Quinn: You're listening to WKNC 88.1 FM, Raleigh.
Quinn: Welcome to off the Record, our interview segment.
Quinn: Joining us today is Atlanta based art pop artist Nelward.
Quinn: Well, thank you so much for coming in.
Quinn: It's very appreciated.
Quinn: I know a lot of us.
Quinn: I'm a little starstruck right now.
Quinn: Like, I've been a big fan for a long time, so I know who you are, obviously, but, like, do you want to introduce yourself for, you know, the station for anybody listening?
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: My name is Nelward.
Nelward: I'm a music artist and also animator.
Nelward: I work in the electronic realm.
Nelward: I make avant garde pop.
Quinn: Awesome.
Quinn: So, yeah, you've got your new album out.
Quinn: Stone Bogus.
Quinn: I know you've mentioned in the past that, like, a lot of your other releases were more compilations than albums, and this is your first, like, album.
Quinn: Is that right?
Nelward: Yes, that is true.
Quinn: Yeah.
Quinn: So I guess I was gonna ask, like, what's the thought process behind that?
Quinn: Like, what.
Quinn: What do you.
Quinn: How do you differentiate, you know, the compilation and the collection of your.
Quinn: Your music and your art versus, like, you know, now releasing it as a full album?
Nelward: So that's not entirely true though, because I have released eps, I guess, sort of as mini albums, but this is my first full one.
Quinn: Okay.
Nelward: The EPS don't surpass 22 minutes, which is kind of long for an EP.
Nelward: EP is, you know, kind means different things, different people, but they're essentially mini albums.
Nelward: This is the first album.
Nelward: The reason that I decided this would be my first album.
Nelward: It was intended as first as singles, but the.
Nelward: I think the.
Nelward: The idea behind this batch of singles.
Nelward: I usually do my singles in batches.
Nelward: Well, that's what I started doing.
Nelward: And the ideal for this one is I wanted to make stuff that was darker and more like, uncanny.
Nelward: Kind of triggered the.
Nelward: The dream.
Nelward: Like a dreamlike quality.
Nelward: I'm a nightmare.
Nelward: Ish.
Nelward: I want to explore horror music.
Nelward: Do not.
Nelward: I'm sorry, My Cat's Running by.
Nelward: Yeah, I wanted to explore, like, music that is made to be, that is scary, which I've explored in the past.
Nelward: But I. I have a lot more skills now.
Nelward: So I started working on the songs and after a while I was like, well, these songs are so thematically linked.
Nelward: Whereas in my older singles compilations, there wasn't like a really a.
Nelward: A persistent or consistent thread between the songs.
Nelward: And I felt like for this one, it did have that.
Nelward: And at first it was supposed to be an ep, and then I made the Memory Hole track, which.
Nelward: Which is kind of an interlude and I was like, what kind of EP has an interlude?
Nelward: Like, this is an album.
Nelward: I can go further with these ideas.
Nelward: And so I made a couple more.
Nelward: And, yeah, it just ended up kind of organically becoming my first album.
Quinn: We're gonna take a break here for just a second to play I Can't B Wrong, one of the singles off the new album.
Quinn: Do you have plans to, like.
Quinn: I guess.
Quinn: Have you been writing another album?
Quinn: I know you just released this one, but are you.
Quinn: You have something in the works, then?
Nelward: Yeah, I started working on it.
Nelward: I'm trying to really go slow with it, so I don't get to.
Nelward: Because I'm about to go on tour on that.
Nelward: But that's actually been helping the process a lot.
Nelward: Just really trying to go as slow as possible with it.
Quinn: Yeah, for sure.
Nelward: But, yeah, I definitely.
Nelward: I'm working on.
Nelward: I'm working on some drafts now for what would be my first intentional album, second actual album.
Nelward: But, yeah, I know, like, my discography is pretty big, but all the songs that are more than everything besides, like, there's a couple of eps.
Nelward: Other than that, they're all compilations.
Nelward: They're all made separate from one another.
Nelward: And they were not.
Nelward: They were released separately.
Nelward: And, yeah, they were not intended as a, you know, a flowing piece of music, I guess, with an overall arching theme.
Nelward: Whereas Stone Bogus has that.
Nelward: It has lyrical themes that are kind of linked.
