April 26, 2021 • 23 mins
Having played instruments since he was young, Nouhi's Nomad soon branched out from classical music to indie rock.
Having graduated from the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York, his music brings not only his knowledge or rock and classical music, but percussion from Iran and the middle east.
We talked to Nouhi's Nomad about his self titles album, his ideas when it comes to producing songs, and his work with the non-profit NIAC (National Iranian American Council).
Having graduated from the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York, his music brings not only his knowledge or rock and classical music, but percussion from Iran and the middle east.
We talked to Nouhi's Nomad about his self titles album, his ideas when it comes to producing songs, and his work with the non-profit NIAC (National Iranian American Council).
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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I go to Vegas and I getlost, and so I end up
somewhere in Vegas. Somewhere in Vegas. But I just don't know where it
is. I'm not quite sure.Yeah, or get ready, it's gonna
be hot. It's in Vegas.Checkout Mart, be there or be square.
My guess is this time is veryvery talented. He has a new
(02:19):
self titled album out just came outwith a rerelease of his song Number four.
But now he has a really newsingle out right now from the album,
it's called and Love Is You guyscan check that out as well.
And the album, like I said, it's our team hang out him from
a new new He's Nomad. Youguys can check that out as well.
We have a new He's Nomad himself. How are you doing today? I'm
(02:40):
good, I'm good. How areyou good? I mean, you know,
it's been interesting. We were justtalking before you came on that really
you're starting to learn a little aboutproduction and you know, kind of kind
of learn a little bit about thatprocess. I mean, what was it
like for you to first of all, the first time that you were in
studio. What was it like foryou and how's it been for you to
kind of learn this process of aboutproducing. So I started teaching myself how
(03:06):
to produce my sophomore in college becauseI started taking songwriting more seriously, and
it wasn't fun. I mean,sure, there's all the creative aspect of
the rigging and enjoy myself, butI was never able to polish the end
product the way I wanted it tobe. So I decided to study,
you know, I'm mixing and masteringwith the professor at Sarah Lawrence College.
And when I was finally in theproduction studio, it was a whole different
(03:27):
world, right, the monitor havingthirty different faders, the mixed board,
just the luxury of all decoming thatI didn't have at home really opened my
mind. Believe it blew my mindand opened my eyes to the possibilities that
exists. Yeah, and I wastelling Royale some some months back about,
you know, she's starting to learnpro tools, so she's starting to learn
(03:47):
how to produce off of that aswell, and she fells that it's it's
kind of important as an artist tobe able to be able to learn that.
I mean, there is a youknow, first of all, there's
been a lot of downtime with alot of musicians not being having the opportunity
to perform live, and I thinkthat sometimes it's it's great to be able
to have some of that time tokind of learn something like this. And
(04:10):
I mean, what's kind of thebiggest lesson that you've learned through this process
of kind of going through producing andlearning how to edit music. Um,
So it's very it's a very verygood question because as much as I learned
something, I always forget something else. When I started producing music, I
learned that, you know, youcould perfect anything, but I also forgot
that human imperfection is what makes musicmusic. And then three or four years
(04:32):
later where I am here, I'velearned that you have to learn to let
things go and not to overproduce somethingif you want to keep the musicality,
to keep the humanity to it.Yeah, sometimes you you you you put
too much into a song and sometimesas simple just maybe a simple piano or
a simple guitar will do the trick. So it's you know, sometimes I
(04:54):
worry that, you know, keepsome people, some people want to overproduce
a song. So it's great tobe able to hear you know that you
know, you have some kind ofrestraint in terms of that as well,
coming into a song. You know, what's kind of your kind of your
process do you do you have anidea of lyrics. Do you kind of
have an idea of melody coming in? I mean, kind of tell me
(05:14):
how that process kind of works foryou. That for me various song by
song number four, I wrote thelyrics first, and then I realized I
wanted to make it, you know, a kind of a Vampire Weekend influenced
song, So I listened to theVampire Weekend's music, I figured out the
voicings, and then I grabbed theprogression voice of the guitar in a way
that'll be similar to them, andthen made the lyrics fall onto the onto
(05:34):
the progression to a very simple melody. But then you have a song like
Hiding Home where I had the progressionfirst and then I worked around with with
lyrics. And then you have asong like Ohio where I had the melody
and I was just playing around onguitar and then I harmonized the melody and
then ended up writing lyrics into progressionafterwards. So it really depends on I
(05:55):
guess what's going on in my life, how I feel, and what inspires
me that day. Well, besidesthe song number four, you know,
on this album, I mean,there are the other songs that maybe you
had some ideas on like earlier,but never I never knew exactly what to
do with it, and then youfinally figured it out. Yeah, there
are definitely a lot of songs thatI need to put an ice shelf before
(06:15):
coming back and finishing. And duringthat time, during my time when I
released the Crash Test, which wasin a full of demos, I had
some unfinished tunes and I want tosay that and Love is one of them
as well as not quite share.Those two tunes were in the works and
had been on the bench in theworkshop for the past couple of years until
(06:39):
I finally put them together and thenstarted tackling new songs with a fresh perspective.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout your background. You started off
a violin, which is very interestingto say the least. You picked up
piano as well. I mean,you know, did you always seem to
have that, you know, kindof that talent for music. I mean
you started at a very young age. Yes. My mom thankfully and made
(07:00):
sure I, you know, tookmusic churs as a kid, and I
took it for granted, I sayviolin until I was eight. I didn't
have the best time the teacher wasn'ttoo friendly, and I always wanted to
keep excelling, but he said,you have to know perfect it. And
over a time as a classical musician, that kind of got hammered into view,
which is one perfectionist I am now. But I've always had an aptitude
for music per se, but notalways the desire to practice unless it was
something that I really enjoyed it.And that's why I landed on voice,
(07:24):
because I loved singing and I couldsing anywhere. I didn't need to be
at the instrument. I could quiteliterally sit on sing on the street whether
people liked it or not. Icould pollute the sidewalk. Yeah, you
know, And I mean, youknow, I mean just to have that
that, you know, the abilityto be able to do all that stuff.
