NOAYAMA is NOAH BERGER, a 21-year-old producer-artist from southern Germany. He lives in Linz for his studies. On AFFINE RECORDS veröhe releases his debut. “Consume Land Flea Market’ drives Kastldenker:innen the sweat on the forehead. The NOAYAMA productions can only be classified with name dropping. Because that rarely helps, we prefer to talk – about the fear of the end of the world and the Skrillex sound, the fishy stench in his father’s old studio and the luck that you sometimes need, at least when Björk should get his hands on a record.
I have your record goört. She reminded me of something I can’t name.
Noayama: I hear that more often! The people say: “It reminds me of this and that”. I don’t even know the stuff!
So I’m like, I can’t say what it reminded me of.
Noayama: In fact, that was the approach. I play with familiar elements that I reinterpret. Of course there are 808 sounds, but I don’t give a shit! It must have something to do with my dad. He not only showed me that you don’t have to stick to any musical conventions. Because of him I always had instruments and hardware available.
radio interference, your father’s project, has let off steam musically. Anyone who listens to their early techno records will know. At the same time they were there in the early Glitch Sound era. But that’s not the case for you…
Noayama: The possibilities are very different today, of course. It used to be technically and financially expensive to sound like Aphex Twin or Autechre. That’s why this glitch sound flashed. Today we know these sounds, they are easy to produce. I also wanted to distance myself from my dad in a positive way.
You couldn’t have sounded much worse than your father anyway können.
Noayama: Everything else would be far away from music, yes. The thing is: I got the experimental stuff from a young age. For me, that sound was…
Normal?
Noayama: Exactly. Whenever I heard Autechre, my friends got off. In contrast, pop was something I barely knew or found boring.
Because you with the weirden music were raised
Noayama: Yes, growing up with it in a small town like Rosenheim was a struggle. There’s no subculture there – except for radio interference and a punk band that the brother of the bassist from Franz Ferdinand has made. But maybe it was really nice to be alone on my little island of music.
How do you mean that?
Noayama: You couldn’t leave Rosenheim, that was pure torture! When I was 15, 16, this one was everywhere Skrillex-Sound, what was it called… Dubstep!
Skrillex is back on the big stages with Four Tet and Fred Again, the guy has a second heyday.
Noayama: It’s almost retro again, isn’t it? You just have to listen to what 16-year-olds hear. There it goes Abba or Queen. There is almost a fear of the new!
can you do this
Noayama: Many just understand that TikTok and Insta is not mega awesome for your own brain. Suddenly people are pulling out a Walkman again or getting a cell phone with a button. There is a love-hate relationship with technology.
Where does this love hate come from?
Noayama: We have so many options, it can quickly seem overwhelming. At the same time, we are under pressure to deliver constantly. As a result, some are afraid to do something blatant. There has probably never been a generation before us that looks so backwards.
In the outfit, the sound, or …?
Noayama: If I like old carts that my father was ashamed of.
Do you have a guess as to where this orientation to the Äaesthetics of the past?
Noayama: We are afraid of the future. Do you know how many friends I have who say they don’t want to put children into this world? Whether it’s climate change or a virus, there is a fear of the end of the world among the younger generation.
Do you have that too?
Noayama: No. If someone asked me when I would like to live, my answer would be: now!
Very few say that your age, right?
Noayama: Many say they wish they had been born in the 70’s or 80’s. They forget the Cold War, Chernobyl, sexism… But for the latter, a show like Bet that?! Just think what sexist crap Thomas Gottschalk spouted while half of Germany saw it, heard it and still didn’t say anything … Nevertheless, he is still a legend today.
Because people would rather cling to a fucking secure past than an uncertain future that might be betteröwhat?
Noayama: There are reasons why ancient film franchises suddenly go again or such a program is shown again on television.
Let’s get back to your music: you use old synthesizers for example. Actually köyou could produce everything on the laptop.
Noayama: I’m less concerned with the sound and more with turning the knobs. This gives me crazy ideas that I don’t have on my laptop.
