Name: Jason Goodings aka Nøs
Nationality: British
Occupation: Producer
Current Release: Nøs's Cantilever EP is out via Beyonders.
Recommendations: Book, Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman, just finished it, highly recommend.
Movie, Night of the Hunter, love the dream-like quality of it, one of my all-time favourites.

If you enjoyed this Nøs interview and would like to stay up to date on his music, visit him on Instagram, and Patreon.  
 


Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in production and technology?

For sure. We always had music around us, especially the Beatles and Bowie. My dad was a professional drummer up until I was 2 or 3, so it was something I probably just soaked up without any awareness in the beginning. But it gave me an understanding of the ‘quality’ of sound and what goes into a great tune, which I eventually realised is production.

Then of course, I wanted to get involved and started by picking up my dad's old drum kit, along came the drum machine and synthesisers. I was an early adopter of midi with an Atari ST so, sequencing, technology was constantly bringing something new at the time.

What were your very first active steps with music technology and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

I was attempting to play drums in a band in my teens, just a load of friends winging it really; my closest pal at the time took on the keyboard role, and as I said we hooked up the synths to an Atari ST running Cubase; it blew our minds what you could do, it really did.

Experience is everything, even when I know what something is supposed to do tech-wise, there is always that thing of what can it really do, what can we make it sound like.

I guess that’s what I mean by experience, push things and see what happens for yourself.

Were/are you interested in the history of production and recording? If so, which events, albums, artists, or insights stand out for you?

Obviously hearing the Beatles growing up set the benchmark early on, innovation in sound was baked into me through that.

I was born in 1970, so my timeline is a little freaky for how it hits key moments: punk in my formative years: Synths arrived into my early teens, 18 as acid house hit, which morphed to rave in my neck of the woods into my early 20s, breakbeat led to jungle and drum and bass, and I was in the thick of it at that point.

Key things to mention from my personal journey: Havana Club in Middlesbrough and the early Rezerections in Newcastle circa 90/91; Bowie has always been someone I’ve listened to; De La Soul’s 3 feet high and rising was definitely a key moment for the way I thought about putting music together, and Public Enemy before that;



Reinforced from Mr Kirks through Goldie through 2 pages to now.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches, and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

I have always been able to maintain a sense of playfulness. That’s music for me, I can’t do it any other way, it has to be that way for me to engage at all.

I really couldn’t describe how I do that, except to say if it doesn’t excite me I stop, try something completely different, and not dwell on things too long, trying to find a way forward, move on and come back later, or don’t.

For your own creativity, what is the balance and relative importance between what you learned from teachers, tutorials and other producers on the one hand – and what you discovered, understood, and achieved yourself? What are examples for both of these?

I really think you can only learn for yourself. We all have our own aesthetic, teachers can really only show you how something works; I think trying to copy something you love when you’re first learning is important, so in a way you are learning from other producers. But what usually happens is you find your own way to something else in that process.

For example, Mark and I came up with the groove for ‘Is it love?’ ...



... because we were trying our own take on Tom n Jerry's “Maximum Style” which we loved, which got us our start with Metalheadz.



Have there been technologies which have profoundly influenced, changed or questioned the way you make music?

Only one answer: We used an Emax 2, a beast of a sampler, for all our early releases on Headz, game changer.

Already as a little kid, I was drawn to all aspects of electronic/electric music but I've never quite been able to put a finger on why this is. What's your own relationship to electronic sounds, rhythms, productions like – what, if any, are fundamental differences with “acoustic“ music and tools?

Same, and same as above, possibilities maybe.

I make no distinction really, one gets one result, another gets another, all equal in worth. Only question is: ‘is it working?’ For me that’s all that matters: What am I hearing, is it what I want to hear?

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility with electronic music to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that and the relevance of limitations in your set-up and process?

Limitations on sound, on what you create, shouldn’t be there.

But from my early production experiences, limitations in your set up can make you work a whole lot harder for it and force you to find new ways - which always lead to something special and unique.

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, what does your current production workflow/process look like?

I love the initial sketching, you can start with anything, a rhythm, a sound, each part leads to the next. I think my spidey-sense just tingles when I get something. I just know, then chuck something at it, till the next tingle; refine for a bit, tidy up, cut back the dead wood, search for the next.

I think most creative people know it just comes through you somehow, like it's coming from somewhere outside yourself – I really find it hard to say why I make the choices I do, it just feels right.

Rhythm, sound design, melody/harmony, something else – when do the different elements of a piece come into play for you?

I have no set way of putting things together, as I said before. I can start with any one of the above and have done.

And each play a lesser or greater part depending on what comes.

In relation to sound, one often reads words like “material”, “sculpting”, and “design”. How does your own way of working with sound look like? Do you find using presets lazy?

I’m really not precious about things. I came up through early sampler days and that DIY ethic runs through me. I use whatever comes to hand.

Early samplers forced you to work hard for it, but a healthy dose of punk aesthetic in my formative years means if it comes easy and sounds good, fuck it.

What, to you, are the respective benefits of solo work and collaborations and do you often feel lonely in the studio? Can machines act as collaborators to you?

Machines are collaborators to a large extent, in that they colour what you create. But I enjoy both solo and collaborative work.

But I will say I can’t collaborate with just anyone, for me it has to click and feel like you’re working from the same place, and it often doesn’t. Beyonders as a group have certainly clicked, we all bring something different to the party, but it just works, and I am so proud of this project.

The studio can be a lonely place for sure, your achievements in the moment when solo are yours alone and impossible to share with anyone after the fact

To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. What are your hopes, fears, expectations and possible concrete plans in this regard?

AI will always need to be fed something in order to create and because of that can only really put a piece together based on that. The choices it makes are still programmed however randomised, and I think true AI is a long way off.

Jumps in technology have always pushed culture forward and I’m sure this will be true in this regard, so I’m always excited to see what comes.