I am from Dehradun, India. Currently a software engineer and electronic music producer. Trying to make music potions.
2. What inspired N!SE to start playing and making music?
I started listening to EDM music at a very young age and what inspired me was the thought like it’s so beautiful and cool how the electronic music songs gave me the goosebumps I get while listening to the music. So I thought I want to create something like the music I listened to and yes just the thought, the feeling turned into passion and since then I try to make music.
I started listening to EDM music at a very young age and what inspired me was the thought like it’s so beautiful and cool how the electronic music songs gave me the goosebumps I get while listening to the music.
3. Who are N!SE’s biggest musical influences?
My biggest musical influences are a lot of artists, not a single one as I have listened from Martin Garrix, David Guetta to The Weekend, Taylor Swift and what not, but personally Avicci, Martin Garrix , The Chainsmokers and Porter Robinson are some that I admire the most. And my genre is based on these artists only.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
My goal is to make music that can make someone cry, not in a bad way. I just want my music to have emotions and i don’t plan to make music for money so in case I am being asked this question for monetary stuff I don’t care much about it.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
I think about nothing. I just feel the sounds that I have on my PC when I make music and somehow it all comes into place. I don’t have a knowledge of music theory and I also don’t know how to properly use my DAW but still I make decent music and I am working on my flaws.
I just feel the sounds that I have on my PC when I make music and somehow it all comes into place.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
My all time favourite song by an artist is Shelter by Porter Robinson. The song is very beautifully created and I don’t have words why I like it because as I said for me music is just like an emotion so I just feel the music.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
I am a new artist and I don’t have that much experience in the industry so I would say right now I don’t have any advice I got or I have given. The reason is because I produce alone, learning from different channels.
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
My proudest accomplishment was being able to create electronic music from scratch, because it was very difficult as I did not have any experience … no knowledge of music theory, but still I created a good song.
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
There was a time when I was messaging random playlist curators to add my song on their playlists and there was a curator who told me I am copying and pasting other’s music and I should make my own music. He was right though, because I was learning and I used other artists’ style and created something my own but I just changed the melody and chords and the rest of everything was the same so it was very embarrassing that someone told me that. But I was learning at that time so I appreciated his advice and thanks to that now I can create my own music from scratch.
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
I am from India and here the support for electronic artists is almost none because here Indian music and only famous songs are popular, unlike the genre or my style of music which is more popular in countries like the US and Germany. Until now I did not have a highest point in music and I am still struggling. Once I make it, I might say I have my highest point, because I think this is my lowest point where I am right now.
I am from a small City in the south of germany called: “Wäschenbeuren” with also American and Greek roots. I currently work on a new project that will become my debut album. In the meantime I am working as a chef and advancing my knowledge with everything that has to do with music.
2. What inspired Odiss to start playing and making music?
I always had a big thing for music. In an early age I was in classes to learn the flute and guitar and I was in our school choir, I used to sing a lot. When I started I was watching a lot of Battle Rap Tournaments and when it was over for the year in 2014, I started participating in it myself. I love the complicity in lyrics and how you can build up a message throughout a whole song or just verse.
When I started I was watching a lot of Battle Rap Tournaments and when it was over for the year in 2014, I started participating in it myself.
3. Who are Odiss’ biggest musical influences?
A big inspiration back then were people like Michael Jackson, Xavier Naidoo, Sido and basically every big 2010s Pop artist. Getting older I started shifting to the American Rap scene with artists like Denzel Curry, Kendrick Lamar, KOTA The Friend and Co. My genre is mainly based in Hip-Hop from Emo-Rap to Trap-Metal, Country/Cloud Rap but also Indie-Pop.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
A goal for me is to get booked for shows and make a living with it… Ok to be honest I just want to be the best. If I am the person that inspires people like even my underground favorite artists inspire me, I made it.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
I can not produce beats so I am picking one based on my mood and when I have an easy beginning I just go think 10 minutes about it and record bar for bar. I also still sit back and write like I used to. That means just playing the beat 100x on loop and writing until I record it on a different day. Mixing and mastering is a whenever I feel like process.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
I would say Begging from Maneskin is a song I could always listen to that has no special mood to it. Only 1 of a lot.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
I think I have heard it from an interview but he said something like “just be you, don’t even stress yourself if it is not the right place and time nor feeling, just focus on something else even if it is another song.”
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
This year alone from the information I have gained about the business to the songs and improvement I made as an artist. This year I was off work for the first time since 2017 and I think I have used it good because before that I almost let music slide a little too much.
This year alone from the information I have gained about the business to the songs and improvement I made as an artist.
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
I think it was the time when we were freestyling from the top of the head at a music open mic event and I was joking bad. Or some of the Battle Rap opponents that had some hard stuff to say about the kid lol.
