“Firstly and fore-mostly I am really, really careful not to be an on-the-nose revivalist. It is important that my music isn’t just retreading old tracks. It’s hard to speak about my own art like this but I think if I were to pitch it to someone, I’d say that it takes a lot of influence from a lot of different electronic sub-genres from the ‘90s but it’s not just a ‘90s throwback, it is informed by huge electronic studio acts from that era like Underworld, Chemical Brothers and The Prodigy and it is also influenced by early 2000’s UK garage but also bass music that is happening now,” contends Hayden Quinn aka Null. “It is extremely important to me that I don’t fall into this, ‘Awww he’s just doing that again’ category.”
Growing up in Canberra, Quinn had a passion for alternative music with the city’s well-known Landspeed Records, a shop specialising in independent music, which was a hub for him to discover new and interesting music. However, it wasn’t just the aforementioned UK dance juggernauts that shaped Quinn’s music, it was also two archetypal post-metal acts as well as the sounds he hears in everyday life that are known as ‘found sounds’ when used in musical recordings.
“I really like field recordings and found sound a lot. I don’t believe these two techniques are used in club music that much at the moment. These techniques I draw from my favourite moments off The Mars Volta records and some of my songs are quite long and structurally progressive that I pull from being a huge Tool fan.” And it’s worth noting Quinn’s varied use of techniques and early ‘90s influence has resulted in his production; relying on 50 per cent hardware synths and drum machines and 50 per cent Logic Pro (Apple Pro) made change from FL Studio.
Quinn’s meticulous and cautious approach to his music has resulted in Null drip-feeding his output via remixes before his debut release this, like The Presets Goodbye Future,and his celebrated rerun of Canadian act Trust’s Rescue Mr.He discusses how these two fully endorsed remixes came about, but first gives some clues as to when Null originals will be released.
“I have a heap of original material due out next year,” he reveals. “2014 was just about finding some good remixes – not necessarily get my profile up, but more to try my sound out and see what kind of artist it would work with.
“The Goodbye Future remix came about because I know some people who know The Presets, and when the song came out I heard it and it had these huge pianos in it and nodded to a lot of the hardcore rave music that I was really into at that specific time. It seemed so crazy that they put that out the same month I had been listening to all that hardcore ravey stuff from the ‘90s it worked so well with,” contends Quinn.
Looking forward to Null’s first major performance this Friday night at Paradise Music Festival where he opens the Clubland stage at 10pm, Quinn discusses what punters can expect: “The live performance involves a little bit of hardware and a laptop, but I try to make it a bit more interesting by bringing an old drum sequencer from ‘98 along to amplify the really interesting sounds from that era that feature in my music.”
BY DAN WATT
