Nydge

Local producer/songwriter/keyboardist/electro-wizard Nigel Van Hemmye is about to properly unveil his long-gestating new project: NYDGE.

https://soundcloud.com/nydge 
photo by GOOD PALS

This Friday, Nydge is performing in the basement of the Fisher Bldg, an extension of the big celebration for Flint Eastwood's new EP. You can read all about that party via my interview with Jax Anderson in this week's Detroit Free Press entertainment section. 

Most will remember Van Hemmye as one-half of the electro-rock duo Nigel & The Dropout. Nydge is a new direction for the Assemble Sound producer, where he'll be center-stage as a solo artist for the first time. "When making music, I often feed off the energy and encouragement of those around me," said Nydge. "Without a vocalist on stage joining me, I struggled conceptually for a time trying to craft a performance which was still engaging. Being mainly an electronic producer, I have the luxury of choosing which parts of the song I want to represent on stage and I picked the parts I thought would be most fun!"

When he wrote and performed with The Dropout (a.k.a. Andrew Ficker), Van Hemmye would find himself on several stages throughout Detroit, the typical range of bars and clubs with a laserlight-splashed dance-party... but then he would also experience his music in a secluded way, under a pair of serious headphones with his eyes trained on the bedroom ceiling. The Nydge songs should find a middle ground between that contemplative, ambient meditation, and a more kinetic and connective arrangement of synths and percussive samples.

Nydge started releasing singles and showcasing production work on Soundcloud about a year ago, with collaborators like Joe Hertler, Jon Zott, Humons, and Norty, a regular who's who of the scene's cutting edge songwriters and stylists of electronica, dance, and pop.



"These days," Van Hemmye said, "the environment I put myself in is both literally and imaginatively filled with more people, more musicians, more conversations, more head-bobbing, more questions and even - if I'm lucky - more answers." Van Hemmye had a subtle hand in the final production of Flint Eastwood's latest EP, and he's been a hardworking staple in the collective of artists and producers housed at Assemble Sound.

"The past year or so I've been really focusing on collaborating," said Van Hemmye. "Assemble has helped me immensely by broadening my horizons, introducing new talented characters in my life and also focusing some of my own personal ideas and theories about writing. The Nydge songs I have waiting in the wings are more Electronic Pop with mostly "Indie" vocalists..."

As he offers, imagine something like a semi-danceable remix of Miike Snow...

Looking forward to this show, which would be his first proper performance strictly as Nydge, the producer had nothing but praise for the brother-sister duo behind Flint Eastwood. "Jax and SYBLYNG are a great team in the studio whether they are working on Flint Eastwood or helping someone reevaluate a troublesome chorus. They pick a song which they believe in and rework it and rework it until they're happy with it, which requires a kind of patience and determination I admire and am still personally trying to cultivate. At the point where they "brought me in" I think a lot of the structure and production was already there, I recommended a couple production tweaks and helped smooth some transitions between sections. Needless to say, I'm a fan....!"



NYDGE performs Friday Night for Flint Eastwood's EP Release Party
Flint Eastwood
Tunde Olaniran
SYBLYNG
(ft. Bevlove, Britney Stoney, Sam Austins, Lex Lander, Jaye Prime, Kaleb the Intern)
& Michigander
Free Afterparty hosted by Haute to Death & nydge - look for signs at the Fisher Building!