Nervian Society are a Brussels-based act mining the glittering electro and disco depths for nuggets of pure sonic gold. In a previous life, their members founded the Spector Studio in Brussels where they record, produce music and collaborate with many artists of the Brussels and Belgian’s scene.
Their new single I Catch A Fire boasts 70’s violins, Morodor-esque bass and pop melodies and a deeply catchy vocal, with vocalist Mien singing in both English and French. Rooted in myth and legend, I Catch A Fire takes its inspiration from gods who dance and touch the sky, and from the proposition that the sun that does not burn people who love each other. The extended club version is full-throttle and oscillates between Soul Central, Full intention and 80s disco, while the ethereal version is tailor-made for the sunrise “last tune of the night”.
Hi, thank you for taking the time to chat with us today! How has the year been treating you so far?
A lot of music-production work. We have released “Ducpetiauxlaan” our 1st EP in February, in addition with hybrid DJ-sets with a modular synth on stage, and we have built a real live setup with electronic machines and 2 vocalists.
Where do you think the impulse to create music comes from for you?
Creating music is a blessing, a driving force. A sound, a tune, a riff, a machine, a vocalist, a movie, a throw of the dice, can trigger some inspiration.
Brussels has a long history of having a vibrant music scene – were there any specific experiences when you were growing up in the city that shaped your future careers?
We are immigrants in Brussels for 10 years, before we were in Paris, the vibes of Brussels, the talents and the fact that everything is possible make it a little New-York, everybody is accessible and that makes it easy to form new projects quickly.
You’ve said that your new single I Catch A Fire is “rooted in myth and legend” – can you expand on that a little for us?
It’s about a party with Gods and demigods dancing and partying in a club at the seaside until the sunrise, and then they won’t ever meet again.
When you’re making music, how much are you considering your audience, especially for when you’re performing live?
The audience is our priority, we owe them everything, and above all we aim to make them happy.
Tell us about your current studio set up – any particular bits of go-to kit you find yourself returning to?
We work more and more with Elektron machines: the Octatrack and a bit the Digitakt to capture and sample sounds and riffs from older analog synthesizers such as Korg trident, Prophet VS, ESQ1, OB1000 and our modular synth setup. Then everything is re-worked again.
Tell us about Spector Studio – does having your own space allow you a certain kind of creative freedom?
Yes and no. Having a lot of time available at the studio is not necessarily a good thing, it’s good to have deadlines to keep up the pressure. And since the studio is also working on external productions, it makes the place less personal.
Which artists are currently exciting or inspiring you?
Maceo Plex is always on top, Meduza, Sara Miller, Peggy Gou (her new pop-dance single is very cool), High Vis (the hardcore punk band) with titanic choruses, Carpenter Brut in the Synthwave metal genre is incredible.
What should we expect from you for the rest of 2023?
We are going to finalize an LP, and hopefully we’ll finish a homemade huge analog Vocoder, a beautiful beast.