An Interview with Nyonyxx, Production Guru

by Anant Singh · July 20, 2013

Wow this song has an awesome sound. Wish I could produce something like that. Too bad I have almost no clue how to use Massive, I just kind of mess around with it. I guess I can learn, but I don’t want to spend thousands on production classes just to figure out how to make this one sound! I know, I’ll go to YouTube, surely someone has put up a tutorial for it.

Oh wow! That sounds exactly like the sound from the song! Well, I don’t think I’ll use the exact same synth in my own production, that’s not creative. But, when I get that sound, I can mess around with it and make it my own! Thanks Nyonyxx!

The above is just an example of how YouTube production guru has aided in the development in numerous producers and musicians struggling with learning a music making behemoth known as Massive. It’s not easy to figure out such a device when, when you first open it, is just a large panel of knobs, for which you don’t even understand what the words on top of them mean. Thankfully, it’s people like Nyonyxx who make learning easier for all of us. I had the pleasure of having some of my questions answered by him, and it had to be shared with the others who follow and learn from this Massive master, just as I do.

When were you first exposed to EDM, or music in general?

I grew up listening to a lot of pop punk bands, stuff like Blink 182, Alkaline Trio , Green Day, The offspring, Rufio, Saves the Day. I also LOVED Linkin Park when their first CD hit, Hybrid Theory that s*** changed my life. I really just listened to music that expressed how I was feeling at the time. I still do this, I don’t listen to club bangers 24/ 7, I have the widest taste of music, I feel all music has its place and time to be enjoyed. I started to listen to dance music heavily around 2005, the first time I was exposed to Tiesto (at that time trance Tiesto) I slowly started to leave the rock scene, and head towards dance music stuff. I played Tiesto’s “In Search of Sunrise 4” 1000’s of times on loop, I can safely say that some of the most, uhhh, “fun” moments of my life had that CD playing ;) After that the next big thing for me was Deadmau5 (I saw him way back when, the club had like 20 people in it) Since then it’s just been more and more dance music and producing.

What was life like growing up where you’re from?

Oh man, where I am from is a tough question! I have lived in the USA all my life, however I have lived in 9 States all over the country; the most recent being FL, CO, SC and NY. I really feel like each of these is a bit of my “home” however, I don’t have that true “this is my home” feeling anywhere I go. Growing up, I was a shy awkward teenager, I had a bunch of awesome friends, but I wasn’t the “cool kid” by far. Most likely due to the fact that I wore all black and had a Mohawk, but that’s another story J. Anyways, I was heavily into snowboarding and skating, as they were just blowing up around this time. I guess you could say I lived the normal teenager life: parties, girls all that fun stuff. Then when I hit college everything went into over drive. Good times.

How did you choose your name? (Nyonyxx)

Well, I wanted something that

Looked cool.
Had some meaning
That wasn’t already taken. And was easy to find on Google

I was really keen on having the letters repeat. I have two N’s , two Y’s and two X’s. I just thought it looked cool. In order to come up with the name, I just thought of s*** I liked. The name came partly from “Nyx” which is the Greek Goddess of the night, which only seemed fitting for dance music since its usually a nighttime club type of deal, and also I’ve always been a night person I hate the day time. Also, the name came from “onyx” which is typically a black stone, and I have always been a black jeans/black v-neck type of person so this also seemed somewhat fitting. I then did some fancy combining and ta da! This did take me like two weeks to come up with though haha!

You’ve been a great teacher for so many producers and EDM enthusiasts. How did you learn so much about Massive and production?

The odd thing is, I have NO idea how I learned as much as I did. I really just sat my a** in front of my (then super crappy laptop) and made hundreds of awful, awful songs. I would get so annoyed with my music, that I would just tweak buttons until it sounded better. I didn’t know anything about music theory and I didn’t know anything about production. When I started, I couldn’t even tell you what a hi-hat, or a snare was, I mean, I really knew nothing at all. I just had some inner drive to make better music, in fact, to this day, I haven’t made a song yet that I’ve been like “f** yeah that’s awesome” its all just still “meh.” I have a certain sound in my head, I have yet to find it, but I get closer each day so it’s only a matter of time.

When I produce music, I see colors, (weird I know) however, I have yet to have the proper colors output with my music. If I had to offer advice to ANYONE on how to get better with production, ask yourself, how bad do you want to make better music? Do you really, really want to make amazing music? You can, anyone can, just put in the hours, hundreds, thousands, ten’s of thousands of them.

How do you space out your time? Do you have a full time job and have music as part time or are you fully dedicated to music?

