Exploring new sounds and genres with Adam Dove

Adam is a sound artist, an experimental ambient musician who goes by the name Nexcyia. He works with found sound often weaving together harsh sound designs with larger sound landscapes. 

In this episode, we talk to Adam about the work he's produced, both as Adam Dove, sound artist, and as Nexcyia, ambient music producer. We discuss how those two roles differ and where his ideas have come from for new work. 

Instagram handle: @nexcyia 

Website: https://nexcyia.com/

Discover more about UAL Awarding Body qualifications.

Transcript

Matt M: Hello and welcome to the Teach Inspire Create podcast. I'm your host, Matt Mosley, chief Examiner for Art and Design at UAL Awarding Body. Each episode I speak to artists and creative industry leaders about three main themes, teaching, inspiring and creating. We talk about their experiences of teaching and being taught who or what inspires them, and we explore how they foster creativity in their work with the hope of showing you that there are infinite ways to be creative in the arts.

Matt M: Today, my guest is Adam Dove. He's a sound artist, an experimental ambient musician who goes by the name Nexcyia.

Matt M: he works with found sound often weaving together harsh sound designs with larger sound landscapes.

Matt M: In this episode, I'm interested in talking to Adam about the work he's produced, both as Adam Dove sound artist and as Nexcyia ambient music producer. I'm interested to understand how those two roles differ and where his ideas have come from for new work.

Matt M: There's a transcript available for this episode.

Matt M: Please click the link in the episode description so you can read as you listen. 

opening:

Matt M: Hi Adam. Thank you ever so much for joining us today on the Teaching Inspire Create podcast. It's brilliant to have you.

Adam Dove: Thank you very much for having me,

Matt M: Great. So we usually lead off by asking our guests a little bit about education or teachers that might have set you on this path that you're on at the moment?

Adam Dove: Yeah, sure. I mean, I think it all started like from the very beginning. When I was a kid, I always used to draw. I always used to in my own time I would do my own thing and doodle around.

Adam Dove: And when I went to high school my art teacher Anne Gardner she always pushed me to do whatever I wanted to do. She was super inspiring. And yeah, like I wasn't that great of a drawer. That's the thing. There's so many better people out there in my class.

Adam Dove: And she's just do you know, do your thing. It's fine. That's your aesthetic. And I, I just loved it anyways. I wasn't, I was never a good observational drawer but she always…

Matt M: But did that kind of change your mindset about drawing and creativity, that sort of validation that you get that actually the thing that you do is, has as much value as the other thing that the more traditional thing?

Adam Dove:  It doesn't have to be perfect. Yeah. And I think that's the main thing, I think.

Adam Dove: I grew up in the French system, a schooling system where everything was super strict and if you had a bad grade, you'd get called out for it and then when I went to this international school, it wasn't like that anymore. It was super chill

Adam Dove: If I can say it like that, 

Matt M: and so did art or creativity start to come through then as your main area of interest?

Adam Dove: Yeah.

Adam Dove: it became sort of a therapy in some ways, freedom of expression and, it was something that I always liked. And yeah yeah, that it pulled me towards, that community of artists where, everyone was super engaged and nice and yeah.

Adam Dove: Collaborative in some ways.

Matt M: The art teacher, Anne Gardner, employ any specific strategies to foster this new, excitement about creativity?

Adam Dove: Yeah when I was in her class, I was interested in this street artist called Invader. Dunno if you know him, but he's quite big and he has all these tiles everywhere in Paris.

Adam Dove: And I was like, should I try and do something similar? Should I do this? And she was like, yeah. Even though street art is kind of like, not , it's illegal, but not, it's something that she like really pushed me to do. And I, yeah, I brought back all these documentation, footage.

Adam Dove: I brought it back and she was really impressive and that, yeah we bonded really well because she always pushed me to do 

Matt M: But she's also, I guess breaking down those boundaries about, what we see as sort of acceptable. So your first introduction to, to the arts is quite visual based, you're working as a visual artist at this point?

Adam Dove: yeah correct yeah 

Matt M: When did you sort of start to transition into sound-based work?

Adam Dove: I would say, well, I've, my dad he always played music in the house and my mom got these drumming lessons for me, like on the weekends and stuff like that.

