Interview: Five Minutes with NONN

Interview by Shannon Lawlor

NONN are a three piece alternative band hailing from Sweden. The band released their debut self-titled LP on May 26th via London-based record label Fuzz Club and was met with critical acclaim for breathing new life into the post-punk and psyche rock genres, with a special ingredient of evolved industrial music added in, crowning the trio as “cold wave”.

Gearing up for their sophomore album release, NONN are a driving force not to be taken lightly; swerving guitars, brooding drum patterns and edgy basslines all float underneath echoic, numbingly frigid vocal work. NONN are set to perform at Cape Town’s picturesque Endless Daze festival on November 2-4, surrounded by exquisite oceanic and lush sceneries and it’s inevitable power to inspire and impress.

We caught up with NONN on spontaneous conception and catching some sun:

For those unfamiliar to NONN’s intoxicating immersion, how would you personally describe the music you create?

That’s always a hard one. People tend to say post-punk or cold wave, but to be honest we don’t really know what we do. It’s experimental music, we never know how it’s gonna end up when we start writing.

Your latest self-titled album was released via London-based independent label Fuzz Club. Could you detail the recording process behind this body of work, and how did it compare to previous studio encounters?

This was the first album by NONN. So I (Christian) lived in Stockholm for a short period in the winter of 2015. I rented an apartment with a small studio in it. So I just started to record stuff by myself, with no plan of it ever to be a new project. After a couple of months of just trying stuff, I had found some sort of sound, and ended up with a demo for what could be an album. Then my brother (who is now in the band) helped me produce all the demos into real songs. The process now for the second album was different, as we’re a band now. We pretty much wrote and recorded everything together in Alexander’s (synth) studio.

NONN are scheduled to perform at Endless Daze festival in November, what are you most looking forward to about attending or performing during this adventure?

It’s always great to travel to new places and meet new people. And for us living in a cold country it’s great to get a bit of extra sun, especially now when the autumn is here. And of course we are really looking forward to see a lot of bands play as well!

Tell us about Sweden’s live music scene. Is there anything you’d like to improve or even change about it?

Sweden has a lot of good bands, but the live scene is a bit hard. A few medium sized venues has been closing down lately, which have resulted in that there’s a bigger gap between the real big ones and the small ones. I feel like it’s hard for smaller bands touring. As a result of medium sized bands playing at smaller venues. For example, we played both Portugal and the UK before we even got a show in Sweden!

If NONN could collaborate with any artist on the planet – who would it be, and why?

Can’t think of any artists at the moment. But it would be great to work with producer Shawn Everett.

“Lost” is an atmospheric delight echoic of nostalgia, could you explain the inspiration behind this particular track?

”Lost” was the last track we finished for the debut album. It started with me finding that screaming sound in the beginning, and I just knew I wanted to do something with that.

The process was pretty quick and spontaneous, as it often is. Just try to write in the moment, and capture whatever the feelings are right then.

Are there any specific pieces of gear, hardware, software etc which you feel is absolutely essential in conjuring NONN’s signature sound?

For live it would probably be the Moog Sub Phatty and especially it’s filter. In the studio it would probably be the Roland RE-301.

Care to mention any personal playlist favourites on rotation right now?

Medicine Boy, their new album “Lower” is great. It’s also been a lot of Amen Dunes and Suuns as well.

What does the future hold for NONN?

We are super excited to have a new album coming out before the year end, so stay tuned and look out for that! And we do have some more shows planned. Next year we will try to tour even more, and of course get back in the studio and try to find new interesting sounds.

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For more information on Endless Daze festival, visit their website