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
My lowest moment probably was the time when I started mentally pulling myself away from Battle Rap. I started with it and it took me like 2-3 years to stop dissing (ODiss) people and focusing on having a sense in my music. It ended up being my Emo-Rap I only know I wanted to do something so bad and my ideas just hadn’t been good enough for my vision. So and that’s also my high point. It feels so great to not have to think too much about a rhyme, a line about the hook and I am not in the position anymore where I have to feel like I need to pressure myself. I think I have proven myself as a very diverse artist who could do anything.
1. For those that aren’t already familiar, tell us about the music of Cozmicsoulfire.
I started writing songs very young around 16 playing guitar and later on on synthesiser too, I have done many workshops on music production and have also sound engineered live bands which I learned from my friends who live mixed in local theatres and venues and the bands I was lead singer in. I started as an all round cover singer which taught me about how many styles I could sing in and what the range of my voice is. Through these influences this is how my music developed over the years and I had professional vocal training for years from opera to pop music. I built my own studio and first worked with Atari which I still have working here and a lot I have made then I sample and use in new songs now. So I have worked in the music industry and been a songwriter for over 40 years now. My music is created from adlibbing and playing on guitar or keyboard to find the melody but I also write complete lyrics and start adding chords to find the right melody or I have a complete instrumental I add lyrics too. Just how the mood is, I have songs that were written in a few hours to songs that took years like “Love Like Thunder” written with my prog rock band Amorous Ardour now a wonderful dance anthem.
2. Tell us about your recent release.
“Life, Love & Light” is my new single where I go back to my roots in rock/pop style after the last singles “We are Magic” and “Lover” that were pop/dance/electro style. I originally wrote it around 2007 after my long time relation and divorce, so this demo had been laying around for a long time and I have more older works that are screaming to me to finish and to get out of my studio lol! So you can expect me to occasionally release older songs.
3. Are there any artists that have an influence on your music that people wouldn’t expect?
Yes I love hip hop artists, soul & funk music like Chaka Khan and bands like Massive Attack, Latin and Fado music and ambient & trance music like Sacred Spirit and country and bluegrass music; singers like Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer and older Linda Rondstadt, but I also listen to Olivia Rodigues, Rosalia and Chappel Roan and dutch young female artists like Froukje, good voices with good lyrics that go beyond the I love you variations on the romantic theme and music you can dance on. Production wise I also like to listen to reference tracks from people like Nile Rodgers and will.i.am or The Weekend, and of course Michael & Janet Jackson.
4. What is your favourite part of being an NAS member?
The support and the inspiring encouragement I received over the years and friendships I made here are priceless!
5. What is your all-time favourite song by an NAS artist?
I love the work of Lofthouse Leo or The Damned Kirai & Dreadful Savior and love to hear Synthetik Blonde, Bernice Marsala and Rich Allen with their wonderful songs but i do not really have one favorite song, it varies depending on my mood.
6. What is your favourite single/EP/Album by an NAS artist released this year?
Lose Your Halo from Dreadful Savior just WOW.
7. How many instruments do you play and which instrument(s) would you like to learn?
I sing so my mezzo vocal cords are my primary instrument. I play guitar and keyboard/synthesiser and percussion, bongos or congas. I would love to learn the cello which is such a wonderful instrument but I think out of my reach, so I sample it in my work, just like the violin which I totally love too. I have learned alto saxophone a blue monday but it was too heavy on my neck, so gave it up. I truly hate trumpets.
8. Other than your usual ones, which genres would you like to explore?
I have explored a lot of genres like pop, rock, metal, prog rock, hiphop, rap, trip hop, trance but soul and funk in a band live playing would have been lovely however I have explored enough and am very content with my merge of styles currently.
9. Tell us about the best gig you ever went to (or played at)?
Best gig was a festival in my hometown I have attended for years called “Into the grave” where I saw my favorite prog rock/ metal/ death metal bands like Opeth, Queensryche and discovered a lot of new favorites like Satyricon and Obscura and filmed them for my YouTube RockChickHeart Channel. Best gig I played was for over 400 woman in a club Crea in Amsterdam and of course my gig with Kink.fm rock radio in Paradiso, my fans had voted for me to play there at the venue in Amsterdam where all the big names have performed and to stand on that same stage just wow!
10. Do you have any pets? Tell us about them.
I have a sweet cat called Jessey. I’ve had her from a kitten and she will be my last one. I have saved and had over 8 cats or more over the years until they were of age and died. They were all my furry children, but I love the freedom of not having so many cats anymore.
North Texas/ South Oklahoma – drifting across the red river on any given week. Making music on the weekend, and during the week traveling for work across the rolling hills and plains.
2. What inspired wretched Redemption to start playing and making music?
I’ve always loved music that isn’t mainstream. Long instrumentals, progressive sound, heavy metal, slow piano, ambient landscapes. Grew up listening to Genesis, Rush, Dream Theater, Opeth, and then Hillsong United. In 2020 I picked up an instrument for the first time and loaded up GarageBand. It grew into an obsession to learn how to play, mix, master. Scouring facebook marketplace for gear for my humble 10×12 music studio.
In 2020 I picked up an instrument for the first time and loaded up GarageBand.