Adam Dove: But then I left that behind. And I think my mom also like really was really rooting for me to be a, a painter, I think. So when I moved to London the whole idea was to start my foundation degree in painting.

Adam Dove: And then I discovered throughout that time I felt like it was super competitive. I couldn't I couldn't bear being in the studio with all these amazing, I think I had this imposter syndrome, I think. And it was really hard to put the paintbrush on the canvas.

Adam Dove: I just couldn't do it. And then I moved courses and I studied film, but then sound for some reason became the main goal. My tutors say that sound makes up 70% of emotion in film.

Matt M: Yeah, absolutely.

Adam Dove: So without sound, the film wouldn't, be able to evoke, the same feeling.

univeristy work

Adam Dove: so when I first moved to London when I was doing this foundation degree, I met these guys that were producing music. Yeah. In in the student halls. So that was almost like my first introduction. But I was still doing film at as my foundation degree.

Adam Dove: At the time I was learning how to produce, I was making very experimental. I was like messing around. I didn't know any, music theory at the time, but I was messing with samples and editing audio clips and just collaging them essentially.

Adam Dove: And I was like, ah, maybe I could include this in the film Foundation. And then towards the end of the foundation degree we had to choose what a BA to do. And so I saw sound art BA in Sound or LCC. And yeah, the tutor came down to see my presentation. And I talked about sound.

Adam Dove: I talked about how like yeah, how important it is in film. And I got into the course. 

music? 

Matt M: Does visual material influence your work , and vice versa?

Adam Dove: Yeah, well, I think after doing the film foundation, I wanted to include a lot of visuals in my sound artwork at LCC.

Adam Dove: And so, I started getting clips off YouTube and chopping them up and yeah using archival material and layering them with basically making a whole audio visual experience. 

Matt M: Is there a particular themes or ideas that you're exploring through that? 

Adam Dove: Well, especially I think in the at the start of the BA I was very much interested in identity and Afrofuturism and I was looking at a lot of, lot of black musicians, lot of black American musicians, like Flying Lotus, John Coltrane, Sun Rah and all of that, and their visual aesthetic real, it, it just appealed to me so much. There's a whole, yeah, there's this whole idea of liberation, which I felt very much.

Adam Dove: So for my, one of my last or final pieces at LCC, I made a, like a visual album, which was inspired by Flying Lotus's visual album, it's called Captain Murphy. Dunno if you've seen that. It's really great. So I tried making something very similar, my piece was called Space Error. 

Adam Dove: It was an inspiration of, capturing found footage, speeding it up, reversing it, and, layering hip hop, but like experimental hip hop and ambient together.

Matt M: Sometimes with, students, there's a bit of a barrier they feel about directly using, work that they aspire to make themselves, or that they, they look up to, but obviously you found a way to, push through that or repurpose the work , into something new.

Adam Dove: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well I think it's the same with sampling. A lot of people that sample music are thanking, I think, yeah, they're thanking the music I think as well. But yeah, I think it's super important to pay homage to a lot of the older artists and the upcoming ones as well.

music

Matt M: And so then you move on to a master's degree, don't you, after that, do you have a gap between your degree in MA or do you move straight into it?

Adam Dove: There was a little gap. I moved to LA for a bit. Did an internship I worked at Sony as a mastering engineer. For a little bit. And became a bit too corporate for me. And but it was super nice. Like everyone was super, super cool.

Matt M: And did it help inform your creative practice through some of the work that you were doing there?

Adam Dove: Yeah. They taught me how to master my own music. And I saw them master some insane films like Frozen.

Matt M: Oh, wow. Right.

Adam Dove: and yeah, like some crazy la la Land and stuff like that. 

Matt M: So you obviously returned back to London to go to the RCA to do your contemporary art practice. So is that a sort of a, a mixed course? 

Adam Dove: Yeah. So their range of pathways, and I, did a critical practice.

Adam Dove: The critical practice pathway was for people that were, that already came with a practice that, wanted to, like for me, I came with a sound art background and my critical practice was, messing with sound and doing sound installations and stuff like that.

Adam Dove: So, yeah, that degree was great. It was two years.

Matt M: So are you encouraged to work collaboratively with people or are you working specifically on your own projects in that 

Adam Dove: I was working on my own projects, but a lot of people that didn't know how to work with sound or, record sound, I.

