Introducing our first and special guest, NOHIDEA! Thank you very much @nohidea for taking your time to answer our questions.
Lets set the tone by playing some dope beats…
Lo-FiCulture’s Favorites
NOHIDEA
Soundcloud Followers ~11,300
Spotify Followers ~15,700 and currently over 817,000 monthly listeners
These numbers will change over time.
INTERVIEW
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“What is your real name? Do you have a picture of yourself that you can share?
[* ]My name isn’t really all that important. I’m just some person from the mountains. The music, the story and the message are first priority. I do not have a face, nor should I.
How old were you when you decided music was “your thing”?
[*] We all have a divine connection to music. I think it’s what everything in life is truly comprised of in it’s root form, is sound. Music being organized sound, I believe that everything in life owes its entire existence, indelibly, to sound. The day I took my first step in Music was October 23, 2013, but I’ve had an interest in production and sound since I was probably 13 or something. I remember at like 14, I just saved up over $900 from my job to build my first gaming PC. I thought it was so badass, and I downloaded Ableton from the internet to try remaking a rusko bass patch. Failing horribly, I gave up, because at the time, I didn’t understand sound and production nor what it meant to truly work hard for what I wanted. To manifest my own vision. I was so young & without much positive guidance aside from my mother. I had entitlement issues as we all did, and I wanted to see immediate rewards for my efforts, so instead of putting my nose to the grindstone, I put my nose into other things, that weren’t so productive.. Through some of the hardest experiences of my life, and my own descent as a drug addict into depression and isolation, I decided the chaos in my life had gone on long enough. Music always helped me through times of peril and sadness, and so I wanted to be that person behind the music. I was 18 years old at the time that I decided I wanted to take a chance and produce my own music, just coming off of a very revelatory psychedelic odyssey. To talk about it for a second, I believe these substances can be tools, like a compass, to navigate the psyche and help us further enrich our journey and experience here, by allowing us to see the big picture. It helped me kick my addiction to drugs, and gave me the clarity to see who I really am. They can also be extremely harmful and debilitating. I do not endorse the unmoderated use of psychedelic substances by any means, but they helped me pick up the pen to write my own story. Which means not only did it take me 4-5 years to even decide that ‘ya production is super cool, I can do this’, but I didn’t start taking production seriously until December of 2014, after all of that happened. It took me a year to even sit down and ask myself ‘is this how I see my story unfolding?’ My answer of course was yes, and here we are today.. I’m very honoured to be part of all of this.
“‘ya production is super cool, I can do this’,”-Nohidea
That there’s nothing different that separates you and I, other than our identities and the labels we give ourselves. We are all merely blank spaces. We are all ‘human’. Our individual and unique experiences make up our identities, and all I want to do is to create something meaningful by attempting to put those experiences and emotions into sounds. I want to tell the story of the human condition, as I see it. It’s bigger than just some songs on the internet for me. It’s the story of us. I want to help make you remember the best parts of being a child, being in love, being sad, being naive etc. Heartbreak. Loneliness. Childishness. The nostalgia, and those types of experiences, with all of their intricacies and profundities. These things are very important to me.
How did you become as popular as you are today?
[*]By seeing the next step of the staircase in front of me and taking that step. I wish I could tell you with extreme specificity how I did what I did, but at the end of the day, we all have our own journey. Our own staircase. My method will be different from yours, just as yours will be different from anyone else’s. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey to it that counts the most. That might be some tumblr shit, but it’s true. Trust me, it would take a book for me to explain how to do what you want with your life and have you actually believe me. I’m trying to write it, currently. It’s titled ‘shitty advice from an artist you’ve never heard of’. It’s gonna be great
What is your daily schedule like?
[*]Idk. Prior to moving in with my girlfriend and just relaxing the past couple weeks, it would be at LEAST 3-4 hours of work on something music-related every single day, be it making more samples, or trying to write the beginning of 3 different songs in a day and chipping away at each one as I go. Because you can’t truly measure your progress in the present moment. You have to look at the past, in order to see the steps you’ve taken to get where you are.
Right now, I’m trying to get my Gladiator to max Level on FFXIV so I can start raiding with my friends and my business partner Levi. He runs a project called Ploom that we’re trying to turn into a label. It’s really really cool and we’re working on a ton of awesome stuff together. Here’s the website for those interested – ploomlabs.com .
What kind of music do you listen to?
[*]Really, really hard question to answer. Literally everything. Sometimes I like to listen to the soundtracks of movies and games I like, other times I listen to music that I previously would’ve ‘disliked’, i.e country, formulaic radio-pop music (Katy Perry, TSwift etc). I really fuck with nevershoutnever tho. I grew up on rap and metal, but ‘new-age’ heavy metal like August Burns Red, Emmure and Bleed From Within etc, not so much the classics like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Metallica, although those are all incredible musicians. When I was a teenager, I really liked Drum & Bass, like chase and status and Netsky, and all of the Hospital Records crew. It then grew into a love of super challenging stuff like Ott and Tipper, and really intricate stuff like Culprate, Tool and Flying Lotus among others. I listen to a lot of my own music too. Mostly because I write super often, and it’s a fun exercise for me to go back 3-4 months ago, and nitpick old songs, because being able to critique those from an objective standpoint shows myself I still got the juice. I believe you should truly love what you create.
What is it like being one of the pioneers of Lo-Fi Music?
[*] Nah. Don’t get it twisted. That’s the legends Jay Dee and Seba, rest in peace. Those are the only two that actually matter. Anyone else that comes after is just paying homage. Thank you, though :^) I’m just trying to do my own thing. You’d be surprised how many people tell me stuff like ‘wow you and >insert name here< are the kings of lofi’. It’s super nice, but I don’t really pay attention to that stuff. It is super cool though, that I can call myself good friends with people like Tomppabeats, and Jinsang and Eevee and Idealism. Also, some of the cats from the Brainfeeder and Chillhop Records crews! All of which are also heavily inspired by Dilla and Seba. Those are all pioneers of their own vein, and if you don’t know, you absolutely should.