I mean, I'm I'm a decentsinger. I just I have no
(07:46):
dexterity in my hands to be ableto play an instruments. So I'm kind
of jealous in that in that aspectof everything. But just having that experience
behind you in terms of violin andpiano, and you know, you know,
I think you have bass guitar underyou as well. I mean that
does help in terms of kind ofthinking about a song and kind of layering
(08:07):
that song and what you want toput in it and what you don't.
I'm assuming so violent helped me most, and that came to self scusing myself.
You know, bass and guitar,because it's a very standard. The
harmony is very it's let me rephrase, not the harmony, but the way
the instrument functions is very, verysimilar. Right, you have four strings
and then on the guitar you havethreats, which makes your life easier.
On violin you don't. But it'sthe harmony is there, right, it's
(08:28):
a half step and then you canfigure things out in voice chords. But
the one thing that helped me withlayering and how to fill up a space
was a piano. Right, whenyou play a piano in the left hand,
you can have a bassline. Inthe right hand, you can have
a middle voice, or you canhave something the melody in the middle,
and then you can arpeggigate, oryou can play ornaments flourishes on top.
And that's why piano, in myopinion, is one of the most frustle
instruments because you can essentially reduce anentire orchestra to just a keyboard, as
(08:54):
you've seen many composers do about howmany instruments do you know how to play?
Okay, so well, very well, I would say one, and
that's the human voice. But Iused to I used to be able to
play piano well classically. Now Ican accompany myself if need be, and
guitar and bass I can get buyin. There's a little bit of Persian
percussion, so I can lay downa simple groove. But as far as
(09:15):
violin goes, I haven't touched aviolin in the past thirteen fourteen years,
so I think I've lost that completely. Well, I mean, you know,
that's always something that you maybe it'slike riding a bike. You can
always come back to it if youever ever need it. But you know,
just interesting to say, say theleast about you know, everything that
you were doing as well. Howhow's it? How's it for you in
the studio not laying down tracks?Is there a certain way that you lay
(09:39):
down tracks? Do you lay downthe drum track first or do you have
a do we have a you know, just a beat track and then you
layer on the guitar then or tellme a little bit about that process.
Okay. So I'm I'm a singersongwriter producer who's done everything out of my
(10:00):
bedroom or my drroom, depending onwhere I am. So I typically don't
go into the studio to track anything, with the exception of maybe angiser for
the rocky mix that will be releasingin late July. What I usually do
is I plug into my daw andI just d in on my guitar and
I lay the rhythm and then Ilay the lead guitar. Then I go
track the bass while I'm tracking theSTUDI instudent I've tracked them. I started
(10:22):
playing with the mix, finding thecolor that I want them to be,
and then rearranging them as you needbe, finding different voicings. Then I
lay the vocals, and finally Iship out to a drummer in Australia and
who's a buddy of mine and hehas a studio. He just lays the
grooves. We go back and fortha couple of times to make sure they're
tasteful enough for me and or theyget the job done. And then at
the end of the day I getall those stems, I mix them down,
(10:45):
or recently, because I'm just soswamped, I send my stems out
to a buddy of mine from highschool to mix them down for me.
Well, I mean, it's amazingthat to have that ability. I mean
it used to be he used tobe back in the day you have to
go into a studio to be ableto lay down track, to be able
to do all that. But nowadaysyou can have so many halfway across the
planet being able to give you beatsor our drama tracks or you know,
(11:07):
or any kind of instrumentation as itwere, from there as well. So
it's very interesting to say the least. And you know, to have those
connections, I mean that must havebeen as must have been great. I
mean you went to a musical highschool too, so you must have those
connections. Yeah. I went toLagardy High School in New York City.
