Creativity in Chaos
Nocoke is a faceless, burgeoning underground artist hailing from the southern east coast. His first release, “dial tone” tacks down a head-forward punchy aesthetic that will tickle the ears of bladee fans. Heavy formant, thick, syrupy layering, and tight, tinny reverb make the listener feel like they’re seated front row to a personal bedroom concert.
Despite the experimental, chaotic production and bit crushed vocal effects, the vocal intonation draws inspiration from punk pop of the last two decades. While the mix is somewhat unusual with notably quiet vocals, the overall presentation and abstract formatting make it quite convincing to set on repeat.
Interview with Nocoke
What was your first experience creating music?
Well… My musical journey has been pretty long; I picked up a guitar for the first time when I was five. Me and my friend around that same age formed a band we called the “Snake Brothers Band”. We gave one killer living room performance to our parents and officially retired. I kept on playing guitar and have for almost two decades now, can’t even begin to count how many bands or groups I’ve really played with throughout the years.
So then how does your experience with more analog instrumentation feed into your style of electronic production?
The roots of my listening and playing music come primarily from rock and metal, so I try to capture a more aggressive mood in anything electronic I tend to make, whether that’s distorted vocals or loud, gritty basslines. I started producing harder trap beats around 2014… Transitioned into a period of Kanye-esque sample based beats and ultimately am finding a path between digital hardcore, breakcore, and drum and bass music.
What’s been in your playlist rotation recently?
I’ve been really enjoying hyperpop and more hardcore digital music… I really love that crossover between rock and electronic. I’m really into glaive and The Kid LAROI right now as far as more poppy music goes. On the more hardcore side, I have been loving Machine Girl and this smaller guy named Johnnascus… those guys are really making some nightmare music right now. The energy is super intense. There’s also another up and coming artist named brakence, his recent song “venus fly trap” is heavenly.
Do you feel like the music you listen to regularly influences the music you make currently or do you tend to draw inspiration from elsewhere?
Definitely all the sounds that I’ve enjoyed throughout my life play some role in the music I now make. I think this is a big time for crossover between genres so it’s easier than ever to incorporate different styles into more experimental music. I listen to plenty of genres that don’t always find their way into the stuff I make, but if you listen close enough there’s pieces and parts from everywhere.
What aspect of music creation challenges you the most?
Working with more limited equipment and the physical distance between me and the people I like to work with are definitely two big limitations. However, I get a lot of enjoyment out of using my small bedroom studio and finding more creative solutions to achieve the sounds I’m after. I take a lot of pride in that actually.
“dial tone” is an aggressive but notably modern track; how does it fit into your larger sound and experience with creativity and musicality?
That song was really fun to make, and was more of an experiment than anything. I was heavily re-listening to my favorite 90’s grunge and 2000’s pop punk bands at the time and noticed how well that same vibe could fit into hyperpop. I was really trying to capture that mastery of emo lyrics, aggressive pop sound, and earworm-y choruses. I think that a lot of my music going forward will try to capture those same aspects, but whether or not the production style will stay the same is yet to be discovered.
Anyone specific you’d enjoy working with?
There’s a lot of artists on the local scale around me that I’d love to collaborate with… Some bigger names that I think would be awesome to work with are people like 2hollis, Skest!, and Pinkpantheress. There’s also this girl named Alice Longyu Gao… She is making some insane stuff right now. You’ve just gotta listen to understand.
Nocoke’s new single “dial tone” is out now on all streaming platforms, check it out below!