Beneath the mask of Nothinge is Melbourne-based multi-instrumentalist Max Hoorn, who has been creating music under the moniker for the last four years. These years have seen Max build an extensive collection of warped pop music, sometimes mesmerisingly groovy, other times free flowing and other-worldly. He’s back today with a brand new single ‘Lost Slipper’ and the first taste of what’s to come from the third Nothinge album The Passage of the Obscurantist.

‘Lost Slipper’ opens up with some watery keys that glisten over a bouncing bass line and crispy drums. While the instrumentation of the track remains relatively constant, it’s Max’s unique vocals that really shine through - babbling surrealist vocals that melt into the music to create a blurry dreamlike soundscape. Following a brief breakdown with quirky harmonies and ethereal sounds, things shift and we’re hit with a glorious synth explosion, as layers of sound shoot out every direction and we’re transported to outer space. Eventually things cool off, and we come back to ground to the sound of shimmering keys as ‘Lost Slipper’ drifts away.

Ahead of Nothinge’s single launch tonight at the Old Bar, we caught up to find out all about the new single and what’s coming next.

TJ: For the uninitiated, want to tell us a bit about Nothinge?

N: I am an obscurantist of some sort through Nothinge - obscurantism is where people intentionally try obfuscate knowledge to an intended population. The term originated through the theological ramblings of a German Christian named Johannes Reuchlin (during the 1500’s Europe) who wrote a series of letters, based on a dispute whether or not Jewish books should be burned for being un-Christian. The term is now used, for obfuscatory style through obstructing the meaning of something which is being communicated. The person tries to mask the meaning of this communication usually through some form of confusing or ambiguous language. Avoiding clarity, transparency, and comprehensibility, means the audience is thrown immediately into a new state of experience.

At the base of this reality I want to possibly try to communicate through other modalities in expressing a piece of work, such as an obfuscatory style. This has been possibly at the heart of the project which has been long standing for several years in communicating with audiences, the self, the anonymous state, the objectification of self. To throw away with useless onion layers. This project has been, in a way, a pulling away of certain confined structures. To allow for newer and real things to occur.

The motivation here, like film director David Lynch or painter and installation artist Robert Irwin is to translate pictorial or auditory information which may only in a sense, make abstract sense to how the individual expresses that material.  

What’s the story behind the new single ‘Lost Slipper’?

‘Lost Slipper’, like the rest of the music, I can’t really explain what it means to me only so far that through the way I write lyrics, it’s a lot like they’re autonomous in some way, that the words themselves govern their own meanings in the process of writing them. I try to focus on ‘feeling’ an impulse, an action or an image which may land here and there in my mind. I write with this unbinding process because I want to capture something that resonates within me as deep as I can go. Without obstructing the feeling, I have to remove ‘concept’ or ‘ideation’. I haven’t gotten the bottom of it yet, but you’ve got to keep digging and digging down inside your mind until you find something realer than your own conception of life and others, and then let that fall away like wet bread in a bowl of milk until you’re left with absolute nothing. A filled and positive nothing. 

The track names I determined for this album were only to meant to shed an insight into the sound, but no further. These are just like preliminary statements, they create a portrait or a signage for the world of sounds that are interspersed throughout the album. A direct signpost of how the object, the narrative, the feeling of the sounds might be interpreted. Indeed, the work is inspired by many different aspects of my life through my experience of certain things. But I don’t aim to communicate these in the plainest of fashion. I don’t think audiences deserve to be handed a turkey on a platter, so easily to fill their famished hunger. But the challenge here is, that with the type of technocracy and high-tech consumerism. It’s very difficult to capture people’s attention longer than what an average person can endure. In a sense, we’ve become children again, a stasis in learning a ‘simple thing’ like the smell of a flower which is outside the virtual device. But the virtual self is nurtured, and the real self is ignored in the process. Especially with people carrying around their identities in their pockets, like little religious totems. Proclaimed independence through a virtual self. I think it’s okay to have one, my only concern is awareness of technology.

You described your song writing process as based on impulse, letting the song’s lyrics govern their own meaning. Could you talk us through the process of creating music as Nothinge?

Well, the musical side is very flowing, but I need to be in the right moment. Sometimes I don't touch a musical instrument (in that way of intention to make something) for six months. But then a moment of clarity, and some musical journey will seem to develop. Then two years will pass, and out pops something. The lyric writing process always comes afterward or even not at all, this is in way separates the immediate feeling and replaces it with an extended feeling of connection with music materials. So the music itself has some clear boundary in its existence, instead of always being informed or combined to meanings. I think I will eventually one day just sing and talk in gibberish.

'Lost Slipper’ is part of your third album coming out later this year - what can we expect from the album, and how might it be different from the last two?

This in a way is the first time, I have spent the longest on a record. Trying to perfect all the parts to the best of my knowledge. In a way, I want the recordings to be nourished, to be taken like a little gift. Like a teddy bear or a toy train, I just want it to resonate with someone because to me then I have some spiritual connection with a person. Without my knowledge, people could be experiencing in many different ways, but if you are positive you have made some step forward. This is enough for me. Just try and not expect anything, just let yourself free. Disconnect the computer, turn off your phone. Place yourself in a different room in the house, then listen to this. Important things when it comes to listening to something you want to appreciate, is that you have to make the big effort. You need to tell yourself to get into some other frame, because that’s where this album is situated. Go there.

What else is planned for the rest of the year for Nothinge?

I will be playing with Ryan Rosenberg (bass) and Tom Wilson (synths). We will have a single track release at Old Bar with Tragic Carpet, Codeine Cowboys and Liam Linley and his Louvres. Later this year will come out with The Passage of The Obscurantist. It will be held some where nice. Still not planned yet.

Kindest Regards,
Max