Adam Dove: Always wanted to help them out. So even if it was composing music or anything like that, I would give them a hand. 

Matt M: So in terms of those collaborative relationships, how do they work?

Adam Dove: They work in a, in a very organic way. We're all in the studio together. And like I'd be working on something in my own little space and yeah, the people would just reach out or, tap on my shoulder and be like, Hey, do you want to help me out with this?

Adam Dove: And it would just be a very simple, giving a hand to someone. But then I also came with a pretty yeah, I had a portfolio and I had a sound art background and I was the only sound person in the whole class. So, yeah. Naturally people were like, oh, can you do this? Can you do skillset?

Adam Dove: Exactly. People want it to, and so

Matt M: So in that relationship, in that situation, is it they say, would you like to work together? 

Adam Dove: The first one they would reach out to me to add my own sound essentially. And whatever they saw online or whatever, they were like, oh, can you do something similar but add this or, it was always like that, I think.

Matt M: So do you ever seek out to work collaboratively? Cause obviously these people are all, are coming to you because of your skillset, but do you ever go, and find an artist to work with on something specific?

Adam Dove: More recently, yes. I've been sending a lot of music for people to feature on and stuff like that. And yeah we've done that through, it's almost we're not in the studio together, but a lot of us will be sending each other stems and tracks and we'll just add on top.

Adam Dove: And so yeah, I'm working with this artist called Mutate on some music and Florian who's also another great artist. I'm working on, he's working on my album. He has a couple ideas to add. He's a bass player, so, right. And I'm always keeping in touch with the latest releases on band camp and et cetera. So I'm keeping an eye out with the latest album of, whoever. It's, it's always been like that, I'll definitely reach out to people that are just super nice and hey or we'll chat and yeah, get something working.

musicinterfearence project

Matt M: So Adam, I'm aware of your project interference, which has sort of traveled with you for quite a significant amount of time, hasn't it, through different experiences. Can you tell us a bit about that project?

Adam Dove: Yeah, sure. It all started actually at LCC as well during my BA and my tutor, Milo was very instrumental in getting this project together because he recommended this book by Jennifer Stover.

Adam Dove: It's called The Sonic Color Line, and it basically talks about the sonification of race and the racialization of listening. And it inspired this piece called 'Interfearence' it's essentially about police brutality. It's about how, how we don't listen to each. It's about race.

Adam Dove: And I basically take the footage of Sandra Bland who got arrested in 2013, if I'm correct, or 2014. And I'm essentially splitting the audio and editing the audio so that one voice, Sandra Bland's voice is on the left speaker and the police officers on the right. And it's essentially a piece that you interact with.

Adam Dove: You walk around it and you hear these different sounds and different perspectives and and all you can hear in the audio is fear actually. And so that's why it's called interference. And , Jennifer Stover talks about W.E.B. Du Bois, who mentions this veil, this sonic wall, that this transparent wall that that's basically dividing black people and white people, and they essentially can't hear each other.

Adam Dove: So that's essentially the piece. It's fear or it's sound interfering with fear and it's fear interfering with sound. So in the audio clip they're both shouting at each other, but they can't hear each other. And this transparent wall is essentially blocking the sounds. 

Matt M: So you stand in the space you are engaging with different sides of an argument or a conflicting argument?

Adam Dove: Exactly. For my master's degree, I basically continued working on it and updated the work. I basically used a car door instead of the perspex glass. Because I thought it was more symbolic to all these, police stops and the car door's basically laying on top of the speaker.

Adam Dove: My mom even participated in using her voice for the sound installation which was super powerful as well because my mom's from Texas and she, that police stop happened around that town, that village.

Adam Dove: It's such a powerful piece. I'm still working on it now. I have a show in Florence where I'm actually gonna be showing the piece for black History Month yeah, next month in Florence. So it's super, super exciting and my mom's gonna be there. 

Matt M: It sounds amazing. 

Adam Dove: Yeah. Thank you. 

Matt M: Do you look for specific spaces that you want to show the work in or do the spaces invite you to exhibit and then you adapt the work?

Adam Dove: Yeah, I would say the, then the spaces do invite me and then I adapt the work for this sound installation interference. When it got showed at Cromwell Place, it was super chaotic and I actually didn't really like the outcome of it because there was so much going on and because it was a student MA student degree show, there's just so much everywhere.

