Interview: Nahash

Simply put, I’m not a metal guy – never have been, never will. I’m gone to a fair share of metal shows, raged out to plenty of Metallica back in lockers rooms before hockey games, been engulfed in mosh pits the size of my morning commute, but when all is said and down, it’s not particularly music I get down with. Too much of it feels empty, hallow, devoid of any real emotion. Which leads to Nahash, the metal drone project from Shanghai producer Raphael Valensi. It’s heavy, brooding, pitch black, and at times unsettling – a deafening unwavering mess of unchecked tension and aggression that’s cuts to the bone. My kind of evil. Before the release of the Nahash/To Die split from Nasty Wizard Recordings this Saturday, March 28^th at DDC, we chatted with the man behind the madness about clusterfucks, douchfloors, and cult attire. To get you in the mood,, toss on your VPN and check out this video that was supposed to air in front of the much talked about Boris show before that went sky high.

1) What twisted mind frame were you in when you came up with the idea of Nahash?

The first album I released as Nahash was made on the day that my grandma died. I think it was also the point when I was really really over that whole DJ thing, I wanted to torture people, to completely alienate the audience, to make them scream in suffocation.

Nahash was the name of the first song on the first Death To Ponies album, I\’m rubbish at finding names, so I nicked that one off my old band. Ea-sy.

2) Can you comment on the essential ingredients that make up the beating (bleeding) heart of Nahash?

It\’s no secret that I am primarily a Disco and Funk fan, but it\’s definitely that sweet early 90\’s Acid Jazz sound that makes Nahash\’s
heart beat, bands like Jamiroquai, US3 or Brooklyn Funk Essential. It\’s all that music that added that sweet white funk flavour to the
bidibapadoo swing of the jazz sound. When you see Nahash live it\’s really what I try to recreate, of course your untrained unfazed ears can only perceive a bunch of deconstructed BRRR PZZZZ TRRRR URRRRRGHKKKKKKSSSSSS but what we are doing is paying tribute to the golden age of Stevie Wonder rip offs made in England.

So yeah, When I started I was making the soundtracks for when the world finally ends, but I’m here now, it hasn\’t ended so I say put
some more reverb on those smooth trumpets, make that slap bass pop and always remember that those beats ain\’t gonna break themselves son!

3) Your background in mainly in producing?  How did it feel to be on the other side of the process?

I don\’t see these as being two sides of a process, it\’s just one giant clusterfuck of a process, and to be perfectly honest if you see production as an opposite side there is a fair chance that your band will sound like shit. I see producers and engineers as floating member of a band, I have this very hippie feeling that a band is a larger group of people and everybody participates in the sound, from the guy who drives the truck to the singer. but that\’s just me, I’m old fluffy hippie who reads album credits a bit too much.

But yes, it does feels good to be on stage, playing too loud and letting someone else worry about levels and knobs for a change.

4) Musically, Nahash is as far as you can get from your work in electronic DJ team Acid Pony Club? How have audiences reacted to Nahash? Is there a sick pleasure to making people as uncomfortable as possible?

The main difference is that with Acid Pony Club we play for our audience, an Acid Pony party is about crowd pleasing, everybody put
your hands up, people having a good time, women are looking fine kind of thing. And that draws a lot of energy cause you have to be
constantly \”with\” your audience, party as much as they party, keeping a finger on the pulse of the douchefloor, can\’t let that go man, it\’s a House vibe right here.

With Nahash I don\’t give a flying fuck what the audience reaction is, I wanna play to the visuals, not for the people.

Maybe the thing that makes you uncomfortable is how incredibly crap I am at playing bass. I take no sick pleasure in that, it\’s just the way I am, and I am extremely crap at it.

All this being said, if you\’ve seen Acid Pony Club performing live you\’ve witnessed our very own take on noisy, harsh and improvised
electronic music, we call it \”Punk Techno\” as a joke, but our jokes are not very funny.

5) There\’s a cinematic quality to your music (made more so by the unnerving visual from Tina Sprinkles) that gives way to an apocalyptic atmosphere that\’s literally suffocating. What influences your music? Do you have to be in a certain mindset when creating this type of music?

The visuals are the main influence when I record as Nahash. This influence extends to the way that I produce music. Unlike a lot of
experimental music which is mainly improvised the stuff I do as Nahash is really scripted, I record tons and tons of layers of drones and instruments and I then organize them on a timeline, fading in and out of different atmospheres and layers, exactly as you would do with different images. That happened when I looking for an alternative to the very beat dominated music that I was writing before, I basically started editing music to the time code instead of to bars and beats, again mimicking what video editors do.

In this regard Tina Sprinkles has had an enormous influence on the project and she is actually the only other permanent band member at this point, I basically looks at the way that she was manipulating images and tried to apply the same ideas to sound.

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6) What\’s your stance on metal music and bands (particularly black metal) in China? Any recommendations? Do you feel it\’s steering in a different direction?

You know I’m gonna say it just right out, it\’s not because I live in China that I’m an authority on Chinese anything, also I’m a House head remember? Ask me about soapy clubs and bottle service, that\’s my expertise. And all I really care about is gossips and cheap thrills, so until somebody stabs someone or a shrine of some sort gets burned down I’ll keep listening to \”a blaze in the northern sky\” thank you very much.

Nahash started as a solo project but very soon developed into a common effort coming from both me and Tina, and so the early works we did were very centered around soundtracks for video work.

I never really set up to do live shows with Nahash but when I started doing it I needed an instrument that would me look bad ass, somehow synths and drum machines are just too \”polite\” so I took the old bass I had laying around and gave it a go, it sounded like poop. Adopted.

Now the show works around the visual, a bass and some very simple drone machines, and I have some guests drummers when I can, Michael Cupoli is fun to work with so he\’s gonna come down and play with me for our opening slot for Boris, Ivan has participated in recordings that will come out soon as part of a double EP with the very pretentious title \”Old Religion/New Skin\”. It was a pleasure having him back in the studio, and we are now talking about starting something new together.

So yeah, we have transformed from being very synths heavy, very droney, to be something more organic with a Metal which makes all the purist cringe cause I don\’t look the part and don\’t give a rat\’s ass about Iron Maiden. And that\’s definitely where it\’s headed, making more and more purists shit their pants.

On the side I have also been working on something more electronic for SVBKVLT, kind of like the sound track for a horror movie that never existed called \”L\’Isola Degli Dei Morti\” (The Island Of The Dead Gods, even more pompous titles, yay!), I don\’t know when it\’s coming out, but when it does you\’ll get a copy since you will probably be the only one to review it.

8)  You ever think of starting a cult? What\’s the attire? Would Michael Cupoli be allowed in?

Huashan is a cult of Trve Kvnts, but we only allow one fat-ass balding white dude in our midst, and that would be me, so sorry Michael, I’m afraid your position has already been filled.

I first came up with the ritual attire, I was then accused of having zero swag, at which point I had to google \”swag\”. So now we all just get naked and listen to a bunch of drones.

But that\’s just really all you wanted me to say, ADMIT IT, JUST FUCKING ADMIT IT ALREADY!