Hi Nolan, great to have you with us today! How are you doing and where are you talking to us from right now?
Hi there. I’m doing fine thanks.. Fully recovered after a superb Brighton Music Conference which I help program and put on each year here in Brighton on the South Coast of England.
How has the music scene been there recently given the effects of the pandemic?
It’s bounced back really quickly with some huge events going on from Sasha & Digweed playing their 1st b2b set for Renaissance as part of the Life Festival here which I also played at under my Cypherpunx guise. To the Boundary Festival which just took place this weekend with some big names straight after the BMC where we welcomed Carl Cox, Roger Sanchez, Coldcut, Jaguar & Bushwacka! amongst many many others. The smaller grass roots resident lead parties are all bubbling up again now too which is great to see.
We’re pleased to be chatting with you following your Rebellion release with Davide Squillace, ‘Drive Good’. We really enjoyed this collaboration! Can you tell us a little bit about how the collab came about?
I started working with Davide a while back and he started to send over projects he’d started using all his Modular gear in Barcelona.. Some of the raw material was ace so I started working on it adding more synth lines, drums and bass elements then fired it back over to him to see what he thought. We went back and forth with files flying over the net for a bit when he suggested getting his friend JAW from dOP to do a topline vocal for it. When the vocal came back we both got very excited about the new direction of the track making it much more radio friendly and something which would now be ripe for remix.
‘Drive Good’ also marks your debut on Rebellion as Nolan, how did this one come to find it’s home on the label?
I had already released on Rebellion under my Cypherpunx guise a while back and more recently on Crosstown Rebels, both of which Davide also has a working relationship with so we immediately sent it to Damian Lazarus to see what he thought. He said the Crosstown schedule was full for almost a year due to their vinyl pressing lead times but he suggested that we could sooner on Rebellion so we obviously said yes! 😉
The release also features a signature remix from US artist Rick Wade. What were your thoughts when you first heard Rick’s take on the track?
I love Rick’s sound.. It’s got that Heist Records vibe to it which really speaks to my Classic House roots so I love it and it takes it off in a totally different direction from the original. I’m hoping the Traxsouce community pick this one up 😉
Our readers may or may not know, Nolan is your third alias after Timo Garcia and T_Mo! Since launching the Nolan alias around a decade ago, you have appeared on the likes of Mobilee, Nervous Records, Get Physical Music and more. We’d love to hear the story about what first inspired you to launch the Nolan alias?
I actually have quite a few more pseudonyms than that too! Cypherpunx as mentioned above is a techno / prog project I have with my friend Doug Horner who I do a lot of work with also under the name Flip Fantazia which we use for more downtempo releases and production music and sync, writing for the likes of Ninja Tune PM, BMG PM, Cavendish, Music.Film, Delimusic and Deep East Music for TV/Film/Ads etc.
As for NOLAN, well it’s my real middle name and I didn’t like the direction Tech House was taking a few years ago so ditched my long standing Timo Garcia guise to focus on these other projects. I’ve got a full schedule of releases coming out as NOLAN for the rest of this year and into 2022 on Bedrock, LNOE, Mobilee, Stil Vor Talent and Renaissance + a few more surprise remixes and releases too.
With the years of experience you have and your ability to build multiple alias’, what would your best piece of advice that you could offer to a developing artist be?
Don’t do it! Haha.. If you want to tour as a DJ or Live act then I would suggest choosing the style of music you would normally play out and focus on the name you’re putting that out under as that’s what will get you the gigs. I’m lucky in that I have my own studio which I work in full time so make so much music across all genres.. Including some D&B recently too.. Not sure what name to put that out as yet! But if you’re keen to DJ and tour then don’t spread yourself too thin with multiple aliases… just updating all the websites and socials can take forever! Focus on one and make it really count.
Outside of the world of music, what are your favourite interests / things to do?
I have 2 young children so spending time with them and my other half is how I love to spend any spare time I have these days..
Thank you very much for chatting with us today! We wish you all the best with the Rebellion release and we look forward to hearing what’s next! To finish off, is there anything else upcoming from yourself that you would like to share with us?
We’re just starting to put together the program for the next Brighton Music Conference which will take place at the end of May 2022 (25/26/27) so put that in your diaries 😉
