Nnamdï（以前称为Nnamdi Ogbonnaya）正在返回他的新专辑BRAT, the follow-up to 2017’sDROOL。The self-taught Chicago native is known for blending genres, taking inspiration from screamo, math rock, hip-hop and the Nigerian hymns his minister father would play around the house. This playful, limitless approach to songwriting quickly made him a mainstay in the Chicago DIY scene and now, withBRAT, NNAMDÏ is continuing to secure his place as indie-rock’s favourite oddball.
DROOL除了几乎没有吉他BRATis full of them, and even kicks off with a frantic, finger-picked acoustic on openerFlowers To My Demons，Nnamdï比以往任何时候都更加尝试该乐器：它的存在与他的工业，怪异结构一起变化，并以一种可以操纵的吉他变成吉他的方式。在这里，多乐器主义者和制片人讨论了他对BRAT, why he likes to record effects in post and the importance of creative control.
Where did your relationship with the guitar begin?
我的父母都来自尼日利亚，所以我的父亲在我小时候总是拿起吉他，他会扮演我们尼日利亚的赞美诗和教堂歌曲，他要么在他长大时写过或学到了这些歌曲。当我的哥哥上中学和高中时，他的哥哥也更多地使用了吉他。我只是从房子周围拿起乐器，弹奏比他们更多的乐器，我有点指挥并收集了所有乐器，他们就像：“好吧，我想他们现在是他的！”
您开始玩什么样的东西？
I was always just figuring stuff out myself. I don’t think I really had any idea of what I was doing or what I wanted things to sound like. I was very much a tinkerer when I first started, just playing random little melodies that came into my head. I was never into learning other people’s songs really, I would just immediately write little funny songs for myself. Maybe the first time I played guitar, I was definitely in elementary school. The songs would always relate to food or playing outside, they were very much kid songs.
Is the guitar a gateway to exploring different genres for you?
I definitely think that’s true. I think it’s a great way for me to just get melodies down, to write. When I’m writing I don’t really consider genre, I just let the songs form and I feel like the guitar is the easiest way for me to let a song form organically.
Is that how you write all of your songs?
First off, I’ll sing a vocal melody into my phone and the instrument I pick up to try and figure something out is the guitar. Sometimes what I sing will become the guitar melody.
Do you have a favourite guitar model or make?
我没有挑剔，因为直到去年我才不必购买吉他，即使那样，这还是紧急情况。长大后，我总是可以使用吉他，然后是有天赋的吉他，或者人们把它们留在我家。我曾经经营一个表演空间，人们只会留下乐器，然后再也不会来拿到它们，所以我有吉他来了。最后，我去年刚刚买了一把吉他，因为我正在使用的那把吉他刚刚停止工作。现在，我有这个全黑EpiphoneSG和我真的很喜欢。这可能是因为这是我的第一个actual吉他，我非常喜欢它。
The guitar seems to be much more present inBRAT- 这是您一开始的意图吗？
Yeah, there’s no guitar onDROOLat all, there’s only one real bass. I never really had any intention when I was writing, it just happened organically. I was getting home from tours and usually I have to come up with an obsession to keep me occupied because sometimes coming home from tour can be very disorientating. Between tours, I would fiddle around on guitar a lot and began acquiring a lot of memos on my phone of me playing different guitar riffs. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had ideas that I really love and would think “wow this is going to be great” and then I would just never do anything with it. As I was doing that and also writing words about what was going on in my life, a lot of it ended up feeling good together and so I combined them to create these songs.
你能谈谈我们的过程吗Flowers To My Demons？
这是令人迷惑的。我想这类似于我脑海中的完美– they’re both loops, they’re both very repetitive. It’s the same riff that plays throughout both songs and things come in and are taken out and then come in a lot at the end. I recorded those songs using theLine 6loop pedal. That was another thing that came from a vocal idea to guitar. When I know I have a good loop, I’ll let it play for so long. If I don’t get bored of it and I can just let it play, that’s when I know I have something hypnotising.
