Name: Ayjay Nils
Nationality: American
Occupation: Producer, violist, pseudo composer
Current release: Ayjay Nils's new single “Co20221212” is out now via Làtension/Schweiger Music. His debut full-length Okay, wait wait wait will follow on September 22nd 2023.

If you enjoyed this Ayjay Nils interview and would like to find out more about his music, visit him on bandcamp.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

I try to be inspired mostly by the act of working itself. Like a feedback loop. Of course I draw inspiration from other music and other art forms (especially film and sports) but the joy of creating is what fuels me the most to keep creating! That’s it.

I try not to bring any concrete meaning into my music, so that what you hear is what you get. Politics, for example, is the last thing that my music has anything to do with.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

I learned a long time ago that, for me, the initial idea or “visualisation” will have nothing to do with the end result. Even the very core idea of a track or piece of music can be erased or dissolved during the process.

I’m learning to trust whatever accidents I may come by and to roll with them if they sound good. This can happen for small details like what kind of reverb for one instrument I use, or something as big as cutting the entire first half of a track. So I try not to plan too much.

That being said, I wouldn’t call it working with chance … I often refer to “happy accidents” but I try to work in a way which generates as many accidents as possible. Intentional accidents, you might call them.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I don’t have any fixed preparation process. My desk in the studio is usually a mess and I always have different instruments in front of me than I had the week before. That way I stumble across different sounds at different times.

Also, every track demands a different kind of attention and preparation. So sometimes I will have to draft kind of ‘skeleton’ versions with just piano or a primitive drum loop, like a composer doing a short score, then orchestrate it later, and some other tracks are being created in their final version from the very beginning.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

Since a lot of the music I write is sample based, I often start with a sample.

But there are other tracks of mine, where I played / recorded something and wrote it down, then developed it on many many sheets of paper, then started recording it in its final form once I had the architecture laid out. This, of course yields a very different end result than starting with a sample and seeing how I can modulate it.

I never worry too much about starting though, since it’s the easiest and most enjoyable part! I must have 200 tracks which were started very well, with good intentions of being finished. It’s just the proceeding 90% which is hard.

To quote a question by the great Bruce Duffie: When you come up with a musical idea, have you created the idea or have you discovered the idea?

This is a great question. I often have the feeling that a piece of music I’ve written was actually something I discovered. Like a scientist who discovered a very complex chemical compound.

Maybe they actively fabricated it, but scientists don’t invent chemical compounds … do they?

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

Every track is different. But it usually involves finding a good sample (or hook), then putting together the structure loosely, then just filling in the blanks from there, then taking away the unnecessary crap, filling in, taking away, filling in, taking away, etc etc.

This can last months.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practise?

I usually think a track done when it’s in that Goldilocks zone of good enough to show someone without feeling embarrassed, but I don’t completely hate it yet. That’s about the time when I think it’s done. Then I’ll play it for my wife, and she’ll rip me a new asshole and I’ll realize I’m only about 70% there.

Then comes another round of fill in, take away, etc. Then eventually I’m just so ready to move on that I justify all the unkempt corners as eccentricities and call it a day.

Inspiring, right?

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Well, as a producer, production is obviously important.

With mixing, I’m no expert my any means, but the more I learn about mixing, the more I realize that it’s an integral part of the expression of an electronic music
producer. So on those points I get very involved.

I don’t know much about mastering. As long as it’s hurting my ears with the volume at only 50%, I’m satisfied.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

I can relate to that very much, and I try to avoid this feeling by constantly creating new material.

My debut album is coming out this September, but I’m already done with two EPs, another mini album, and countless individual tracks to be released in the future. Maybe I’m trying a little too hard to avoiding that emptiness …