Artist: Nandu
Title: Tales From My Living Room
Label:Calypso Chili
Cat. No. Calypso Chili 001
Format: Digital Download
Release Date: 4th December 2017
Buy Link : https://calypsochili.bandcamp.com
Denmarks own Rasmus, who you might know under his alias Nandu, is a thoughtful producer, who continuously combines engineered and well crafted electronic signals with organic, unbalanced and mostly untouched sounds of nature and the analog world.
“This super tight and well sounding kick combined with the trashy percussions helps me get a real organic feel without loosing impact on a dance floor.”
Nandu has been a core-figure of the english underground label Constant Circles, founded by Just Her in 2015, since its very beginning. His new album “Tales From My Living Room” doesn’t only introduce a new step for him musically, but was in fact created in a time of radical change for Rasmus as a person. The birth of his son and the pledge of loyalty for his wife drastically changed the focus of his day-to-day life, while different perspectives led to a new, personal label, which would give him the creative platform to tell personal stories, like his “Tales From My Living Room” album, that marks the debut release on his very own Calypso Chili label.
“(…) I didn’t have the same time as I used to for the studio. Also becoming a parent, made me reflect a lot about life in general. So in some ways it felt like I was kind of stuck in my living room with my wife, my kid and my thoughts.”
When going through the album, one will quickly realise, that each individual track can and will only shine in the brightest light, when played chronologically and together with the full album, like Nandu had intended. Especially for us, it feels like this album truly has a purpose to tell the whole story of a persons time-period, that wouldn’t work, if you’d only knew half of the story. Because of these relations between each production, listening experiences can vary quite drastically with this album, as the way of combining each and every individual track can truly affect the experience to the better or the worse.
We had the chance to talk with Rasmus and dig a little deeper into the general situation he has been in, while creating his second full length album, but also what motivates him, how he sees the scene and what he currently enjoys listening to.
1. Hey Nandu, pleasure to have you here and dig a little deeper into your new personal work of art and album „Tales From My Living Room“ – Why this title, why especially for this album?
NANDU : “2017 has been a crazy year for me, especially the beginning of it. I became a father to a beautiful son in the end of 2016 and from that moment, everything was thrown upside down (in an amazing, exciting and exhausting way). I was used to have a lot of time on my hands, and suddenly everything centered around this little person instead. So I didn’t have the same time for the studio, as I used to. Also becoming a parent, made me reflect a lot about life in general. So in some ways it felt like I was kind of stuck in my living room with my wife, my kid and my thoughts. Making music has always been a way for me to process my thoughts, so whenever my son went to bed, I just created music in my living room.”
2. Another year, another album for you – do you feel a need to do albums, or do you just produce too many tracks? What is the reason for another album and how do the tracks work together as one? Do they all resemble a certain mind-set to you?
NANDU : “I love doing music for dancing. But it’s essential to me, to be able to do music that tells a story. And for me the album is a great way to tell a story through a line of tracks, that are all connected. I see ‘Tales From My Living Room’ as a complete work consisting of 9 tracks, all very dependent on each other in order to make sense as a whole…- it would not work separately.”
3. As an important part of Just Her’s Constant Circles it seemed like you feel very happy with the label – what makes you now move to your own personal label and also having your album on there? What exactly is this new label therefore?
NANDU : “Claire (Just Her) and Constant Circles is still a family-label to me. She is amazing to work with, and in many ways we share the same vision. But I also work close with other labels like Azzur, Scatcity and Connected and it will stay that way. So the reason for me to launch my own platform, is to be able to control the whole process. And when releasing only on Band Camp combined with premieres on amazing blogs, I can cut both distribution and PR, which makes it possible for me to release what ever I feel like with very short notice.”
4. We listened through the album and really feel the continuous atmosphere that glides through all the single productions – Percussion arrangements and spaces to breath definitely takeover. What does minimalism do to you personally? How important are minimalistic productions? What do you think about the importance of silence in between sounds?
NANDU : “For many years I’ve struggled a bit with letting my tracks breathe. By that I mean to let the right elements have the space they need both on the mix, but also in the writing. On Tales From My Living Room I really feel like I have improved on this, so I’m happy you noticed this. I don’t really care much for minimalism, but what I think is of great importance is that a production is sophisticated. With that I mean that you easily can hear that both the sound and arrangement has been thought through and not just randomly been put together.”
5. How would you describe your own sounds, especially considering this album, what are the most important aspects in a track and what is absolutely overrated in your opinion?
