- Words Cleo Webster
Imagining ravers from the future whilst bringing the old to the new skool, Nathan Micay releases his intensely anticipated debut album "Blue Spring".
Mindblowingly combining the authenticity and beauty of manga, vinyls and futurism all into one Blue Spring, natural creator Nathan Micay is boiling anticipation upon his supporters like no other for the release of his highly anticipated EP “Blue Springs”.
Focusing on uniquely crafting the excellence Micay withheld throughout his previous six albums, the artist has found a sweet spot in birthing his own future sound by combining the electric sounds of prog, trance, techno, hardcore, jungle, IDM and ambient in his own magical way. Being a prodigious and natural creator, this Toronto born, Berlin-based DJ and producer believes he has created his best work to date.
With an 11 track album following a spacious sound design, this technicoloured ride across sub bass, celestial future breakbeat, allows for otherworldy soundscapes to create a souring effect of euphoria in our airwaves. Micay shows no signs of slowing down with this piece of gold. Intensely detailing his listening experience for his supporters, Micay aims to mindfully rediscover community in real life and real time by creating a paradoxical fantasy narrative that opens doors to escapism from the digital world.
Creating his album artwork into a loving tribute to Manga Artist Katsuhiro Otomo, Peter Marsden adapted Nathans script outline into a comic illustrated by Dominic Flannigan. The comic sees a young data miner rebel attending the rave with her friends, only for the event to be broken up by the ranks of a futuristic police state. “Blue Springs” acts as a metaphor for the primal beginnings of the revolution…
We sit down with Nathan Micay himself to get his take on it all.
What inspired the title ‘Ecstacy is on Maple Mountain’?
Maple Mountain is a famous hiking spot in Northern Ontario, the province I’m from in Canada. It’s completely isolated and stands alone on a lake. I’ve become kinda fascinated with the idea of being alone in the wilderness and the happiness some people find in that.
What are your main influences behind Blue Spring?
Quite a few! With my previous project on LuckyMe ‘Capsule’s Pride’, we were taking so much from Akira and Otomo. This time, we wanted to do the reverse and contribute our own world and story to the culture. Akira still looms tall as a major influence here. Aside from that, 90’s rave culture, particularly the Castle Morton Festival of 1993. The increasingly scary state of tech and politics. Queerness, community and freedom in the shifting political climate of 2019. How to re-connect with each other outside of digital spheres.
Can you pick a track from the album and talk us through it?
Blue Spring, the title track. This was the first track that really came together on this project. It was pretty much just me running three random sequencers together in Ableton and seeing what happened. They are all over lapping in different time signatures so it sounds so wild and varied. Then I threw some huge trance drums over it and a bassline and voila! I had the sound pallet I wanted for the album. It’s an interesting track. The drums are all structured in standard 32 bar dance music structure while everything around them are just playing at their own time. It will really throw off DJ’s…and the dance floor. Things like that excite me right now.
What was the most challenging part of putting this record together?
It actually took 3 attempts before we were all happy. So I have two other full albums just sitting there. I’m happy with them but it wasn’t the right time for the sounds they had. The hardest part was finding a theme that inspired me and felt relevant to now.
If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?
Re-animated Mozart.
You’re also into comics. How do you combine your love for music and art?
Aside from my track titles…projects like this! Working with labels like LuckyMe that are so generous in their time and resources and SO creative allow insane ideas like making an original comic book to come to fruition. This album has obvious sci-fi references. I couldn’t escape the manga influences on this project.
Can you explain what your album artwork means?
It symbolizes everything I love about dance music and the rave. Freedom to be who you are or what you want to be.
Tell us about a place that inspires you.
Tokyo, but not for the reasons you might expect. It’s the friends I’ve made there. They push me to do my best and I have never met a kinder group ofpeople that work so hard. The last two trips there have felt like a fuel injection. I come back more motivated every time, for better or worse. Need to sleep more…
What is the most meaningful interaction that you’ve ever had with a stranger?
Just prior to moving to Leeds for school in 2011 I got an email from a random man named Ed Shaw. Ed worked for a blog and wanted to post my track. He also happened to live in Leeds. I told him I was coming and we met and hung out. He introduced me to his friend Liam, producer Desert Sound Colony, who taught me a great deal about music production. Liam then introduced me to his friends Milo and Angie, two of my first friends in Berlin and people that have become very important figures in my life here. One random email led to four amazing friendships. That was almost 10 years ago!
What do you have in store for your live shows?
Working on it! In the early stages of a live visual audio show. More news on that soon hopefully. As for DJ’ing..first shows in various parts of Asia,Australia and new parties in the EU/UK!
What’s next for you in 2019?
More music coming. Starting two more labels. Lots of travel. Potentially moving to Japan.