The nor Interview
nor is an enigmatic producer and singer/songwriter who currently resides in Chicago. He began his artistic journey in 2021 as a senior in high school, releasing his first-ever track, “mind,” on SoundCloud in the winter of 2022. nor’s sound has progressed significantly since his first release, with standouts like “hell” and “dreaming//drowning”, and we got the chance to speak with him about his next steps.
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Interviewer: “You have an extremely specific sound and melancholy emotions that carry throughout most of your songs. Where does that sound come from?”
nor: “I would say I get that sound mostly from how I feel at the time when I'm making a song. Making music and art is sort of therapeutic for me; it helps me vent and get things out, but it’s not always sad. Sometimes it’s fun, and that sad sound still comes through, but I wasn’t sad making the song, you know? Also, my inspirations have a big influence on how my sound was created, some of the time through flow and vocals, but more often through production.
Interviewer: “Who are some of your top inspirations? Can you name names and why?”
nor: “Quinn, Osquinn definitely number one. Jane (Remover), Aphex Twin, but as of lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of Fakemink, Quannnic, and Glaive. Jane’s production style inspires me a lot. I’m always thinking of how she made her songs and how she achieves her sound. I would say with Aphex Twin, I was super inspired by his process of making his music, the software he uses is super complicated and outdated, and he stands out so much from others in his genre… his music definitely just speaks for itself, you’ve got to just listen to it and feel it.”
Interviewer: “What about Quinn? I love Quinn, too, but I feel like for different reasons. She’s got a deep bag, so I’m curious as to why she’s your number one?”
nor: “She has so much music out and she’s so versatile, she’s got the sad songs, the hype ones, the rage shit too. She makes so many different types of music, and I gravitate towards her specifically because she’s got such a unique style of production and flow. She’s better and more underrated than a lot of people around her; it’s crazy.”
Interviewer: “You seem very intrigued by others’ process of making music. What is your process like, and how does that curiosity add to your sound?”
nor: “When I’m listening to something and I hear a melody that stands out, I tend to want to figure out how it was created. I’m always trying to capture a specific feeling in the DAW, I hear something that wows me and I try to create something similar or different that makes others feel the same way. I tend to overprocess a lot of the sounds in my music. I’m trying to create a unique feeling and blend between all the sounds, while kind of making my own lane by overprocessing shit. I kind of feel like I'm over-explaining it.”
Interviewer: “Jane Remover was recently just quoted saying that she personally doesn’t think that 2hollis produced a certain Playboi Carti track that samples an old song of hers. Long story short, she said he didn’t make it because he’s not a “maximalist”, in his production, more of a minimalist who makes stuff very loud. Are you a maximalist?
nor: “That’s funny. I wouldn’t say I'm a maximalist, although I'm kind of in between. I think this new song, crash, I recently made is definitely maximalist, but like Late Nights for example, isn’t. I would say in my music a lot is going on, so you could call it maximalist, but that’s not always what it’s going to be like.”
Interviewer: “Why not? Are you getting into a more simplified sound?”
nor: “I don’t feel like it’s more simplified, I think a good word is precise. Sometimes less is better, not exactly keeping it simple, but precise. I want my music to be complex, but not so much that when you hear it, you think there’s too much going on.”
Interviewer: “You just mentioned a recent song you made called 'crash', can you tell us more about that track? Do you have more you are planning to drop soon?”
nor: “I have a couple of songs that need to be finished, as well as a few that are ready to be released. crash is going to be out by the end of this month (September). (crash) is one of those songs that I didn’t take too long to make, really. When I had most of the instrumental laid out, this specific idea for a catchy flow came to my mind, I laid it down and heard it back, which was a segway into finishing the vocals in that moment. It’s one of my favorite tracks I’ve made recently, which primarily has to do with the production and mixing. I’m definitely proud of it. This track is definitely going to help segway into the new sound I'm working on. It’s a good introduction to my new shit.”
Click the link below to stream crash by nor