And it's surprising, right because allthese kids I went to high school with,
(11:28):
and you know, I've flewed onit. I go to the cafeteria
and I started just gossiping and startingdrama, you know, because I was
one of those arts kids and allthem, I mean some of the musical
theater kids, so you know,they live for the gossip and for the
theatrics. I know four or fiveyears later, one of them is running
his own music tech company, anotherone has a record label, and then
two or three of them have bandedtogether to create like a whole multi media
management company. So it's fascinating seeingall these people who I know as kids
(11:54):
growing up to become a dullest asI am as well, and seeing them
tackle the endeavors of trying to becomea musician or become a musician or a
creative in the musical industry. Haveyou had the opportunity to to, uh,
you know, play a stage oranything like that in the last couple
of years. I okay, SoI've been on the stage quite a few
times as a classical singer, andI have a song at churches for the
(12:16):
holidays. The last time I playedin a rock band for a live audience
was my sophomore year in college.I was in the Vampire Weekend cover band
rite a lot of Vampire Weekend fanout here. But recently in March,
I was able to actually play aLives event for the nonprofit that I volunteered
for it, and that was alot of fun, although the disconnect from
the audience does take away from ita little bit. Because I'm just playing
(12:37):
to a screen, my sound engineerand the guy behind the camera. So
yeah, it's something that I'll beinteresting once once things open up again,
maybe we'll see kind of how everythingis and you know how how everything kind
of goes over as well. Uh, you know, things are starting to
open up out here. I thinkthe state had set out here in Vegas
that we're going to be opening upby I think June fir is the plan
(13:01):
right now. I don't know howit is out there and in New York
if everything's kind of you know,going a quoting a plan, but things
seem to be seemed to be goingquote actively quickly out here, so hopefully
you have the opportunity at least playplay something. Yeah, without a doubt.
I mean, I plan on bustingin the coming months as the whether
it gets warmer. In that way, I can just practice in front of
(13:22):
a live audience that doesn't want tosee me there, because if I can
get them to enjoy the music,then I should have no issue having tows
would come to see me enjoy themusic. But I do hope that I'll
be able to be on a stageand play for an audience in the coming
months. It would be truly amazingto be back on a stage now.
I mean, have you had theopportunity, I mean obvious the tracks out
(13:43):
right now. Has have you gottenany feedback from the from the fans,
have you been getting any international feedbackas it were? Interestingly enough, Um,
I think number four is charting onthe South Africa iTunes starts at number
seventeen and it's number one for worldmusic. And I'm some feedback from the
fans and they like the direction isheading. Some of them want, you
(14:03):
know, a little more production,some of them want a little less production.
But at the end of the day, it's my music and it's the
way I express myself. So I'lllisten to what I think is reasonable.
And some people, you know,say go produce a rap album. That's
not I'm interested in. Yeah,well, I mean yeah, I mean
that's that's me. That's you asan artist as well. But glad to
hear that you know your music isgetting out there, uh, you know,
(14:24):
internationally obviously obviously hopefully that some ofsome of the Iranians out there are
also listening. Having out access andhim being able to listen to some of
your music as well, so youknow, maybe they'll they'll be getting some
downloads down there too. Oh,yes, for sure. I'm waiting for
the rock remix and an easy todrop because then I could push that song
(14:46):
through the entire iranis like the Farsispeaking community in Iran, and then you
have the Los Angeles. You havethem all across the globe, and I'm
really hoping to bank on that asa way to give myself another surge in
relevance. Perhaps. Well, Imean, that's that's great. That gets
great to hear. I mean,you know, I hear so many great
things about you know, the Iranianpeople, especially how hard working they are,
(15:07):
and especially the younger people that arereally looking forward to have, you
know, kind of opening themselves upto a bigger world, which is nice.
So um, you know, Ithink that things are hopefully going to
get a little bit better, youknow, coming in the next couple of
couple of years. So hopefully thatthat goes that goes well for everybody as
well. I mean, tell mea little bit about working with your nonprofit.
(15:30):
With the nonprofit, I think it'sa really great it's a really great
initiative. It's something that we reallyneed, right now, okay, So
the nonprofit that I work for NIAdidn't actually wanting Working Council is it's a
political nonprofit. So I've gotten someyou know, backlash because in California especially,
there's a lot of misinformation that putsthem, as you know, being
(15:50):
in the mula's pockets, which isobjectively falls and you have some of the
Shaw's loyalists spewing that those lies.But what working for Nike entails is actually
been well not promoted. But I'vetaken on the role of event organizers,
have been looking to plant some eventsfor live music, and last week eventually
coming months in New York City,and the biggest mountain that we had to
(16:11):
climb the were the elections, right. We had the general election where I
think my brother and I were numberone phone bankers for the New York chapter
and getting out the vote. Andthen we had the Georgia runoffs where we
worked our asses off to try tomake something makes sense in this country again,
right, at least in my perspective. I have family who's been across
the ocean trying to get into thiscountry for about twenty years now, and
(16:33):
they've just been getting screwed over bythe travel ban and all the political games
that the presidencies before that had played. And now with the nuclear deal being
spoken up again, maybe they canlift the sanctions because the sanctions have ultimately
done. It is impoverished most ofthe country, right Everyone's shopping bass is
getting significantly smaller, and it's somuch harder for them to even leave.
(16:53):
Yeah, you know, and Ithink that that people sometimes generalize you being
from a certain country, meaning thatyou're always loyal to that country and and
you're loyal to the government. Butyou know, I mean, even me
as an American, I don't alwaysagree with the government, you know.
I you know, I have mypromise with my government too, So I
think sometimes people need to kind oflay lay off a little bit, and
(17:18):
you know, being you know,being from another country coming into the United
States to be able to be apart of a part of this this melting
pot that that's there, I meanthat that proves that, you know,
they're looking for better opportunities and allthat as well. So hopefully people get
you know, I think they're startingto get We're starting to get to that
point where you know, people arestarting to start to kind of you know,
realize that some people are kind ofon the extreme end of things.