Adam Dove: And I couldn't really crank up the volume for the piece because it's supposed to be quite intimate but also like provocative. It's supposed to catch you in some ways. But I didn't want to interfere with other people's work. It's funny cause it's called interference, but, yeah.

Matt M: So do you find it works best in an enclosed space where it's, it's unique and bespoke to that, that space and experience?

Adam Dove: Yeah. So for the Florence Show, it's gonna be showed in a prison cell.

Matt M: Oh, wow.

Adam Dove: Yeah. And it's gonna be super interesting, the acoustics and everything. Yeah. Can't wait to install it. Yeah, we'll see how that goes. 

Matt M: I mean, there's something really interesting in there, isn't there, about the connotations and the history of that, the prison cell, and the experiences of the people that have inhabited that space before this work.

Adam Dove: Exactly. It ties in the whole idea of, confrontation and noise and yeah.

Adam Dove: It's gonna be a loud piece, I think. 

musicwork as music producer

Matt M: We've taken quite a deep dive into your artistic practice, but you are also a musician.

Matt M: You produce music under the name Nexcyia. Can you tell us a bit about your music work?

Adam Dove: Yeah. I first started with Nexcyia, with this alias during lockdown actually. And I first released this EP called Crawl on Alien Jams which is ran by Chloe Freda and she's a really awesome label manager. When I started making music under Nexcyia, it was in some ways escapism. It was locked down. I, I was with my family in, in France and Paris and we were all like, it was getting super claustrophobic, being with family for so long, you, it was really hard. The EP crawl was about loneliness about, in some ways about lockdown and about belonging as well. And about mental health, one of my favorite projects, I think.

Matt M: So you're still exploring quite strong themes and concepts through, through the music work in comparison with the sound art, as a practitioner, is there a identifiable difference in approach or how it feels?

Adam Dove: Yeah, I would say so. I think, I mean, maybe the, they're the same because I, I'll put as much effort into the music and it's the same with sound art.

Adam Dove: I'll put as much effort into the concept. And so, Yeah, they, they go hand in hand like it's a practice 

Matt M: Are you trying to do something different with the music than you are with the sound art?

Adam Dove: Yeah. I would say that they're different in some ways, like they're both separate like my live shows are, are very separate to my sound installations.

Adam Dove: Even though for this Florence show, for example I'll be doing a performance and I'll be showing my sound artwork, which is gonna be the first time that I'll be practicing on both mediums in the same space, which is really cool. 

Matt M: What genre or space would you say your music exists in?

Adam Dove: It's so hard to answer

Matt M: sorry.

Adam Dove: But I would say it's experimental, it's experimental, ambient. It's hard to stamp a label on it. It's super, super hard. It's in that spectrum I think, of of ambient because now nowadays I feel like ambient music has changed a lot. You can basically define ambient music as a soundscape.

Adam Dove: There's so many words and terms but I would say that Nexcyia music is ambient and experimental.

Matt M: Is there something different for you in existing under that pseudonym? Is there a relinquishing of worry or concern?

Adam Dove: Yeah. It's funny because an alias can be quite, a lot of artists will use their artist's name as super seriously.

Adam Dove: And like I, I do too as And I remember for each show I wanted to transform into Nexcyia or like a werewolf. How you like, basically change when it's a full moon or anything like that. It's for each show, for example, I would wear a hat and if I didn't wear that hat, I wasn't I wasn't Nexcyia anymore. I was Adam.

Matt M: Helps you embody the characteristics or the persona. 

Adam Dove: Yeah exactly. But now, not so much anymore. I do separate both of them a lot. But yeah, it's not like I change character. Like I'll always be Adam 

pause/music 

Matt M: As a music producer, do you have a preconceived idea of where you want that track to go? Or does it grow and build through the process?

Adam Dove: It definitely grows and builds through the process. When I sit down and start producing music, it's very much I don't work like on a grid, it's super random. Like I'll start, for example, looking for a sample or I'll start digging through my own archives of samples that I've saved. But I'll always start with like a mood, I think, and how I'm feeling that day. So if the sample hits that right mood, then I'll like add on top of it, I think.

Matt M: It's interesting, isn't it, about how simple sometimes those starting points can be and how big they can become. 

