Ask any number of artists about their hopes and goals, and you’re likely to hear most of them say something along the lines of getting their name out there or making a name for themselves.
But what if an artist goes by many names? What if a musician is concerned less with trying to package the best version of themselves for an audience and more with exploring and detouring into all of their many different possible versions?
Well, that would be Colin Nance, the mastermind behind the indie-synthwave sounds of Softaware, but also the mammoth industrial techno of Modern Slasher, the electro-mysticism of Harglow, the psychedelic dream pop of The Gentle Art of Floating, the Halloween horror-themed Fright Night Club, and more, touching on airy ambient, bedroom pop, and everything in between.
Where a lot of artists might explore different sounds and styles while keeping the focus on themselves and their name, Nance says that he’s more interested in diving fully into each new sound and designing a whole new world and image for each project from the ground up.
Colin Nance: I'm a dog chasing cars, but I feel like I'm good with compartmentalizing it, like when I kind of access that lane, I stay in it. I know how I want to operate within it.
There's a lot of itches I need to scratch in music. You're creating a world, almost, and sometimes people like to create a persona.
Brett Fieldcamp: Born in Texas but raised around OKC, Nance was first drawn into the realm of guitar-driven rock, but later found himself gravitating toward the sweeping drama of electronic pop or the poignant minimalism of ambient, taking in each new influence and filtering it through all of his others.
But as he began to develop through various bands, collaborations, and unexpected partnerships, he rejected the tired wisdom of picking a lane and committing to a specific sound or persona.
Colin Nance: There's something cliché that’s said, but it's cliché for a reason: It's like you have to be true to yourself, like you have to write for yourself. You have to create for yourself.
My kind of philosophy with music is like, sure, I can focus on a genre, I can be authentic to myself in one sound and just keep exploring in that one sound, or I can do this other thing that I find a lot more interesting, which is like “why don't I bring my individual person into multiple different sounds that I can like and find something kind of revelatory?”
Why can’t I make some weird dark synth music and then also make a psych-rock record or then make a weird Halloween, kitschy compilation project, then go make ambient music or kind of dream pop?
It's like, there is no reason you can't do that.
Brett Fieldcamp: While many of his earlier projects were more collaborative and band-oriented – with even Softaware previously developing into a full band before returning to its more solo origins – Nance says that it was his studies in studio engineering and recording that fully unlocked his desire to experiment and his ability to follow any stylistic whims or unexpected influences at a moment’s notice.
Colin Nance: I went to college for Recording Arts. Truly learning the studio, production, and things like that was a game changer.
That was kind of the true catalyst of like “oh, I can experiment with a lot of stuff.”
There is something very cathartic about just being like “you know what? I want to do something really Lo-Fi, or something acoustic, or something really dark and synthy, or whatever.”
It's ingesting other art. It's listening to other music and other bands and being like “that's really cool. I want to play in that sandbox.”
Brett Fieldcamp: All of Nance’s many disparate personas and projects, then, are ways to continue playing and building in those sonic sandboxes, creating spaces for himself to follow those flights of fancy further down instead of just casually incorporating new influences and interests into his music and moving on.
His hope, he says, is for his own experiments to influence others to similarly explore outside of their own comfort zones and to keep pushing further and further into uncharted territories and unexpected avenues, even if he admits that there’s a musical home he knows he’ll always return to.
Colin Nance: Softaware feels like that's the favorite child. I know that's sad to say, but that's where I go for everything I feel that's important, that I need to get off my chest or want to say.
And then these other things I do on the side are these experiments. They're the things I can approach with not having that self-imposed pressure as much.
It's not about good, bad, whatever. It's just like, be you. Be authentic. Make the art you need to make and get it out there. That's what it's all about at the end of the day is art creating more art or inspiring and pushing.
It's another… I always call it the link in the chain. You're adding another link in this chain.
Brett Fieldcamp: Colin Nance’s releases as Softaware, Modern Slasher, Harglow, and even under his own name, are all streaming now on Bandcamp.
For more, follow @colinnance on Instagram.
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