3. Who are wretched Redemption’s biggest musical influences?
Rush, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Opeth, Kanye West, Nora Jones, Sleep Token, Hillsong United. My style is a cross-genre and whatever flows best to take the songs in a direction not expected. Always exploring concepts of darkness and light.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
To continue to make music as hobby and hopefully one day do it full time. I’d love to build a studio out in the country and tend to chickens then lay down some guitar. I also just started to explore collaboration- on my song “Only One” I collaborated with Molly Barnett from Antinar and enjoyed the process. The song came out great.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
I usually start by live looping. Building out a basic ambient landscape and adding drums, guitars, synths, and exploring new and interesting sounds with stereo pedals. At that point I decide if I want to go with an instrumental or add lyrics. The writing process on lyrics is usually the first idea that comes to mind tends to stick and I let it flow.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
Driving the Last Spike- Genesis. Just a beautiful landscape, full of emotion, and Phil Collins vocals will forever haunt my soul in a good way.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
Keep trying. Don’t give up. The more reps you put out there the better you will get. I’ve found this true as I go back and listen to music I made when first starting and it was awful looking back. Even songs I made last year sound awful compared to ones I did recently that were recorded better and not over-processed.
The more reps you put out there the better you will get.
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
The album I wrote and released 9/4/26 was a year into the making. It was a lot of work, mixing and remixing and car listens, and walks listening on air pods. I don’t like to do promotion but I bit the bullet and put myself out there. I’m currently on pace to pass 1000 streams in the first 2 weeks which has been awesome.
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
Making some music videos with AI. I need to do that less and it’s very cringe looking back at it. I’d like to get better at shooting content and building a visual of the world around me and how it influences my music.
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
The lowest points are the days where I think I suck and should just give up. It honestly happens every week but I keep pushing on and making more music. I tend to use submit hub for feedback and it always seems after I feel that way I’ll get a response from someone who really enjoyed my music and that leads to the high points.
I am originally from Washington DC/Baltimore region and have worked and lived in Los Angeles for over 30 years. I am currently working on a new album of Art Rock while also releasing some of my Film Scores and Instrumental compositions. I also am the Music Director for a Los Angeles Unified School District High School called Daniel Pearl Magnet High School.
2. What inspired Wes Hambright to start playing and making music?
WOW where do I begin with early inspiration? I was always interested in the outlaw bohemian aspects of Rock N Roll at first then when learning instruments the musical aspects took over and turned me on. Listening to Led Zeppelin and learning some John Bonham beats is an early memory that inspired me to hit the drums for hours. Along with that building electric guitars inspired by Eddie Van Halen and getting my first Big Muff through my Crate Amp inspired me to learn guitar. I also saw Elton John when I was 7 years old so that holds a huge sense of inspiration in my journey to this day.
Listening to Led Zeppelin and learning some John Bonham beats is an early memory that inspired me to hit the drums for hours.
3. Who are Wes Hambright’s biggest musical influences?
My biggest musical influences vary greatly but a narrowed top list would be Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Igor Stravinsky, Van Halen, Charlie Parker, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, The Stones and The Kinks.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
My goals in the music industry is to continue writing where The Muse leads me and inspire people to expand horizons.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
My creative process begins many ways. Sometimes I have that melodic idea that spawns a lyrical idea or the opposite happens. Other times it’s a sound, patch, or amp setting that sparks an auto response in my fingers somehow. Yes, I believe in the Muse.
Sometimes I have that melodic idea that spawns a lyrical idea or the opposite happens.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding is my all time favorite. From a songwriter’s standpoint I think this song’s structure is perfectly paced, grows so organically that it has an indefinable effect on me.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
I had a composition teacher give me this advice that I pass on to my students: “keep it simple stupid”. While studying composition, especially music that had to be played down by musicians on the spot, this mantra was an important rule to keep a session smooth.
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
I can’t name one proud accomplishment but I can narrow it down to a few. I am proud of my accomplishments in film music where collectively the films expanded my skills and my imagination to write music that I would not have written otherwise. I am also proud of my teaching for the past 10 years where I inspire new musicians to be the best they can be.
I am proud of my accomplishments in film music where collectively the films expanded my skills and my imagination to write music that I would not have written otherwise.
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
My most embarrassing moment is when I was called up as a guest drummer for some tunes with some friends’ cover band and in the middle of playing “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton I fell off the drum throne backwards through a curtain.
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
My lowest points in music come from my film scoring days where some jobs that I felt I was perfect for were awarded to other composers. Sometime you get attached to a project in film where you get really inspired by the project but don’t get the gig.
eloihxx is from a small town called (Khuma) in Stilfontein, South Africa. A place where you are only relevant if you’re famous or rich. So everyday it’s a hussle to make ends meet, thus besides music he also owns and runs a fast food business.
Also the host, Sound Engineer plus Editor for his own podcast called “Live and Direct Network”. Which is a platform meant to make the people aware of current affairs around the world.