Do you have any advice for up-coming Lo-Fi musicians/rappers?
[*] Grind. As much as you can, and stop making excuses for why you’re not living the life that you want to live. GO get it. Go easy on yourself, though, and trust the process. Trust yourself, because there’s a 9/10 chance the reason you got into doing what you’re doing is because you believed in your taste for your specific medium, and knew you could do what you’re doing. I believe that the reason we as artists and individuals are hard on ourselves, is all in the name of advancement ; of growth. But sometimes, we fail to see that for ourselves. Remember that you have the awesome and incredible ability to manifest your own reality. You don’t have to take shit from anyone. You are the only thing that’s standing between you and who you want to be.
If you want something, you have to see it for yourself and truly see it. Visualization is a very very important ability to have. I visualize the future I SEE for myself, in my mind, every single day, and I imbue those visualizations with thoughts of love and feelings of abundance. They call it magic.. The trick is to see the abundance that you already have. You have everything that you truly need in front of you at all times, so please do not worry. Dwelling can only invite negativity. I promise everything will be okay, as long as you can breathe – believe me. If someone like me can do what i’m doing, I believe, that you, too, were born to be the ruler of your own destiny.
How many times a day does someone ask permission to, “rap over” one of your instrumentals?
[*] More than I care to admit. Don’t sell yourself short. If you’re trying to make your bread, tell someone that they need to pay you. Or don’t. It’s your life, and it’s your call. As much as we like to hate on the prospect, money is a very important concept. It’s freedom. It’s independence. It’s integral.
What drum kit, instrument, or tools/devices do you use to produce your art?
[*] I produce on Ableton Live 9 Suite and occasionally produce via an old Roland SP-404 drum machine. I started on Ableton and it’s what I was most comfortable with through my progression as a producer. I had used FL Studio for about 6 months, as well as Logic Pro 9, Reason, and even tried Sony Acid Pro lmao. It took me a long time to actually get into a routine and be like ‘k this is the thing I’m gonna use’ haha. When I started the nohidea project, I wanted to be defined by my own kinda thing, which I then learned later was called ‘Lofi hip hop’, but anyways, from the very beginning, I’ve been using most around 85-90% of my own original engineered sounds, aside from the melodic content I sample here and there.
I just wanted my own drums, and little fx blips and stuff, so I worked really hard on learning how to engineer those things so that I didn’t have to use other peoples shit. Contrary to popular belief, the beginning of my discography is pretty much all original composition, re-orchestration and just simple instruments made in Ableton’s “Operator” synth. It was a tool I picked up on from this old forum I used to skope frequently called ‘Neurohop Forum’. I was big into producing Neuro and Bass stuff for a while, still kind of am. Super super dope tool tho ; you’d be surprised how powerful Ableton and other production software is, straight out the box. The only external plugin I use Izotope Ozone 7’s Stereo Imager just because Ableton doesn’t have one of their own, aside from having to rig together heinously complicated fx chains.
Can I refer viewers to links in order inform them about the tools YOU use?
[*] Ye – ableton.com, izotope.com, thepiratebay.org 🙂 – as a footnote, no I do not endorse piracy, therefore if you don’t have the money to purchase a $1000 program right at this very moment in time, there are peer to peer programs available to help you acquire the base version of these softwares. That being said, when you have enough for yourself, give back where you can. There’s this really awesome forum called SOS that I downloaded a massive repository from about 3 years ago, that helped me learn engineering and psychoacoustics front to back. It’s all very comprehensive, and all of the knowledge on that website is tested, tried and true from actual engineers. I’d recommend go peep and see what you can learn – soundonsound.com
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[*] For anyone that made it all the way to the end, I commend you. I’m so thankful for you. You are the reason I’m able to do what I do on the scale that I have the ability to do so. You have shown me that I’m not alone. You have proved to me single-handedly that we are all part of the same source of love and divinity. Part of the same god, the same message, the same motive.
We are all here to love.
From the bottom of my heart, I love you. I hope you find what you are looking for.
Peace. ”
-Nohidea 2017
All of your work is truly amazing Nohidea. Thank you for sharing so much about yourself in this short interview. We can only hope enough people will see this to become as motivated as you. We appreciate the beats, and we also appreciate the time. Thanks again.
Ableton Live 9 Suite
Ableton Live 9 Suite Ableton Live 9 Suite Multi-Track Audio Recording with Sound Library
Roland SP-404SX
Roland SP-404SX Linear Wave Sampler with DSP Effects
FL STUDIO
Image Line FL Studio 12 Producer Edition
Logic Pro 9
Apple Logic Studio [Old Version]
Reason
Reason 9.5
SONY Acid Pro 7
ACID Pro 7
Izotope Ozone 7
iZotope Ozone 7 Standard: Essential Mastering Plug-in
*Note* 1.5% of all sales provided by the amazon links above will be donated to a Renewable Energy Charity. I believe that the sun can be the source for music someday. Lets get technology for it!
That’s it for this short interview! Thanks for taking a minute to find out more about your favorite musician. Email me @loficulturenow@gmail.com and let me know what you thought about it.
Please share your time and love by
FOLLOWING @NOHIDEA ON HIS SOCIAL MEDIA!
https://www.facebook.com/nohbeats
https://ploomlabs.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/noh1dea/
Soundcloud @nohidea
Twitter @nohidea_
Spotify @Nohidea
Lo-Fi Culture 