Sam Rosenthal — founder of Projekt Records and leader of Black Tape for a Blue Girl — was early to carry the darkwave torch. In the liner notes of an early aughts darkwave compilation album, he described the term astutely: “Something underground, submerged, obscure… which swept over you, immersed you, surrounded you. It was a poetic phrase that could describe many different sounds.”
Lurking somewhere on the outskirts of a traditional, unified genre, the umbrella of darkwave stands, the brooding child of ’70s post-punk and new wave that’s given way to its own progeny of styles like gothic rock, cabaret noir, and more. This is all to say, darkwave is roomy — and its foundation is built on a feeling as much as it is instrumental construction. It’s synthesizer-heavy, favors a minor key, often driven by drum machines and samplers. It’s also oozing with melancholia and romance, gloominess, sorrow, and a strong sense of longing. And it’s supremely danceable.
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Sarah Pardini
N8NOFACE is doing darkwave justice, 40-odd years after Rosenthal embraced the same style. Since his start in Tucson, Arizona, N8 has been producing his own iteration of thumping, intense, often grim post-punk — from his literal closet. Then, his story and his sound were wound tightly around addiction and extreme violence — its edges were rougher-hewn, lyrics a gut punch. But since relocating to Long Beach and getting clean, his music has seen its own recovery journey, so to speak. He’s entered a synthier, more new wave-inspired realm, though it’s been exploratory as well. Over the last few years, his take on “synth-punk” has found success, collaborating with artists like Bloody Beetroots, Eyedress, and opening for Limp Bizkit on last year’s Loserville tour. Most recently, N8 announced his signing to Stones Throw, and today, a new project is on its way.
Following last month’s lead single, “Waiting to Wait for You,” we’re getting another taste of As Of Right Now with “Everything We Thought We Knew.” It’s without a doubt that N8 is offering us another side of himself and his artistry on this project, and doing his darkwave due diligence. He’s tapping into the one topic goths like to wallow in, almost as much as melancholy — and that’s love. Cutting through stripped-down synths, a thudding drum machine holds the listener captive. Song to song, almost as if going in and out of character, N8’s voice shifts through new distortions and tones, breaking the eerie hypnosis of the looping lyrics.
Sarah Pardini
“Most songs I have written have come to me through things I have seen or experienced — drug tales, border life and the streets — but I have always been a fan of love, and wrote about that, too,” he says. “Love found in the darkest places, sometimes by the scariest people. I always bounce back and forth from heartbreak in the streets or from a lover. This song explores the cool things about love, while still having a backdrop of the scary, hard world around us.”
We spent the afternoon at an arcade-slash-bowling alley in Long Beach with N8 — located inside a mall where he and his partner Valerie sometimes go and hit the used bookstore. Needless to say, a far cry from his activities back in Arizona around the Mexican drug cartels. Like N8 himself, his work is tough and tender at once — something the artist only reaffirmed, as we talked between frames.
Sarah Pardini
What’s your creative process?
I’m a nut. I create every day. It’s something I have to do every day, but I’m all over the place with it. Sometimes a song will come right then. Sometimes it’s a poem that I wrote, even up to a year ago. It fits with this music that I wrote or had. I normally just get in my room and start messing around, and whether something comes or not, I make sure I do it every single day.
How does your background show up in your music?
Tucson plays a huge part in my music. I always felt like I was the weirdo growing up there. None of my friends are into art or music. Me being the weirdo artist kid who liked comics and different music, I had to hide listening to some music from my friends. I couldn’t listen in their cars. So I think having to hide it and no one showing me nothing, I just would explore myself, dig records by myself in Tucson. I think that’s where a lot of my dark stories come from, too. It’s a huge influence on my music.
Sarah Pardini
What feels different about this project?
I feel like I covered a lot of that, and I’ll always continue writing about it — I get stories from home all the time that are just insane. But this project, just now four years clean off of drugs, I’m going bigger. I really wanted to do something different on this one, working with an outside producer. So this one’s more about. I guess love. I mean, there are a couple songs on there that speak of some stuff going on in the world. But for most of this project, it’s all love and admiration for love. On this new label, I’m definitely going bigger. I’ve done everything up to this point. DIY, just myself recording and making the music in my closet, not even going to a studio. Now with Stones Throw on board, helping me out, we’re going to be in studios now, bringing in another producer. So I just want to go bigger and explore sounds and frequencies that I could never do by myself, but always had the idea to do it.
Any words of advice?
Just never give up and keep creating. I was always weird about being 49 years old and barely starting to get my light. But my boy Eyedress once told me, “Bro, don’t get into your age. Just keep creating. You love to do it, so just don’t stop. Keep making what they like, and they’ll love you and not care about your age.” So that was it. It’s never stopped.
Sarah Pardini
