A Chat with Nevaris (25.07.23)
Praised by legendary musician Carlos Santana as “a work of supreme creativity”, New York native Nevaris brings together his love for funk, dub and Afro-Latin music in his sound. We speak with the talented artist about his new album Reverberations, what music means to him, future plans, working with producer Bill Laswell and more!
OSR: Why did you choose to pursue a career in music and what drew you to music?
Nevaris: My parents were both musicians so I grew up with music in my household. My older brother was always playing good music. I got into playing music seriously when I was in high school and then I saw a small performance at a music festival that sealed the deal for me. There was a crowd of maybe 20 people around this one stage. I was standing there listening to an artist absolutely kill it. I just had this feeling that music was something you could decide to do and decided to do it right then and there.
OSR: What inspired you to release this album under your own name Nevaris instead of your band’s name Loud Apartment?
Nevaris: It was Bill Laswell’s idea to use Nevaris as the name for the project because he said it was a good name and what I am known as so I should get it out there. So I just went with that. Bill was very involved with all of the creative decisions on the record from the art to the titles to the song order.
OSR: What inspired you to create the music on this album?
Nevaris: The record was created during a good period of time when things had calmed down for all of us involved. So we were inspired to create while we could. It’s been a rocky road because of the pandemic and a lot of financial issues around the studio and otherwise. Bill has had a really difficult period because of health and all the repercussions of that in terms of business and the studio and all of that. But when we recorded Reverberations he was doing well and things were stable with the studio so we had the motivation to work. At the end of the day, Bill is focused on music more than anything else. He told me music is always the priority. So we just got to work with the focus of keeping things moving and progressing
OSR: Now that Reverberations Is out, what can you tell us about the album?
Nevaris: Reverberations is part of a progression of albums that we released starting with System Breakdown in 2020 and New Future in 2022. Those were released under the Loud Apartment name but it is basically the same personnel. So we were working from that experience and listening back and thinking about where to go next. We decided to work on two new projects starting with a Dub-focused project which is what Bill really likes to work on. And then the idea was to follow that up with a more funk-based project. So that was kind of the roadmap and Reverberations was the result.
OSR: What is it like collaborating with producer Bill Laswell and who else is involved in this album?
Nevaris: Working with Bill means working with one of the great music producers of all time so it is not something that I take for granted. I’ve learned a ton through the experience and I’m proud of the work that we have created together. He brings a ton of insight and experience to the table. More than that just a great musical energy. A Bill Laswell baseline communicates a ton of energy without a lot of notes. It is great to have experienced up close. As a producer he lets the music go where it needs to go but if it goes down the wrong path he will let you know in a constructive way. He told me once that it’s not an experiment which I thought was interesting. There is structure and methodology involved in creating a record but also improvisation and inspiration. So it is a combination of those elements that makes a good record.
Bill, Lockatron, and I set the tone for the recording with bass and drums and percussion. And then everyone else involved overdubbed on top of that foundation with DJ Logic on turntables, Will Bernard and Matt Dickey on guitar, and Peter Apfelbaum on horns. Engineer James Dellatacoma has been great to work with also and has been a big part of the process. The Studio in West Orange is a big part of creating the sound and has been constantly under threat. There’s a GoFundMe campaign going right now to help keep the studio going.
OSR: What do you hope people take from/find in your music?
Nevaris: I hope it gives people a dose of some good and positive energy. I hope they find some real enjoyment in listening to it. Also, I hope if they keep listening that they find something new when they repeat listen.
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Nevaris: Music is integral to my life. I feel like I need it to exist. It grounds me as a human being. I can’t imagine a life where I did not play music every day. The industry is a totally different story but that has nothing to do with the music itself.
OSR: The music industry is one of the hardest to crack, so to speak. What advice do you have for new artists?
Nevaris: Well for better or worse we are becoming a really visually oriented society. Social media is a big part of that. I hate it but I realize it is the way things are. So you have to create a visual identity for your music. To some extent that has always been the case but more so now. I wish I had focused more on documentation when I got started. Record and film and document is my biggest advice. Get comfortable with design and film. That will be an essential piece in creating a body of work. Find some good visual artists to collaborate with. You will need that aspect to be as firmly grounded as the music. But I see people getting notoriety with little clips of fast playing on social media and also resisting that at the same time. At the end of the day, you have to find your own path and stay true to your vision while at the same time staying conscious of the way things are. It’s all about balance I guess. And more than anything with the music business today there is no real formula so find your own path.
OSR: What are the best and worst pieces of advice you have ever received?
Nevaris: The best advice I got was from Bill Laswell which was never to do another take if there is nothing wrong with the first one. And almost all of our work together has been done with that philosophy. What it prevents is going back and sorting through seven takes which all sound the same. I’ve gotten stuck before sorting through the media and you can get so stuck that you can’t move forward. And Bill has really helped me learn how to navigate past that.
The worst advice I got from an old music industry guy was that he wanted me to play 5-10 gigs a month. Maybe that works in some places but not in New York City. At least not for me. It wore me out and everyone else involved trying to play that much and didn’t last long
OSR: What makes your music unique?
Nevaris: Well every musician has their own energy that is part of their own flavour. The great musicians that I have played with have a great and unique energy and that is more important than all of the scales people learn or any of that.
I know I have a unique energy that I bring to the table that comes from a lot of different things such as the different cities where I have lived and a family with a diverse background. More than that it’s just an energy and feeling that I carry with me all of the time. That is something that musicians feel is really spiritual in nature but not something that I claim to understand. I don’t try to understand. Music is the best way to manifest that energy and share it and I have my own version of it and share it through my music. Working with a group of musicians that can collaborate to create a unique musical energy is something really special. It’s a lifelong search to be able to manifest that energy and something that I am always working on.
OSR: What does the next year hold for Nevaris?
Nevaris: I have a couple of projects in process. One is a recording we did live in the studio after Reverberations came out with nine musicians playing simultaneously. We had a lot of cameras rolling so I am hoping to release some good media from that. We’re also starting work on the next record with a working title of Funk City. We’re going to start putting some tracks down next week. So everything is moving.
Many thanks to Nevaris for speaking with us. For more from Nevaris, check out his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
This artist was discovered via Musosoup #sustainablecurator
