Nova Collective has unleashed a killer genre-blending album this year full, titled The Further Side. With stellar reviews and a tour in the works, they’re a band to watch out for. I talked with Dan Briggs about how Nova Collective came together, as well as about the new album.
HBI: How would you describe the sound and theme of the album to new listeners?
DB: Ripping through space and time to explore new sonic terrain. For the four of us, it was all about doing something that was new and fresh to add to our musical pallet, we’re so well-versed in the progressive music world and we just wanted to stretch that to the outer limits and push ourselves as composers and performers.
HBI: The Further Side has been out for a while and the reviews are really positive, congratulations! Do you read reviews for albums you play on? And if so, is there anything that was missed or misunderstood by the writers?
DB: It has easily been the most positively reviewed album that I’ve written, but that doesn’t really mean a whole lot to me. I love everything I’m a part of equally and I was just proud of what we accomplished and how it pushed me as a musician. My whole career has been spent writing music focused primarily on satisfying my ears and the people I’m writing with, and I’m just thankful I’ve had the opportunity to grow in so many different settings, but the only way really to grow is to do it your way and push yourself and constantly push to reinvent.
HBI: How did Nova Collective form?
DB: Pretty boring, just a series of emails between Rich and I; and then I brought in Matt as he’s worked with me in Trioscapes and Orbs and Rich brought in Pete who he had worked with in the early days of Haken.
HBI: How was the global collaboration done between the UK and US band members?
DB: We wrote by sharing Reason files back and forth; many thanks to the kind folks at Propellerhead for getting us all hooked up so we could make that happen! Amazingly we pretty much functioned as one brain, all speaking the same musical language and everyone’s suggestions just elevated the pieces to the next level. Very inspiring session.
HBI: Hopefully we will see you all on tour soon! What do you imagine a Nova Collective show to look like? What can fans expect?
DB: We will definitely strive for musical perfection but also improvised moments. The songs have the potential to grow and mutate in a live setting and I think it’ll be really exciting to see them come to life after we’re super comfortable playing together for a while.
HBI: What would you define as ‘success’ for Nova Collective?
DB: Man if we could get some fucking US visas for the British members so we can tour over here that’d be success enough for us! We are bursting waiting to play live right now.
HBI: What is the worst advice you heard in the music scene?
DB: “We’re going to spend $70,000 to put you guys on Ozzfest for the summer” 2006, Victory Records.
HBI: Where can we find you online?
DB: @danbriggsx Twitter, @danbriggsmusic Instagram.
HBI: Any request for the readers or parting thoughts?
DB: Many thanks! Hopefully we will see you all in a live setting before too long.