NADJIA

"the sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel..."
- gibson's neuromancer
the conception of NADJIA came during the drought of the mid 90s
art & sound fused the circuitry of our system
we had survived a long static remission
a dystopian subterfuge
an atomic collision
a sudden catastrophic implosion
electric red purple black blue green yellow transparent
the re-connection
the morphogenesis
this is the age of evolution…
____________________________________________________________ ____
____________________________________________________________ ___
Interview from the Baton Rouge Advocate:
NADJIA at North Gate
By Rachel Jones
Special to 2theadvocate.com
Published: Jan 8, 2009
Some bands choose to make music for fame and fortune, while others -- like Baton Rouge-based band NADJIA -- love to create an experience that pushes the musical envelope.
Band members Mark Williams (vocals), Chris Deaton (keyboards), Jeff Smith (guitar), Nik Sharp (bass) and Kenny Cohen (drums) have a passion for writing and sharing music that is unique and anything but ordinary.
NADJIA has been around for over a decade, and while the personnel has changed and grown over the years, the original idea of making music with a fresh take has remained the same.
“I started this band in ’96 when I was in grad school, and it was myself, a violin player and a computer, essentially,” said Williams, the band’s founder. “It was a different sort of vibe, because we didn’t use a drummer, and we would sample a toaster or a steamroller or a washing machine and make rhythm out of that. It was real avant-garde and real different having a violin player opposed to a guitarist or a keyboardist.”
These days NADJIA has added drums, guitars and keys, but they aren’t used in the traditional sense. They are continuing to use their new instrumentation to push their sound even further.
“The guitar and bass in our band are more the rhythm section, and the focus is more on the keyboard. Chris is left-handed so he plays a lot of his rhythm with his left hand in the bass section of the keyboard. It gives our songs a different rhythm and a different spin to them as well,” Williams said.
It’s no surprise that NADJIA strives for more than the standard rock sound when you understand their influences and what they take away from some of their favorite bands.
“My four favorites are Depeche Mode, Ministry, Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails. It was nontraditional music, and it had a different kind of feel, a different kind of vibe to it,” Williams said. “It wasn’t that cookie-cutter rock-n-roll. It was experimental and aggressive and emotional, a new sort of art. It’s not as new now, but those guys were constantly pushing the envelope and breaking barriers to look for a new angle and a new approach to music.”
They not only take a unique approach to their music, but their lyrics and writing are inspired by the world. Williams’s career sends him across the globe, and it’s his experiences the band incorporates into their lyrics.
“The vibes from the cultures definitely add a different perspective to what we’re doing. One of the longer trips I took this year was the full tour of South America. I was in earthquakes in Mexico, isolated in Rio because it was the off-season, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, there was a lot of political unrest. I write what different things are happening in these countries and how they affect me and then we try to build that into the music,” Williams said.
Building everything into their music is no easy task. They claim that 10 weeks of preparation goes into every 10 minutes of music. It’s the cooperation of the entire group that puts Williams’ writing in the sound of NADJIA.
“I’ll be writing down ideas as I go around, and I’m in constant communication with Chris. A lot of times he’ll be writing something as I’m experiencing a different country or a different place, and we’ll bounce ideas back and forth, and then when we come into the studio, we’ll work through the song and piece it together. If you look at all of our songs, every one kind of relates to one of my trips or going to another country,” Williams said.
Time spent traveling has given the band a chance to gather more material, and they have begun putting together one more album. Still in production, this new album should be out sometime in 2009.
“We’re fortunate enough to finish tracking an album tentatively titled ‘Angels of Rust,’ which is a reference to airplanes,” Williams said. “The visual is the Angel of the North, a large statue northeast of London that I stumbled across. There are several songs that reference traveling and flying, and angels of rust has kind of become the reoccurring theme.”
While the heart of the band is writing and recording, they love to create shows that aren’t typical to draw the audience into the moment. With videos, lighting, art sculptures and, of course, music they give their audience something that will leave a lasting impression.
“We prefer to make it more of an event. We take a different approach to music, and we have a really good time with our shows. We want to try and imprint on the people that see us a little piece of ourselves and give them something different and something more unique than just your standard rock show. It’s a musical experience; it’s art in motion,” Williams said.
To learn more about NADJIA and hear their innovative sound you can go to their official website at www.nadjia.net or their myspace page at www.myspace.com/deadhaus.
____________________________________________________________ ____
Album Review from MK Magazine
NADJIA's Enter Trey Cole [2009 Release]
Review by Azra Pascale
Brilliant, beautifully haunting, and impenetrable are just a few words to describe NADJIA’s 2009 album release entitled Enter Trey Cole. Always prolific, NADJIA has conceived their most cohesive and concise collection to date. Enter Trey Cole is a collection of “lost songs” composed over the period of 2002 through 2006 by the band’s mastermind, Mark Williams. During these four years of a prolonged winter’s discontent each song was painstakingly conceived and secretly carried in the womb of thought… until now.
The first track sets the tone of the album which is dark, brooding and possibly sinister. The voice from the first track tells us to “wake up!” Perhaps we’ve been dreaming all this time, perhaps we’re just living a nightmare. Regardless, it’s a command to rise out of the trance. Pensive, personal, subtle and surprising with moments of cognitive dissonance, it is as though we are invited to journey through what appears to be a desolate trans-siberian landscape of introspection. What we find at the core is more than what is merely at the surface. At least that’s the sentiment we encounter in the following tracks of “Paris Snow” & “Vrykolakas”.
The most jarring sounds come from “Carry the Torch” which elicits visions of an apocalypse brought upon by money, greed and corruption. “My Trusty Spyder” is a catchy instrumental piece with some synth and melodic guitar riffs, by far one of the more palatable tracks. In other words, it goes down very smooth like a glass of Bordeaux. “No Jazz in Hell” surprises us with an unexpected jazz twist. It’s a clever quip to an obviously dark theme. The last track entitled “The Ghost in the Amphora” is gorgeously the most hopeful song in the entire album and is most precisely fitting. Enter Trey Cole as an album in itself is a testament to the human spirit and its quiet strength to persist and endure in this beautiful chaos we call life.