Musically, an eighties ignited sphere of driving electronics, thick, grimace-inducing bass lines and soaring, dissonant guitar lines that would speak to the Pixies in their Bossanova years. Lyrically, the songs are an ode to youthful exuberance, sex, burning cities, ghosts and relationships past. Vocal leads casually pushing through like Edwynn Collins when he found his crooner meets punk rocker footing in Orange Juice. When all these sonic aspects combine in the melting pot we get Beautiful Nothing.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Beautiful Nothing about the latest project, motivations, challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We’re from Burlington, Ontario Canada. Musically I’d describe our music as an eighties ignited sphere of driving electronics, thick grimace-inducing bass lines and soaring, dissonant guitar lines that would speak to the Pixies in their Bossanova years. Lyrically, the songs are an ode to youthful exuberance, sex, burning cities, ghosts and relationships past. Vocal leads casually pushing through like Edwynn Collins when he found his crooner meets punk rocker footing in Orange Juice.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
For my brothers, Luke and Shane, and I, we started playing music very young. Our parents introduced us to a number of instruments but what really stuck at that time was the guitar. Once we just started discovering it we just wanted to do it as much music as possible. We were jamming together by 10 and started playing with James and Sven in high school and haven’t stopped since as it brings us great satisfaction.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
It’s completely different… We took these 6 songs from hours and hours of recording experiments, distilled it down to some really cool and key parts, then built them back up again. The process of putting this album together was a lot more intuitive, and sonically there’s a lot more textures. Because there was no prior expectation to what the end result of the album would be, the result is much more immediate and personal. Basically there was no filter during the tracking phase. This time we operated outside of the typical rock band-recording process of writing, rehearsing, demoing, then, recording. The recorded result is built directly from the initial feelings that inspired the songs, making the recording and writing methods for this project one in the same.
Do you face challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? How has technology helped you (assuming it helps)?
The biggest challenge for us is really just being satisfied with ourselves as artists. There are fleeting moments where we feel completely content with one of our creations but, like with any art, it’s never complete what we might feel like we’ve created something perfect one day our mood change the next day and we’ll want to start it again from scratch. But it’s worth it for those moments of pure satisfaction and have come to accept that art is never fully done, just abandoned when it comes time to release it.
Where can we connect with you online and discover more music?
We’re on all the major streaming services… Apple Music, Spotify… and our music’s available for download off of iTunes and Bandcamp and is physically available for purchase off of our website or at our live shows.
Anything else before we sign off?
Not that I can think of. Thanks!
