we’re back in new york this week with the dynamic artist no sir who has contributed an all production mix for the 212th edition of the 909 podcast. recycling old projects and combining them with unreleased and forthcoming bits, no sir has created a deeply immersive environment within the mix that showcases their range as a producer, weaving through ambient, aquatic dub, tripped-out vocals and bass-heavy rhythms. it’s low end therapy.
based in brooklyn, no sir made their production debut in 2021 and has since gone onto releases on internationally renowned imprints such as 3024, w133, faux poly, early reflex and woozy. a rising artist within new york city’s nightlife scene, no sir is a resident of the much-loved party series the level party alongside the likes of andrew devlin, nigelthreetimes, yibing, alien d and kfeelz.
certainly one to watch, we catch up with no sir about their early relationship with music, approach to production, digging deeper into their creative process and the story behind their most recent ep on early reflex with more music on the way very soon!
hey annie! how are you doing? what have you been up to lately?
hey chanel! thanks so much for having me. i’m hanging in there. i’m sort of in hermit mode recently, trying to find outlets for a lot of fear/anger/sadness/etc at how fucked this country is while spending time with the people i love. i’ve also been getting in the studio and climbing a fair amount.
let’s start from the very beginning, what was your first introduction to music in general and then more specifically electronic music?
i grew up in a very musical household – neither of my parents really played instruments but there was always music playing around the house. my dad was obsessed with the blues and listened to it almost exclusively, but he also put me on to bands like nirvana and the talking heads at a young age.
i started playing piano and later guitar but the shift to electronic music didn’t really happen until i discovered people like brian eno and robert fripp, who really changed the way i thought about playing an instrument. from there i got into bands like darkside and then artists like aphex twin, and it just snowballed from there.
who was the first artist or band that you were a fan of?
those two bands i mentioned before for sure, nirvana and talking heads. that said, i also had a britney spears-obsessed older sister and got introduced to a lot of pop music through her. that’s how i came to understand what a “producer” is (as opposed to a band or an artist/popstar). i would steal her hitclips and cds or watch mtv over her shoulder, and i became obsessed with timbaland. he was the first producer whose work i could recognize just from the sound of the beat.
was there a formative moment growing up, whether that’s seeing your favourite band live or an incredible dj set, that led you to this path?
man, it’s tough to think of one specific moment. maybe picking up a guitar and starting to teach myself songs, around age 13. it opened up this whole world for me – i could spend hours and hours just listening to music by myself, trying to learn songs by ear or playing little solos over them. even though i play guitar a lot less now, my process for making electronic music feels really similar.
the transition to electronic music really began when i started making music with two of my good friends amos and elias, who make music together now as custom scenario. we all played guitar and bass together, but they had been using ableton for years and got me into making beats and experimenting with more synthetic sounds. that’s also when i started getting curious about djing because we would go out almost every weekend to different clubs around new york.
where do you look for sources of inspiration outside of music?
movies and books, for sure.
how has new york influenced or informed your sense of self and artistic output?
when i first moved here, i was playing in bands and making kind of stripped-down guitar music in my apartment, so i feel like my entire journey with music as an adult has happened here. i can’t even imagine what my music or djing would sound like if i’d never lived in new york. the city itself has such a rhythm to it. even on days when it feels like the city itself is trying to smite you, there’s something really beautiful and invigorating about it.
it’s also stepped my game up in many ways. there are countless artists in this city who are both incredibly talented and dedicated to their craft, so it’s kind of like being put on a basketball team where everyone’s better than you. it just makes you want to work as hard as possible to keep up.
what has been your most recent musical discovery that you’re obsessed with?
production-wise, i got back into using freesound.org recently. i’ll spend hours downloading random sounds and bits of foley to manipulate, it’s really such a gift of a website.
i’ve also been listening this experimental/no wave/post-punk band called ike yard. they were part of the downtown new york scene in the early 80s, but their music feels like it could’ve been made yesterday and still sound cutting edge.
you recently released an ep on early reflex, can you tell us a bit about the concept behind this one and how the record came about?
for sure! it’s always hard for me to say what a project is about, because i never really start with a concept or big picture in mind. usually what happens is i’ll have a sort of random flurry of ideas come out and then spend as much time as i can refining them and refining until the pieces fall into some sort of order. it’s only after this whole process that i can look back and see what was happening in my head. that said, i was a dancer long before i was making or djing dance music, and i’ve always been fascinated by the way different rhythms affect the human body. this ep was about exploring this relationship by playing with the tension between straight and half-time, and how rhythm can bring you deeper into your body while also defamiliarizing you from it. i also spent a lot of time honing my sound design process to try and bridge all of these different influences into something that’s my own, or at least as much my own as any sound can be.
what does your production process look like?
it’s a bit all over the place but i’m almost always in the box these days juggling way too many project files, 80% of which will probably never see the light of day. most of the time i’m starting with a sample, layering and manipulating it – basically throwing a bunch of ideas at the wall to see what sticks. i’ve had to train myself to not get lost in this stage and lose sight of the bigger picture, so once i land on something that grips my attention i’ll try to whittle it down as much as i can so that all of the sounds stand on their own. lately, rather than just making one 8 or 16 bar loop i’ll try to make two that are distinct but complementary, so the arrangement has an a and b section that can blend into one another and keep things interesting. i hope that makes sense haha.
you’ve also contributed a mix for the 909 series, what’s the concept behind this one?
this one was really a labor of love, and a great learning process for me as it’s the first time i’ve ever done a 100% production mix. i wanted to challenge myself to take a bunch of those unfinished or abandoned bits of music sitting on my hard drive and weave them together into something that hopefully shows some of my range as a producer. all of the tracks are either forthcoming or unreleased, but i also had a lot of fun recycling sounds from past projects to create a through line.
how does your approach to dj sets differ from studio mixes and radio shows? is there a narrative in mind that you’re always trying to tell through your sets?
with radio shows i do a fair amount of planning, and with my lot show i’m mostly playing music i wouldn’t play in a club setting, so playing live is soo different for me and feels like a real exercise in letting go of control. i’ve gotten to a somewhat comfortable place with my gig prep now where the idea is to be prepared enough that i can walk into the booth with some degree of confidence but never a real track-by-track plan. my favorite moments in the club and on the dancefloor are always the ones that take me by surprise, so my goal is to leave as much room as possible for those moments to occur naturally. even if i think i came up with a really sick blend while practicing, i’m never able to recreate it with that same magic, so i try to let myself get into a flow and just see what happens. like with production, the idea or narrative often only emerges in retrospect.
when was the last time you were on the dance floor?
i’ve admittedly been such a homebody lately, but i just went to see some good friends play at bossa and it was such a salve. martyn played peak time after an extended opener from sobolik + miu miu. they all crushed it and it felt like a real family affair.
what are you most excited about right now?
as difficult as it’s been to reckon with recent escalations by the us’s increasingly fascist, oligarchical government, i’m deeply excited by the communal sense of resistance it’s inspiring in the people around me and around the world.
musically, i’m excited to have the space with my lot residency to explore more non-club sounds. i’m also stoked to be entering a new phase with my family at the level party – which includes a new mix series, more diy ventures, more good parties, etc.
what’s on your vision board at the moment?
i’d love to travel more for gigs – the few i’ve played outside of nyc/the us i’ve learned so much and met so many sick people, so that’s a big goal of mine for this year. starting this radio show has also got me curious about integrating more of my instrumentalist background into my production – i probably won’t be starting a band any time soon but i’d love to work with more vocalists and bring some guitar/electric bass into the mix… tbd 🙂