But tracks like “Majesty” or “There Were Times” don’t just sound like crazy ideas. They go as productions from Earl Sweatshirt through.
Noayama: I was totally into his things as a child. That was so blatantly depri, fortunately I didn’t understand it when I was twelve. But yeah… “There Were Times” is one of the first songs I ever did. Anothr, my neighbor and friend, sang over it. This is a brilliant musician, he can do everything. Still, I wouldn’t want to swap places with him.
How come?
Noayama: He finds the electronics of radio interference just as cool as Blur or Damon Albarn from the Gorillaz. At the same time, as a trained musician, he can also produce everything. On the other hand, I benefit from my limited options because I limit myself.
“I HAVE A BIG EGO BUT EVERY CREATIVE HAS THAT, RIGHT?”
When did you start producing?
Noayama: With my first laptop when I was 15. In the beginning one of 20 tracks was useable, now half is quite good!
You used to go to the studio with your dad, didn’t you?
Noayama: He used to have his studio in the center of Rosenheim – directly above a fish shop. That’s why my old radio interference shirts still smell like fish. When I started third grade, he moved to our basement with everything. So I’ve always had a synthesizer in my hand and pressed the buttons. Sometimes I also had hits that my dad could use. For example, when I was three, I accidentally set music to a part of a BMW commercial.
You had no choice but to become an artist.
Noayama: I don’t know if there is a predisposition to it. My grandparents didn’t check what my dad was doing for a long time – until my grandfather read an interview with radio interference in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Suddenly he respected it. A cut of the interview is still hanging in the kitchen.
Do you sometimes feel like you can’t make some mistakes because your father tells you how to avoid them?
Noayama: He always stayed out of it, I give him credit for that. Nevertheless, he is there when I have a question. That’s probably why I don’t separate myself from my parents, like some of my friends do – we talk about everything and also tell each other if we don’t like something.
Are you good at accepting criticism?
Noayama: Not at all in the first minute. After that I’m looking forward to it.
And?
Noayama: I have a big ego, but every creative has that, right?
Presumably it takes the ego to turn outward.
Noayama: I was talking to a friend about Fred Again. She thinks he’s good, but didn’t dare say so in front of me because I was upset about him. I even find him likeable. But I don’t think it’s as unique as everyone thinks.
Are you saying that because you know better?önntest?
Noayama: Not at all, he has a much bigger commercial claim than I do. As a result, he doesn’t just do what he wants to do creatively – at least the music doesn’t sound completely authentic to me.
“I WANT MORE PEOPLE TO HEAR GOOD MUSIC. AT THE SAME TIME I DON’T WANT TO IMPOSE MY OWN IDEA ON ANYBODY.”
Is that why you were upset?
Noayama: Maybe there is a bit of a misunderstanding behind the fact that Fred Again gets x times more attention than, for example Wandlwho has more talent for me.
Talent rarely has to do with commercial success, does it?
Noayama: Or with luck! My dad sent the early productions of Funk Stör to a label, they pressed it – and Björk bought one by accident, the rest is history. Who knows what he would have done if that hadn’t happened.
Sellout I would therefore still not attest to him.
Noayama: Exactly, my dad always wanted to be unique. He would even have hated it if everyone had suddenly heard radio interference. I see that in myself too. On the one hand, I want more people to hear good music. At the same time, I don’t want to impose my own ideas on anyone – I would be much too in need of harmony for that anyway.
Where do you find the compromise between your opinion and other perspectives?
Noayama: In cooperation! After all, I mostly produce my instrumentals by myself. So the moment I get someone else’s vocals for my instrumentals is all the more exciting. Because of the external perspective that someone projects onto my piece, the track develops in a new, completely different direction. You can tell by the moods.
How do you mean that?
Noayama: I usually make music when something stupid happened. So maybe it’s a good thing that I haven’t produced much lately.
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Links:
Noayama (Instagram)
Noayama (Soundcloud)
Affine Records (Homepage)