Nowhere Nothing hails from Glendale, Arizona and is an eclectic two-man outfit playing a sort of lo-fi-shoegaze-alternative music that defies easy categorization. The band consists of Robert Rojas and Adam Lopez.
"I feel like each song captures what's going on in my life at that particular moment," says Rojas. "As far as structure goes, I try to maintain a balance between experimental and pop aesthetics."
The band began when Rojas started making digital music a few years back. He invited friends over to jam and he recorded it.
"I started using these recordings and mixing digital material over them, and here we are today." he says.
Rojas uses Ibanez and Takamine guitars.
"I've got an electric Ibanez GIO which I got as a gift when I was fourteen or so. The acoustic that we use to record is a steel string Takamine G series," says Rojas. "I picked [it up] maybe about two years ago on somewhat of a whim. After sitting down for a couple hours at the local Sam Ash, I decided it was the best sounding guitar I could find in my price range. Plus, it has a super awesome looking satin type finish."
Ibanez Gio guitars list for a little over $350. You can pick one up for about a hundred less than that. Nowhere Nothing also use a Ibanex GIO bass -- a friend who no longer used it handed it over to the cause.
The Takamine G series offers a variety of guitars (dreadnoughts and other) that you can pick up for less than $300. The Takamine G340 Dreadnought, for instance, lists at $339 and you can, again, find it for about $100 less than this. This guitar features a spruce top and mahogany back and sides. The G series has over a dozen distinct models including cutaways.
The other half of the rhythm section is generally electronic and generated with Ableton Live (or sometimes FLStudio).
"Most of our drums are done with software, however we do have a couple sets of toy bongos. We got a set from a thrift store and another from a market in Rocky Point, Mexico," says Rojas. "We've also got some tambourines which were donated by the same guy who gave us the bass -- oh, and an egg shaker thing. We've got one of those, too."
Keyboard sounds are also mostly software generated, but there are some exceptions.
"There are a few instances where we have used an old Casio CTK-50 from the 80s," he says. "It was given to my sister when she was younger. It was sitting around not being used, so I took it off her hands."
Looking around at various online and offline sources we found CTK-50 keyboards for sale for around $30 -- some even lower than that. This illustrates that you can take old, "obsolete" gear and make good use of it. Sometimes creating with what you have on hand is more challenging and delivers results better than if you had the top of the line, modern version of the gear. And would you rather have the original cheesy keyboard sound or a modeled version?
Rojas says another important component in their music is a Hohner harmonica in the key of C. Look for more harmonicas to appear in their music.
"I was recently given a harp in D from my father, which I'm itching to use for some stuff in the near future." he says.
The band does not play live but are working on a way to translate the studio experience to a performance one. They are toying with the idea of a stripped down set.
"Alternatively, we are a looking into running our gear through laptops or something like that. We'll see what we come up with." says Rojas.
Rojas says the band is always working on new stuff and they have half the material for their next release. Plans for a tour, an international tour, are also in the works.
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Thanks to Patrick Ogle for conducting the interview!