The Nobody Delivers A Massive Visual Album

A massive new set of songs released from The Nobody comes through with such a unique and atmospheric set of tonalities that have a wonderful way of wrapping themselves around you, while blending this outstretched sense of cinematic backbone and pull, along with spacious and vast underbellies that you end up grabbing hold of so you can take part in each one's journey.

These songs are part of a record called Worm @ The Core, and the range in levels of intensity, heaviness, lushness, and color.

Part of the beauty of the record is how gracefully it was actually put together. Some songs have a heavier feel, like "In The Veins of God", which technically opens the record and does an amazing job of introducing some of the Staples that you're going to hear throughout the rest of the release.

You hear heavier elements guitar-wise throughout this track, but the vocals are very melodic and have a certain kind of flow to them that adds a particular texture and tone to the track, bringing more depth to everything and again, pushing that cinematic approach even further.

Then there are tracks like "Temenos", which managed to bring out a similar level of spaciousness and atmospheric undertone but in a different sense. There are layers of guitars performing different approaches, and this gives such amazing layers to the song.

When a guitar is pulling off chords in a more clean tone, while another one is doing a slide riff that sort of adds a different melody on top of that, and the two of those together create something big.

You can obviously hear heavy-handed experimentation throughout this entire record, as it is billed with many fewer boundaries than what you may be used to; however, there's also plenty of pop sensibility.

Songs like this one can be really catchy, bright, colorful, and have these pop overtones that make it very memorable.

I think this is part of why the record is so impactful for me. There are a slew of influences coming into play throughout this entire thing. No two songs are really alike, although there are confluent staples that are consistent throughout the record, but the whole thing takes you on an enormous journey, so that you have a full experience with it.

In my opinion, this was indeed an album that you listen to all the way through, in one shot.

While some tracks feel as if they were influenced by '80s pop and bring elements of post-punk and character, while never really leaving behind any of the vast spacious tonalities, like "Josef K", there are others that come through with an absolutely gigantic sonic presence and feel almost theatrical in a sense.

"Boötes Void" is one of my favorite tracks on the record, and this is one that gives you more of that sonic presence and a huge vibe and aesthetic to swim through. The track spans almost 8 minutes in length and branches off into different directions while giving you an enticing and indulgent set of tones using what feel like synth pads, 90 style beats that also give you a live percussion sensation, and all kinds of gorgeous guitar work that really layer on these amazing melodies, and because it's so much to soak in, it just feels awesome to swim through.

This is one of those tracks that feels incredibly inviting and really takes you for that full experience.

So, there are a lot of surprises around the corners of this record. By the time you get two or three songs and you are already expecting some of the unexpected.

You have to love an album that keeps you on your toes. I certainly do, and this record gave me that the entire way through.

At a certain point, I knew what I was in for to an extent, but there were still a lot of those great surprises that really branched off and felt awesome to soak in.

Most of the time, the lyrics feel kind of personal as they do tell stories, but the way the vocals are portrayed and delivered makes them seem more like an instrument themselves.

They are definitely melodically driving; however, they are also not sitting too far on top of the mix of the songs.

The vocals are part of the full sonic painting.

A lot of the time, you hear music like this in the vocals that are sitting way too high in the mix; this is not the case with this record. They are not buried either. They are dynamically balanced so that they serve almost like instruments themselves, bringing that unique tone to the songs that are already so full-bodied.

You can tell there was a lot of thought and attention to detail when it comes to the progressions, arrangements, compositions, and most of all, the tones of the instruments used.

Everything manages to come together and sound kind of universal.

One of the most intriguing elements about this album is that it is basically a visual one.

This record is released on YouTube as a visual album, and it is absolutely mind-bending at times.

Each track has its own set of visual sensations and flavors.

 You can tell there was probably the same amount of attention and time paid to the visual aspect of this record as to the musical aspect.

After listening and watching through this whole album, I felt I absolutely had to reach out to the artist to find out where a lot of this came from and what might be coming up next.

So, I would suggest listening and watching through this album first, and then coming back to read through the interview we conducted with the artist below.

Take a deep dive into this one and remember where you heard it first.

Where did this album come from?  I'm hearing a few different approaches to this record! Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

I always freeze when I’m asked this question because my influences come from a very wide spectrum. I take inspiration —consciously and unconsciously—from all kinds of music, and my songs end up becoming a kind of Frankenstein of sounds, rather than something that comes from one clear tradition. I make a conscious effort to stay creatively malleable and to never stop being a student. There are lessons to be learned from all kinds of music genres and art forms.

I grew up surrounded by Brazilian music, which was formative in how I perceive melodies and chord progressions. As a kid, I was not actively paying attention to it, but that musicality has become ingrained in my heart and in my brain.

A lot of my early musical memories come from the CDs my dad played in the car. I remember listening to RHCP and John Mayer, on repeat, when we went road trips. When I was around eight or nine, he bought a Nickelback album. He popped it in, and the song “Breathe” started playing. It opens with a heavy distorted wah-wah riff, and that was the first time a song gave me a “metal chill.”

In my early teens, I started discovering heavier music. When I was 13, I remember seeing System Of A Down on MTV. My first thought was that those guys were crazy, yet somehow I felt a deep resonance with their madness—I wanted to be like them. Around the same time, I discovered Pink Floyd. Watching The Wall revealed to me that music can transport you to an alternate dimension of pure abstraction, where imagination and feelings have no boundaries. I attribute much of my lead guitar playing style to David Gilmour.

