Check out this incredible interview and learn more about NASH:
What initially inspired you to create NASH and delve into the cyberpunk universe?
Since I was very young, I have been passionate about technology and music. I always had "the dream" of being able to compose absolutely everything I wanted on computers with virtual instruments. But at the time, being able to compose via computer required a lot of time, very powerful and expensive machines and there was no possibility of having guitar VSTs or the emulations were really bad, I'm talking to you about that about 20 years ago.
I have evolved through different musical styles throughout my life as a musician. I have long wanted to combine the meeting of metal with the "raw" side of synthesizers to immerse the listener in this cyberpunk universe. Typically, "Doom" is in my opinion an example that could illustrate this process.
How do you see NASH contributing to the evolution of metalcore and its fusion with technology?
I have a small partnership with SUNO. AI which is an A.I that generates music. I only use it to generate voice that I incorporate around my composition, in this sense, I participate in the evolution of tomorrow's music. I think that the Japanese were the precursors with holographic virtual artists like in visual kei and tomorrow, with the expansion of AI like SUNO, we will see the emergence of them as if they were beings made of flesh and of blood !
I don't know if I'll one day take off in the metalcore scene but in any case I try to bring something different and original.
Can you elaborate on how you integrate synthetic elements from underground scenes into your music, and what influences these elements draw from?
The most complicated thing is actually adding synthesizer elements, you have to feel "the vibe" that emerges from the song to add the synths which will blend perfectly with the song. It takes a lot of time and I feel a bit like a chemist in a laboratory, I combine several elements until I find the right one. The dark electro scene/aggrotech demonstrates through its artists that there is no shortage of ideas, they inspire me a lot.
Also, I always immerse myself in a cyberpunk universe, fan of the Directors : Denis Villeneuve and Ridley Scott, I easily immerse myself in this world of images to project my creations, my search for inspiration. I would even add image AI also becomes a resource to exploit, you may have noticed but all my single covers in my project were generated by an AI.
What challenges have you faced in blending virtual instruments with the human voice, and how have you overcome them?
It's not in terms of VSTIs that I encountered challenges, it's more in the mixing of drum and guitar. On the one hand because I'm a total neophyte in this area, I tried as hard as I could to make it sound like a big sound. On the other hand, having an emulated guitar requires having a complete "signal chain" for it to sound: amp, eq etc.... And there it's the same, basic keyboard player I don't know anything about it at all so just like the search for synth sounds, I tried for months to make both sounds correctly. I'm really proud of the result, of course for purists it's far from perfect, but I tell myself that for a solo guy who doesn't know anything about it: the result is honest.
For the voice, it took me more than 4 years to find a singer who held up. I mean, finding singers isn't the hardest thing. It's finding serious people on a human level that caused me the most concern: you can't imagine how hard is… you can find singers who tell you "I love your music, I want to do a feat on it !” and then... you compose something for them, ask some news and suddenly becomes an embarrassing radio silence. I'm going to sound a little harsh, but I find that singers today are really starlets who want everything without making the slightest effort upstream, or on longevity.
But I believe that complacency and laziness is a more general problem in our societies. During these 4 years, I wasted a lot of time with one in particular who brought me more trouble than added value to my compositions, this guy is the perfect stereotype of personal sufficiency, a sort of "golem dreamers" as we say in French. But allowed me to open my eyes to what I really wanted and what I no longer wanted.
This is also why I launched my solo project, I had a few groups before but often complacency, immaturity, hypocrisy take precedence over the desire to really share a group of musicians. I think that for many musicians who find themselves faced with this type of problem, artificial intelligence will solve this...
Which specific aspects of renowned bands like Bad Omens, Bring Me the Horizon, Erra, Make Them Suffer, and I See Stars have influenced NASH's sound the most?
Creativity. What makes a band famous? In my opinion: originality, creation and a voice that stands out from the ordinary. Singing is one thing, performing is another.
For me, these groups are creators who think outside the box to offer listeners a world of sound far from a standard group of which there are plenty.
Could you shed some light on the process of generating lyrics using a personalized language model and how these lyrics contribute to the thematic depth of NASH's music?
You can find a bunch of royalty-free AI models on “huggingface”. I'm not going to tell you which one I have, it's my little secret but in any case we're going through an incredible period within reach: you can nab an AI that generates text like another that generates sound or even tell you if you have cancer!
Not being a good lyricist at all, having an AI capable of producing lyrics was a small challenge and a way to extend my project on a technical level.
My current singer also does a lot of production work. I mean, he doesn't change any lines at all, he adapts them to his melodies/rhythms.
In what ways do the themes of humanity and technology interact within NASH's music, and what messages do you hope listeners take away from these explorations?
I try to project all the current and future problems of our societies in my compositions. I don't forbid myself any themes! But one of the “biggest” ones is the future of machines. People today do not realize how much everything will change in the coming years. They think it will happen in 20 years or 30 years... but the change is happening now. Machines, whether AI or automatons, are progressing at lightning speeds and little by little, they are replacing humans.
Laurent ALEXANDRE talks about it very well in these books and he tries to awaken the consciences of people but also of politicians. Look, a few days ago NEURALINK announced that it had chipped a human and did you see it? He can play, move a certain number of elements on his PC.
So if tomorrow we do not train the new generations, if we do not carry out transformations in the training and ability of people to adapt to AI, we will have a "mass" stupidized by advertising and consumerism incapable of mastering the AI tool. We could talk about it for a long time but the Cyberpunk universe that you can find in Blade Runner or Ghost in the Shell is, in my opinion, what awaits us tomorrow more than a world that would like to balance in the name of pseudo fairness.
What kind of experience do you aim to create for your audience during live performances, considering the immersive nature of NASH's music?
So that... I have lots of ideas, but I need money, ha ha! I have in mind to do live shows but before I can think about the show, I will already try to find Humans in symbiosis (:
Can you describe the significance of the blurred boundaries between the real and the virtual in NASH's musical universe, and how this concept influences your creative process?
As I told you, I don't believe this world is utopian. It's just an anticipation of the world of tomorrow. And all these issues nourish my creativity. My job is computer engineering and access to the digital world is partly a source of influence: it remains atoms which activate according to the binary orders that we send and yet it produces sound waves which, when combined, become music.
The synths are incredibly powerful in my ears, all these sounds transport me, create a soundscape, this is how the ideas start to come!
Looking ahead, what future developments or collaborations do you envision for NASH, both musically and conceptually, as you continue to explore the intersection of music and technology?
I remain open to all suggestions. I've been doing a bit of promotion recently, and I have a small label that wants a lineup, so I'll start with that. For the rest, as indicated on my insta: if singers are interested in doing a collab, I am definitely willing!
I will also continue my project with SUNO and I will see. I don't worry, I do things according to my desires and the opportunities that open up to me. I love music, I love writing and that’s all that matters. My deepest desire with NASH is to share this with people who are sensitive to this style. Afterward, whether it doesn't work or not in the end, I don't care as long as I enjoy doing this in my studio.
If you discover my project, if you liked it: spread the word and share my linktree: https://nash.ws
Thank you for this interview: "The World is built in a wall that separates kind. Tell either side there's no wall, you've bought a war"
Is this so far from what we are experiencing?
Nash