(17:41):
So hopefully things, I said,settle down for a little bit and we
get more support from everybody, nomatter what their nationality. So fingers crossed
that that that comes across a lotmore in the next couple of years.
I know things have been kind ofcrazy the Pass couple, but hopefully you
know now that you know, hopefullyevery thing kind of works out as it
were. I mean, we're allin the same boat as it were as
(18:03):
well. Um, so we gotthis this remix album coming out in July,
which which is really really cool.The album, the the new video
frame, the number four videos alreadyout as well. Music video out for
that is out right now and Loveis the is the video out for that
now too, not yet. Themusic video for that is actually going to
be released on Friday in May fourteenth, And I've decided myself under a lot
(18:27):
of stress because we're filming it onSaturday in May eighth, so i have
three days to get a turnaround fromthe footage to the editing to the coloring
to have it released ready. SoI'm really excited to, like, you
know, crumble under the pressure ofa three day deadline. How's it?
How's it for you to shoot thesevideos? I means, has it been
fun? Has it been stressful?A little bit of both. It's definitely
(18:48):
a mix of both. I mean, because I'm signed to like my own
label, it's an indie label.A lot of the production falls on my
shoulders because if it were, ifit were a perfect world, right,
if it was a major label,I would just show up to the day
of the shoot. I would havemy college sheet, I would do X,
Y and Z, and I wouldleave and that would make my life
ten times easier. But because I'mthe one doing the location scouting, finding
(19:11):
the crew, going through the cast, finding the props we need, finding
my way, finding a drum kitthat I could use because those are hard
to move around, it definitely addsup. But it's a lot of fun
because once I'm on set, onceeverything is going well, then I can
take a deep breath and I canfocus on performing well off for the camera.
But until we're going it's just thoughtafter thought racing through my head about
(19:34):
I need a contingency for this,I need something for that. Let's hope
this goes well. And sometimes forthe major label, they'll they'll want to
do it in a certain direction.They want to do the video in a
certain direction. Having control the artisticand row of the of the video itself
is really really cool too. SoI know that you know that aspect of
it just s brainstorming. Well,I'm storming, brainstorming, sprainsporing everything that
(19:56):
you could do or whatever for thesesongs. I mean, probably have ideas
in your head once they get thoseproduced, right, Oh of course.
I mean for number four, itwas a very personal music video. We
had plans for that three years ago, but they all fell through also because
I wasn't confident in the mix thetrack back then, and the number four
is written about my summer home growingup as a kid. My mom was
(20:17):
in the city, my dad wasin South Jersey working at the hospital,
so I was in and out asa kid until they both relocated full times
in New York City. So thatsong is about the home that I used
to know in the little neighborhood.And there is a massive elephant that's I
forget how many stories, I thinkit's three stories high that looks over you
on the beach, and that's wherethe chorus comes from. So that's why
we had to use some archive footagefor Anne love Is and the other uplaying
(20:41):
music videos. I'm working with thedirector photography who shot number four, and
she has some really good ideas.So being able to bring some with her
and have platives freedom over that makesall distress worth it. Well, I
mean that's great to hear as well. I mean, it's gonna be interesting
to see how this here kind ofkind of you know, heads out for
you as well. I mean,obviously you guys are already thinking about news
new you know, new singles comingout for the rest of the year,
(21:03):
and the remix album in July.Anything else coming up for you at the
moment, not off the top ofmy head, but I'm sure we'll figure
something out. Hopefully we can havesome lie of gigs and we can in
addition to the singles, maybe getsome sort of a tour going be it,
you know, in New York area, it across the country. Just
something to be able to share mymusic with humans out there. Yeah,
(21:25):
I'm have you been out here toVegas at all? I have never been
to Vegas. My parents, mybrother and mom actually went out to Vegas,
but I was in school that weekand it's a couple of years ago,
so unfortunately interesting. It would beinteresting they do the the there are
on the downtown Las Vegas. Doesyou know does have concerts and they have
a lot of India artists that doconcerts down down on Fremont Street. They
(21:47):
have a stage up Fremont Street wherethey'll bring independent artists in. So maybe
hopefully we can get you down herefor that at some point. So figures
crossed on that as well. Iwould love they love to see out here
here in Vegas is well, wherecan people find you on social media?
That would be awesome. You canfind us in social media at knew He's
Nomad and no apostrophes and O UH I S N O M A D.
(22:10):
We are significantly stronger on Instagram,but we also do have a Facebook
and Twitter, and we also havea link tree. We'll not a link
tree but a solo two which isa little more esthetically pleasing than a link
tree, or so the ads say. But you could find us at solo
dot t O slash knew He's nomadas well. Well, that's awesome,
and like I said, check outall of the new music for new He's
Nomad's coming out, you know,check it out anywhere you buy your music
(22:33):
as well. And the album's outas well, Stuff titled as well,
so you definitely check that out aswell. Thanks a lot for joining us,
and best of luck to you.Of course, thank you so much
for having me. I really appreciateit. You guys can check us out
on Twitter at s w i Vat sw IV and Somewhere in Vegas on
Facebook. You guys can also checkus out on Instagram at swi V podcast.
(22:59):
Make sure to subscribe and like onyour favorite podcast catchers, even our
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latest episode of Somewhere in Vegas.With that in mind, we'll talk to
you guys this next time. Rememberwe drop podcasts every Monday and Wednesday,
(23:22):
so you'll be able to catch upon everything. We're gonna be having a
busy couple weeks to definitely check thatout as well. With that mine,
thanks a lot for listening, andwe'll talk to you guys next time.
