The electronic dreamscapes of Nonagon's Josh Thillagaratnam

May 19, 2015 in Sound

Josh Thillagaratnam is an electronic producer, multi-instrumentalist, synth-master and Nine Inch Nail devotee. The heart and soul of Melbourne electro outfit Nonagon, he talks music, creativity, Bill Hicks and about dogs that chew up your lawn. Photography by McGee Noble.

Did you grow up in a musical household?

I did not. My folks sometimes liked having pop music in the background, they played records like Queen and The Beatles for fun.

Did you play an instrument as a kid? If so what?

I started taking guitar lessons at the age of 14 and played in the school's jazz band. The music teachers were these really great, laid-back hippy guys and they had us learn and perform tracks from Blood Sugar Sex Magik with the brass section and everything.

That was so cool and it pretty much forced you to get good at your instrument quickly, because you couldn't be the worst musician in the jazz band as it would be really obvious that you sucked or didn't practice. Imagine having the title of 'the worst kid in the jazz band'.

What drew you to electronic music?

Most traditional instruments involve hitting something to produce a sound. There are always going to be stories to tell with a human voice or plucking a guitar string but I feel like we've taken those kinds of sounds pretty far.

Thinking about music as an art form, electronic music is progressive because it removes the limitation of needing to use an instrument that exists in the real world.

There's a lot more possibility in using a machine to synthesise a sound. It can help you get a sound that is closer to the one from that dream or nightmare you recently had and now need to record so you can share it with other people. It is a step forward in creative expression using audio as a medium for communicating complex ideas.

Aside from that, I spent a decade playing in bands. If someone asked if I would be in their band I would just say yes and not worry too much about what was trying to be achieved. Why not?

It's fun to play music with people. But! Producing electronic music means I can work by myself.

You don't need to rely on anyone to start and finish stuff. It's freedom from the needs of other musicians so I can really bunker down and focus on arguing with myself.

What's your process for composing a song?

My formal education in art was going to university to study film & tv where I trained as a cinematographer. From that I've learned to always think about ideas visually to begin with.

I get a glimpse of a 3 dimensional space and think about it more over time and in greater detail. I write notes, sketch and record textures on a synth, guitar or the drums. Anything I can do to get a better understanding of what the space feels like. Then I'll introduce something interesting, something that shouldn't be in that space, a conflict that tells me what the story is going to be about.

With Messiah Auditions the space I was thinking of was a suburban living room, silent, empty, stuffy, smokey and dusty but someone definitely lived there.

Then a fire starts very slowly, starting at the frayed edges of the fabric at the base of the floral-pattern curtains and soon enough the whole space gets filled with smoke and you can't see anything in there anymore.

Once I've recorded enough things that describe that space, I move on from recording and into editing with the aim of simplifying all these different sounds into a coherent narrative that tells the story to the best of my ability.

What comes first, beat or melody (or something else?)

So that visual thing usually comes first, the first bit of audio produced really depends on what it looks like in my head but it's most often a bass line. Everyone loves bass. I usually remember (and hum) songs by the bass line which has proved an endless source of amusement to friends over the years. That's just the part of songs that stick for me.

What piece of equipment could you not live without?

I love synthesizers. I really do, I love reading about synthesizers, talking about them to strangers, getting in arguments on the internet. They're so great.

My favourite one is a Prophet 08, which is an analogue polyphonic synthesiser by Dave Smith Instruments in San Francisco.

It's such a beautiful instrument to play and it sounds incredible. I get lost in it for hours. It's a very classic looking piece of gear and when I take a seat in front of it and switch it on I feel like this is serious, and I need to focus because you can't screw around with a nice instrument, it deserves to have good music made on it. I have a connection with that instrument, I really feel like it was designed for how I make music.

Who's your biggest musical influence?

My biggest musical influence is Trent Reznor. I was just this regular teenage rock music kid listening to the smashing pumpkins when my older sister lent me The Downward Spiral and I think it broke my brain a little bit.

I already loved music and making music, but I didn't know that music could be like this. I didn't know what was going on.

I was 15 at this point and that was kinda the end of the whole being in bands playing guitar thing. I just wanted to be a nine inch nail from that point on. Maybe he'll tour again when he's 60 and I'll get my chance.

My favourite record of all time is The Fragile which I play a few times every year because it is a masterpiece.

The compositions, the production, the flow from start to finish. I've listened to that album so many times I know every sound on it intimately but it still manages to be surprising because there is just so much subtlety to it, so much effort and care was put into making it and parts of it are really moving.

From the moment those tribal sounding mechanical drums start banging in the intro to the first track, this fist of angst drenched in hopelessness just drops in and it doesn't let up till the second disc stops spinning.

The guy can play so many instruments and he can sing, and despite being extremely good at all those traditional aspects of popular music he's always out there sculpting noise into these beautiful works that make people think about their lives. I would like to be good at my craft like that some day!

Who's had the biggest influence on your creativity and why?

The person who influenced my creativity the most is Bill Hicks. Sometimes I think that you have very little control over which ideas connect with you. I first heard his work over 15 years ago and I still regularly think about it, which says what an incredible artist he was.

I think of him as this incredibly brave, truth-telling cowboy messiah. If I ever feel overwhelmed or unsure of myself I try to remember that Bill Hicks wouldn't get scared and so I shouldn't either. I like when he does that bit where he goes "shit, I was taking life too seriously - sorry!"

He was an incredible philosopher and social critic who was smarter and funnier than everyone around him, which he never cashed in for fortune or fame.

He wasn't perfect but that didn't really matter because he documented his experience of life and shared it in a spectacular fashion.

He gave me a good idea of what I want to do with art in my lifetime and taught me how important art is for the development of our society, and that our ability to be creative is sacred, to put your heart into the things you create.

Above all else I feel that Bill Hicks taught me to always try and be a good person and choose love over fear every single time. He was able to get all these wonderful messages across in his small body of work by being so god damn funny. Truly a master storyteller.

What are you listening to at the moment?

I am listening to 'What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World' by The Decemberists. They are such a great band and they feel really theatrical to me. They are so talented, they use a few instruments performed exceedingly well and tell these wonderfully epic folk tales.

What are you working on right now?

I am working on the second Nonagon LP called 'The Ghost at The Feast' which I plan to release as a vinyl record.

Most artists have more trouble finishing things than starting work on new ideas so I'm working backwards with this one, with the aim to finish it in under a year. Track numbers and length seem arbitrary this day in age so I'm starting with the limitation vinyl presents - 2 sides with 22 minutes each. Already I know that it'll at least be 2 tracks over 44 minutes total. I've got more than half of that done which I'm performing at shows this year and I'm really proud of how it sounds.

Describe your perfect creative day?

My perfect creative day starts with fresh coffee and a walk around Yarraville with my dogs. I love where I live and starting the day by talking to the people around town even briefly is a simple thing that I do every single day that makes me feel very connected to the city that I love and the people and animals that I share it with.

Then I sit in my studio tinkering with a synthesiser and my laptop with one dog asleep at my feet, while I look out my window into my backyard where the other dog is sleeping in a patch of sunlight having ruined what I was hoping would someday be a decent bit of lawn, which he doesn't seem to want us to have ever.

pictures = mcgee noble