Nif-D
WL 357 - Sunday, April 1 – 12am
Purveyor of: Concurrent streams of light and darkness swirling towards oblivion.

I really want to say that Nif-D will change your life. But for fear of ripping off Natalie Portman in that Zach Braff movie, I’ll hold my breath and allow the sentiment to pass unspoken. But that doesn’t mean I don’t mean it. I’ll skip describing the music and will say only this: if you haven’t heard Nif-D before, please do yourself a favour and show up to Sneaky Dee’s on April 1st. I spoke to the man behind Nif-D, Matt Smith, to try and figure out which corner of the universe he is coming from.

Where does it all come from? How you do come from so many different places all at once? What are the things/music/philosophies that guide you when you make Nif-D music?

I guess it’s all about making connections with the music I’m familiar with. It’s a geometric relationship with all the variables. There are so many different angles to choose, and with every choice – every angle—there are other implied subsequent angles. Eventually these angles are intersecting and colliding. I think Nif-D is on the lookout for those collusions. It’s an event -- a point of perspective. There are all these little discreet bits of music and sound orbiting us all the time – from different times and different places, from right under our noses. It’s a huge mess. All of those orbits affect each other, dragging, pushing, pulling, eclipsing one another. It’s time travel. We influence these past and distant worlds as they influence us. More practically speaking, the music seems to work best when accompanied with big sound, specifically big bass. Its nice to know the bass can get physical. Again, it’s a question of the geometry of sound. Its not so much that things have to get really loud to be effective, but rather that there is sufficient volume, as in the ability of the sound to fill the space. I find that the lower end frequencies allow for a more satisfying physicality. And generally speaking, the more capable the sound system, the greater the sonic possibilities.

What was it that originally really got you into music? When did you start playing and in what capacity?

I’ve always been into music, but I think it really became constructive after discovering John Cage and David Tudor and the whole Black Mountain College Fluxus thing. I was coming from a really sincere songwriting/finger-picking world and these new discoveries really sent me out into orbit.

Recently Nif-D seems to have become a lot more active, coming out with new music and playing a whole bunch of shows after a bit of a hiatus. What has prompted this increase in activity?

I’ve been playing more because the opportunities have been there. It’s generally either feast or famine. I had a brief self-imposed hiatus after a feast of shows where I ended up not making any money and not feeling too excited about the shows and I wanted to regroup. So I did it and I feel much better about things nowadays.

Are you going to be releasing any recordings anytime soon?

Maybe, maybe not. I’ve got lots of stuff recorded, but somehow the pacing that works for me in live settings really sucks in recording, and vice versa. I also enjoy the ephemeral, and there’s nothing particularly ephemeral about a record. The live show is so much about the space and people, the sound system and the set-up, and those variables can hardly be accounted for with traditional releases. That being said, it’s something that has to be done, and I plan on doing it soon. I’ve got hard drives full of ideas, so I’ve got to out them through the crucible.

You've collaborated with a whole bunch of performers in Toronto for years now, and it appears you are continuing to do so – you recently played a show with Colin Fisher, for one. I know you've done this kind of thing before, but are you going to be doing more? Are you looking to get into more improvisational interaction-type stuff with like-minded folk?

I enjoy collaborations. There’s something uncontrollable about them that can be a lot of fun. I’ve been working with Colin Fisher and he’s so wonderfully agile and disciplined. It’s a real journey playing with him. I’m going to be working with Rob Gordon for this show and hopefully a lot more in the future. We clean dishes together at Burwash Hall at Victoria College and it gives us a great opportunity to sling a lot of poo and do some dreaming. We’re kindred spirits musically, and I’m totally amazed by Rob’s knowledge and talent and work ethic. He’s a totally astounding drummer and has an insatiable musical curiosity, which really keeps me on my toes. We’ve got a whole bunch of tricks up our sleeves. My most enjoyable collaborations (which are not entirely musical) are with the Ammo Factory theatre folks. There’s a bunch of us and we work on at least a show every year. I’m given a scenario to fill with sound. It’s a really amazing way to work. I found that making music for theatre really freed up my tastes.

You were at the centre of a Stillepost thread that turned into a bit of a row (www.stillepost.ca/boards/index.php?topic=70987.0) When it was suggested that perhaps Nif-D would make a great addition to the NO FUN (noise festival) bill, there were suggestions that you did not fit the "aesthetic". Is there a noise aesthetic? Is the term kind of a useless catch-all the way "indie" is to describe music, or does it have its uses?

I don’t know if there is a clear noise aesthetic, just sweeping generalizations. I don’t think of myself as a noise artist necessarily. I think these issues are largely cultural. People belong to cultural movements which embrace wide arrays of tastes and aesthetics. I do love the term noise to describe a genre of music. There’s something so final about it. It really embraces an end to music history. And I think that end is reflected in the migration of genre into cultural spheres.

By Pras Rajagopalan