“You a Nasssty Laddd!” No son, this ain’t no B-movie pornstar from the early 2000 and lates. Nasty Lad, aka Andrew Blessing is actually an Alabamian transplanted to Austin and bringing you his one man show of everything electronic, industrial, alternative, punk, trip hop, new wave and mo.
His newest album, a full-length (pun intended) is actually a lockdown release. What better thang could you do with your time while locked up? While the rest of Texas (and the US as a whole) angrily debates each other from the comfort of their bedroom computers about whether mask usage causes autism or not, Nasty Lad is showin’ you how it’s done! While the quarantine projects from landscapers and carpenters plastering Reddit will eventually rot away over time, an album lasts forever, or at least as long as you keep up your DistroKid payments.
Nasty Lad’s debut album “Call of the Void” features a more chill vibe and higher production levels compared to his earlier releases, a slew of singles and EPs dating way back to ‘19! It’s certainly as catchy and laid back as a hobo drifter casually hopping aboard a meandering train down to the Gulf Coast. The 10-song-30-min-long album is easy to digest while at the same time exploring a flurry of genres and sounds and mixxxing them up without sounding chaotic. A difficult feat indeed considering how appealing these songs are. Mr. Nasty sets aside a few moments from creating even more music to answer some questions for all-a-y’all. Did I do that right? The y’all thing? Cool.
Mr Lad, how did you get into producing top-notch music and what are your influences growing up?
When I was 13, I took my guitar to the crossroads of Highways 49 and 61 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I had a picture of myself and I wrote on the back of it what I desired most, then I buried it in the dirt. The devil appeared and returned my instrument in exchange for my soul. I returned back home to Alabama with a formidable technique and mastery of blues…just kidding. I don’t know bruh, I bought a MacBook with my stimulus check and watched some sound engineering YouTube videos. As far as influences? I’m a follower of the gospel teachings of Future, “From the streets she did emerge; and to the streets she will return”.
On “Creepin’ (Interlude) you sample audio from a film and/or Netflix original referencing your name Nasty Lad. I’m too lazy to Google it, can you give us a rundown of where that’s from and why you chose your name Nasty Lad?
That’s actually just my friend Leon talking shit. And as far as my name goes, if I tell you, I’d have to kill you. Don’t make me get the strap.
How do you seamlessly blend such a wide range of genres into a 30-minute-album?
Yerba Mate, mental illness, and cigarettes.
What percentage of your music is from sampled sounds gathered from the internets and what percentage is original riffs? Walk us through your writing and production efforts.
About 98% of what you hear is me playing, the other 2% is BOFA Deez. I create my own samples by recording my voice or a sound and changing the pitch or speed. I usually go into a song not having a plan. I start with a drum loop then just start building until I have something that resembles a song. Once I do that a few times, I start combining separate tracks into one project and then fill in the empty spaces in the song with samples I have made.
Recreating your sounds live will require quite a bit of work, can you provide some deets on the role you’ll have in live performances and how many musicians you’ll be using?
I have been thinking about how I’m going to pull this off for a long time and floated many ideas. What I landed on was this…robots. Now hear me out, I have seen how advanced A.I. technology has become. It’s very prominent on the famous technology site, XVideos.
Unfortunately, your debut live show was canceled because of the pandemic. When Mongolia finally creates a vaccine that we can all safely use, what are your plans for taking over SXSW and eventually the music world by storm?
First and foremost, go out and vote in November. As much as I want to take over the music industry, there are far more important things that need to be taken care of. First, the systemic racism that regularly and systematically devalues and treats Black Lives as disposable. Next, rampant police brutality. And, finally, capitalists who exploit and treat the working class as expendable. In a time like this, it’s hard to think about being successful when there are black and brown kids walking home who are thinking, “Is a cop going to murder me tonight?”.
IG- @nastyladd