Joseph Nash handles the guitar for the London-based art-rock outfit Blue Bendy, yet he also leads a separate project called Dying 4, blending woozy, art-damaged emo with UK club styles such as garage and bassline. Their debut EP Perish Songs lands in about two months. Nash offers his take on how his idiosyncratic approach took shape:
Me and my friends would have called ourselves skaters, but greebo, mosher or emo would be heckled at us by the kids blasting hardstyle and UKG on a speaker in Church Square in town… There was a lot of this fraught counterculture tribalism growing up in Scunthorpe. Even when it got a bit intense, it was always exciting. Looking back, it was just various gangs of misfits making the most of growing up in a place like that.
You can hear it all coming together beautifully on “Strafe,” a track where twinkly guitars, a skittering beat, shimmering synths, kinetic bass riffs, and processed vocals fit together just right. Nash again:
Regrettable haircuts and performative book reading whilst vying for someone’s attention? “Strafe” as a track is where Dying 4 began. What started as an overly involved guitar riff that I’d noodle to warm up for live shows with the band, came to life after being taken in a very non-rock music direction in Ableton. I’ve always made electronic music as a hobby, but I’m not much of a keys player. Getting out of synth-land and approaching it from guitar-world finally made it click.
Listen below.
Perish Songs is out 9/4 via Practise Music.
