To me, everything about Damian Wilde appears to be interesting–from his upbringing, to his locale, to his surprising taste in music. This includes his own music as well. His newest EP, entitled Nouveau Noir, is hard to pin down genre-wise. It could appeal to fans of R&B, indie rock, and ambient trip-hop. Basically, if you’re a fan of chill, minimalist vibes then Nouveau Noir should be accessible for you.

Wilde recently took the time to speak with us about how his childhood and inherent personality led to the way he creates along with some info about his newest effort and what he has in store for this project from here on out. Read through the jump and get acquainted with Damian Wilde, a genuine soul with a unique output that should certainly aid in the progression of his musical career.

You had a pretty interesting upbringing as far as where you were raised. How much of that influences the way you write and the themes that go into your music?

I think there are always a range of factors that contribute to one’s music, and since ‘abnormal’ was always ‘normal’ for me, it’s difficult to tell exactly which aspects beared more weight but I certainly think that the combination of growing up with many people who had various mental ailments and the fact that my mom kept me quite isolated from the rough neighbourhood I grew up in certainly led to me becoming quite introspective and I think most of my music circulates either around my thoughts (e.g. “The Umbrella Co.”) or what it would be like to be in someone else’s mind that people can’t really understand such as “Green Mile.” I guess I started writing to make sense of things around me as I was growing up–almost as a type of coping mechanism–which is always quite liberating when you have someone to talk to, even if that someone is just a pen and a pad.

Before this particular project took flight, were you involved with any other musical endeavors?

I was involved with a band called The Red Underground which was a fantastic learning experience for me as a young artist. I learned about intangibles such as how to create a sound and what it’s like a few minutes before a show, as well as recording etc., as well as some other more practical aspects such as touring and band admin. I worked with some really amazing musicians in Remi and Fabien Guiot and they taught me so much about music, especially less mainstream music. Before that, I dabbled in some demo recordings with a close friend of mine called Don QP who I would say was a guiding influence when I wasn’t sure how to get into music although I knew I wanted to. Before that, really just did some choir in high school, and prior to that I was mainly focused with poetry.

Are there any artists in particular that you feel guided your sound to what it’s become today?

I think there are so many that I couldn’t possibly name them all but there always seemed to be an artist that marked my development at a particular stage. For example very early on I loved Eminem because I felt he was an outsider like me and I loved his personal almost diary-like style of writing, then came my adolescence with Korn and System of a Down which was a great stage of rebellion and a real feeling of acceptance in rebellion. I then got into Marilyn Manson which was a major step for me as I now had someone who I could relate to and who said it was cool to be an outsider and fuck being normal, which I guess kind of stuck with me along with the previous artists. Later on I discovered Radiohead, Nina Simone, Nirvana and Portishead which all where major influences on my personal, and consequently, musical development.

What elements (or lack of elements) would you say makes your music minimalist? Is there anything you focus on specifically when writing to draw attention to certain aspects of your sound?

[Laughs] ‘lack of elements,’ I like that. I would say that I prefer to use less instruments because there came a time when I was listening to some heavily over-produced music and I thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if a song just had a piano/guitar and a drum? So people could sit back and say ‘oh yeah, I forgot what drums sound like” or “I forgot how deep and interesting an instrument like a piano can be.” For me the minimal sound is really about the rediscovery of simplicity in music and more importantly just enjoying those instruments for what they are instead of them just being a part of 6 or 10 other instruments in a song. I think more minimal music allows one the platform to think more and say more because you’re not competing with all this music. It’s kind of like the music creates a canvas for one’s thoughts. I do always try and blend something more acoustic with something more electronic so that the music is almost like a book in a collection that you didn’t know you needed but you enjoy reading it anyway.

I feel that your new EP should appeal to a vast array of music fans as it spans many areas of indie, experimental, pop, and R&B, not to mention the moods it explores. Do you have a demographic in mind when writing and recording or is that completely non-existent in that zone?

I don’t necessarily have a specific demographic in mind. I guess my music is primarily made for people who are a bit strange like or me or some type of outsiders. I think a lot of the material deals with what it’s like, the good and the bad. I do think there are plenty of strange people in various sections of life and therefore I hope the music speaks to these various people. Of course other people enjoying it is a welcomed bonus.

