under their own name was a queer-themed concept album based on the Beatles' "Mean Mr. Mustard." Titled Ramon, it marked Nichols' full-length Kill Rock Stars label debut in 2022. The follow-up, 2023's Let's Look Back, employed a more defiant indie rock for its themes of surviving abuse.

Growing up in California with a fascination with the Fab Four, and later developing an apparent affection for the songwriting of Elliott Smith, Caleb Nichols was a founding member of alternative folk-rock group Port O'Brien. Established in 2005 in Kodiak Island, Alaska, around the day jobs of Nichols, Van Pierszalowski, Cambria Goodwin, and Joshua Barnhart, the band made their recording debut with When the Rain Comes on Tecolote Records in 2005. They moved to the American Dust label for 2007's The Wind and the Swell. To growing acclaim, All We Could Do Was Sing was issued on City Slang a year later, and Threadbare followed on City Slang/TBD Records in 2009 before Port O'Brien members went their separate ways. Around that time, Nichols also played in such outfits as the Bloody Heads and Rogue Wave side project Release the Sunbird. Meanwhile, Nichols' own projects included Grand Lake. Then based in Oakland, California, Grand Lake released the psychedelic Nevermint in 2009 and Blood Sea Dream in 2010. The short-lived Churches followed in the early 2010s.

Formed in 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia, and later moving to San Luis Obispo, California, Soft People was a duo with Nichols and spouse (and onetime Grand Lake drummer) John Metz. Residing in a trippy version of home-brewed indie pop, Soft People issued a series of recordings over the next few years including one full-length, 2017's American Men.

Nichols was still based in San Luis Obispo when they began releasing solo material under their own name. By the time Nichols signed with Kill Rock Stars -- Elliott Smith's onetime label home -- the musician had released a book of poetry (TEEMS///\\\RECEDES) and was a Ph.D. candidate in Creative and Critical Writing at Bangor University in Wales. The Clarion EP, an acoustic singer/songwriter outing, appeared on the label in late 2021. It was followed by a concept album with a heavy psychedelic-era-Beatles influence, June 2022's Ramon, which reimagined Mean Mr. Mustard as a queer icon. Featuring production by Rogue Wave's Zach Rogue, a fuzzier, more energetic indie rock outing, the more personal Let's Look Back, arrived on Kill Rock Stars in October 2023. ~ Marcy Donelson