Interview: Nicolás Castello (Nax)
- James Shipsides
- Apr 20, 2021
- 5 min read
Theresa’s Sound World Interview
Person: Nicolás Castello
Bands: Nax
Genre/s: Shoegaze/Indie/Dreampop/Ambient/ Post-Punk
Based in: Buenos Aires, Argentina
In my interview, I talk to Nicolás Castello of Argentinian band, Nax about music, inspirations, guitars, pedals and Shoegaze⭐️
1. When did you first feel the impulse to create music ‘’and why?
I started doing music at 17 years old. in that year, something very important to me happened and I felt completely alone. My life changed forever. That was one of the main reasons for me trying to starting to learn something new such as learning to play an instrument and make music. ( I felt old at that moment because of I started from scratch).
2. Can you name the top ten inspirations for your music? It can be anything, bands, songs, albums, books, poems, art, films, people, your own life experiences…
A broken heart
The moon
The sky
My cats
The clouds
Edward Munch
To dissapear
Van Gogh
3. Before Nax, what were you doing musically? Were you in any different bands and/or solo music projects?
In the very beggining I played in a group called "Dorian" with whom I rehearsed and played live for the first times. That was the first group in wich I played and sung.
Before Nax I formed a group with other people called “ (plástico) “ around the 2000’s. In 2008 we broke up and I finished our only LP called "Inercia". In 2010’s I released a solo album called “Infinito”. Also: In all that time I played in a lot of local groups. From time to time there was need for a bassist, or for a guitarrist and I played a lot, rehearsing and playing live.
4. Can you tell me a bit about how Nax got started?
After releasing "Infinito" on my own I wanted to play those songs live and I started to rehearse with other musicians From all that people that I played back then, there were two very special ones, with whom I still kept playing in Nax a lot of years later. Those two human beings are Jonathan Sansone and Juan Marcos Hernandez; the very first formation of Nax in 2013.
5.In listening to Nax’s music, I’ve always thought that your Argentinian accent and your use of Spanish as vocals really complement the music. I’ve found that certain music genres seem to suit certain languages. For instance, there’s several modern Dreampop bands who are and sing in French, reminding me of French pop-chanteuses of the 1960s, so is something that may be rooted in the musical consciousness. Have you any thoughts as to why Spanish might suit Shoegaze?
That’s a nice question. I never thought in this but it may not suprise me that there is some kind of "logic" between genres and languages. I sing in spanish mainly because that’s how I feel it, and I feel it natural in my song-writing as well as how my feelings are expressed. I have no clue if (and why) spanish may suit Shoegaze; but after been awfully bored with Argentinian groups singing in english, I´m very proud of Nax’s spanish songs, because they are very real, very sincere.
6. One of the key trademarks of Shoegaze is its use of guitar pedals to create weird and wonderful soundscapes. With your own music, do you add guitars pedals to an existing song in the same way an artist might use paints to a pencil sketch to flesh it out? Or, do pedals help create, inform, or guide a song? Or is a mixture of both existing songs exhanced by pedals and some songs existing as a result of pedals?
I would say that for me, at least, it´s the last option. Both things. I like to trick myself, so if I discovered something that works very good, I will go and search other ways to make things sound, and play with that I know that works and some, new things waiting to be made.
7. To follow up on the last question, do you take an ordered approach with the settings on your guitar pedals which you know will create certain effects or do you just twist knobs and press buttons and discover interesting sounds by accident?
Thanks to knowing the tools that I use: I can imagine the sounds that the guitar pedals (for example) con provide before playing. So I usually imagine the sounds before playing and recording. Anyways there are other moments (and songs) for experiment, and see what you can do with a unknown chain of effects, or an unknown -twisting knobs-.
8. Have you got an absolute favourite guitar you own and why is it your favourite ? Also have you got a preferred guitar pedal?
The most special one for me it´s Jagmaster Squier that I had modified (and upgraded) almost every part on it. With that guitar I played like a million gigs and composed like a million songs. So: she and I have a special history.
I love all the guitar pedals, but the Reverbs and the Delays by Boss are old-friends of Nax.
9. As a fan of Shoegaze, I’ve noticed there has been a renaissance of the genre in recent years, with it’s popularity and the volume of new and interesting bands always on the rise. As a Alternative music listener back in the 1990s, I saw how the original wave of Shoegaze bands started to disappear, often dismissed and ridiculed by the music press and in the popular culture of the time. Can you think why Shoegaze has perhaps in the 21st century been, in some ways, reborn?
Great question. Probably with music (as with other things in life in general) the movement of everything can be explained with the " Kondratieff waves ".
10. I really enjoyed your recent collaboration with singer Jackie Kasbohm of Echodrone fame. How did that come about?
I´m happy to know that! Jackie heard some of the "Congelado" songs and she approach to me in the 2020. We become good-internet-friends, she is a really nice human being,a caring and supportive musician and a great artist. Around September of 2020, I think, we started to talk about doing a song together and she sent me a little Casiotone-loop. I change the pitch of the loop to a "C" (I had to move it only a couple of cents) and I picked four chords for the first part. I recorded a demo for her and she starting to work on her vocals. A couple of months and work later we already had "En la Mañana".
11.Have you any plans for Nax, post-pandemic? Gigs, new recordings, collaborations, side projects?...
The future is uncertain. I would love to keep composing new songs, and new albums. And maybe at some point I would love to play live again, but not for now or in the near future.
And finally, for fun...
12. A line of dialogue written by film director Quentin Tarantino ...‘There’s only two types of people in the world, Beatles people and Elvis people’ Perhaps a little limited in scope, but do you sway more towards the Fab Four or The King or, perhaps both and why?
Good phrase. I choose The Beatles. I don’t consider myself as a fan or anything similar, but in the late years I started to take them as an" educative " group. I try to learn from their songs, I like to analyze them, at least for fun.
🎼Listen to Nax on Bandcamp: https://naxmusic.bandcamp.com
🎼Listen to Nax on ITunes: https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/nax/1140322367
🎼Listen to Nax on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1DOiimsENflMV8AukuEx7u?si=DSKjTKQtTCqz_ifoI86xqw
🎬Nax on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/user/naxargentina/videos?fbclid=IwAR25vxyHXz3ucCGe_FSeqct-oJOIA6P4wj-D5dEwozz6VzgkQii_gDdv01U
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