Page 11 - ION Indie Magazine MarchApril 2024

LAS: Now After Nothing started as a solo project. How has the dynamic

shifted since collaborating with drummer Michael Allen, and how has
this influenced the creative process?

NAN: Having Michael involved really injected an intensity and energy into

the songs that probably would have been lacking had I stuck with the
sequenced drums I was programming during the writing process. Funny

enough, drums were my first instrument and I played them for years as a
kid, but I didn’t have the patience (nor the drumming chops anymore) to play
live drums myself in the studio. Having Michael come in though was almost
like giving myself permission to slow down and take a break from the

songwriting process because I was so excited to be engineering the drum
tracking sessions. We spent days just really dialing in the drum sounds,
which was just a blast for a studio geek like myself. Once the live drums

were complete though, I could approach the songs again with fresh ears
and feed off of the new, more massive, sonic atmosphere that the live drums
brought. This inspired me to strive for a bigger sound overall – more layers

and more ear candy.