Nelward: It has an aesthetic that's kind of inspired by horror because horror movies have just gotten really good.
Nelward: I don't know what happened.
Nelward: I feel like they've gotten really good over the past 10 years, and I just wanted to, like, try that kind of in a musical realm.
Nelward: Of course, my stuff is quite a bit more fantastical than I think the what people like about a lot of the horror movies they're coming out now is they relate to real world issues.
Nelward: Now.
Nelward: Of course I talk about real world issues in my lyrics, but I would.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: I mean my visual style is a lot more fantastical.
Quinn: There's definitely a lot of surrealism I've noticed in your.
Quinn: In your works.
Quinn: I know you mentioned like dreamlike qualities too or like nightmare.
Quinn: Is that kind of tied in?
Quinn: You said also the lyrics, there's kind of like more through Lines with the Stone Bogus as opposed to like some of your other compilations.
Quinn: What would some of those be?
Nelward: Yeah, the lyrics are more.
Nelward: I just want to talk about things that, you know, I might be mistaken, but I don't.
Nelward: There's a lot of things I hear in contemporary discourse that people.
Nelward: I just don't hear represented in songs as much.
Nelward: And I wanted to just talk about kind of like the.
Nelward: The world as it exists through the.
Nelward: Our heavily online world.
Nelward: The kind of way we talk to each other, the assumptions we make about one another.
Quinn: Yeah.
Nelward: And I.
Nelward: And kind of how weird everything seems to be getting, you know, which is not.
Nelward: It's not.
Nelward: That's not an observation, you know, Unique observation.
Quinn: Yeah.
Nelward: But yeah, just see what I would have to.
Nelward: But yeah, it's.
Nelward: It's slightly political.
Nelward: It's not like overtly look political, but it's, you know, a little bit political nature and just talks about community, the issues with communication in our modern day.
Nelward: And it was fun to write about that stuff.
Nelward: I was.
Nelward: I felt a lot more passionate about those lyrical ideas because I kind of sat down before this album started, before I knew it was going to be an album.
Nelward: And I was just like, okay.
Nelward: I get stumped on lyrics.
Nelward: I consider myself a decent lyric writer.
Nelward: I have a voice.
Nelward: But like, why is it that I'm always dragging my feet?
Nelward: I'm always reluctant to start writing lyrics.
Nelward: And I was like, oh, because I'm not.
Nelward: I wonder if I could write about things are more interesting to me.
Nelward: It sounds obvious, but that was kind of the thought process going in.
Quinn: Yeah.
Nelward: And then don't be afraid to be kind of more.
Nelward: What am I trying to say?
Nelward: Don't be afraid to be like to come off as immature in your songs.
Nelward: They're your songs, you know.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: Sometimes a lot of it is from.
Nelward: It's weird just being an artist and being self conscious about the way people perceive.
Nelward: Like maybe I was hesitant to write songs that take the perspective of the villain.
Nelward: Like so stuff like that.
Nelward: I was just like, really?
Nelward: I thought more about What I wanted to write about and.
Nelward: And, like, words I liked using and kind of just put more because I hadn't really dusted that off in a while.
Nelward: So that was.
Quinn: That's awesome.
Quinn: We're gonna pause here for just a second to play Stone Bogus, the title track for the new album.
Quinn: Also, on the note of Stone Bogus, I guess at first I was going to be like, oh, yeah, is there, you know, a song you're most proud of?
Quinn: But I think the whole album's really solid.
Quinn: Like, really interesting, cool stuff.
Quinn: So is there something that maybe you pushed yourself or, like, tried something new and you're happy about how it paid off?
Nelward: Yeah, I think for the whole album, I think in general, I was trying to make stuff that was uniquely me, and I kind of held myself to it.
Nelward: I was just like, don't just go with the first thing that feels good to you, which was, you know, as artists, we value this kind of spontaneity in the creative process.
Nelward: But I was like, you know, just hold it to the standard of it has to be.
Nelward: Actually, it was like, right when Suno was coming out, so it was like, stuff that.
Nelward: And I tried Suno out, and I was just like.
Nelward: I was trying to get to mix styles, and I hope no, like, Suno person hears this and gets any ideas.
Nelward: It's, you know, I was trying to get to mix styles and just couldn't do it.