Hey, what's up? This isSeth Green and you are listening to Somewhere
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Yeah, my Fay, you know, that's that's usually what happens with me.
(01:55):
I go to Vegas and I getlost, and so I end up
somewhere in Vegas. Somewhere in Vegas. But I just don't know where it
is. I'm not quite sure.Yeah, or get ready, it's gonna
be hot. It's in Vegas.Checkout Mart, be there or be square.
My guess is this time is veryvery talented. He has a new
(02:19):
self titled album out just came outwith a rerelease of his song Number four.
But now he has a really newsingle out right now from the album,
it's called and Love Is You guyscan check that out as well.
And the album, like I said, it's our team hang out him from
a new new He's Nomad. Youguys can check that out as well.
We have a new He's Nomad himself. How are you doing today? I'm
(02:40):
good, I'm good. How areyou good? I mean, you know,
it's been interesting. We were justtalking before you came on that really
you're starting to learn a little aboutproduction and you know, kind of kind
of learn a little bit about thatprocess. I mean, what was it
like for you to first of all, the first time that you were in
studio. What was it like foryou and how's it been for you to
kind of learn this process of aboutproducing. So I started teaching myself how
(03:06):
to produce my sophomore in college becauseI started taking songwriting more seriously, and
it wasn't fun. I mean,sure, there's all the creative aspect of
the rigging and enjoy myself, butI was never able to polish the end
product the way I wanted it tobe. So I decided to study,
you know, I'm mixing and masteringwith the professor at Sarah Lawrence College.
And when I was finally in theproduction studio, it was a whole different
(03:27):
world, right, the monitor havingthirty different faders, the mixed board,
just the luxury of all decoming thatI didn't have at home really opened my
mind. Believe it blew my mindand opened my eyes to the possibilities that
exists. Yeah, and I wastelling Royale some some months back about,
you know, she's starting to learnpro tools, so she's starting to learn
(03:47):
how to produce off of that aswell, and she fells that it's it's
kind of important as an artist tobe able to be able to learn that.
I mean, there is a youknow, first of all, there's
been a lot of downtime with alot of musicians not being having the opportunity
to perform live, and I thinkthat sometimes it's it's great to be able
to have some of that time tokind of learn something like this. And
(04:10):
I mean, what's kind of thebiggest lesson that you've learned through this process
of kind of going through producing andlearning how to edit music. Um,
So it's very it's a very verygood question because as much as I learned
something, I always forget something else. When I started producing music, I
learned that, you know, youcould perfect anything, but I also forgot
that human imperfection is what makes musicmusic. And then three or four years
(04:32):
later where I am here, I'velearned that you have to learn to let
things go and not to overproduce somethingif you want to keep the musicality,
to keep the humanity to it.Yeah, sometimes you you you you put
too much into a song and sometimesas simple just maybe a simple piano or
a simple guitar will do the trick. So it's you know, sometimes I
(04:54):
worry that, you know, keepsome people, some people want to overproduce
a song. So it's great tobe able to hear you know that you
know, you have some kind ofrestraint in terms of that as well,
coming into a song. You know, what's kind of your kind of your
process do you do you have anidea of lyrics. Do you kind of
have an idea of melody coming in? I mean, kind of tell me
(05:14):
how that process kind of works foryou. That for me various song by
song number four, I wrote thelyrics first, and then I realized I
wanted to make it, you know, a kind of a Vampire Weekend influenced
song, So I listened to theVampire Weekend's music, I figured out the
voicings, and then I grabbed theprogression voice of the guitar in a way
that'll be similar to them, andthen made the lyrics fall onto the onto
(05:34):
the progression to a very simple melody. But then you have a song like
Hiding Home where I had the progressionfirst and then I worked around with with
lyrics. And then you have asong like Ohio where I had the melody
and I was just playing around onguitar and then I harmonized the melody and
then ended up writing lyrics into progressionafterwards. So it really depends on I
(05:55):
guess what's going on in my life, how I feel, and what inspires
me that day. Well, besidesthe song number four, you know,
on this album, I mean,there are the other songs that maybe you
had some ideas on like earlier,but never I never knew exactly what to
do with it, and then youfinally figured it out. Yeah, there
are definitely a lot of songs thatI need to put an ice shelf before
(06:15):
coming back and finishing. And duringthat time, during my time when I
released the Crash Test, which wasin a full of demos, I had
some unfinished tunes and I want tosay that and Love is one of them
as well as not quite share.Those two tunes were in the works and
had been on the bench in theworkshop for the past couple of years until
(06:39):
I finally put them together and thenstarted tackling new songs with a fresh perspective.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout your background. You started off
a violin, which is very interestingto say the least. You picked up
piano as well. I mean,you know, did you always seem to
have that, you know, kindof that talent for music. I mean
you started at a very young age. Yes. My mom thankfully and made
(07:00):
sure I, you know, tookmusic churs as a kid, and I
took it for granted, I sayviolin until I was eight. I didn't
have the best time the teacher wasn'ttoo friendly, and I always wanted to
keep excelling, but he said,you have to know perfect it. And
over a time as a classical musician, that kind of got hammered into view,
which is one perfectionist I am now. But I've always had an aptitude
for music per se, but notalways the desire to practice unless it was
something that I really enjoyed it.And that's why I landed on voice,
(07:24):
because I loved singing and I couldsing anywhere. I didn't need to be
at the instrument. I could quiteliterally sit on sing on the street whether
people liked it or not. Icould pollute the sidewalk. Yeah, you
know, And I mean, youknow, I mean just to have that
that, you know, the abilityto be able to do all that stuff.