2. What inspired eloihxx to start playing and making music?
As early as Primary School I was always interested in being a song writer and a musician, because majority of the then famous hit songs were primarily in vernacular languages and I wanted to make English language music popular.
So when I got to high school I started hearing songs from local artists, and I was fascinated by their abilities to make music on their own. This led me to finding a recording studio so that I could finally make English speaking music. And kind of educate them about the importance of wordplay and metaphors to describe normal life.
So when I got to High school I started hearing songs from local artists, and I was fascinated by their abilities to make music on their own.
3. Who are eloihxx’s biggest musical influences?
I grew up mainly on G-Funk era of hip hop, by then the scene was run by Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg and mostly California artists. But as I grew I drew closer to the southern era of rap, which was heavily run by the Cash Money crew, with Lil Wayne being the biggest influence.
By the time I started making music, I was now a full time Underground head. And was trying to be like Vinnie Paz and the AOTP crew.
My current music style is New York Boom Bap and Atlanta Trap Rap. I focus mainly on melodic rhymes and cadences. I reflect a lot on my personal life and experiences as a kid who grew up in a dangerous ghetto.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
To be honest, from where I am from it’s rare to find musicians who make an honest living out of music as a career. So I am trying to prove a point that following your dreams and being consistent can actually turn a hobby into a career that can take care of my needs and my family’s needs. Without having to need a day job, you’ll obviously hate later.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
Everything starts with a chord progression, or if lucky it starts with a very good sample. I make the beats first on FL Studios, ideas for the lyrics usually come while the beat is being made.
At that point I usually stop making the beat and now focus on the lyrics and flow. Once they’re composed I would record the song on the unfinished beat.
The beat is then finished using elements from the vocals and flow. New sounds and silences are then added to accommodate the lyrics and voice.
The rough version of the song, is then played to a couple of friends and close associates to see the reaction before the final mix is released.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
Rolls Royce Break Lights by StoveGodCook$. When the song starts he says a quote “joy comes in the morning, but the plug come late night…i just wanna be successful”. I love this song because this artist once had potential to have a thriving career but due to his environment he got arrested and couldn’t work. But as soon as he was released he dropped this song, and it motivated him to be who I know today. And that shows me that there’s more to life than what today offers.
I love this song because this artist once had potential to have a thriving career but due to his environment he got arrested and couldn’t work.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
Making a lot of good songs without a clear path of where you want to go, will burn you out and waste a lot of good material. It’s important to know the business side of music and not just the art.
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
Buying my Studio Equipment. I got my first job as a student biotechnologist and I literally used all my money in buying the beat equipment money can buy. And after a year of buying, I had the confidence to quit my job and focus on my art without needing other people to help me make songs.
I got my first job as a student biotechnologist and I literally used all my money in buying the beat equipment money can buy.
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
Recently i was listening to a song by “Jay Katana” a South African Hip Hop artist. And in his chorus he sang “you’ve never made money from your art… so keep quiet”. I kinda felt embarrassed because I am a big music critic and yet I’ve never made a cent from my music yet am loud when talking about other people’s music quality and taste.
That made me want more from life , and consider why am even making art if I still need a day job (which is my current fast food shop).
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
Lowest point was realizing the sad truth that my closest friends and family members didn’t really like my music. They only say that to my face to just seem nice, but they never stream, share, not comment on the music itself.
Highest point was last year June 16, when I released my mixtape “more or less” and I was able to address everything and how it made me feel. This was pure joy, because finally my closest people started having their own favourite songs from my own catalogue, which was made to dismiss them. But it did the opposite.
My name is Mark Lajoie – I curate and promote our music. Our band officially started as Living Waters in 1976, but some of us knew each other musically as early as 1972 in Maine. We moved to Massachusetts and met the rest of the band through a retreat center. Our first concert was in summer 1976.
2. What inspired Living Waters to start playing and making music?
It was almost like it was arranged. We believe, in fact that IT WAS! just the right amazing talents in each of us, meeting & blending in just the right way. I started getting inspired songs for meditation as a teen, and our piano player, Mike, started writing songs. But then we started to create band songs as the years went on, and everyone joined in on the arrangement process. IT sounds trite…but, yes, The Lord inspired us to make this treasured music!
But then we started to create band songs as the years went on, and everyone joined in on the arrangement process.