Nelward: And it would just come out with one or the other style.
Nelward: And I was just like, okay, let's make the benchmark.
Nelward: Like, Suno cannot make this music.
Nelward: And in that, I kind of found myself rediscovering old ideas that I had that are, like.
Nelward: That maybe two or three people heard.
Nelward: Like, they're not even on, like, tracks that are public, but I just never revisited them.
Nelward: So it actually revisits a lot of old ideas I have.
Nelward: And that was fun to do.
Nelward: And I don't remember what the question was.
Nelward: I started writing.
Quinn: I was just asking about, like, if there was any.
Quinn: Or maybe any track in particular, any ideas that were like, you kind of pushed yourself or that.
Quinn: That were a little bit.
Quinn: A little bit different.
Quinn: But you.
Quinn: You're happy with how they came out.
Nelward: Yeah, I was really happy how Sidewinder came out.
Nelward: I just.
Nelward: Like, that one just, like, was just everything I could possibly think of.
Nelward: And I've completed a music video for that song, so that.
Nelward: That's gonna come out after the tour.
Quinn: Okay.
Quinn: Awesome.
Nelward: Yeah.
Quinn: Yeah, I know you've got, like.
Quinn: Because you do most of your music video stuff yourself, right.
Quinn: I mean, like, it's very much kind of part of the art of what you do.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: And I've really kind of tried to hone that because when I was making this album, I was like, this has to have strong.
Nelward: A strong visual direction.
Nelward: You got to.
Nelward: I'm just kind of dusting myself off with this album a little bit.
Nelward: Like.
Nelward: Like, I'm.
Nelward: Yeah, I was just like, you got put more.
Nelward: Because in the.
Nelward: In the past, I've been like, okay, there's only so much time I can put into visual because I want to focus on music.
Nelward: But I was.
Nelward: With this one, I was.
Nelward: At first I thought of trying to work with someone else, and I really couldn't find anyone, so I decided to do it myself.
Nelward: And yeah, I just really wanted to up my visual game on this one.
Nelward: And, you know, they're kind of blind spots in my.
Nelward: In that.
Nelward: And I wanted to improve, and I ended up learning 3D animation, which I did not expect to do, but I did that for this album.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: And so that would be.
Nelward: That's gonna really help for the future.
Nelward: So that's just beginning for that.
Nelward: So that's kind of fun.
Quinn: Nice.
Quinn: What do you use to animate?
Quinn: Like blender or something else?
Nelward: Blender.
Quinn: Blender.
Quinn: Hey, it gets the job done.
Quinn: It's great.
Quinn: I guess, outside of, you know, your.
Quinn: Your usual, like, the music and, you know, some of the visuals that go along with it.
Quinn: Do you have any other, like, creative outlets?
Quinn: Things that you just don't necessarily like, post or whatever is more so just things you do for fun or just hobbies in general.
Quinn: Like, what are you interested in?
Nelward: I like playing video games, watching movies and stuff.
Nelward: And.
Nelward: I like, you know, nature and going on hikes, riding my bike, running.
Quinn: Nice.
Nelward: I like.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: In terms of other creative outlets, I don't know.
Nelward: I. I see posting is kind of creative outlet, so I just kind of post whatever I like.
Nelward: I like things that I like making myself laugh.
Nelward: No one else thinks it's funny, but maybe they do.
Nelward: But.
Nelward: And I'm interested in psychology.
Nelward: Interest in history, politics, stuff like that, but awesome.
Nelward: Really interested in video games.
Quinn: Yeah.
Quinn: I was gonna say there's a lot of influence in your music from, like, game music, right?
Nelward: Oh, absolutely.
Nelward: Especially Earthbound.
Quinn: Oh, yeah.
Quinn: I mean, it's hard to go wrong.
Quinn: That's such a.
Quinn: Influential.
Quinn: I guess I could ask if you said you play games.
Quinn: What are.
Quinn: What are you playing now?
Quinn: What's your.
Quinn: What's been.
Nelward: I'm not playing any games right now.
Nelward: I'm actually on a gaming sabbatical, but I do intend on trying Splatoon Raiders when I'm just.
Nelward: Right now, I'm just.
Nelward: I like what I'm working on, so I don't want to put too much because I can.