I mean, I'm I'm a decentsinger. I just I have no
(07:46):
dexterity in my hands to be ableto play an instruments. So I'm kind
of jealous in that in that aspectof everything. But just having that experience
behind you in terms of violin andpiano, and you know, you know,
I think you have bass guitar underyou as well. I mean that
does help in terms of kind ofthinking about a song and kind of layering
(08:07):
that song and what you want toput in it and what you don't.
I'm assuming so violent helped me most, and that came to self scusing myself.
You know, bass and guitar,because it's a very standard. The
harmony is very it's let me rephrase, not the harmony, but the way
the instrument functions is very, verysimilar. Right, you have four strings
and then on the guitar you havethreats, which makes your life easier.
On violin you don't. But it'sthe harmony is there, right, it's
(08:28):
a half step and then you canfigure things out in voice chords. But
the one thing that helped me withlayering and how to fill up a space
was a piano. Right, whenyou play a piano in the left hand,
you can have a bassline. Inthe right hand, you can have
a middle voice, or you canhave something the melody in the middle,
and then you can arpeggigate, oryou can play ornaments flourishes on top.
And that's why piano, in myopinion, is one of the most frustle
instruments because you can essentially reduce anentire orchestra to just a keyboard, as
(08:54):
you've seen many composers do about howmany instruments do you know how to play?
Okay, so well, very well, I would say one, and
that's the human voice. But Iused to I used to be able to
play piano well classically. Now Ican accompany myself if need be, and
guitar and bass I can get buyin. There's a little bit of Persian
percussion, so I can lay downa simple groove. But as far as
(09:15):
violin goes, I haven't touched aviolin in the past thirteen fourteen years,
so I think I've lost that completely. Well, I mean, you know,
that's always something that you maybe it'slike riding a bike. You can
always come back to it if youever ever need it. But you know,
just interesting to say, say theleast about you know, everything that
you were doing as well. Howhow's it? How's it for you in
the studio not laying down tracks?Is there a certain way that you lay
(09:39):
down tracks? Do you lay downthe drum track first or do you have
a do we have a you know, just a beat track and then you
layer on the guitar then or tellme a little bit about that process.
Okay. So I'm I'm a singersongwriter producer who's done everything out of my
(10:00):
bedroom or my drroom, depending onwhere I am. So I typically don't
go into the studio to track anything, with the exception of maybe angiser for
the rocky mix that will be releasingin late July. What I usually do
is I plug into my daw andI just d in on my guitar and
I lay the rhythm and then Ilay the lead guitar. Then I go
track the bass while I'm tracking theSTUDI instudent I've tracked them. I started
(10:22):
playing with the mix, finding thecolor that I want them to be,
and then rearranging them as you needbe, finding different voicings. Then I
lay the vocals, and finally Iship out to a drummer in Australia and
who's a buddy of mine and hehas a studio. He just lays the
grooves. We go back and fortha couple of times to make sure they're
tasteful enough for me and or theyget the job done. And then at
the end of the day I getall those stems, I mix them down,
(10:45):
or recently, because I'm just soswamped, I send my stems out
to a buddy of mine from highschool to mix them down for me.
Well, I mean, it's amazingthat to have that ability. I mean
it used to be he used tobe back in the day you have to
go into a studio to be ableto lay down track, to be able
to do all that. But nowadaysyou can have so many halfway across the
planet being able to give you beatsor our drama tracks or you know,
(11:07):
or any kind of instrumentation as itwere, from there as well. So
it's very interesting to say the least. And you know, to have those
connections, I mean that must havebeen as must have been great. I
mean you went to a musical highschool too, so you must have those
connections. Yeah. I went toLagardy High School in New York City.
And it's surprising, right because allthese kids I went to high school with,
(11:28):
and you know, I've flewed onit. I go to the cafeteria
and I started just gossiping and startingdrama, you know, because I was
one of those arts kids and allthem, I mean some of the musical
theater kids, so you know,they live for the gossip and for the
theatrics. I know four or fiveyears later, one of them is running
his own music tech company, anotherone has a record label, and then
two or three of them have bandedtogether to create like a whole multi media
management company. So it's fascinating seeingall these people who I know as kids
(11:54):
growing up to become a dullest asI am as well, and seeing them
tackle the endeavors of trying to becomea musician or become a musician or a
creative in the musical industry. Haveyou had the opportunity to to, uh,
you know, play a stage oranything like that in the last couple
of years. I okay, SoI've been on the stage quite a few
times as a classical singer, andI have a song at churches for the
(12:16):
holidays. The last time I playedin a rock band for a live audience
was my sophomore year in college.I was in the Vampire Weekend cover band
rite a lot of Vampire Weekend fanout here. But recently in March,
I was able to actually play aLives event for the nonprofit that I volunteered
for it, and that was alot of fun, although the disconnect from
the audience does take away from ita little bit. Because I'm just playing
(12:37):
to a screen, my sound engineerand the guy behind the camera. So
yeah, it's something that I'll beinteresting once once things open up again,
maybe we'll see kind of how everythingis and you know how how everything kind
of goes over as well. Uh, you know, things are starting to
open up out here. I thinkthe state had set out here in Vegas
that we're going to be opening upby I think June fir is the plan
(13:01):
right now. I don't know howit is out there and in New York
if everything's kind of you know,going a quoting a plan, but things
seem to be seemed to be goingquote actively quickly out here, so hopefully
you have the opportunity at least playplay something. Yeah, without a doubt.
