Kody Nielson aka Silicon. Photo / Ralph Brown
Kody Nielson is unlikely ever to be described as robotic - he may be mild-mannered and reserved at times but there's no doubt the music he has made throughout his career brims with intensity, vitality, and unpredictability.
So it's interesting that embarking on his latest project, dubbed Silicon, he was thinking a lot about machines, computers and the many devices that have infiltrated our lives.
"I suppose I was trying to make something that represents machine and human. I kept thinking about how people get so into their devices, so they create these personas for their machines, almost - it becomes really personal to them. So it might be really expressive and human and emotional, but it's still going through this silicon filter, coming through the devices. So I was thinking about that a lot. And how people kind of trust their computers so much."
Nielson was spending a lot of time alone with a computer himself - Silicon is the first truly solo project he has embarked on — and that lent the whole project a different atmosphere.
"That's partly what stirred up the idea — that I was doing all this work and communication, but it's all through the phone or the computer. Most of my friends live overseas and so those are my main tools every day really. But I think it's the same for a lot of people."
After The Mint Chicks (where he was collaborating with brother Ruban) and Opossum (with girlfriend Bic Runga), the idea of starting another new project that could be entirely solo appealed, because of the freedom it would allow him.
"It was just good to not try and fit it into anything that already existed; it gave me freedom to use new gear, just explore new ideas.
It was also something of a response to all the work he's been doing as a producer over the past few years, with acts like Sherpa, The Psychs, The DHDFD's , Bic Runga, and Clap Clap Riot.
"I guess heaps of the projects I've been working on for the past few years have been quite epic, like the artists were putting a lot of ideas into it and trying to make epic albums with a lot of layers. And in a way that made me want to do something super simple, and do something really plain and straightforward and almost generic.
I don't know. I don't program anything, it was all played, but I guess it was like a human trying to be a robot, or a robot trying to be a human, or something in between."
If that conjures an impression of boring music, you'd be quite mistaken — it's full of soul, laden with strong grooves and melody, the occasional humorous streak, and makes dancing almost irresistible. It might well be the most beautiful music Nielson has ever made.
Could it be that he's mellowed with age, as the joys and responsibilities of becoming a father (he has a daughter, Sophia, with Runga and they're about to have a second child) have crept in?
"Yeah, that's part of it, but I just wanted it to be nicer to listen to as well. With this I actually wanted it to be softer and nicer on the ear. I didn't want it to be jumping out. I had the idea that it would sort of almost be in the background. Not seeking attention necessarily."
He may be far more interested in making art than finding attention, but attention seems to find Nielson — he's now been signed by Weird World/Domino, and had a pretty high-class shout-out from Justin Timberlake who said of first single God Emoji, played on Pharrell's Beats1 show OtherTONE: "If you don't like this, I don't like you."
The album is full of a variety of musical influences — jazz, classical music, psychedelia, soul, funk, disco, RnB — but perhaps the thing that stands out with Personal Computer is Nielson's impressive talents on synth and keys.
"I was listening to a lot of George Duke. I've always listened to heaps of George Duke, but I guess this was the first chance I've had to keep the songs arranged the way I originally wrote them, as opposed to writing songs on keys, and then arranging it for a rock group or something. This time it was sticking with the keyboard sounds I wrote and just recording them the way I originally envisioned. And I suppose the vocal delivery is more like that too, like when I wrote these songs it was quite mellow, so a lot of them I kept quite mellow."
There are a few interesting vocal elements across the album. A mantra about personal computers that opens and closes the album comes from a Stephen Hawking-type voice-generation program.
"I just wanted to find a voice that reminded me of Hal3000 in 2001, something that's quite sad and also a bit sinister-sounding."
And there's a sample of a real 911 call on Cellphone, with a caller talking to the operator about a man who's been shot.
"I was just looking for emergency kind of samples, kind of dark and murdery I suppose, and that was just one I came across.
"It was pretty random, but I thought it fit with the vibe of the song, because the song is from the perspective of a murder victim almost. I didn't think too much about it, but it just turned out like that."
There's also a striking set of 29 paintings that accompany the release of the album — they're large-scale versions of the album cover, in different colours, painted by Nielson while he was making the record.
"I was making music and then when got bored of that I'd just do some painting for a while. I was just sort of meditating I suppose, painting that same image in all these different colours. The art and the music together, they're kind of about the same thing.
"The image is almost like the machine to me.
"The way I was thinking about it is that the expression was emotionless but the different colours were different emotions, so it's the same face, but it goes through different modes and different moods with different colours in each painting.
"I was thinking about mass production a lot as well. So I wanted them to be the same, but also handmade, like how iPhones are being assembled in factories in China, and they're actually handmade things, but they turn out to be these generic products. So I was thinking about that, this imperfect digital-analogue combination."
He's performing as Silicon in Auckland for the first time at The Others Way festival next Friday, and it promises to be an intriguing experience with Nielson accompanied by local drummer and multi-instrumentalist Julien Dyne.
"We both use samplers and effects and we're layering them all up. I suppose he's layering up my tracks and playing them almost like a DJ, and then I'm singing, using a few effects and I'm freed up to move around. I didn't really want to be stuck behind an instrument while also having to sing or be a frontman.
"I think it's more fun for me to be just dancing around with Silicon. Because I just want people to be dancing around as well."
Who: Kody Nielson aka Silicon
What: New album Personal Computer out tomorrow
Where and when: Performing at The Others Way festival on Karangahape Rd in Auckland on Friday, September 4.
'The student loan is very high and the knowledge is very minimal.'