9+1 Q&A with Nyles Lannon

What inspired you to first start making music? And how did you come to be in your current incarnation? Or if you prefer, a brief bio about you.

I remember walking home from school, alone, when I was 8 or 9, and trying to think of the saddest and most dramatic melodies I could in my head. It wasn’t because I was sad. I just loved music. But it took a very long time for me to have the confidence to show other people my music, not until my twenties really, and even then, it took awhile for me to think I could actually pursue it on a serious level. The big moment was when I got laid off from a tech job in 2001. I joined Film School (band) and we started to get some attention in SF, touring a lot, getting bigger shows. This was after playing lots of terrible shows for a couple years. Around that time I put out an electronic album called “Astronomy for Children” and it got some good reviews (I couldn’t believe people actually liked it!) I toured in Europe. Things were picking up. Then I went through a tough break up, my world turned upside down, and I wrote my LP “Chemical Friends” with singing and lyrics and everything, it just seemed to pop out of me. Badman Recording Co put it out, and I have never really stopped. Around 2007 or so, someone in the commercial world heard my solo music and asked if I would compose on commercials. That’s been my day job for the last 12 years. Music has been all I have done since that fateful lay off.

Provide us with some info about your latest release…

Tiny Crustacean is a song about my daughter being born. She is 7 now! So I started this song a long time ago! I had shelved it, but I showed it to my band one day and they loved it. We started working on it, made some tweaks, wrote a bridge. Soon it became one of the peak moments of our live set. So we re-recorded it in my studio (I record at home) and it came out nicely.

Which ones would you consider your main influences both music-wise & non-music-wise?

I am a child of the 80s. I love a lot of the music. But I would consider David Bowie and the Cure to be my biggest influences. I have others obviously but these two seem to never go away for me. Outside of music, it’s my relationships – with my kids, my wife, myself, other humans, animals..

In what way does your sound differ from the rest genre-related artists/bands and why should we listen to your music? In other words, how would you describe your sound?

I really don’t fit nicely into a genre. I have elements of folky singer songwriter, but I also tend to go shoegaze and New Wave. Sometimes I have a live band, sometimes it’s an 808 beat and heavy electronics. A have a bit of Tom Petty with my Cure, Police with my Radiohead. I don’t know how to say that in an elevator pitch. I just try to keep it fresh and interesting. I also don’t like to be too serious, so that has a way of undermining the whole sensitive folk thing..although I’m serious sometimes. I just like to have a balance. The Cure always had a nice balance on their best albums. Same with Bowie. I find genre-specific bands terribly boring.

Please name your 3 desert islands albums, movies & books…

TOUGH!
movies:
2001 Space Odyssey.
John Carpenter’s The Thing.
Spinal Tap.

books:
George Martin – Game of Thrones
Jung – Man and his Symbols
Zinn – A Peoples History of the US

albums:
Bowie – Hunky Dory
The Cure – Head on the Door
Talking Heads – Remain in Light