What's in a name?

One of the questions we get asked most often is about the origin of our unique name. It’s a question we absolutely love to answer!

Sick Picnic evolved from my brother Mike’s and my creative exploits growing up on a farm in rural Nebraska, where there’s a not a whole lot to do but use your imagination. Our earliest passion was writing songs and attempting to record them in our bathroom. (Shower tile being great for natural reverb, you know). When we’d finish and were listening back to the cassettes on our boom box, we’d have a pretty typical kid exchange for 1985:

Mike: That’s sick.

Matt: Totally sick.

Mike: The sickest.

At some point, when we were trying to verbalize something so sick it was beyond just “sick,” we started saying “That’s a sick picnic, dude.” Like, a whole smorgasbord of sick laid out on a gigantic checked blanket for everyone to enjoy. (Sick Smorgasbord doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as well).

As we grew older and became musicians and artists for real, “sick picnic” became kind of a catch-all for different creative work: a really fun, productive recording session could be a “sick picnic.” So could a funny cartoon or a great show. “Man, that was a sick picnic, wasn’t it?” You get the drift. 

So it was only natural that the term crept into our own professional use. That’s how we ended up starting Sick Picnic Music (BMI), Sick Picnic Press, Sick Picnic Animation & Illustration, and eventually Sick Picnic Media - all of which we hoped would preserve and promote that sense of play, spontaneity, whimsy, and wonder that are the coolest part of being a kid and which seem to become more elusive as you grow up.

So …. there you have it. The Sick Picnic it is!

If you’re ready to embrace the joy and creativity that the concept of a “sick picnic” represents, we invite you to join us on this journey!