3. Who are Living Waters’ biggest musical influences?
For me? The BEATLES! and then Peter, Paul & Mary, Handel, 60’s pop music and, later, Christian rock, like 2nd Chapter of Acts, Phil Keaggy, Larry Norman, Servant. Our lead guitarist loved Rush & The Who and similar guitar bands. Early U2? had an IMMENSE effect on ALL of us. I would describe Living Waters as inspirational classic Christian rock band that also breaks that mold, plus adding a bit of worship, classical & folk.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
In the last few years, since cvd, we have stopped, no longer operational as a band. We are all now grandparents with growing families. But I have continued to work on adding recording touches to the band classics, remixing, re-creating, and using poor man’s methods for getting our treasures out there for a new time. I’ve been discovering that people are reacting strongly to it, as if the time is NOW more than it was ‘then.’ I am also creating my own music under my name. My goal is to get this music out to human ears at this time when it seems so needed.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
For the most part, the music just happens during prayer for the songwriter! Words & music often just come together. Then we bring the song to the group and work it out for performance. Some of us went to songwriting conferences and took singing lessons in the 80s to strengthen our effectiveness. There have been other songs that were sweated out more conventionally, no less inspired in my view.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
“Thank You, Lord” by John Polce. As a group, we’ve always admired our musical friend, John Polce – one of the best voices I’ve ever heard live. He opened for our first concert. He has quite a conversion story. We all think his song “Thank You, Lord” is a masterpiece.
As a group, we’ve always admired our musical friend, John Polce – one of the best voices I’ve ever heard live.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
At a very early concert, I felt in my soul an invitation. I felt Someone saying, “Would you rather make it really big in the music industry at enormous danger to your soul? or do it poor-style, get married, have children, with far greater eternal hope.” That was so easy. The latter ladder to the skies, please! It seems to me I’ve found a group here in NAS who matches and believes in this advice to an amazing degree. There is NO better advice for musicians right now, I would say.
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
I managed to get a song of mine, “Peter the Rock”, personally delivered to Pope John Paul II through the good graces of Ambassador Raymond Flynn from Boston. I talked to his secretary and she got it done! He sent a blessing “to you and to your family”. I’ve always thought anyone who is in a musical family of mine like NAS! – is included in this blessing.
I talked to his secretary and she got it done!
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
I was leading a stadium of 25,000 people, at the World Marriage Encounter Convention, in singing the antiphon to the Psalm at Mass. I butchered it! and I never did get it right each time it was repeated. The whole stadium in cacophony! Now THAT is about as embarrassing as it gets. But it’s actually GREAT! This has served as the perfect antidote whenever I start thinking I’m hot stuff or something – perfect for knocking me off my high horse!
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
High point? one was a concert at Hartford Civic Center where their mixing crew LOVED us and understood what we were doing, e.g. they were picking up harmonic tones from my Ovation, you could hear the perfect mix for bass & drums. And we were clicking as great as we ever did. Circa 1980 or so it looked like we were dead as a band already; some of us lost our way. But then it all came back together in such a way that we made some of the best music we ever had. Our song “Nobody Else” is a celebration of this.
I’m originally from Oregon, but I moved to Northern California as a young child. At age 20, I moved to Southern California and have lived in the Los Angeles, Orange County, or San Diego areas for most of my adult life. I currently live in San Clemente, CA, the southernmost city in Orange County. It’s a small beach community, and I love it.
By day, I work in the video game industry as a Lead Producer, helping build award-winning video games and the technology behind them. That world has definitely influenced the way I approach music, especially my love for cyberpunk, science fiction, technology, and creating something that feels bigger than just a song.
Outside of that, I’m the artist and producer behind SYNTHRAZER, an independent electronic music project blending dark techno, synthwave, industrial, and EBM sounds with a cinematic cyberpunk atmosphere. I write and produce everything out of my home studio, and right now I’m focused on continuing to develop the SYNTHRAZER sound, releasing new music, and building out the larger world and identity around the project.
2. What inspired SYNTHRAZER to start playing and making music?
As a child of the ’80s, I became obsessed with all kinds of music starting in the third grade, especially electronic music and anything built around synthesizers. Over the years, my tastes have moved through rock, metal, country, rap, industrial, techno, trance and progressive, synthwave, and darker electronic music. I’ve always been fascinated by the way music can create an entire atmosphere or world.
For a long time, I was a listener rather than a musician. I DJ’d electronic music for many years, but never produced my own. Professionally, I spent most of my creative energy working in video games, where music, art, technology, and storytelling all come together. Eventually, I reached a point where I wanted to create something that was completely my own, from the first sound to the finished track.
That’s really where SYNTHRAZER came from. I started experimenting with music production, synthesizers, and sound design and quickly became obsessed with it. I realized I could combine so many things I already loved, cyberpunk, science fiction, games, film, and electronic music, into one creative outlet. It stopped being about simply making songs and became about creating unique sounds and building a world that I wanted to exist in.
Eventually, I reached a point where I wanted to create something that was completely my own, from the first sound to the finished track.
3. Who are SYNTHRAZER’S biggest musical influences?
My musical influences are pretty broad and come from several different eras and genres. I grew up with artists like Depeche Mode, New Order, Nine Inch Nails, and The Cure, and later became heavily influenced by electronic music, especially industrial, techno, trance, and progressive. More recently, artists like Carpenter Brut, Perturbator, Gesaffelstein, and Extra Terra have been big influences on the darker, heavier side of what I create.
I’d describe SYNTHRAZER as a collision of dark techno, synthwave, industrial, EBM, and cinematic electronic music. Some tracks lean heavily into techno and club energy, while others are slower, heavier, or more atmospheric. I don’t really want the project locked into one specific genre. The common thread is the world around it: dark, futuristic, cinematic, and distinctly cyberpunk.
