Riding the minimal synthwave with Nouveaux

Photo Credit: Lindsey Wallace

The simplicity in minimal synthpop music often highlights the ideas expressed in the band’s lyrics. On their self-titled debut album, Vancouver band Nouveaux explores isolation, desire and starting over. The band is made up of Nathan Szilagyi (formerly of SPECTRES), Michelle Smolicki & Brian Gustavson (SPECTRES). The trio combines the influence of 1950s/60s songwriting, 1980s synthpop sounds and the French minimal synthwave duo Deux. Nouveaux makes the kind of music that recalls new wave / minimal electronic synthpop bands New Order, The Human League and Soft Cell. 

On Nouveaux, Brian and Michelle trade vocals. Michelle takes the lead on the opening track “Illusions,” as she implores her partner to hold on. On “Images in Motion,” Brian speaks on the uncertainty that can come up while being in a relationship. The socio-political issues that accompany war are reflected in the lyrics of the song “Odesa Steps.” All of that is backed by the electronic sounds of early 80s synthwave / pop music. 

Soundvsystem had a chat with Nouveaux over email about the band’s formation, making the album, songwriting influences and historical tragedies repeating themselves.

Nouveaux has been making music for a few years now. How did the project come together?

Brian: I have always loved synthesizer based music but played in more traditional bass, drums and guitar type bands. Nathan and I had been playing in a band called SPECTRES together for years and had experimented with synthesizers on some SPECTRES tracks. I wanted to try my hand at writing songs where synthesizers and electronic drums were the primary instruments so  I picked up a cheap drum machine and a microKORG and got to it.  At first I thought the songs I had written might work as SPECTRES songs but after some consideration I realized that they  sounded too electronic to be used in that project.    

Around that time I had been spending a lot of time in Portland and tried to use the synth songs in a remote project with one of the members of the band Death Charge; Dusty. We wrote what amounted to a full record of demo material under the name Inter-Model. Most of my portion of the project I recorded with the founding member of SPECTRES, Steve [Hanker].  After a few months it seemed like working remotely was challenging for all of us, so I asked Dusty if he would mind if I used some of the songs for a more pop sounding project. That was the inception of Nouveaux. Unfortunately, we never released the Inter-Model Demos (which included a synthesized cover of the Disorder song “Life”), but several of the Nouveaux songs were initially conceived during that time. 

At first Nouveaux was comprised of Nathan, Michlle and I and a live Bass player (who hilariously enough was Chris from the Vancouver Oi band Alternate Action), but that only lasted a short period of time before we decided to move forward as a 3-piece and that resulted in the final composition of Nouveaux.

The album was written and recorded during the last two years. How did the band cope with the uncertainty of that period?

Michelle: The uncertainty of the last 2 years did feel challenging in so many aspects of our lives, but having the creative outlet of working on music together really helped during what could have been an uninspiring time. Canada was very "locked down" for most of 2020-2021, but having almost no shows or live music venues open did allow us to focus solely on writing and preparing for the record. 

The lyrics on the album point to heartbreak, loneliness, and a desire to get away from it all. There are also hints of optimism and moving on from the past, like on the song “Start Again.” How did you approach the songwriting for this project?

Michelle: Nouveaux is the first music project I have been in where I have been doing a lot of my own original songwriting. In the past, I have lended my voice to backup vocals for other projects  and sang in a punk cover band, so my songwriting process is definitely continuing to evolve and change. 

I have a real affection for the simplicity of the lyrics in pop music, especially 1950s/60s American Girl Groups, Northern Soul as well as 80s Synthpop. I wanted to explore the usual themes in that type of songwriting (first love, heartbreak, etc.), but add some of my own reflections and life experiences to those themes. ‘’First glance,’’ “Paradise,” and “Landscapes,” definitely reflect that. Brian tends to write lyrics with a lot of depth as well as underlying social commentary, which has pushed me to dig deeper in songs like "Odesa Steps."

The album was produced and recorded by Jason Corbett of post-punk Vancouver band Actors, who has also worked with SPECTRES. What was the process of working with Jason on this album?

