Nic Cusworth

‘Nic Cusworth claims he has been making music for as long as he can remember. When pushed he recalls, “I think my first instrument was a pull-along xylophone. It was great for early experimentation you know – you pulled it and it played a tune. Kind of an early sequencer – but it didn’t have MIDI - so I soon moved on.”

In his younger years Nic played a variety of instruments. “I played keyboards, drums, violin – although I had more fun using the bow as a weapon than as a device to release some musical expression. I ended up breaking the bow in fight with a bedroom wall. I can’t help but look back and think that maybe that moment was the genesis of my sound.”

Professionally, Nic’s career has had its share of ups and downs. “I used to play the drums for an all girl choir. I got paid, and if I got bored I’d throw down a break beat to some Stephan Sondheim. I also played guitar in a band whose name I dare not even utter aloud. Each member had a different thing going on and it showed. I called it quits and vowed never to work with another musician again.”

Though a traditionally trained musician, Nic turned his back on conformity to go in search of his true voice. “I studied music – and that pretty much killed any love I had for it. So I stopped playing guitar, stopped playing the drums, and turned to computers.”

It was here that the early germs of Nic Cusworth’s sound would come into being. “I did some music while I was at University. Early experiments that didn’t really go anywhere.” But when he left and found there were no jobs waiting – “I got on the dole, which allowed me to spend most of my days in bed.”

When Nic did get out of bed, he was sampling. “I love the sampler. I got my first sampler when I was about 14. It was this dumb cartridge that sat in the back of a Commodore 64. But even back then I was sampling my mums ‘Simon and Gar-funk-el’ records and turning them into something else.”

Nic describes his sound as, “A bunch of samples layered together.” When asked for a deeper explanation of how a track is put together he elaborates, “I get a bunch of samples. Then I layer them together.”

It was a chance meeting in a New Orleans strip club that allowed Nic’s sound to truly take shape. “I saw this girl across the room and I could just tell she was this amazing poet.” Readers should note that Ms. Andrea Renee Johnson was not performing that night, but was having a social evening with some friends. “So anyway, I like went up to her and said ‘You got anything I can lay some beats down on?’ – she said she did, so we started to work together.”

Their initial collaboration – an EP named ‘drum mantra’ was the first fruit born from the relationship. “We did it pretty quickly because I was awaiting trial for salmon poaching and I didn’t know for how much longer I’d be a free man.” Nic was ultimately acquitted. “It was a jumped up charge,” he explains, and is now looking forward to working on some new material with his poet collaborator. “Now the threat of jail has been lifted I feel I can really pour myself into the music and producing something sonically blinding in our next collaboration.”

Nic Cusworth may be a formidable musical force to be reckoned with, but he insists – “It’s just structured noise – you know.” If indeed Nic Cusworth’s sound is simply structured noise - then I’m one listener who just can’t wait to see what musical muck he throws at us next.’

Interview taken from the publication “Hat bags and Ramblers”, and was written by Dante Jones.