I’m especially drawn to distorted synths, heavy bass, driving rhythms, atmospheric pads, and sounds that create tension and scale. I want a SYNTHRAZER track to feel less like you’re simply listening to a song and more like you’ve stepped into a neon-lit dystopian city at 2 a.m.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
My ultimate goal is to reach a point where I can make music for a living and dedicate myself to SYNTHRAZER full-time. I’ve spent much of my professional life helping build other people’s creative visions, and I’d love to eventually have the opportunity to put that same energy into building my own.
At the same time, success to me isn’t just about numbers, streams, or income. I want to build a real audience around SYNTHRAZER and create music that people genuinely connect with and want to come back to. I want to keep evolving the sound, release more ambitious projects, collaborate with other artists, and continue expanding the visual world and identity surrounding the music.
Long term, I’d also love to see SYNTHRAZER music find its way into video games, films, television, and other media. Given my background in games, having these two parts of my creative life eventually intersect would be incredibly rewarding.
Ultimately, I want SYNTHRAZER to become something sustainable that I can continue building for years. If I can make the music I want to make, find an audience that connects with it, and eventually make a living doing it, that’s the dream.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
My creative process is pretty organic, and I rarely start a track knowing exactly where it’s going to end up. Usually it begins with a sound, a bassline, a synth progression, a beat, or even just an atmosphere that catches my attention. I’ll start experimenting with it and gradually build outward until the track begins to develop its own identity.
I spend a lot of time experimenting with synthesizers and sound design. Sometimes the imperfections or unexpected sounds are what end up defining the entire track. Once I find that core idea, I start layering drums, bass, synths, textures, effects, and melodies around it. I tend to work iteratively, listening over and over, adding things, stripping things away, and letting the track tell me what it needs.
There’s also a very visual element to the way I make music. I’m often imagining a place, scene, or moment while I’m working: a futuristic city at night, a chase through neon-lit streets, a massive industrial space, or something more introspective and atmospheric. That mental imagery influences everything from the sounds I choose to the pacing and structure of the track.
Eventually, a story starts to emerge from the music. That’s usually when the title, artwork, and visual identity begin coming together as well. For me, SYNTHRAZER isn’t really a process of making the music first and figuring out everything else afterward. The music, imagery, atmosphere, and story tend to evolve together as different pieces of the same world.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
This is both an insanely hard and insanely easy question to answer at the same time. When I first heard “High Roller” by The Crystal Method, it literally blew my mind! I had never heard a track like that before. It had this dark, clubby vibe but was still distinctly unique and completely its own thing. I still go back and listen to that track a lot for inspiration. There’s just something about the energy, atmosphere, and sound that has stuck with me all these years. Man … I freaking LOVE that song!
When I first heard “High Roller” by The Crystal Method, it literally blew my mind!
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
The best advice I’ve received is pretty simple: just keep making music. Don’t wait until you think you’re good enough, don’t obsess over whether every track is perfect, and don’t compare where you are today to someone who has been producing for twenty years. Finish songs, put them out into the world, learn from them, and then make the next one.
I think there’s a huge temptation, especially when you’re starting out, to endlessly tweak something because you think it needs to be perfect. But I’ve learned more from actually finishing and releasing music than I ever would have from endlessly working on the same track.
I’d also add one piece of advice of my own: make the music you actually want to hear. Trends change. Genres come and go. Algorithms change. But if you’re creating something you genuinely love, at least you know there will always be one person who wants to crank it up ridiculously loud! And hopefully along the way you find a few other people who do too!
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
My proudest accomplishment as an artist was releasing my first-ever original track, “Bleed Neon. Shatter The Grid.” There’s something incredibly rewarding about going from being a lifelong music fan and DJ to sitting down and actually creating something completely from scratch, finishing it, and putting it out into the world with my name on it.
I remember hearing the finished track and thinking, “Holy shit…I actually made this.” That was the moment SYNTHRAZER went from being an idea in my head to something real.
I’ve released a lot more music since then, and hopefully there are much bigger accomplishments still ahead of me, but I don’t think anything will ever replace that feeling of releasing the first one. It proved to me that I could actually do this, and I’ve working on doing it ever since.
There’s something incredibly rewarding about going from being a lifelong music fan and DJ to sitting down and actually creating something completely from scratch, finishing it, and putting it out into the world with my name on it.
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
I’ve been alive long enough to have an unfortunately deep catalog to choose from. But for this interview, I’ll relay a brief story from when I was DJing at a club in downtown San Diego called L5. This was many years ago, I don’t think it’s there anymore.
Anyways, I was soooo excited to be playing there. It was my first night at the club, all of my friends were there watching, DJ friends from all over were there watching…and man, I trainwrecked EVERY mix. Badly. I was absolutely mortified. The nerves clearly won on that occasion.
Needless to say, they never had me back. Haha!
