Interview with NevadaSYSTEM
- Rukh
- Jun 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 7
Emerging from the NYC electronic scene with a sound that balances emotional depth and dancefloor energy, NevadaSYSTEM returns with his latest single, "Above the Noise," released via Vasa Record. Blending atmospheric textures, driving rhythms and an unmistakable sense of purpose, the track arrives as a confident statement from an artist continuing to refine his creative identity.
Following the release, we spoke with Nevadasystem to discuss the inspiration behind the single, his evolving approach to production, and the journey that has shaped his distinctive sound.
'Above The Noise' has this really calming but emotional feeling to it. What headspace were you in when the track first started coming together?
Honestly, a mess. Not something dramatic - just the kind of tiredness where things keep piling on top of each other. After a while, something breaks. You stop filtering yourself. That’s when the track started finding its shape. Lines and phrases scribbled out over and over again on the back of a napkin.
There's something very human about your music, even with all the electronic elements layered in. How important is it for your productions to still feel personal and emotional underneath everything?
Emotion is everything. Electronic and acoustic elements are two sides of the same coin. Without the emotion, we’ve just made something technically interesting, and technically interesting doesn’t move anyone. A synthesizer. A flute. Both are just objects until you breathe life into them.
How did the collaboration with Qian Qiao first happen, and what did their vocals bring to the track that maybe wasn't there before?
Qian Qiao is our flautist on the track, with the talented Clare Dove on vocals. What Clare brought was something I couldn’t have written in. There’s a warmth to her, a natural energy in the booth. The emotion in the track can get moody and heavy; I think she keeps it from collapsing in on itself.
Your productions have a really organic warmth to them. Do you still find yourself naturally gravitating towards live instruments and textures when writing?
Yeah. It goes beyond the studio at this point. I sit with my instruments in the morning. No agenda. It’s not about composition or even technique. I’m just a guy with a flute and a coffee.
When you’re recording, even if no one’s in the room, you’re self conscious. Stage fright for an empty studio. When I’m playing for myself, that’s gone. It’s just played into the wind. But you remember it. You hold onto the pieces.
Your sound pulls from a lot of different places culturally and sonically. Do you ever feel like not fully belonging to one world is actually what shaped the NevadaSYSTEM project?
Probably, yeah. I've never felt like I fully belonged to one scene or one tradition. At some point you stop trying to fit and just start building your own thing out of whatever's around. Whoever likes it can come around. Melodic house, eastern instrumentation, desert isolation, club culture. None of it should obviously go together. Whether it lands is up to whoever’s listening.
When you're building a track like this, what usually comes first for you? The melodic idea, the atmosphere, or a specific sound or recording you've been experimenting with?
It’s all over the place. Sometimes it’s something I remembered from my morning flute session - a phrase, a breath. Sometimes I’m digging through notebooks full of things I scribbled down years ago and rewrote a dozen times. Bits and pieces from diners, truck stops, and terminal gates. Sometimes it’s a long hike and a field recording. That’s the difference between beginnings and endings. The process can be a system. The beginning never is.
If someone stole your studio for a week but could only leave you one thing from it to keep you sane, what would you be secretly panicking about losing first?
The flute’s the obvious answer, but I’ve talked about that enough. Honestly? The piano. It’s not even an argument, and it’s not a sentimental choice. It’s just the king of instruments. One instrument that can stand in for an entire orchestra, cover every harmonic role, and map out a full arrangement from scratch. If I have the piano, I still have everything.
Looking ahead, what part of the NevadaSYSTEM project are you most excited to keep exploring creatively?
Honestly the stuff I'm most preoccupied with isn't really about the music itself. It's about how you build something genuinely collective in an era where everyone's siloed into their own project. Nobody wants to be paid in exposure - of course - but the alternative shouldn't be everyone just working alone. I want to find ways to actually connect people, get them believing in each other's work. If we can get into the same room, even better. That feels harder than making the music right now, and probably more important.
