ShapedNoise
Drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical genres such as industrial music, experimental noise, grime, rap, and underground rave, One can expect an exciting genre-defying fusion in Shapednoise's upcoming fourth full-length. The album continues to push the boundaries of noise and hip-hop, drawing from Shapednoise's previous works on Numbers, Opal Tapes, Type, Cosmo Rhythmatic, and collaborations with talented artists such as Slikback, Nazar, Loraine James, Drew McDowall, Justin K Broadrick, Gabber Eleganza, NON, and MHYSA from Halcyon Veil.
Nino, I'd like to begin by getting to know your life in Sicily before moving to Berlin and the early developing days of Shapednoise. How did this all start, and how did this name come to life?
I lived in Sicily till I finished high school and started playing drums when I was 8. That was my first approach to music; around 13, I sold my drums to buy my first turntables and mixer, as I wanted to learn how to DJ. When I was 16, I started playing at various events, including private parties, some clubs, and sometimes even illegal raves. Before moving to Berlin, I also lived and studied in Milan.
I left Sicily after finishing high school; at that time, I had already been DJing for a few years, and I wanted to start producing music and work in the music industry. So, I moved to Milan, where I studied sound engineering and electronic music production. While I was finishing my studies, I was in touch with my friends Ascion & D. Carbone, and they supported me a lot with my first demos and gave me the motivation and the opportunity to get more involved in the music industry.
Around that time, I was looking for an artist's name and obsessed with specific aspects of granular synthesis, white noise, and sound manipulation. So, after thinking for a long time, I came up with the name Shapednoise. Once I finished my studies, I felt the need to leave Milan and wanted to move elsewhere, where there was more freedom of artistic expression and interest in the electronic music culture. So, in the summer of 2011, I moved to Berlin.
Let's get on the influence of the underground music scene and its importance for your creative exploration and the role of Berlin culture in shaping your craft. What do you have to say about that?
The Underground scene is essential. It is the oxygen for any music scene as it gives the opportunity and the possibility for artists to experiment and innovate outside of the constraints of mainstream trends. Fortunately, the underground scene is supported in Berlin and allows any artist to express himself without compromise.
Nino, listening to your earlier tracks all the way from 2013 to the fairly recent ones, it is evident that a lot has changed for you. Please tell me about your overall process in which you have moved from genres to styles blending and experimenting with it all. what all influenced and inspired you, the pivotal moments that you recall.
Well, I always listened to and been influenced by many different music genres and scenes, from UK hardcore, and grime to techno, noise, industrial, hip-hop, etc. But besides all the influences, this transformation happened because I have more confidence in experimenting. I'm more conscious about what I'd like to achieve, and at the same time, I grew my technical abilities after years of experimentation. I have been experimenting with extremely unorthodox production practices with synthesis and digital editing, exploring the metamorphosis of sound in a framework of unusual timbre, structure, and rhythm.
Let's get on to your recent most album 'Absurd Matter' which comes despite experiencing a sudden hearing loss and subsequent nightmares, as well as being unable to handle any music, this speaks of the stress you would have endured about mortality and your body's vulnerability The resulting themes in your music are more powerful and impactful than ever, transforming your significant loss into something meaningful and profound. If it doesn't trigger, could you please take us through this overall experience?
Well, it was a very challenging and painful experience not only as a music producer and not being able to make music properly but also as a human being. Not being able to hear appropriately isolated me as a person as well. It often creates discomfort even when socializing in public with other people. It's also a significant psychological struggle because the disease I suffer from develops anxiety and mood swings.
Not being able to hear specific low frequencies above all created intense frustration. It made me want to make music by pushing that range of frequencies even more strongly and significantly. The hardest part was finishing mixing and mastering the album because I couldn't hear appropriately most of the time during this process. Thankfully, my engineer helped me out a lot, and he had a lot of patience with me. Luckily, I also regained most of my hearing during the latter part of the process to make more conscious choices. Thanks to the support of many friends and artists with whom I have worked, I have had the right motivation and the strength to go forward and to be reborn with 'Absurd Matter'.
Your work is in collaborations with Armand Hammer, Brodinski, Zelooperz, Moor Mother, Dean Hurley, and visual artist Sevi Iko Dømochevsky. Please take us through this overall story. How did all this start, how did you guys come together and how did the overall creative process work for you all?
Well, as in most of my collaborations, these happened spontaneously; I was already in touch with most of these artists as they supported me in the past and appreciated my music.
Then, with Armand Hammer, they had an exhibition here in Berlin for Berlin ATONAL's Metabolic Rift project. The directors of the festival with whom I collaborated a lot helped me to get in touch and showed them the project I was working on. So after we sent them the track beat, they nailed it with their vocals.
I have been working with Brodinski in his studio in Paris and collected several tracks, etc., so while we were together in Paris, we thought it would have been great to use one of them for the album.
I wanted to add some vocals, so we asked Zelooperz, with whom he had already worked in the past, and I'm a big fan.
I already had a good idea of who to send which beat and how to build the whole record; after collecting all the artists' vocals, I finished arranging, processing, and mixing the tracks in my studio. In the case of Dean Hurley, it was the opposite as I sent him some material, and he sent me back the track finished; I originally wanted to use this track as an album interlude, but then I realized that was working better as an intro track.
Then, with Sevi over the past few years, we have been in touch, waiting for an opportunity to work together, and I am glad we came out to work on Absurd Matter, and he took care of the whole artistic direction. I'm very excited to perform our a/v show soon.
Your work is being premiered by Berlin Atonal and Unsound now on the coming 15th, along with your collaborations with brands like Julius. Where do you imagine yourself moving from here?
In the future, I'd love to work and produce and do sound design for other more prominent artists. As well as to do more sound design and scoring in fashion and cinema.
What should we expect from "Absurd Matter" AV live debut at Berlin Atonal this year?
It is a powerful, suspenseful show that will blow your mind.
Any ongoing projects you'd like to share?
Stay Tuned as more music will come out next year, as well as more shows of the new a/v show with Sevi.
SHAPEDNOISE
photography LEONARDO SCOTTI
interview JAGRATI MAHAVER
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