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
The lowest points for me have probably been the times when someone has accused my music of being AI-generated. I put an enormous amount of time and effort into every track, from writing and arranging to sound design, mixing, and obsessing over tiny details that probably nobody else will ever notice. So when someone hears the finished product and immediately dismisses it as “AI,” it can be incredibly frustrating. I have nothing against using new technology as a creative tool, but there’s a big difference between using tools and having the work itself reduced to “a machine made this.” I know how many hours went into every one of those tracks.
The high points far outweigh the lows, though. Releasing my first track, “Bleed Neon. Shatter The Grid.,” will always be one of them. That was the moment SYNTHRAZER became real. Another huge milestone was releasing my first full album, System Initialization. Seeing an entire collection of music that I had written and produced come together as a finished body of work was incredibly rewarding.
And then, to my surprise, people actually bought the album! It was a very small number, haha, but honestly, that didn’t matter. Knowing that someone out there connected with something I created enough to actually spend their money on it was an incredible feeling.
There are numbers and milestones I’d love to reach in the future, but those two moments are hard to beat. One was proving to myself that I could actually make and release a track. The other was proving to myself that I could build an entire album and a world around it, and that there were people out there who actually wanted to be part of that world.
I grew up on a farm in southeastern North Carolina. Moved to the “big city” of Raleigh when I was 22 and spent my adult life there until this year, when I decided to make a big change and moved to Camano Island, WA.
2. What inspired Dead Dave to start playing and making music?
As early as I can remember, I liked being creative. I was full of ideas that were just clamoring to get out. I’ve always been very artistic, drawing and painting. And I like to write: fiction, poetry, and eventually songs. I took piano and trumpet lessons in middle school, and started my first band in high school.
I was full of ideas that were just clamoring to get out.
3. Who are Dead Dave’s biggest musical influences?
Man, I grew up on the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels (from my neck of the woods, btw), the Eagles, Molly Hatchett, KISS, Springsteen, Prince. And while my musical style is nothing like Prince, he’s definitely one of my biggest influences with how he ignored current trends to just make music he liked. My style is a bit of a throwback to Southern Rock but mixed with the cadences of modern country riding on urban rhythms.
4. What are your goals in the music industry or as an artist?
Honestly, I’m not looking for fame or fortune. I simply want to share my songs. Since I can no longer sing or perform myself, I think the biggest honor to me would be somebody else performing one of my songs.
5. Tell us about your creative process.
Most of my songs start with a story that becomes the base of the lyrics. As noted, I can’t sing anymore but I can still whistle. So I usually think about the words and whistle until I get a melody I like. I record that melody as the foundation for what I create in Ableton, then take it to Suno to flesh out the song. I then bring the stems back to my DAW to clean up and edit. I add my digital voice in place of the Suno-generated vocals, stitch everything together, and master.
So I usually think about the words and whistle until I get a melody I like.
6. What is your all-time favorite song by another artist and why?
Probably Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s an iconic song that’s easy to sing along to, yet has a deep powerful message embedded in the catchy lyrics.
7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?
Best advice I ever got was to stop worrying about what others think of you and focus on what you want to create. There will always be critics so make yourself happy.
8. What is your proudest accomplishment?
Musically, the first time my band was booked for a live gig and left to a standing ovation. It’s one thing to think your music is worthwhile, but it’s really cool when that feeling is validated by people listening.
9. What’s been your most embarrassing moment so far?
I was once asked by a friend who was getting married to sing a duet with her sister at her wedding. We practiced just fine but then, at the ceremony, we were both totally off-key! That was so terrible!!!
We practiced just fine but then, at the ceremony, we were both totally off-key!
10. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.
Lowest is easy. That was when the tremors in my hands and the waver in my voice became so pronounced that I just could not perform anymore. I walked away from music for nearly 20 years. As for the highest point, it was quite early on. It was with my first band, Phaze, and I got my first actual fan letter… handwritten and mailed to my home. I was over the moon that someone liked my music enough to take time to write and send me such an awesome letter.
1. For those that aren’t already familiar, tell us about the music of Todd & Karen.
For those who have followed us from the beginning, they would probably say our music is “Beatleesque”, or Britpop-inspired. And that’s very true. There are few things we love more in our musical life than The Beatles…and Pink Floyd…and The Divine Comedy…and Belle & Sebastian….Pulp…Oasis…Blur…The Kinks. The list of British influences are endless. However, we also come from backgrounds where both folk music and classical has played its parts, so there’s also quite a lot of those influences in our music. If you listen to earlier songs like “L12” you’ll hear the folk (and even country rock) influence, for example…and an early single like “Barbara Barbara Barbara” features some classic influences in the violin parts. Having said all this, we can also be partial to pure pop! Have a listen to “Juicy Gossip From The Mothership” if you doubt us. A rule we’ve put for ourselves is that each new single release should sound quite radically different from the previous one, but also hopefully have some distinctive traits that people recognise as “The Todd & Karen Sound”.
