Street December 4, 2014

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The Daily Princetonian

Thursday December 4, 2014

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MAKING MUS IC This week, S treet explor es the stude nt music sc ene on

NOCLIP

MICHAEL ZHANG

O

riginally based in manhattan Beach, Calif., a bustling beach city just outside of Los Angeles, Riley “noclip” Thomasson ’15 has spent his past three years at Princeton juggling electrical engineering and EDM. As a senior, Thomasson has begun to taste breakthrough success, with his most recent track “world-01” just released on Diplo’s Mad Decent label and EDM.com — a deal he struck by sending his music out to EDM outlets from the Terrace Club library on a whim. “world-01,” a chiptune track saturated with an auditory nostalgia, will transport any 20-something back to the childhood euphoria of playing video games. The happily retro vibe made with new synthesized sounds was born of Thomasson’s unrelenting creative process. A casual gamer ever since he was little, Thomasson has always approached producing music by capturing what he feels in the moment no matter what else is going on, even if that means putting schoolwork and sleep aside to have a latenight producing marathon. Thomasson has always been engaged with music — studying piano up until college, playing percussion in Mira Costa High School’s prestigious music program and taking music theory classes while there and also at the University. As for his musical influences, Thomasson has always loved the constantly evolving music scene happening just beneath mainstream music, whether it is alternative rock or EDM’s diverse offspring of subgenres. Perhaps a late start by today’s standards, Thomasson’s foray into EDM began in junior year of high school, when a friend of his showed him Excision’s “Wasted,” a prototypical dubstep track. Soon after, Thomasson started to produce his own works after concluding, as many aspiring producers do, that “somebody made

Contributor

this on a laptop; I can do this.” With that, “Synapsis” was born — the first of Thomasson’s many stage names. When he got to college, Thomasson continued to progress through genres, exploring house and downtempo through his first EP released independently under his new name “Rize.” The summer after freshman year, Thomasson gigged all over Southern California and released his second EP through Into the AM Records during sophomore year. Thomasson explained that his inspiration “comes in waves,” so after that busy summer, he decided to take a break from producing while waiting to discover his current muses. This transition was accompanied by most recent third name change to “noclip,” a common video game cheat that enables players to move through physical obstructions. Under his newest moniker, Thomasson has continued to explore electronic music, currently drawing inspiration from future bass as well as other innovative sounds from artists such as Porter Robinson, Mr. Carmack and Lindsay Lowend. As for his future plans, Thomasson already has a desk job awaiting him after graduation, but he said he is also open to whatever EDM has in store for him. When asked about EDM’s recent mainstream popularity, Thomasson replied with enthusiasm towards the broader implications for electronic music, saying “every week someone is putting out something new, and something that is evolving so fast. It is kind of a waste to just listen to the same thing over and over.” For now, this means we can look forward to hearing more fresh sounds out of Thomasson soon. In the meantime, though, you can check out some of his work on Soundcloud or catch Thomasson tearing it up live on campus, as he regularly performs at Terrace and other eating clubs.

BROWNI K

ovey Coles ’15 and Hawa Sako ’15 are a powerhouse duo of music production and composition. When Coles and Sako met four years ago at the end of their freshman years, they began collaborating with different beats and new sounds. Eventually, the pair formed their band, BROWNI. Before coming to Princeton, both Coles and Sako said they had expressed interest in music and songwriting. “Since high school, I’ve always wanted to be part of something really musical,” Sako explained. In addition to writing, Sako provides the lead vocals for the group. On the other hand, Coles, who creates the beats, did extensive work with production and songwriting in high school. However, he ceased dedicating as much time to making music after coming to Princeton. “I’m terrible at songwriting, and I have a lot of music without words. Meeting Hawa was a perfect connection of songwriting and music production,” Coles said. The band, which now has ten released songs on their SoundCloud, got off to a

Left to right: Riley Thomasson ’15 performing with Matt “Tenr” Goldsmith ’15.

VICTORIA SCOTT Contributor

casual start, releasing only one or two tracks at the end of each school year. “From freshman year to sophomore year we were kind of making music, but it was only once a year — at the end of the year when classes were done,” Coles explained. “So freshman year we made one song, then at the end of sophomore year we made another song. It was really informal, just for fun for a while.” In the fall of their junior year, the two became more serious about producing and performing, even presenting one of their songs for an in-class presentation. They explained that at that point they wanted to take their music to another level. Even though both Coles and Sako studied abroad during the spring semester, they corresponded using social media to continue collaborating and producing songs. “Even while we were abroad, I would make a music track without words or a melody and email it to her [Sako]. Or she would email me an a capella version of a song,” Coles said. This creative process — making

music separately and combining their efforts — has worked wonders for the group. Only recently have Coles and Sako begun sitting in the same room to create beats, melodies and lyrics. Since junior year, the band has produced more than eight eclectic songs and has had its debut performance at Colonial Club in early November. Coles and Sako recently dropped a new song, “Libertine,” and continue to release new work weekly on their recently implemented “New Single Sundays.” Looking toward the future, the group hopes to expand its number of followers through its Facebook group and SoundCloud page. After graduation, the duo hopes to continue collaborating and making music. “We could still collaborate, even after graduation. We’ve worked long distance over the summer and when we were studying abroad,” Sako said. “It also depends on this semester and how the rest of this year goes,” Coles added. “We are also going to try to make more music, have more performances and possibly reach out to record labels to release our songs.”

COUTESY OF BROWNI

ST. DANGER T

COUTESY OF RILEY THOMASSON ‘15

campus.

aking its name from an inside joke related to one of the band’s member’s roommates calling “San Pellegrino” (a type of soda) “San Peligro” (St. Danger in Spanish), St. Danger is a student band that will blow you away with their enthusiasm and musicality. Previously part of another student band named Moxie, the trio of Conor McGrory ’16, Doug Wallack ’16 and Kenny Hulpach ’16 define their sound as “classic rock meets indie rock.” Guitarist McGrory, bassist Wallack and drummer Hulpach have been playing together since freshman year and haven’t stopped making music since. They cite Dr. Dog, The Beatles, Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth as musical influences for St. Danger and its sound. The singing is a more collaborative effort that Wallack summed up as

JARRON MCALLISTER Intersections Editor

“there’s a bunch of singing that happens.” In addition to this, Wallack also said that, as a band, “we’re really trying to work on our harmonies.” McGrory noted that it has been a unique and helpful opportunity to grow with a fellow group of musicians. “You learn what the others need,” Hulpach added. St. Danger is constantly growing as a band and as a group of musicians, some of whom started playing their individual instruments after arriving on Princeton’s campus. Songwriting is a group effort for the band. Wallack and and McGrory tend to work through ideas for songs together, while Hulpach occasionally writes whole pieces alone. The band is starting slowly, with more casual performances on campus as they get a sense of their new sound

and direction. St. Danger performed an outdoor show under an arch during Princeton Arts Weekend in October. They stated that they plan to continue building their repertoire and put finishing touches on songs so that they are prepared to play more shows in 2015. St. Danger is interested in collaborating with other musicians and groups on campus, and the members are currently finding inspiration in various artists. Their list includes Wilco, Elliott Smith, Starfucker/STRFKR, and alt-J. “A lot of these artists write some great words,” McGrory added to explain what these artists have in common and how their work influences St. Danger. The band is working hard to write more songs and consolidate their sound. Watch out for these talented men next year and their indie-rockmeets-classic-rock vibe.


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