Spare time? What’s that? HA, Up until last year, I had a full time job, it was my first “real job” in an office and all that fun s***. I will never, ever go back. I gave that up and started doing music full time. It was the best thing I ever did, because in music you have to work 10 times harder to make 1 dollar, but it teaches you the value of hard work. Self-employment is a beautiful thing. You have to be hungry though, really hungry. I also, don’t do the typical “sell music on BeatPort” stuff. There isn’t much money to be made in it (as in enough to quit your day job, unless your hitting top 10’s which most likely your getting your main money from gigs). I work with various people offering all sorts of help: mastering and mixing. I have produced tracks for various vocalists to use for the demo reels and stuff of that nature. I really enjoy producing a WIDE range of music. This suits me well as I get bored producing the same stuff over and over.

Can you tell us if we’ll be seeing an EP or album from you soon on iTunes or Beatport?

I can safely say, I HIGHLY doubt, I will ever put out a full album or EP. Maybe, much later in life, if I had a large enough fan base, and gigs to support it. Otherwise I doubt I will have the time to do it ! I may put out a track here or there on Beatport, however, I haven’t put out an “original” track in something, like, close to a year I think. I have been trying to build my name through other means. Also, I have been aggressively working with other vocalists and writing tracks for them (for them to release under their names). As I said before, I enjoy working on a wide range of genres.

Have you ever thought of doing any sort of collaborations with artists in your area?

I have done it in the past! I really enjoy working with vocalists in the area (or anywhere) if they have access to a studio, etc. I also love working with other artists that may not have the ability to produce but have a strong fan base and a unique voice. The more and more I produce, the more often I want to have vocals in everything so its something I am constantly looking for.

I really enjoy the sort of sounds you use in your works. You call it Futurestep (I think?), what would you say it consists of?

Ah yes, my Futurestep days J. I really feel like most of those sounds were the early stages of the sounds I have started to use recently. Its funny, because most of the sounds I like are sliding vibrato sounds, which to most people are new and creative, but they were heavily used in the 80’s. Some of my new tracks, which will most likely be released under various vocalists, heavily use a much more solid and refined “Futurestep” sound. I love sliding builds and weird 80’s style pitching sounds (Think the THX surround sound intro) . I have a bunch of crazy ass synths that no one has heard yet. Hopefully those sounds will be on some of my new tracks. I really, really love creating new sounds; stuff that’s just not being used today. I feel there are a TON of crazy, new, unique sounds waiting to be found! People just need to find them J

What producers are some of your biggest inspirations?

This is going to be a SUPER random list, and most likely piss off some people due to some of these producers have worked with. However, let’s start with the old

Depeche Mode
Duran Duran
Tears for Fears

I Really love the synths these artists used at the time, great stuff.

Now back to modern day,

Deadmau5 (mainly for doing what the f*** he wants and not following trends). Also, his dynamics are just plain stupid (good)).
Porter Robinson (he just makes f***ing good music)
Knife Party (mainly for the god-like mix downs/ mastering)
Unicorn Kid (go listen to feel so real right now, and tell me it didn’t make you happy J)
Zedd (he’s just amazing on all levels, and he makes music HE likes, even if its “pop music”)
Kaskade (always holds a special place in my heart, angel on my shoulder I mean GTFO its amazing. Love that dude)
Joe Garston (he’s on the plasma pool label, f***ing creative and amazingly unique tunes, in this age of massive kicks and modern talking. Joe rules)
Futurecop! (bringing the 80’s back one song at a time, love his dreamy warm synths)
Madeon (no words needed)
Dr Luke (Produces ton’s of number 1 pop tunes, his arrangements and melody’s are just stupidly catchy. No matter what genre’s you produce, this is hard to do.)
Benny Blanco (Also producers a ton of HUGE pop songs, amazing melody’s as well)
The Cataracs (Love their productions and how they go about producing tracks)

As you can see, I am all over the place, I try to get inspired from ALL genres, not just EDM, I feel this is a way to make creative music and think outside the box, plus, I enjoy all music regardless of the label it has.

Do you see any producers that we should watch in 2013?

Audien is someone I will be keeping an eye on. He makes some AMAZING tracks now, but I feel some stupidly amazing tracks are in the works for him. Also, Walden; I think he is on big beat, has put out some epic tracks this year, and I love his synth work. I would keep an eye on him in the future for sure!

On a final note, make whatever kind of music you want. The sad truth is, nowadays, no matter WHAT you make you will have people love you and hate you for it, so you might as well make stuff that you enjoy. Sadly, the EDM scene seems to draw a ton of hate between genres, its honestly pretty sad. Sometimes I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

-Nyonyxx