Nathan:  The recording process was certainly different than anything any of us had done previously in non-electronic bands. We had more or less complete demos of the songs that we had already recorded on our own. Rather than going into the studio and re-tracking everything, we brought them to Jason as Logic projects with all of the audio tracks as well as the MIDI data for each track. Then, for each song, we would try sending the MIDI data to various hardware synths that Jason had and find the sounds we all thought worked. In many cases, we kept the audio that we already had, especially a lot of the Mini-logue strings and pads and blippy-bleepy microKORG sounds. Most of the drum MIDI went through Jason's DMX, which really brings that New Order sound to the record. Then Jason did the producer thing of helping us retool some of the arrangements, pointing out in some cases which riffs were meant to be part of the topline and in various cases either streamlined or added to some of the drum and bass parts. Once that was all done, Michelle and Brian tracked their vocals and then Jason mixed and mastered it all.  I enjoyed the process, and I think we were all very happy with the result. 

On the song “Odesa Steps,” you call attention to eastern Europe’s violent history. You’ve also emphasized the impact that the current war is having on the Ukrainian people. In the music video, there’s a scene in which the band is blindfolded singing the lyrics, “lead us on.” Can you talk about the significance of that scene and how you see it reflecting the current crisis?

Brian: I had initially written that song ages ago around the time SPECTRES was recording the album Utopia and I had first started making synth music.  At the time, I wanted to write anti-war lyrics in the simple impactful style of an early Discharge song over synth music. The lyrics themselves describe Communist war crimes and the mass executions at Katyn. The lyrics were written years before the current war in Ukraine and the song had been named Odesa steps after the scene in the movie Battleship Potemkin. It's incredibly disheartening that the lyrics to a song that was intended to be about the horrors of the past have so much relevance to the present.  

The blindfolds were added as a statement about the obfuscating effect war can have on everyday people and how we can be driven to do horrific things based on the whims of the powerful or in pursuit of an ideology. Ideology can be its own blindfold. 

The sound on the album is reminiscent of bands like New Order, Human League, Depeche Mode and other classic 80s synth pop bands. Were there any bands that served as references when you were making the album?

Brian: We obviously love music made in the 80's immensely and that definitely comes through on the record. There is also some influence from the French minimal band Deux. Michelle and I both really like them and wanted some of our vocal switch-off's to have some of that type of inflection, though it might not have come through as much on the final product. 

Michelle: I love the unpredictability and the romantic quality that having two vocalists delivering lines back and forth can give to a song. It can almost feel like you're listening in on a private conversation. Human League was obviously a big influence, of course, but I also found inspiration in some newer stuff, like the song "Not in Love" that Robert Smith sang on with Crystal Castles in 2010. 

The colors, lighting and the movement in the “Illusions'' music video create such a contrast to the “Odesa Steps'' video. You filmed the video last year during “the darkest days of the pandemic.” Can you talk a bit about the experience of working with Wayne Moreheart and filming the video in an empty club? 

Michelle: Working with Wayne Moreheart was fantastic. He shares our deep love for 1980s nostalgia which made the creative process for the “Illusions” video go so smoothly and just allowed us to have a lot of fun on set. I feel like the video captures that feeling of when you look back on Polaroids of a late night party with your closest friends. We filmed it at a time during the pandemic where Canada hadn’t allowed live events/large gatherings for quite some time, and I don’t think I realized until reflecting back after filing the video why capturing that feeling felt so poignant.

Any upcoming shows or plans for a tour?

Michelle: We have a few shows happening locally in Vancouver this summer, but then we will be taking a small hiatus from playing live as Brian and I are expecting our first baby this November. Eventually though, we would absolutely love to go on some longer tours. Europe and Japan are at the top of our list! 

What’s next for Nouveaux?

Michelle: We have quite a few new songs in the works and are planning to write a new album over the next few months. We would like to get back in the studio to record in 2023. 

Nouveaux is out now and can be purchased on Bandcamp and streamed on Spotify and other platforms. Nouveaux’s self-titled debut can be purchased on vinyl from Sabotage Records. Follow Nouveaux on Instagram and Facebook.