2. Tell us about your recent release.
Our latest release is a 2-track single entitled “The Thrift Store Spaceship“. It came out on July 24th, 2026. It consists of the title track, which is largely instrumental and quite a departure from anything we’ve done earlier. Once again we team up with our good friend Trick Knobs (real name Connor Cathey) – he also worked with us on our previous single “WORK” (alongside William Lovitt and Albert Nesbø Baker). He’s helped us produce and mix the tracks and adds keyboards, some guitar and bass magic to the track. Do us a favour and check his solo stuff out! Anyway, the title track is inspired by the lounge and chill out music of French band AIR, but also by mid-era Pink Floyd and prog. We thought it would be cool to see what that style would sound like in a Todd & Karen context. It got to be quite guitar heavy and a bit surf inspired as well. In hindsight we can hear some traces of The Shadows and Norwegian cult heroes Kåre & The Cavemen in there as well, which we are chuffed with. We also want to give a shoutout to Sondre Johan Nørsterud and Albert Corbisier-Berge, aka “Spelegutta”, a local folk music duo who adds traditional, Norwegian Hardanger fiddle to the end of the track. The b-side, “Final Orbit”, is a more straightforward, Beatleesque psychedelic affair with clear nods to Blur, The Divine Comedy and perhaps a little Belle & Sebastian. A friend of ours said he could detect some Neil Young in there too. It follows up the space theme a bit, so it made sense to couple these together for a double single. Why “The Thrift Store Spaceship”? Someone uttered these word in a podcast and it just got us going. Sometimes it takes little to make the little grey musical cells start churning.
3. What are your plans for the future?
Well, that’s the beautiful and perhaps frustrating thing about Todd & Karen. There’s no grand plan to anything. The music just happens when it happens. What we can say is that we have a large back log of songs we hope to get around to recording, and new ones keep popping up. Currently we are working on as wildly different things as an ode to Agatha Christie (which promises to be quite a banger!), we have a song about a man with seven wives and there might be a football anthem in the pipeline. Say no more. Also, after we concluded what we call “chapter 1” with the compilation “Singles” (2024), we’ve started collaborating with other artists. That’s something we hope to do more of on more tracks going forward. It’s fun to add some other perspectives into the duo format.
4. Are there any artists that have an influence on your music that people wouldn’t expect?
We do listen to a lot of different music. People might be surprised to hear that AIR is an inspiration to us – at least if they haven’t heard “The Thrift Store Spaceship”. Radiohead has also been a band that Øyvind has been following passionately throughout their career. A-ha, Norway’s big pop heroes, is another huge inspiration. We also enjoy post-rock acts like Sigur Ros and Mogwai and more electronic acts like Röyksopp and Chemical Brothers. There are lots of great compositions in many genres out there.
5. If you could collaborate with any NAS artist who would it be?
We already collaborated with William Lovitt on “WORK” and loved the process and how that turned out! It would be great to do more songs with the Funkmaster himself down the line. To be honest, we’re open to lots of collabs with the NAS crowd. Bring them on! We have known Kelly Cresswell for a good few years, pre-NAS even, and have floated the idea about maybe doing a duet at some point. That could be very cool.
6. Which NAS artists would you love to see a collaboration from?
It would be cool to see something no one saw coming. How about Franklin & Bell feat. The DamnedKirai, for example? You heard it here first!
7. Which NAS artists would you like to see play live?
Charles Connolly doing the “Hands Up!” album sporting a full backing band with “Spotlight” as his encore would be a great gig! We’re happy to do the support slot, just give us a ring, Charles.
8. How many instruments do you play and which instrument(s) would you like to learn?
Between us we play quite a few instruments. Guitar, bass, keyboards, piano, violin, ukulele…and then we dabble in other instruments. There are instruments we can make quite nice sounds come out of if we try a little extra. If you listen to “L12” on our “Singles” album you’ll hear a banjo riff, and on our latest “The Thrift Store Spaceship” you’ll hear the banjo return together with a mandolin. Øyvind used to play cornet/trumpet and flugelhorn in a brass band also, so if pushed and with some practice, those could be utilised as well.
9. Other than your usual ones, which genres would you like to explore?
We would like to explore some shoegaze, probably. We have a couple of ideas on the backburner that could lend themselves very well to that kind of soundscape. There’s also a song of ours kicking about entitled “Scenic Delaware” which sounds very power pop – Big Star meets Weezer – with a very noisy guitar chorus. Maybe we’ll get around to releasing that one of these days.
10. Tell us about an artist (NAS or otherwise) that you have discovered recently?
We would like to mention Norwegian artist Haakon Ellingsen. He was in a band called The Last James who made a brilliant eponymous album in the 90s and then they disappeared. In the last couple of years, he’s cropped up again as a solo artist and keeps churning out really wonderful, brilliant and melodious 60s influenced pop music. Check out his “Thank You For Your Letter/Dear Old Sun” EP from earlier this year. Fab stuff. Recommended. The whistling part on “Dear Old Sun” is really genius. Super catchy.
