Next up in our 1 More Mix series comes an exhilarating blend from NUEQ, an artist who is driven by stories, emotions and powerful narratives.
His name might be new to you, but this isn’t his first rodeo. He’s previously released on the forward-thinking beats laboratory Vale and prior to his NUEQ alias he operated as Navaro where he released on Mr Bill’s Billegal Beats.
His debut on Inspected as NUEQ, however, is his most accomplished EP so far.
A beguiling trip that pushes, pulls and pulverizes drum & bass into the most emotionally animated states imaginable, there’s not a dull minisecond throughout his Zahara EP as he hurls us around his ever-expanded in sonic universe with drama, tension and myriad surprises. The same can be said for his mix…
Want to know more? Read on…
New EP! Tell us everything
It’s a big stepping stone in my career. Inspected has been such an inspiration to me. The music they work with was my biggest inspiration when I started to make music 4 – 5 years ago. It’s been my biggest dream to work with them. Around two years ago I started making the music that’s on this EP and the main goal with it is to release it with Inspected. That was such a challenge for me. Inspected set such a high level of production and creativity. I knew I needed to bring my absolute best. So the process of the EP creation was fun but very challenging and I’m very proud of it. The main goal is to take you on a journey and to give some emotions to the dancefloor. There are so many bangers – which I really love – but sometimes I miss something from the music. I love bangers of course but I want more. I want some emotion.
You like telling stories!
I do! Definitely. It’s my story. It’s coming from my day to day events and things that happen to me. And my feelings and emotions and thoughts. You know?
I do! Actually, I was listening to your old tracks as Navaro and there’s a track called Tearless Pain. It’s so beautiful. Do you play the piano?
No I wish I did but I recorded my colleague when I used to be music teacher in a high school for teenagers who don’t belong to the regular system and have challenges to overcome. It was an interesting time but I recorded her as she is so talented. I wanted to integrate the classic piano sound with electronics on that specific song. In fact that whole EP, which was my debut EP, told a story of my life so far. And Tearless Pain was about my first breakup which was pretty hard. That song reflects what I felt at the time.
What a reflection! On the flip side, one of your earliest tracks as NUEQ is a bootleg of Linkin Park
Haha yeah I’m a big fan of Linkin Park.
So many of us came from metal!
Yeah totally. When I got into rock and metal that’s when I started really following my own tastes in music and didn’t just follow everyone else’s tastes.
I can completely relate. Another track of yours that really stands out is Greener on Vale. Vale are an exceptional label aren’t they?
The same as Inspected. I’m so inspired by the music they work with. That track was another turning point for me because it was one of the first tracks where I started to really concentrate on making drum & bass in the way I wanted to. I was very happy with the outcome and it was part of the journey to this EP on Inspected.
Where next after Zahara?
I’m just keeping the goal of bringing the vibes and emotions to the dancefloor and always improving my skills technically. I would love to release with Vision one day.
Well we played you on Vision Radio. Actually, I asked this on the show… Is your name pronounced nuke or new EQ?
Haha. I pronounce it new-ek
Oh what? Both my versions are wrong!
Hahah no no. It’s all of those different versions. Everything is always open to interpretation.
What inspired the name change anyway?
I felt Navaro wasn’t quite fitting my intention. I wanted to really take myself and my music much further than that name would allow, if that makes sense. And also there is another act called Navaro and our releases got mixed up on Spotify which really sucked. You’re getting ready for your release day and everything and suddenly you see the music on somebody else’s profile.
All that hard work!
Exactly. I’m really happy about the name change, too. The name was inspired by the planet Venus actually. I saw a lot of religions and people from the past would think about Venus because you could see it in the day as well as night. A lot of interpretations were dissonant and clashing. Like day and night or happiness and sadness or God and Satan. It made me think a lot about contrast and how it’s important to reflect both sides. The dark side and the light side, for example. Because that’s life isn’t it? You can’t know what happiness is if you don’t know what sadness is, right?
Absolutely!
I saw that the Mayans used to call Venus Noh-Ek and that’s when I came up with NUEQ.
Oh wow so a lot of thought has gone behind this new name and its concept. You took it very seriously.
I did. I like it when stuff has meaning. It also can have no meaning and I’ll enjoy it but…
Substance is the spice of life!
Exactly. Thank you for talking to me, I hope you enjoy the mix…
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