As I dug deeper into rock and metal from past decades, I discovered grunge. The ‘90s sound remains a strong influence on me—especially the darkness and sludge of Alice in Chains, with their trademark vocal harmonies, Jerry Cantrell’s solos, and the raw minimalism of Nirvana and Kurt’s visceral guitar playing.

Later, after spending a few years mainly focused on listening to and playing rock and metal, I discovered John Coltrane. Listening to him showed me that intensity and “heaviness” can exist in any kind of music, regardless of instrumentation—it’s all about intention. That realization made me fall in love with jazz, especially the spiritual and experimental side of it, with artists such as Pharaoh Sanders, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk.

Other influences include Bjork, Radiohead, Frank Zappa, The Doors, David Bowie (emphasis on his final album, Black Star), they show me in different ways that experimentation and genre fusion can be limitless;

Modern classical composers like Erik Satie and 20th-century experimental music—noise, collage, musique concrète—all of which have shaped the way I think about sound.

The list of influences keeps going on and on and it never stops growing.

People often say my music reminds them of Porcupine Tree, but I’ve never written with that intention, nor have I listened to them extensively—what you hear is simply where all these influences happen to converge.

Did you record this at a home setup, or at a big studio?

Home studio: I’ve been experimenting with Logic Pro’s stock synth plugins, which sound great. For electric guitar and bass tones, I’m using Neural DSP’s Mateus Asato bundle. Drums are programmed using Logic Pro’s Virtual Drummer.

Did you create the visuals for this yourself as well? Is this meant to be a visual album or sorts? 

I’m well aware that we live in a visually-centric society, so I wanted to pair each song with cool imagery. I enjoy watching very old films, from the early 20th century. Many of them contain stunning expressionistic visuals, and a number of these movies are now in the public domain. Sometimes, while watching these films, something sparks in my mind’s eye, and I begin experimenting with editing scenes to my music. That’s what happened with songs like Pyrite, In The Veins of God, and Josef K, where I used scenes from Metropolis (1927), Häxan (1922), and The Trial (1962), respectively.

For the epic, almost eight-minute track “Böotes Void,” I’m currently using a series of free stock footage clips that I found online, but I have actually written a four-page script that tells a sci-fi saga—a journey of an alien civilization that builds a gigantic spaceship (a kind of cosmic Noah’s Ark) to escape their dying planet and search for a distant, habitable galaxy. I hope one day I get to collaborate with a visual artist that can turn the script into an animation to accompany the music.

For the album cover, I have been in touch with an incredible artist who is willing to let me use one of his paintings: R.F. Pangborn. You can find his work on Instagram at @pangbornrf—he is phenomenal.

How did this all start for you as an artist and producer?

I got my first guitar when I was 13, but I only started recording original ideas about four years later. I was still living in Brazil, and I borrowed a small M-Audio interface from a friend. I used a $100 guitar and a $10 microphone, also borrowed. I still have songs from that time that I really like. Sometimes I listen back to them and think, “Was I a better songwriter back then?”

It’s interesting how a lack of experience and knowledge can sometimes lead to very interesting results.

But the chops to make a mix sound good only comes with a lot of practice—and I’m still a restless student.

The learning curve is an endless mountain climb, and that’s what makes it exciting.

Are you performing live right now? 

Yes, as a lead guitarist for alt metal Toronto band Frail Fragment @frailfragment.

The Nobody is still in its incubation period. I’ve only performed some of these songs as a solo act, never with a full band. I’m looking for the right musicians to bring The Nobody’s sound to life to a crowd.

Now that this is out, what's next for you? (Maybe tweak the question?)

I still need to finish recording five more songs to complete Worm @ The Core. I consider myself a very slow writer and have been working on most of these songs for more than two years. There’s a lot of recording, editing, re-recording, restructuring, and experimenting with different arrangements. But it’s through that process that you develop your own method, discovering clues and catching glimpses of your artistic voice—what it is and what it could be.

To me, a song is only finished when it gives me goosebumps. My ultimate goal after finishing every track is to hear myself think, “How the hell did I come up with that?”

My next step is simply to keep evolving as a musician, as a writer and as a human being.

Who's in all your headphones right now?

The Smile - to me these guys are really pushing the boundaries of alternative rock.

What would you tell people they can expect on this release?

There are ethereal moments, and there are in-your-face heavy riffs. There are graceful melodies and dissonant landscapes. Big vocal harmonies, lots of guitar solos and walls of sound.

But I don’t want to try to describe it too much. I can only hope that people listen without any expectations. I hope they close their eyes, open their ears and minds, and let the music speak.

Before we go, what would you like to express to fans of the music? 

I know there are people out there who feel isolated, disconnected, overwhelmed by anxiety, haunted by existential dread. I know because I’ve been there myself—in really, really dark places. I’m open about the fact that I have bipolar disorder. In my experience, those who can see angels, people who are very sensitive, can also see demons.

What I want to express is this: you don’t have to hide your pain. Acknowledge it. Sit with it. Talk about it if you can—and if you can’t, write about it, paint about it, dance about it.

That pain is part of what makes you unique. It can become the very thing that strengthens you, far beyond what you ever imagined possible.

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