I mean, I plan on bustingin the coming months as the whether
it gets warmer. In that way, I can just practice in front of
(13:22):
a live audience that doesn't want tosee me there, because if I can
get them to enjoy the music,then I should have no issue having tows
would come to see me enjoy themusic. But I do hope that I'll
be able to be on a stageand play for an audience in the coming
months. It would be truly amazingto be back on a stage now.
I mean, have you had theopportunity, I mean obvious the tracks out
(13:43):
right now. Has have you gottenany feedback from the from the fans,
have you been getting any international feedbackas it were? Interestingly enough, Um,
I think number four is charting onthe South Africa iTunes starts at number
seventeen and it's number one for worldmusic. And I'm some feedback from the
fans and they like the direction isheading. Some of them want, you
(14:03):
know, a little more production,some of them want a little less production.
But at the end of the day, it's my music and it's the
way I express myself. So I'lllisten to what I think is reasonable.
And some people, you know,say go produce a rap album. That's
not I'm interested in. Yeah,well, I mean yeah, I mean
that's that's me. That's you asan artist as well. But glad to
hear that you know your music isgetting out there, uh, you know,
(14:24):
internationally obviously obviously hopefully that some ofsome of the Iranians out there are
also listening. Having out access andhim being able to listen to some of
your music as well, so youknow, maybe they'll they'll be getting some
downloads down there too. Oh,yes, for sure. I'm waiting for
the rock remix and an easy todrop because then I could push that song
(14:46):
through the entire iranis like the Farsispeaking community in Iran, and then you
have the Los Angeles. You havethem all across the globe, and I'm
really hoping to bank on that asa way to give myself another surge in
relevance. Perhaps. Well, Imean, that's that's great. That gets
great to hear. I mean,you know, I hear so many great
things about you know, the Iranianpeople, especially how hard working they are,
(15:07):
and especially the younger people that arereally looking forward to have, you
know, kind of opening themselves upto a bigger world, which is nice.
So um, you know, Ithink that things are hopefully going to
get a little bit better, youknow, coming in the next couple of
couple of years. So hopefully thatthat goes that goes well for everybody as
well. I mean, tell mea little bit about working with your nonprofit.
(15:30):
With the nonprofit, I think it'sa really great it's a really great
initiative. It's something that we reallyneed, right now, okay, So
the nonprofit that I work for NIAdidn't actually wanting Working Council is it's a
political nonprofit. So I've gotten someyou know, backlash because in California especially,
there's a lot of misinformation that putsthem, as you know, being
(15:50):
in the mula's pockets, which isobjectively falls and you have some of the
Shaw's loyalists spewing that those lies.But what working for Nike entails is actually
been well not promoted. But I'vetaken on the role of event organizers,
have been looking to plant some eventsfor live music, and last week eventually
coming months in New York City,and the biggest mountain that we had to
(16:11):
climb the were the elections, right. We had the general election where I
think my brother and I were numberone phone bankers for the New York chapter
and getting out the vote. Andthen we had the Georgia runoffs where we
worked our asses off to try tomake something makes sense in this country again,
right, at least in my perspective. I have family who's been across
the ocean trying to get into thiscountry for about twenty years now, and
(16:33):
they've just been getting screwed over bythe travel ban and all the political games
that the presidencies before that had played. And now with the nuclear deal being
spoken up again, maybe they canlift the sanctions because the sanctions have ultimately
done. It is impoverished most ofthe country, right Everyone's shopping bass is
getting significantly smaller, and it's somuch harder for them to even leave.
(16:53):
Yeah, you know, and Ithink that that people sometimes generalize you being
from a certain country, meaning thatyou're always loyal to that country and and
you're loyal to the government. Butyou know, I mean, even me
as an American, I don't alwaysagree with the government, you know.
I you know, I have mypromise with my government too, So I
think sometimes people need to kind oflay lay off a little bit, and
(17:18):
you know, being you know,being from another country coming into the United
States to be able to be apart of a part of this this melting
pot that that's there, I meanthat that proves that, you know,
they're looking for better opportunities and allthat as well. So hopefully people get
you know, I think they're startingto get We're starting to get to that
point where you know, people arestarting to start to kind of you know,
realize that some people are kind ofon the extreme end of things.
(17:41):
So hopefully things, I said,settle down for a little bit and we
get more support from everybody, nomatter what their nationality. So fingers crossed
that that that comes across a lotmore in the next couple of years.