您用来创造了声音世界BRAT？
I do all the effects in post. My roommate Steve who helped me mix everything, would help me because he is a pedal freak. For我脑海中的完美, I used my [挡泥板] Twin Reverb amp and that doesn’t have distortion on it, so it was just gain-y and like, breaking up on the amp. We recorded that and then ran it through the OCD distortion pedal and then re-recorded that through a different amp. I usually record everything pretty clean and then if I want to make it really weird, I’ll change it in post. I also did a lot of stuff with the Lo Fi pedal on the record to get those warble-y, atmospheric tones.
Why do you think doing stuff in post works for you?
A few reasons. One, I don’t really like to be loud. When I’m by myself, which is how I do a lot of recording, sometimes I don’t like to be incredibly loud. Also, if I’m recording and there are other people around it feels kind of disruptive, so I usually work in secret a lot. I just don’t want anyone to know what’s going on until it’s done. It’s also how I grew up playing. I would either be playing on an acoustic or an electric guitar with no amp, so I got used to clean tones and adding effects is still experimental for me.
你在学校学习音乐吗？
不，我没有。当我去社区大学时，我上了半年的吉他课。我学到了一些有关爵士和弦的知识，但我并不是很擅长课堂或任何教学的东西。
Do you think that’s allowed you to be more playful?
因此，我肯定会以弹奏吉他的方式弹奏吉他 - 没有注意力范围来关注课程。我只是动手。我将从观看简短的YouTube视频中学到很多东西，这比与某人坐下更有帮助。188金博提现我觉得当我试图学习东西或实验时，我对别人不太舒服，所以我认为这与它有很大关系。它使我可能会他妈的事情，以便到达我需要的地方而没有任何判断。
Do you look at the guitar as just another sound to be manipulated when constructing a beat or soundbed rather than the primary instrument of focus?
哦，绝对。我最喜欢的吉他演奏者都会以这种方式使用吉他，甚至听起来不再像吉他，我认为这真的很酷。有很多踏板和MIDI踏板，您可以在其中使用吉他音符触发鼓声。现在，您对吉他的选择确实有很多选择。我最喜欢的吉他演奏者之一是尼克·莱因哈特from this bandTera Melos, who are kind of weird and math-y. I’ve seen him doing stuff like that. He’s also very experimental and it influenced me to do whatever the heck I want with guitar.
Do you have any go-to pedals?
I was a “no pedal” person for the longest time. I just kind of had the switch on my amp that turned the distortion on and that was all. I would have a relatively clean sound and then the distortion sound. I only own one pedal and it’s the OCD pedal which is also for gain and distortion and definitely sounds better than my amp’s distortion so I got that. Going on, it’s a slippery slope to go down because I live with someone who has so many pedals and just keeps buying them. I feel like I am very simple in that regard. I think I’m going to get thisZVexLo fi Pedal，这是我在谈论的许多专辑中使用的内容，因为我认为这对于重新创建我在现场环境中的唱片中所做的事情很重要。
You played almost every instrument and recorded the album yourself – is it important for you to have that kind of creative control?
I played everything but the horn and strings and one little synth line. It is important to have that creative control. I am open to collaboration, I’ve been in a lot of bands and I think maybe even the next thing I do with my solo record, I might get other people to play my ideas. It’s therapeutic for me to just create and be in full control, it’s what’s in my brain, it’s like journaling for me, honestly.
您是否会在将来使用更多吉他？
I want to be able to shred. I don’t know how to shred, I have a lot of friends where guitar is their main instrument and I’m trying to learn how to be more confident behind it. It’s not that I’m not confident, it’s that I’m very aware of my limitations as a guitar player and it has never stopped me. I’ll try it anyway and if I crash and burn, then I’ll move on.
我从小就听很多朋克音乐，这并不重要，只要有情感并且艺术在那里，它就会出来。它不能完全垃圾，但重要的部分是性能，而不是您正确地击中了100％的笔记。我肯定想做更多故意的吉他。我倾向于弹吉他的人个人少，并将其委派给我的乐队，以便我可以四处走动，但是与过去相比，我认为我播放的歌曲会更强大，更加故意。
BRATis out 3 April onSOOPER Records。