How do you feel the EP’s title relates to the material on it?

‘Nouveau Noir’ directly translates to ‘New Black’ and given the general atmosphere of the project being reflective of the greater part of me as an artist, I felt the ‘New Black’ was very appropriate as I try and make the sound unique to myself but I am trying to capture a feeling and concept that has been around since the dawn of humanity. Black also refers to the type of person I am and I assume most of my friends would be kind of ‘Black Sheep’ in a way.

And what can you tell me about the album art? It’s about as simple as it gets but I sense a deeper meaning…

The album art is really just a commentary on an idea that I have had and learned from various other artists. The idea is that you never truly create something new as an artist. As an artist your work is always a formulation of various factors that have existed both within and outside of music. So I feel that my project–although it may seem different–is just a reformulation of various music such as trip-hop, grunge, hip-hop, indie rock, etc. and I have taken various aspects from those genres and reformulated them into what I do now. Therefore, the small black square which represents my music seems unique within the white frame but it’s actually the same as the larger black square that houses it, just slightly different. So the artwork is really just a way of saying everything new is just a different way of putting old ingredients together, in a continuous cycle.

You’ve always been a self-taught musician it seems. Did you do all the instrumentation on this album? Who else did you have working on the production with you in the studio?

Yes, I did all the instrumentation and I worked with an engineer called Winston Moses who oversaw the recording of the project. Otherwise I produced and composed all the rest.

It’s been over 6 months since you released the video for “The Umbrella Co.” How did the ideas for that come together and where were the parts filmed at?

I wrote the script for “The Umbrella Co.” shortly after I wrote the song. The ideas for the video were to firstly portray the feel of the song as well as the rest of the music on the project with the black and white and the stories are pretty straightforward I believe. The scene in the bar just represents the way many people–especially men–actually feel when trying to get the attention of a woman they are attracted to. The scene in the kitchen where I eat the electronics portrays how in today’s society we use things such as social media and our cellphones and various other pieces of technology to try and fill the void that is left by the isolation of society. These things help us feel full and complete, like we matter, and the scene portrayed the actual brutality of that process of trying to overcome insecurity. The final scene portrays two souls who are separate and have their own clouds (burdens) to draw but when they come together they can help each other and destroy the things they have come to rely on to survive and really connect. When they come together and share an umbrella. Their relationship doesn’t mean that the rain stops, it just means that when you can rely on someone else, you have someone to wait out the storm with.

Any plans for another video from the EP?

Yes, the next video should be released very soon–next month, and it is the video for “Tempestuous.” I’m very excited about it.

What’s the music scene like in Cape Town? Do you have the opportunities to really branch out there?

The alternative music scene is quite small although there are many talented artists in Cape Town and it’s a great place to start in music because the city is small and most people know each other who are connected to music. It’s a great place to live and the diversity of the city certainly adds to various musical and overall artistic flavours. I don’t feel that it is the right city for the progression and expansion of my particular music at the moment and for that reason I plan to move to Berlin next month which is quite exciting to move to such a fresh, vibrant and relevant music scene in our generation.

Do you have any touring plans in the works for the remainder of the year? New area means new venues and potential fans.

I am planning a few European dates towards the end of the year and hopefully some southern Europe and UK dates, too. I will have more information on these dates very soon, but the short answer is yes, I certainly plan to try and tour as extensively as possible before the end of the year, mainly in Western Europe.

So what’s next for you as far as material? Are you already working on your next effort?

I am working on my next project and we are about ready to go into recording, I hope for it to be out this fall (September/October). My new project is quite different; I feel it shows other aspects of my music and I will be releasing information such as the title, artwork and lead single very soon. If you join my mailing list on my website or follow me on Twitter/Facebook, all the updates and previews will be on there. Also, if listeners have any questions, I would be more than happy to answer them.

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Brian Leak

Editor-In-Chief. King of forgetting drinks in the freezer. Pop culture pack rat. X-Phile. LOST apologist.

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