Nelward: I can fall down rabbit holes a little bit.
Nelward: I was playing Tears.
Nelward: I replayed Tears of the Kingdom earlier this year.
Nelward: I really like Donkey Kong Bonanza was incredible.
Nelward: Loved it.
Nelward: I like.
Nelward: I played it too much.
Nelward: I can't play anymore because they're doing all these, like, extra things now.
Nelward: I'm like, oh, man, I would have eaten that up, but I totally burned the deal through the dlc.
Nelward: Like, I played it so much, couldn't get enough.
Nelward: So, yeah, just.
Nelward: I like mostly games by Nintendo.
Nelward: Yeah.
Quinn: So to go.
Quinn: I mean, I go to periods where.
Nelward: I don't play games much, so.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: Yeah.
Quinn: I mean, I imagine you're probably very busy a lot of the time with, you know, all the music and now touring and I'm sure.
Quinn: And you've.
Quinn: You said.
Quinn: I watched another interview a while ago because I was, like, intrigued.
Quinn: You said that you do most of the tour, like, planning like yourself.
Quinn: Right.
Quinn: I mean, you reached out just directly.
Nelward: I mean, this is the first tour I've ever booked.
Nelward: Typically.
Nelward: I just.
Nelward: I've hopped on tours as a, like, opening artist, and I was doing the solo sets for that, but for this, I'm doing the band.
Nelward: And yeah, I booked it myself, but I mean, there's only six dates, so it's not too impressive.
Quinn: But that's a tour that's still involved.
Quinn: You know, it's a lot that goes into that.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: I mean, for now, I'm doing it myself.
Nelward: I would love to, at some point outsource source this work when it's feasible financially.
Nelward: But for now, it's just me doing it.
Quinn: Nice.
Quinn: So I guess a little bit of a pivot.
Quinn: But one of our other interview people mentioned this, and I thought this was a good question.
Quinn: So you're from Atlanta, right?
Quinn: Like, that's.
Quinn: Is that where you're based out of?
Nelward: I was born In Toronto, but I am based in Atlanta.
Nelward: Yes.
Quinn: Okay.
Quinn: Are there any, like, acts, like, local acts or like, you know, artists or bands around there that you think, like, are coming up in the scene there?
Quinn: Just anybody that you know, you think is worth mentioning around there?
Quinn: I mean, outside of yourself, of course.
Nelward: But I. I guess I'm inspired more by the musical legacy of Atlanta and South in general.
Nelward: Yeah, just like incredible.
Nelward: Like, I guess when I was a kid, like, there was.
Nelward: Atlanta had a moment where the top 10, like, songs were always seemed to be from Atlanta, like.
Nelward: But so, yeah, man, Atlanta's had a huge, like, history influence on like, bass music and with trap and stuff.
Nelward: And I love Outkast and stuff.
Nelward: And in the rock side, I love.
Nelward: Well, rem's from athens, but close enough, you know.
Nelward: And then, yeah, tons of things I'm forgetting.
Nelward: But yeah,.
Nelward: I.
Nelward: And just the legacy of the.
Nelward: The south is just cool being.
Nelward: This is like.
Nelward: I mean, all modern music comes from, like, black music.
Nelward: I mean, a lot of it was in Chicago, but those were people who were migrating from the south as far as.
Nelward: So, yeah, it's like the south is like the like, musical primordial ooze of like, whatever's going on now.
Nelward: Like this, like, current music, which is pretty interesting.
Nelward: I really like Bickle, actually.
Nelward: I forgot.
Quinn: Oh yeah, I totally forgot.
Quinn: I have one of their songs saved so long ago.
Quinn: But.
Quinn: No, this is good.
Quinn: This is good.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: Bickle.
Nelward: I like Bickle a lot.
Quinn: That's good, I guess.
Quinn: Yeah.
Quinn: Just in.
Quinn: In general, like, music wise, are there any.
Quinn: Because I know a lot of your influences are, you know, some older stuff.
Quinn: Not.
Quinn: Not just like game music, but also a lot of.
Quinn: A lot of older.
Quinn: When I say older, I mean like, not the past two years.
Quinn: But is there anyone right now that you've been listening to or enjoying or anyone that you have your eye on, like, up and coming, just like on the broader music realm.
