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Nod One’s Head Interview

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Words by Art Jefferson
Photography by I AM Johannes

One doesn’t often associate stage diving and super-hyper performances with the sounds of deep and melodic house. However Berlin-based duo Nod One’s Head isn’t your average house group. In fact, house only represents a portion of their overall sound. Whilst the chilled, soulful bits are present in various songs, there are also the elements of tech, Hip-Hop, indie and pop vividly reflected, making the duo comprised of Charlotte Bรผhler and Moritz Bommert, one of the most interesting and exciting groups emerging out of the Berlin music scene.

With an impeccable selection of EPs released over the past three years including Dirty Heart and What’s Beyond, not to mention their single ‘Up’, Nod One’s Head are set to drop their debut LP Lava, which features guest appearances by UK heavy-hitters Ironik and Scorcher, as well as Berlin’s Max Joni. Having already given the world a taste of the title track and lead single, NOH are ready to blast-off into the stratosphere with a full tank of energy and music that is sexy, deep, fun and danceable, all in the same breath.

How did you two meet and what motivated you to start the band?

NOH – We met in boarding school in 2007! We always shared music with each other and after school, when we both moved to Berlin, we decided to join forces.

Were you two already making music separately before you met? What are your musical origins?

Lotte – Yes, I was involved with music in a couple of different ways. My dad is also a passionate singer so I grew up with Jazz and Funk. When I was 7 years old I started to play the cello and joined the school choir later.

Moritz – As a teenager, I taught myself to play the guitar. Later I got into DJing and after graduation I started producing.

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You are based in Berlin, which has found countless numbers of artists all flocking into the city over the past few years. In your opinion, what is it about Berlin that has been pulling in so many visual and musical creatives?

NOH – Well, Berlin is a colourful city, it’s known for its variety of creative output. Berlin is very open-minded towards any kind of music and art. It’s a great base for upcoming artists because it also holds a large range of great labels and publishers.

As musicians, does the environment of Berlin play a factor in terms of inspiring the music that you make?

NOH – We think that any place you feel comfortable at inspires you in what you do! Especially our couches, which luckily are located in Berlin ๐Ÿ˜‰

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Musically you weave between melodic house, soulful Hip-Hop and club. What is the creative process like between the two of you when working on a song together?

NOH – Actually it depends on the song, but still we have a typical ‘NOH-way’ of working: we both build the song for ourselves (separated in writing and producing) before connecting our ideas. We come from different directions and that’s how the special NOH sound comes to life. It also gives us the opportunity to really put ourselves into the song completely, as two individuals.

One question I wanted to ask you is about your collaboration with North London emcee Scorcher. How did that actually come about, because that was a bit unexpected?

NOH – We were looking for a rap feature for our track ‘Push it Good’. Since we are huge fans of the UK music scene we knew Scorcher and were impressed by his music. So we just decided to ask him if he would like to work with us on the song and he said yes! ๐Ÿ™‚ Thanks to this collaboration we came across Ironik with whom we also did a track called ‘Kill Meโ€˜. It will be on our upcoming debut album!

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Looking at clips of your live performances, the amount of energy that you bring is uncanny! Are there any crazy stories that you can talk about that might have occurred at one of your shows?

NOH – Actually the funniest story is from our first gig: we were so high on adrenaline, totally rocking the house, all our friends were there (most of them happily drunk), our sound was absolutely terrible because at that time we didn’t know anything about mixing, and so the boxes fell out of the wall from the strain. From then on we knew this is us and it’s still us but with better mixing ๐Ÿ˜‰

What can fans expect from your new album Lava?

NOH – A journey through any kind of deep emotions. The album is very personal because it contains the stories that made us who we are today. We think that it is much more important and also interesting to talk about finding yourself by telling your sad and most powerful stories.

Nod One’s Head Lava is out August 14th via Kallias Music.

http://www.nodoneshead.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nodoneshead
https://soundcloud.com/nod-ones-head
https://www.youtube.com/user/NodOnesHead
https://vimeo.com/nodoneshead

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