Adam Dove: I think that helps a lot. There's a lot of creative block as well in music. There are a lot of times where I sit down and I can't think of any ideas, like I won't find the right batch of samples.

Adam Dove: And if I go through 20 samples that day or that morning, and they're not right then I just can't, I can't work. It's really hard.

Matt M: Do you then, do you then leave music alone? You go to film or art? Like where do your other ideas come from?

Adam Dove: I'll take a step back. I think if I can't work on anything that day, which is super, super hard, it's quite depressing.

Adam Dove: I'll go for a walk, come back, grab a coffee, and get back on essentially. 

Matt M: Do you have other sources beyond, audio visual that you take influence from for your work?

Adam Dove: Sure, sure. I work at White Cube as a Gallery Assistant and a lot of the paintings will inspire me quite a bit.

Adam Dove: Even documentaries and Netflix films that I'll, see things like that I can definitely take inspiration from and oh, okay, maybe I'll try and, get that mood this is exactly what I'm looking for, or

Matt M: and so what element of a painting might inspire you? Is it about colors?

Adam Dove: Yeah, it'll be the colors, the texture, the atmosphere that it brings into the room or the, the mood. There's this artist, Michael Armitage, he had a really great show at White Cube last year. And a lot of his work is like super afro surrealist and I love that so much.

Adam Dove: A lot of his visual aesthetic definitely kinda works in what I'm doing in some ways.

Matt M: And so when you're performing live, what does that look like for you?

Adam Dove: Well, I'm using Ableton. I'm using this software, this DAW called Ableton. And I have a drum machine a granular synthesizer. It's called the GR one by Tasty Chips. It's quite a nice synth. And then I just have these controllers and I, play live.

Matt M: Cool. Yeah. Cause that's often a challenge, isn't it, for sort of electronic musicians to transition into a into live performance, 

Adam Dove: every show is semi-improvised, so I'm always live sampling my music. I'm always capturing bits of it and then feeding it out because I, produce tracks and songs, I'll basically deconstruct the layers and the stems and I'll basically trigger them on my drum machine and modify them live. So it's, it's different every time. But there's a structure, there's always a structure.

Matt M: Yeah. So you sort of have a lane that you're gonna operate in, but within that you've got some freedom to create in the moment?

Adam Dove: yeah. To add bits on top and Yeah. To add samples or,

Matt M: What are some of the things that are influencing the decisions that you're making in terms of what you are sampling and playing back? 

Adam Dove: I don't know. It's when I perform live, I perform for myself . like I said, it's my own therapy, but I also invite people to, come watch and listen.

Matt M: Great. So could your mood or your own personal experience of that moment can influence what you are creating? 

Adam Dove: Yeah, sure. I've definitely had some terrible sets where I've been like, well, super anxious before going on, and I'll mess up, for example.

Adam Dove: Yeah. But there's always a structure. 

Matt M: How have you learned to move past those feelings of anxiety? Or do they still happen?

Adam Dove: It's hard to say because I'll always be anxious no matter what, when I go on stage or even a podcast like this, like it's quite anxious doing as well. It's scary. I think the first show that I did was at Corsica Studios and I was showing my like hip hop production and there must be a YouTube clip somewhere on YouTube of my first live show. And I was super nervous. I couldn't eat before going on stage. Like I think I had a beer, I think and that's it. 

Adam Dove: but I forgot everything. Yeah, I remember bringing these two drum machines and I forgot what to do. And I think it just, you, when you blank out a little bit. That's what happened. 

Adam Dove: The biggest show that I did was playing at the Barbican with Katerina Barbieri, and that was in front of 2000 people. A lot of people. Sold out show. And it's funny because I wasn't that anxious for that show, which was weird.

Adam Dove: I just played it like any other gig and it doesn't like, really matter the amount of people that that are in front of you. But yeah if you do it repetitively, like you'll basically be stronger at it..

Matt M: Yeah. It's just interesting isn't, cause I think there's, there might be some people listening to this, who would, yeah.

Matt M: They, they have strong aspirations to, to perform live or to create sound art and present those things or any kind of art. But these feelings of concern become overwhelming but I think the principle there is that it's important to take the leap and then to do it repetitively and you become more comfortable in the environment.