Nelward: I'm not good to ask about up and coming, but in terms of stuff that I've been listening to, like, I. I like Lewis Cole a lot.
Nelward: I like Ekio Robo.
Nelward: I like his echo.
Nelward: Robo's side project, Czar of Gamble is really cool.
Quinn: I guess this is like kind of back to more just like literally about you.
Quinn: But is there if you were to give someone like one song of yours to.
Quinn: To recommend as like a.
Quinn: Like, this is.
Quinn: You know, this feels the most like nail word.
Quinn: Like, this is the most.
Quinn: You know, like, listen to this song first if you want to kind of feel out the kind of stuff that you do.
Quinn: Which song would that be?
Nelward: Let me look.
Nelward: Look up a.
Nelward: No, I know what nice songs are.
Nelward: I guess most people like Ghost.
Nelward: I just probably play that or something.
Nelward: Or Ghost.
Nelward: Yeah, Ghost is good enough, I think.
Nelward: Yeah.
Quinn: It's such a good song.
Quinn: I mean, that's how I found out about you, like, ages ago.
Quinn: Just showed up in my feed one day.
Quinn: Great song.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: That's a good one.
Quinn: Mm.
Quinn: Let's see.
Quinn: In a similar vein, if you had to give, like, two or three sentences maximum to describe your sound, I know you kind of said, like, avant garde electronic, but you've got such a unique, like, very specific sound.
Quinn: That's really cool.
Nelward: Thanks.
Quinn: What would you.
Quinn: Or I guess maybe like, values in your sound?
Quinn: Like, things that you kind of prioritize in your songwriting process?
Nelward: Actually, like, that's a good question, because I've been thinking about that a lot, and the stuff that I.
Nelward: Sorry, I'm looking.
Nelward: I made a huge list I'm looking at right now that I do.
Nelward: I think a lot of it is rhythmic ideas that I like to do, like polyrhythms.
Nelward: I like music that's pretty trim as far as structure goes.
Nelward: Like, I. I don't like anything to take up too much time.
Nelward: I also like structures that are interesting.
Nelward: I like songs that take left turns.
Nelward: I like them.
Nelward: They play with expectation a bit, you know.
Quinn: Yeah, for sure.
Nelward: And I like.
Nelward: Yeah, there's a. I like blending styles that don't necessarily go together on first inclination.
Nelward: And then I like very physical sounding sounds to kind of like.
Nelward: I think that's a lot of producers like that ASMR type sounds, I guess.
Quinn: Yeah.
Nelward: And, you know, these.
Nelward: I don't do this.
Nelward: Not every song, obviously, but those are things I like to do.
Nelward: I like.
Nelward: I like atmosphere.
Nelward: I like.
Nelward: I like melody.
Nelward: Like catchy melodies.
Nelward: I like jazzy melodies.
Nelward: I like jazzy stuff.
Nelward: I like jazz.
Quinn: Awesome.
Nelward: I wish listening to people improvised, but I like the harmonic language of jazz.
Quinn: Yeah, for sure.
Quinn: We're gonna take a second here to listen to Sidewinder, a song off the new album that I think represents the diverse and unique sound really well.
Quinn: When you're writing a song, like, start to finish, like, where does the song start for you?
Quinn: Is it like, noodling around?
Quinn: Like, do you have an idea that just pops into your head?
Quinn: Or is it just kind of like building something from the ground up?
Quinn: Like, what's.
Quinn: What does that look like?
Nelward: Yeah, answering that question is kind of a thing that.
Nelward: I mean, the whole process of writing is me trying to answer that question.
Nelward: I think it's whatever you start with could be a bass line, a rhythm, a melody, Just a one thing.
Nelward: And it's usually something that I've had an idea of.
Nelward: I don't know.
Nelward: It's like.
Nelward: It's usually something that I have an idea for that I've had an idea for a while or is.
Nelward: I don't know.
Nelward: It just feels authentic to.
Nelward: To myself.
Nelward: And usually start with that.
Nelward: And then I like.
Nelward: I have an incremental process with it.
Nelward: The way that I write, I like breaking things down.
Nelward: Like, right now, I shouldn't talk about music.
