Nandu

Nandu is the sound of underground melodic techno and house. Straight out of Copenhagen, he seeks to explore the enormous worlds of grooves and melodies combined, and try to create a unique deep and refreshing sound. With his roots deep in other genres like jazz, rock and pop, he seeks to combine them all in an electronic setting. Not only aiming for the dance floor, but also seeks to inspire and tease the imagination, his soundscapes takes you from the South American beaches to the cold Nordic winters, from the deepest jungles to the coldest urban settings. After establishing his own label Calypso Chili in 2017 and with a long line of cutting edge releases, on labels such as Azzur, Constant Circles, Connected & Rebirth, Nandu is looking into a bright future on the electronic music scene. DMCWORLD checks in as he releases his new album ‘One Man’s High Is Another Man’s Anxiety’…

 

Thank you for taking the time to talk to DMCWORLD today.  Firstly, as you’re from Copenhagen, can you tell us about how you feel being from Copenhagen has influenced and shaped you into the artist you are today?

Copenhagen is an amazing city and I find a lot of inspiration in just walking around and chilling here. The scene is very small so when searching for inspiration within the scene I tend to look outside of Denmark. But at the same time it’s very nice that the scene is not like in, let’s say Berlin. It’s not as intense, you can’t go to a club from Monday to Thursday, and on weekends it’s not as intense as it is in Berlin. This is a very nice way to stay grounded for me. Both as an artist, but also as a human being. I think if I haven’t have had a family I could easily get lost in Berlin’s nightlife if I lived there.

How did you get into producing music? Can you tell us about when and how you discovered this world?

Music has always been a part of my life. My grandfather on my dad’s side played the violin fiddle and my grandfather on my mother’s side played the piano. I started playing the trumpet when I was a kid and played that for many years. At some point when I was around 16, I realised how easy I could create my own music on a computer, based on the skills I already had. The rest is history. 

Your new album is called ‘One Man’s High Is Another Man’s Anxiety’ – can you tell us about the story behind this title for the album? What inspired you to give it that name?

One man’s high can truly be, another man’s anxiety. In some parts of life, this is very clear like having a baby, to do drugs, to work, not to work, be an artist, be a banker and so it continues. Yin & Yang and the whole idea of duality is another way to describe this. When you go left you say goodbye to right – at least for the moment you choose left. What you choose is up to you.

It wasn’t always my dream to get up at 3am to change diapers, but it was always my dream to have a family and here the sacrifice is not even mentionable. It’s more than worth it. But when you sometimes make a choice in life that you regret but which will always follow you, or when uncontrollable powers force you into another direction, it can easily switch the poles between high and low. In these cases you just have to look forward, but not without looking back. You need to learn, take it with you, and do better next time. This album is about how my highs also can be my anxieties.

Can you tell us a little bit about the musical influences behind this album?

I can’t really point out any exact influences in my music. To me, what I like to listen to and what I create are two different things. My vision for this album was to tell a story and tell it in a way that made it possible to do that in a club context. Over the last year, I have been listening to a lot to South American music. This has in some way inspired me I guess, not directly but on a deeper level.

More generally, who are your all time, big musical influences?

I have always been very fond of the old jazz heroes; Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Coltrane and so on. In terms of electronic music, some of my big heroes are guys like Stimming, Buttrich, Guti, Andre Lodemann etc. All these guys have been able to create their own unique sound and they all have they own way of making electronic music.

To me, this is the most important thing in today’s scene. There is so much music that are just bad copies of good music and it seems to me that a lot of producers just create the sound that is popular and changes if it will benefit them monetarily.

The album sounds as if it has possibly used a lot of field recorded samples? Can you tell us a little bit about this?

I rarely use samples that I don’t produce/record myself. I feel that the soul in music in many ways comes from being played by a human and when you produce electronic music it’s so easy to just find some samples and put them together and then it sounds good – but the soul will be missing. When I record a few percussion bars or record some phrases on my old Hohner Pianet I instantly create something that only I could do and that I could not replicate ever again. It’s my feeling and my soul. The same with field recordings. It helps me create a unique feeling in the music.

Can you tell us about your production process? Where does it begin for you when making a track?

It differs from track to track but often I start out by jamming with a drum machine, and from that adding some pads. The most important thing for me in a track is the groove and the sonic expression. This is created from the very start. Melodies and arrangement are added later on!

What are your hopes and dreams for the future?

I recently quit my job as a booker and for now, I only do music. To me this is the dream, and I really hope to be able to continue like this!