We finally splashed out on a fancy website which comes with blogging capabilities, so we thought this would be a great way to connect with you, our fans. (...yes, all three of you lol!)
The Nylon Admirals have a mission. And we figured you folks would have a greater understanding and appreciation of our efforts if we started sharing that mission via long-form blog posts, rather than single-sentence tag lines or social media profiles.
This project does not stem from some vague, ill-conceived dream of emulating our musical idols. It was created out of the sheer frustration of not being able to find new music that we liked.
We love exciting instrumental music, anything that stirs the emotions and takes you to a different place and time. Our focus is electronic music. But we enjoy other musical genres too: orchestral, drum n bass, cinematic, videogame, even elements of hip hop, jazz and rock. Anything with feeling and melodicity, regardless of the genre. That's probably why our own music contains such an eclectic blend of sounds. Because why limit your creative opportunities, or possible sources of inspiration, right?
Warning: What follows might be considered a rant! Let's get it out of the way now...
Our big passion is electronic music. We've been following its evolution for a long time, and have noticed a progressive shift over the past 20 years or so. With the rise of DJ culture, electronica has become less experimental, less musical, and less emotional. With the arrival of music production software for personal computers, it became increasingly loop-based. And a whole generation of potential new composers, that might otherwise have followed in the footsteps of pioneers such as Jean-Michel Jarre, jumped on the 'dance' and 'chill' big-audience bandwagons. Fast forward to today, and electronic music has become repetitive and homogenous, serving as nothing more than background music, fractured into a dozen tightly-constrained sub-genres that choke originality, all grouped under the dreadful umbrella term of "EDM".
</end of rant, hopefully!>
And it's not like we aren't listening to new electronica. I personally have polled people on various subreddits "I like old artist XYZ, what new artists should I be listening to?". And the suggestions are invariably disappointing. It almost seems like today's artists haven't listened to anything made before 1999 to know how imaginative the genre used to be. Ooops, still ranting, sorry! At this point I just listen to soundtracks, since that's the only place where instrumental music is being made that still makes your hair stand on end.
My humble apologies if all this sounds condescending - I'm really not trying to come across as superior here. There are so many types of music in the world, and which ones move you is a very personal and subjective thing. If reggae or soul or country float your boat, more power to you! We just collectively realized one day that the thread of music that we enjoyed had basically petered out at some point.
Which is how we ended up here. We figured if no-one really was making new electronica in the style we were looking for, we might as well try making it ourselves! So we're making the music primarily for ourselves, and consciously trying not to pander to a specific audience, or appeal to a large group of people, or fit neatly into any specific sub-genre. That means we're not going to attract a large mainstream audience, but we're ok with that. We'd rather be appreciated by a cherished few, for trying to offer something unique and different.
In fact, what we want the most is to build a small engaged community of both musicians and music lovers that share our musical mission. If that sounds like a community you would like to be a part of, please let us know! We truly, honestly want to build a dialogue and a conversation around this topic.
This blog has a members area, so please sign up today, start liking, start commenting, and join the conversation! You can also sign up on our home page for occasional emails with news, offers and exclusive content. Meanwhile, we're working on new music and videos for your amusement.
Congratulations for making it to the bottom of this tediously long(-winded) introduction!
- M
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