Spotlight On... Nick Dow

Today, Edinburgh-based electronic producer Nick Dow has released his first album in six years, the gorgeously cinematic Struck. Loosely following themes of life, death and rebirth, its largely instrumental eight tracks ooze emotion, at times calling to mind artists like Jon Hopkins. We catch up with Dow to find out more about his inspirations growing up and get st(r)uck into his latest body of work.

Firstly, I’d love to know when you started making music and who/what inspired you to get into music growing up?
I learned to play music from a young age but didn’t start recording until [I was] around 14/15. My parents bought me an 8-track one birthday and my whole world changed from then on. My father was a guitarist and singer and taught me to play, sing and jam from the get-go so he’s the one I mainly attribute to igniting the flame.

I can really hear artists like Jon Hopkins in your work, so I wanted to ask, what artists would you say influence you as a producer and what is it you love about their work?
As a producer I’ve always found artists like Apparat, Clark and James Holden, plus many more very inspiring (Jon Hopkins is excellent too). They all share an incredible sense of melody and space, produce with razor detail and have a strong emphasis on texture in their work, while retaining a sound that is undoubtedly their own. I grew up with a lot of 60s/70s folk, rock, reggae and I think that also finds its way in there somewhere.

You’ve just released Struck, your first album in six years. What was the idea behind its creation?
There’s was no real idea when forming the album… It loosely follows cyclical themes of life, death and rebirth but that’s mainly based on my circumstances during the writing period. I like music that makes you lose sense of space and time, something that grabs a hold of you and throws you around for a while. My aim was to create a sonic force of that ilk... physically or emotionally overpowering in one way or another.

You say Struck as “an album that takes a mountain of dance music histories and threads a needle directly through each.” Can you talk us through each of these histories that helped inform the record?
That description comes from music writer Michael McKinney who helped with the bio. My first forays into electronic music-making were with dub, emulating the washed-out reverbs, seas of delay and heavy bass. It was then a natural progression to move into higher tempo dance music as I started clubbing in my late teens. From there I spent over a decade playing live, traversing the lines between house, techno, electro, even bordering on trance at times, all the while writing slower instrument based electronica and ambient in my downtime.

I’ve collected a lot of genre-specific production tropes and techniques in the last 20+ years of practicing various styles and as time moves on they are all starting to meld together, which I really love. The music is getting weirder and weirder but it’s finally starting to find a voice of its own.

You also describe it as 'cinematic electronica', and it does feel very cinematic. I’ve asked a lot about sonic influences, so I'm keen to know what sort of cinematic/visual influences were you drawing from when writing?
I use the word cinematic as a sense of scale, detail or emotional intensity as opposed to having any direct relation to cinema although there may be a visual correlation to my process somewhere… I have often thought that I have some sort of synesthesia as I’m always unintentionally picturing an environment, space or thing when writing music. Some tracks on the album feel like living entities or machines to me, I can see the arms and legs moving and the landscapes they’re traveling through.

A lot of people say to me that my music would be great in films although I tend to read that as ‘your music is a bit too weird for anywhere else’, ha. On a related side note, I’ve filmed visual accompaniments for each track on the album if people want to watch something whilst listening.

On the gorgeous and emotionally-charged title track, the accompanying music video is a collage of old family photos following the passing of your father – what was this process like for you pulling this together and why was it important for you to do so?
The photo scanning started off as a cathartic way to spend time with my father after he passed although as my mother was also then fading from a long battle with cancer, what had become a music video quickly turned into a way of memorialising them both and the wonderful time, love and connection we shared as a family.

I’m always amazed by largely instrumental music that manages to feel full of emotion, which is something you succeed at across the record – how did you go about distilling that into the music, and were there any emotions in particular that you were trying to convey across its eight tracks?
Like learning any craft, a lot of practice helps refine your skills, which in turn help you to paint/describe/articulate a more realistic picture of what you’re seeing/thinking/feeling. I can hear in the tracks how I felt at the time of making them but I’m never conscious of attempting to convey a particular emotion at any point in the process.

I made the title track when I first met my partner so it very much encapsulates that overpowering feeling of falling in love, like being struck with a lightning bolt. On the flip side, when I made the track Forget/Remember, I was looking after my father when he just returned from hospital and was in his last few days. I can really hear the love, sadness and awe in those tracks; there’s a story to everything although not every one is so vivid. I always start with a blank canvas, try my best to be honest and just let whatever fly.

With the album out now, what does the rest of the year have in store for you?
I’ve been working on a live A/V version of the album for playing some more shows. I’m also just finishing up mixing the next album so will be moving forwards with that and I’m very much looking forward to making some new music.

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Struck is out on now via Other Realm Recordings

Follow Nick Dow on Instagram @nickdddow