Nelward: That's so early in the works, but yeah, I'm just, like, starting with the bass line and really, like, just the baseline and just really carving out all the different characters of it.
Nelward: Really like doing everything in its.
Nelward: I like doing everything in its smallest amount because it's less overwhelming that way.
Nelward: Like, thinking about everything just at once is kind of overwhelming.
Nelward: So just doing one at once and then.
Nelward: Yeah, that's.
Nelward: That's kind of what I do.
Nelward: But, yeah, it's.
Nelward: I start with a small piece.
Nelward: Yeah, but I don't.
Nelward: I like doing it.
Nelward: I like coming up with my ideas away from the computer.
Nelward: I don't.
Nelward: I execute my ideas on the computer.
Nelward: I don't come up with them on the computer.
Quinn: Yeah, you play guitar, right?
Quinn: Is that, like, one of the ways that you, like, step away from the computer to write or, like, to kind of come up.
Nelward: I don't write on instrument.
Nelward: Well.
Nelward: I mean, like, yeah, I'll come up with core.
Nelward: I'll, like, nail down chord progressions on a piano or something.
Nelward: But in terms of, like, none of my.
Nelward: The ideas I go with, I don't.
Nelward: I like.
Nelward: Yeah, like, training my inner ear.
Nelward: I think that's important.
Nelward: And no, I like.
Nelward: It feels more authentic when it comes from my brain, not my fingers.
Nelward: And usually when I'm playing an instrument, my fingers get in the way.
Quinn: So that's so fair.
Nelward: When I have ideas in my head.
Nelward: They're not constricted by the patterns is like the.
Nelward: The fingers as much.
Nelward: And of course, I have written songs just by getting on a guitar or piano or whatever.
Nelward: I mean, I have done that, but usually I just, you know, it can be like I said, it's very simple, like a very simple idea and going from there.
Nelward: It doesn't have to be like, very like, you know, super complicated.
Nelward: When I say I, like come up the ideas in my head, it might sound more complicated than actually is.
Quinn: That makes sense.
Quinn: I mean, I think your music is so.
Quinn: I think you mentioned authenticity.
Quinn: I think that's like one of the things at least the people that I know that listen you like, that's a big reason why is.
Quinn: It feels, at least from a listener experience, it feels like you're making music that it seems like almost true to yourself.
Quinn: I don't know how true that is, but that's kind of the vibe that you get as a listener is like very genuine, very, like, creatively unique.
Quinn: And I know that sounds like unique can come off as like a negative word.
Nelward: Not negative.
Quinn: But I mean it.
Quinn: I mean it as a. Purely as a positive, like, refreshing, I guess.
Nelward: Yeah, thanks.
Nelward: I appreciate.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: No, I mean, I think I had a renewed sense of that ideal for the.
Nelward: For Stone Bogus.
Nelward: And I'm trying to continue in that direction.
Nelward: Just make stuff.
Nelward: It's like.
Nelward: Because, you know, you can.
Nelward: Yeah, you can make stuff that sounds like other people.
Nelward: But I really think it's when I focus on.
Nelward: I really like the results I got from focusing on making music that was unique to my.
Nelward: To me that felt good.
Nelward: So definitely continue with that.
Quinn: Definitely creatively fulfilling, I would assume, to do that approach.
Quinn: I always find it interesting to ask, is there a song that you wish you hadn't made or, like, a song that you're like, you made and you're like, oh, I wish I did it.
Quinn: Which, I mean, I know that's part of like, the creative process is just like accepting that, you know, not everything's going to be perfect.
Quinn: You release it as it is.
Quinn: And even if people like it might be like, oh, I wish I did this differently or that differently.
Quinn: But is there something where you're like, yeah, I wish, you know, this had more time, or, I wish, you know,.
Nelward: Yeah, I'm like that with everything.
Nelward: I mean, like, everything you do is part of.
Nelward: Is part of the process, I guess.
Nelward: And I try to see, like, releasing music as practice.
Nelward: So, like, if you think about it that way, then everything you learn from things like, okay, maybe I, this is what I don't like about this.
Nelward: Like I, I, I, I'll say maybe not like any songs, but I don't like my song.
Nelward: The lyrics that I have that are more like I have some songs are kind of one dimensional love songs.
Nelward: And I know what I was going for that.