NANDU : “I think that quality of sound is misunderstood sometimes. IMO people often look to analogue gear and high-end studio equipment before they think about the sound as a whole. When I produce my music I try to combine high-end production techniques with more lo-fi and more accessible techniques.
An example: my kicks are always recorded in best resolution as possible. Often they come from the Vermona DRMmk3, recorded through high-end preamps and amps and then gently compressed. But most of my percussions (often rhythmic sounding recordings of me throwing sand at a table or finger drumming on a glass of wine ;D) are recorded with an old SM57 or even my Zoom Recorder in rooms without damping etc., and then processed with different plugins. This super tight and well sounding kick combined with the trashy percussions helps me get a real organic feel without loosing impact on a dance floor.”
6. Do certain trends in the scene impact your own music and how do you generally feel about the underground scene as a whole, the good and the bad?
NANDU : “In my opinion the underground scene is struggling and its super hard to make a living in this business. I think there are several reasons for that. First, I don’t think there has ever been more amazing music than right now, which means increased competition. Second, there has never been more crappy music (a result of the development of tech which has made it possible for everyone with a smartphone to create music – which is amazing). The problem is as I see it, that people who maybe shouldn’t have done music, people who are doing it for fun or people who haven’t developed the needed skills yet, can sell their lo quality product (music) on the same shelf as the high quality product. Then it can be very hard to be recognized for your music. That leads to my next issue, the fact that hype on social media to a great extend controls the scene – often because people can not overcome all the new music and make their own mind about who they like or not, but seeks to the trendsetting magazines and follow them blindly (I know I sound like an old grumpy man, but this is my opinion).”
7. What influences go directly into your music – do you see your music reflecting yourself as a person? Do you try to convert your feelings into music or is it a process that happens naturally and only afterwards do you realize, there are parts from yourself in your productions?
NANDU : Often when writing a track, I have an idea or a feeling I want to project into the music. Often it does not sound like I imagined, but because of the fact that this idea or feeling was present in my mind during the track I always feels that the track is a reflection of the idea/feeling.
8. Any more unknown artists or labels you think are worth to check out at the moment? Maybe ones that inspires you today?
NANDU : There are so many crazy talented people out there. Azzur (which is one of my core labels) are one to check out for sure! It’s run by ‘Melokolektiv’ and ‘Konvex & The Shadow’ among others, and they just keep developing in an amazing way. Also ‘Something Happening Somewhere’ is going crazy. I went to their ADE party and it was pure quality. In Denmark the techno scene is also flourishing, and one to watch if you like straight up techno is definitely Niki Istrefi. He just released an Ep on his on label (Euromantic) called ‘Red Armor’ and the title track is fucking crazy. I could never play it though, simply to rough haha.
9. Any track you would love to remix at the moment, which has already been released?
NANDU : It will be Niki Istrefi Red Armor. Also I would love to give Mano Le Tough’s Full On Spring a re-run.
10. As a tradition, we like to ask for your top 5 tracks at the moment, seeing as we are close to the end of the year, maybe even the top 10 of the year?
NANDU : Lets try to do a top 10 of the year.
- Mano Le Tough – Full On Spring
- Konvex And The Shadow – Shine Like Haloes
- Stefano Ritteri – Pocket Melody
- Boot Slap and Thodoris Triantafillou – Who is It
- Pheromone Blue – She Moves at Night (Dimitri Veimar remix)
- Niki Istrefi – Red Armor
- Aparde – Glass
- Melokolektiv – Between Us feat Inma Gomes
- Blondish, Shawni – Wizard Of Love (Modular Project Remix)
- Doktur – Where Is Haks
11. Thank you so much Nandu, for letting us take a closer look at the album and understand certain thought processes of yourself! Can we expect re-visions of certain tracks from the album from other artists?
NANDU : The pleasure is all mine! For now I have no idea what is going to happen for Calypso Chili. That is kind of the point. So for now my album will come out and then I think I will put an Ep out there in the spring as well.
Nandu’s album “Tales From My Living Room” is out today on Bandcamp (Purchase HERE). We had the chance to premiere track number 7 of the album, called “Early Morning Rain”. We can only emphasize again though, that listening to just track at a time, will vastly change the experience! That’s why Nandu has scheduled all Premieres at the same time, so you will be able to listen through the hole album at once. So go hunting and collect all tracks before starting it up! Have a great start into the week.
FOLLOW NANDU / CALYPSO CHILI
Nandu on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nanduofficial
Nandu on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nanduofficial
Calypso Chili on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CalypsoChili
Calypso Chili on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/calypso-chili