Adam Dove: Yeah. I've, the worst things have happened to me on stage. My laptop crashed once while I was playing, it was my first show at Cafe Oto, which is really renowned for experimental music. And my, yeah, my computer crashed

Matt M: how did you solve that?

Adam Dove: in the first 20 minutes.

Adam Dove: Just crashed. Yeah. It just shut, like the music just, yeah. It just stopped. It's just stopped and I looked up. and I was like, guys, my computer crashed, I couldn't do anything about it.

Adam Dove: And I told them, bear with me, I'll be back in two minutes. And I just reboot, rebooted my computer and played. But everyone was clapping and supportive because that's, that's the music community, especially the, in the experimental scene people were cheering me on. Yeah. And I grabbed my beer and I just continued playing.

Matt M: Well, I think that's brilliant, isn't it? That's that. I think that's what people really want to hear, is that, the worst thing that can happen can happen. But actually there's something about people, your, your community or people you know will, will more often than not support you. Weren't they in that environment?

Adam Dove: Yeah. It wasn't pretentious or it wasn't like, there were no “boos” and “ah you suck”, there's none of that. It was really, it was a really nice crowd and I remember. After the show I kept saying oh my God, I can't believe my computer crashed.

Adam Dove: I'm so embarrassed. And a lot of people were like, oh, really? I didn't know that, that, I didn't know that that happened. Yeah.

Matt M: just thought that the, for the, the, the absence of sound was as important as the it's a high concept moment.

Adam Dove: Yeah. They probably thought it was part of the, the set, which is so funny.

Matt M: It reminded me a little bit of, what you were saying about your, your early high school teacher about saying that things don't have to be perfect.  When and where do you feel most creative?

musicwhere do you feel most creative?

Adam Dove: I think, I think it really depends. When I'm thinking about this question, I'm thinking about maybe the shows that I've been to that inspire me and like actually just making me want to run back home and go into the studio and try and make something cool.

Adam Dove: It will definitely be like seeing my friends play live, I think. And that's where I get super motivated. I'm like, wow. Like I need to try and do something like that. This is super cool. But yeah, I feel most creative when I'm active. When I'm taking part of the community.

Matt M: Again it's this idea of immersing yourself into the thing that you love or that you're excited by isn't it? And then drawing ideas and energy and potential opportunities from that.

Adam Dove: Exactly. 

creative provocation

Matt M: so Adam, we ask each of our guests if they will set a creative provocation to our listeners. So that can be a call to action, a thought, an idea, a concept that they'd like people to explore. So do you have anything in mind that you'd like to set?

Adam Dove: Well, I think for an introverted person like me, I think, I want to challenge all the introverts to get out there to take part and do group shows and socialize more.

Adam Dove: Cause I've definitely had moments where I'm just inside. I'm not moving. And yeah, like I would say just be active and take part, take part of a community that that cares about you and Yeah. 

Matt M: So is that something you have to remind yourself to do sometimes?

Adam Dove: Yeah. Even if it's like going out and hanging out with friends. I think that's super valuable. Like, You don't want to lose contact and, it's really hard if you're like an artist working on your own all the time. Yeah. So yeah. Being engaged, being socially engaged is, is the word .

Matt M: I think that's great. 

ending

Matt M: Adam, thank you ever so much for your time and for being so generous with all of your insights today. 

Adam Dove: Thank you so much for having me. I was really nervous, but thank you so much. We made it. 

Matt M: We did. 

Adam Dove: We made it.

music 

Matt M: thanks again to Adam Dove for joining us. What a fantastic insight into being a sound artist and ambient music producer. We're really grateful for his time today and for him sharing all of his expertise. If you want to know more about Adam and his work, you can follow him on Instagram at nexcyia, that's N E X C Y I A, or on his website www.nexcyia.com.

Matt M: You'll find a link to both of these in our episode description. 

Matt M: If you've enjoyed this podcast, please do subscribe and why not share with someone else you think might be interested.

Matt M: And please do rate us and review us wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps us to continue to know how to improve this experience for you. It just remains for me to say thanks again for listening to this series. It's been a wonderful experience for me to get to talk to all of these amazing creatives and understand a little bit more about their practice and just be able to look behind the scenes of all the amazing work that they do.

Matt M: So until next time, please do take care of yourselves, and I look forward to speaking to you again soon. Bye-bye.