Nelward: Like the Beach Boys do that really well.
Nelward: But for me it's not my thing.
Nelward: It's not, I'm not, I don't think I should do that.
Nelward: But I say that I might do in the future, so.
Nelward: But hopefully.
Nelward: I don't know.
Nelward: Yeah.
Nelward: What I'm trying to do now is I'm trying to.
Nelward: You know, they say don't make a point to be.
Nelward: Just because something's original isn't.
Nelward: Doesn't mean it's good.
Nelward: But I'm also like, well, if it's original, then it's original.
Nelward: Like nothing.
Quinn: Yeah.
Nelward: Can't take that away.
Nelward: And then good is kind of more subjective.
Nelward: So I'm kind of like valuing originality over whatever good means, because that can just change from whatever your opinion is day to day.
Nelward: So I think in the past I, there are times where I was trying to recreate exact sounds I heard before, which is you do that when you're making music.
Nelward: But maybe I'd gone a little too far in that direction.
Nelward: But I think the point is to know how to make those sounds.
Nelward: I know how to make them.
Quinn: So, yeah, I mean, it's definitely beginning.
Nelward: I didn't know how to make those sounds.
Nelward: I was trying to.
Nelward: What's the word?
Nelward: I was trying to.
Nelward: I was trying to recreate them, but I didn't know how to.
Nelward: And sometimes that comes up with unique ideas.
Quinn: We're going to take our last break here to listen to Nelward's song Polite Pilot off the new album.
Quinn: A Standout track for me that I wanted to ask about is Polite Pilot.
Quinn: I'm trying to come up with some question to ask about it, but I just wanted to ask about it.
Quinn: Like, the process behind that one in particular.
Nelward: Yeah, that one was.
Nelward: I like it because it feels pretty absurd.
Nelward: Like.
Nelward: Feels like someone.
Nelward: Like the way it's just, like, has one chord in the beginning kind of.
Nelward: I don't know.
Nelward: Feels like.
Nelward: Yeah, well, I wanted.
Nelward: I was just going for something uncanny and kind of.
Nelward: That kind of sticks in your brain is, like, peculiar.
Nelward: Yeah, I think I was going for something peculiar with that.
Nelward: It sounds almost like it has dementia or something.
Quinn: Yeah, Yeah, I can.
Quinn: I can get that for sure.
Quinn: Really, really cool, though.
Quinn: I guess in the same.
Quinn: Similar vein about that.
Quinn: I know you released a couple of the songs as singles before the album came out.
Quinn: What was the, like, thought process behind, you know, which ones you chose to release as singles versus which ones are just on the album?
Nelward: Oh, well, I mean, I think Gus was.
Nelward: They're just poppier.
Nelward: Gus.
Nelward: Gus and I Can't B Wrong are poppier.
Nelward: So.
Nelward: And then Cherry Ongioma is just like, well, this is good because it's more up, it's more fast paced, and it introduces people to what the album sounds like because that one, I think, goes out a little bit more than I Can't Be Wrong at times.
Nelward: And that was just the process.
Nelward: I wanted three of them.
Nelward: I think Gus was originally intended to be the single and then kind of I Can't Be Wrong kind of sprung out of it.
Quinn: It's always cool.
Nelward: And then it happens.
Nelward: You write a song and another song, like, comes out of it as, like, a sister song.
Nelward: That's always fun.
Nelward: And that's.
Nelward: That was so I can't be wrong then became the single and Gus became I guess the third single.
Nelward: So that was the thought process there.
Quinn: Yeah, that makes sense for sure.
Nelward: And Cherry Angioma is less of a pop song or whatever, but I just picked that one so I thought it was good song.
Quinn: Yeah, for sure.
Nelward: Awesome.
Nelward: I really appreciate you guys taking the time to talk to me.
Quinn: Yeah, appreciate you for taking the time to talk to us.
Quinn: Thank you so much once again.
Quinn: You know, your album's out, you're on tour or about to be on tour, I guess I should say, which is exciting.
Quinn: And I can put in a more well scripted plug to both of those after this in the editing process.
Quinn: But yeah, thank you so much for coming up.
Nelward: Yeah, thanks.
Nelward: Thanks for having me.
Quinn: Yeah, have a good one.
Nelward: All right, later.