Nullsign are a high energy shoegaze trio based in Toledo, Ohio. Their debut E.P. “Sensory” harnesses all of their power and intensity across five brilliantly crafted tracks.
I sat down with band members Wesley Bandy and Caleb Nelson to talk about the artists that impacted them early on, how they started making their own music and the making of their debut E.P.
CMM: What was the first music that really made an impact on you all as kids and what artists or bands did you enjoy the most?
Wesley: The first band I ever really connected with was Linkin Park, I remember buying their album Meteora at Media Play and kind of making
it my entire identity for a while.
Alex: That’s crazy, that and Hybrid Theory were probably my most replayed growing up too. I also was really into Incubus.
CMM: When did you all first start playing music and writing your own songs?
Wesley: Got my first guitar as a Christmas gift when I was 14, started writing terrible music immediately. It wasn’t until I started working with other musicians after finishing high school, it started to actually sound like music though, but even then it was still terrible for a little while.
Alex: I started playing drums pretty late, when I was 18, my brother and friend Caleb asked me to learn for a band they were starting. We didn’t really finish many songs, but I had a lot of fun and obviously kept wanting to play.
CMM: You recently released an E.P. called “Sensory”. What was the writing and recording process for those songs like? Any particular gear and instruments you used during the recording sessions that helped inspire you?
Wesley: So writing for this project was a lot of experimentation, when we started writing together we didn’t even have a genre locked down, so we tried a few very different sounds before arriving at what we are now. Eventually this sound just started naturally forming so we went with it. Writing starts for us with guitars and then we all just kind of throw our individual stuff on top of it and see what works, after it’s all together and we’re happy with the direction we make adjustments for cohesiveness and track it all to put together the full concept before shopping for a studio.
For Sensory we recorded at MK studio with my dude Steve Warstler. The guy is fantastic at what he does and couldn’t be easier to work with. As you would guess with any shoegaze musicians, I have a collection of effects pedals that help with discovering unique sounds and finding inspiration. If I had to credit one piece of equipment it would have to be my Dark Star pedal from OBNE. This thing makes crazy ambience and shows up in everything I record in some capacity.
CMM: If you could do a score for any film director who would it be and what would the film be about?
Wesley: So I have actually already written music for a few short films, my cousin Landon Tavernier who created our two music videos lives in Cali and works as an actor, writer, director so I’ve had a chance to do some stuff for him and a couple of his friends that also direct out there. He’s my choice director to compose music for and I’m happy to create for whatever ideas he comes up with.
CMM: What do you have coming up next? Any new recordings or shows coming up?
Wesley: We’re back at writing more music, already have a foundation for the next release, just need to spend some time getting the music to the finish line and then we hit the studio.
