William Nein
No Hearts A Wasteland
THE STORY BEHIND THE ALBUM by David Goo
So what happened was, William Nein, the hero of our
story, had left for Berlin. Before he went away he left me a couple
of CDs. The CDs were a compilation of songs he had recorded over the
last few years in different locations, with various people and equipment.
He told me before he left, Im thinking of mastering these
one day properly and making a proper album out of it. I think
my response was either a shrug or something like, Yeah, that
would be cool.
Ive known William for years, and like most musicians who do
music that I enjoy, hes completely fucked up as a person, hasnt
a clue how to suck up and kiss ass to society en large, has a massive
heart and invests said massive heart in all his creations. (I do wish
these guys would learn how to kiss an ass or two once in a while -
maybe then we might have something we could be proud of in the charts
rather than the dirge we have to put up with now. But, whatever).
I must admit, it took me a while getting round to putting his CDs
on my player, because theres nothing scarier than listening
to a friends work, right? Nevertheless, I put it on eventually
because I knew Id have to talk to him again one day and the
subject would come up and I didnt want to lie and say I heard
it when I hadnt.
So like all those movies where a big revelatory-moment comes along,
as I was listening to his music (imagine the video camera slowly zooming
in on my enlightened face), an idea
slowly
started
forming
in my head. Out of the thirty odd songs I listened to,
there were about twelve that, although recorded in somewhat lo-fi
circumstances, captured something magical. They worked. They didnt
need anything added, they didnt need re-recording, over-producing,
scrubbing and over-polishing until all the life was taken out of them.
They said all that the piece had to say. And they had balls; big fat
hairy balls that one rarely hears from men with acoustic guitars nowadays.
I thought, Theres an album here. Right here, take the
best out of the thirty odd songs hes shown me, and youve
got something. Something special. It will never get into any soulless
chart, it might even take years before our society gets it, but its
art, and its lovely, and the world needs to hear it.
Yes. Im not ashamed to say it. Its art. I couldnt
tell you why. A bit like love; you dont know what it is until
you experience it. Same goes with this - I dont know why it
is art but it just is. Maybe because its so personable whilst
being completely communicative. Maybe because
well, I dont
know. And please believe me when I say this, whilst being art, it
is not arty, and definitely not arty-farty, it is in fact entertaining
as hell.
And so I picked the songs I thought worked as they were recorded,
I put them in an order that I thought worked, I listened to them every
day for about a week, constantly thinking, This is a fucking
album.
Remembering what he said about his wish to one day get it mastered,
I decided I would take matters into my own hands and get it done.
I didnt know how exactly, but then I figured, well, it doesnt
have to be just me who makes it happen.
Thus, with a little help from some friends who knew William, who liked
William, who had tolerated this son of a bitch throughout the years,
we got together the funds to get it mastered. It was beautiful. It
was people power, and it was exhilarating. It started making me think
all albums should be done this way. And they probably will be soon
I mean, hey, the music industry may be dying on its ass, but
music industry will be around forever at least while people
still have ears and the capacity to enjoy waves flying invisibly through
the air.
Over to you.
Take a risk - like you might have done in the old days, before you
could sample everything freely on the web. Im recommending this
album to you. Its different, its recognizable, its
eclectic and fun and interesting and moving. Dont listen to
it online beforehand, buy it like you would have done ten years ago
when you saw an album that looked interesting and your friend told
you it was good (thats me, Im that friend). Let it grow
on you. You see, his voice hasnt been pitched by a computer;
hes not tailored his work to suit any lowest common denominator.
Its raw and bloody and dirty and pure, my friends.
Take a risk.
David Goo
PS. The money that you use to buy this album will then go into funding
William Neins Second Album, so in a completely direct way, youll
be making a new album happen. If you dont think thats
a nice thing, you may need another holiday.
(You can buy William Neins debut album directly from www.williamnein.com
)