I know things have been kind ofcrazy the Pass couple, but hopefully you
know now that you know, hopefullyevery thing kind of works out as it
were. I mean, we're allin the same boat as it were as
(18:03):
well. Um, so we gotthis this remix album coming out in July,
which which is really really cool.The album, the the new video
frame, the number four videos alreadyout as well. Music video out for
that is out right now and Loveis the is the video out for that
now too, not yet. Themusic video for that is actually going to
be released on Friday in May fourteenth, And I've decided myself under a lot
(18:27):
of stress because we're filming it onSaturday in May eighth, so i have
three days to get a turnaround fromthe footage to the editing to the coloring
to have it released ready. SoI'm really excited to, like, you
know, crumble under the pressure ofa three day deadline. How's it?
How's it for you to shoot thesevideos? I means, has it been
fun? Has it been stressful?A little bit of both. It's definitely
(18:48):
a mix of both. I mean, because I'm signed to like my own
label, it's an indie label.A lot of the production falls on my
shoulders because if it were, ifit were a perfect world, right,
if it was a major label,I would just show up to the day
of the shoot. I would havemy college sheet, I would do X,
Y and Z, and I wouldleave and that would make my life
ten times easier. But because I'mthe one doing the location scouting, finding
(19:11):
the crew, going through the cast, finding the props we need, finding
my way, finding a drum kitthat I could use because those are hard
to move around, it definitely addsup. But it's a lot of fun
because once I'm on set, onceeverything is going well, then I can
take a deep breath and I canfocus on performing well off for the camera.
But until we're going it's just thoughtafter thought racing through my head about
(19:34):
I need a contingency for this,I need something for that. Let's hope
this goes well. And sometimes forthe major label, they'll they'll want to
do it in a certain direction.They want to do the video in a
certain direction. Having control the artisticand row of the of the video itself
is really really cool too. SoI know that you know that aspect of
it just s brainstorming. Well,I'm storming, brainstorming, sprainsporing everything that
(19:56):
you could do or whatever for thesesongs. I mean, probably have ideas
in your head once they get thoseproduced, right, Oh of course.
I mean for number four, itwas a very personal music video. We
had plans for that three years ago, but they all fell through also because
I wasn't confident in the mix thetrack back then, and the number four
is written about my summer home growingup as a kid. My mom was
(20:17):
in the city, my dad wasin South Jersey working at the hospital,
so I was in and out asa kid until they both relocated full times
in New York City. So thatsong is about the home that I used
to know in the little neighborhood.And there is a massive elephant that's I
forget how many stories, I thinkit's three stories high that looks over you
on the beach, and that's wherethe chorus comes from. So that's why
we had to use some archive footagefor Anne love Is and the other uplaying
(20:41):
music videos. I'm working with thedirector photography who shot number four, and
she has some really good ideas.So being able to bring some with her
and have platives freedom over that makesall distress worth it. Well, I
mean that's great to hear as well. I mean, it's gonna be interesting
to see how this here kind ofkind of you know, heads out for
you as well. I mean,obviously you guys are already thinking about news
new you know, new singles comingout for the rest of the year,
(21:03):
and the remix album in July.Anything else coming up for you at the
moment, not off the top ofmy head, but I'm sure we'll figure
something out. Hopefully we can havesome lie of gigs and we can in
addition to the singles, maybe getsome sort of a tour going be it,
you know, in New York area, it across the country. Just
something to be able to share mymusic with humans out there. Yeah,
(21:25):
I'm have you been out here toVegas at all? I have never been
to Vegas. My parents, mybrother and mom actually went out to Vegas,
but I was in school that weekand it's a couple of years ago,
so unfortunately interesting. It would beinteresting they do the the there are
on the downtown Las Vegas. Doesyou know does have concerts and they have
a lot of India artists that doconcerts down down on Fremont Street. They
(21:47):
have a stage up Fremont Street wherethey'll bring independent artists in. So maybe
hopefully we can get you down herefor that at some point. So figures
crossed on that as well. Iwould love they love to see out here
here in Vegas is well, wherecan people find you on social media?
That would be awesome. You canfind us in social media at knew He's
Nomad and no apostrophes and O UH I S N O M A D.
(22:10):
We are significantly stronger on Instagram,but we also do have a Facebook
and Twitter, and we also havea link tree. We'll not a link
tree but a solo two which isa little more esthetically pleasing than a link
tree, or so the ads say. But you could find us at solo
dot t O slash knew He's nomadas well. Well, that's awesome,
and like I said, check outall of the new music for new He's
Nomad's coming out, you know,check it out anywhere you buy your music
(22:33):
as well. And the album's outas well, Stuff titled as well,
so you definitely check that out aswell. Thanks a lot for joining us,
and best of luck to you.Of course, thank you so much
for having me. I really appreciateit. You guys can check us out
on Twitter at s w i Vat sw IV and Somewhere in Vegas on
Facebook. You guys can also checkus out on Instagram at swi V podcast.
(22:59):
Make sure to subscribe and like onyour favorite podcast catchers, even our
Homespreaker dot com and iHeartRadio dot com. You guys can also check us out
on Alexa. All you have todo is ask Alexa to please play the
latest episode of Somewhere in Vegas.With that in mind, we'll talk to
you guys this next time. Rememberwe drop podcasts every Monday and Wednesday,
(23:22):
so you'll be able to catch upon everything. We're gonna be having a
busy couple weeks to definitely check thatout as well. With that mine,
thanks a lot for listening, andwe'll talk to you guys next time.
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