Nik Dandelion's world is a kaleidoscope of decades, destinations, and postmodern dreams. Primarily drawing from retro sounds and aesthetics, he breaks the nostalgia offered up into digital fragments to create his unique DIY sound. Do-It-Yourself or Undo-It-Yourself. His audiovisual universe is no shrine to nostalgia but rather an irreverent and irresistible response to heavy times. Each song is as bright, flighty, and contagious as a dandelion seed.
Imagine a cerebral universe filled with wit, wisdom, and of course, the crooning talents of Nik Dandelion's reverberated vocals. That's precisely what we're picking up on with his most recent single, "Circles." The enticing instrumentation resides in a mid-tempo atmosphere rich in luxuriant guitar riffs and a spellbinding rhythm.
Swaying you into the transparency of Nik Dandelion's lyrical techniques, the funk-driven bass line peaks in at the chorus just long enough for us to be absorbed in the repetitious hook that has us sinking deeper into his wistful display. The manner in which his comforting essence sprawls through the integrity of each word emitted is genuinely remarkable. Cascading upon the longing spirit of the musical arrangement, Nik Dandelion's vocalization wraps you in belonging and security as your mind wanders into the depths of "Circles" alluring soundscape.
Textured distortion gently stews in the entire composition at hand, letting the veracity of this record feast on various auditory dimensions. Continuing to ease listeners into the buoyant embrace of his artistic flairs, we thrive in the sky-high stratosphere that Nik Dandelion has us floating towards. Flawlessly raising the bar as he places his best foot forward, the striking appeal of Nik Dandelion becomes more and more apparent.
The comforting soundscape showcased in “Circles,” has us fully invested in your art! Where does the inspiration for “Circles” stem from?
Initially, the inspiration for "Circles" came from a task in university. We had to compose a song with this drum loop that we got in class. The melody and chord progression existed long before that in a different tempo and time signature and I just put the pieces together. I made a phone recording of the song and picked it up again in quarantine last year to produce it on my laptop. I experimented with delays and a weird technique where I would play my guitar percussively without playing any notes but rather rhythms. This is how the psychedelic soundscape came about.
We noticed that it was easy to paint our own picture to the words you fashioned together in the lyrical structure of this track. In your own words, what does “Circles” mean to you?
My idea was to put this rather negative expression 'going in circles' in a positive context where you would enjoy all the ups AND downs of being with someone. It stems from this state of mind I was in last summer where I didn't see bad as bad and good as good but rather one being dependent on the other. Without good there's no bad, without light there is no darkness, and so on. I was meditating a lot haha
Could you please take us into the recording process for this track? How long did it take you to create and release this masterpiece?
My roommate went on a road trip with his girlfriend last summer and I stayed in his room because he had the bigger one with all the recording equipment and so on. So I used the chance and got my amp in and just played around with a condenser microphone. I don't have a lot of experience in recording music so I just did what sounded good to me. Drum Loop, guitar, vocals, the delayed guitar wobbles, and a synth bass for the chorus, that's it. Took me about two days to produce.
Are there any memorable moments from the creation process that make the release of “Circles,” that much more rewarding?
Just being alone during the recording process gave me such freedom in a creative way that I didn't feel there was anything wrong or right in what I did, kind of like the lyrical idea of there being nothing set in stone really.
What can listeners anticipate to hear next from you?
I have produced six songs in total that I will release as singles this year. I worked on videos for all of them too. Stay tuned and stay happy. Nik xoxo
