Neon River is an Amsterdam-based band whose music can best be described as an electronic indie dance experimentation where the goal is to make everyone move all night long. Equally hard-grooving and heart-touching, Neon River takes and bends the codes of electronic music, taking inspiration from artists such as Soccer96, Flying Lotus, Floating Points and Aphex Twin. We had a chance to catch up with Matteo, Chaerin and Pedro before they performed in front of an intimate audience at Hidden Gem Studio in Amsterdam.
Neon River is a new group that we started about a year ago. We've been playing together a lot in different bands for many years. And we all kind of have this passion for electronic and indie music and all kinds of dance music in general. It's kind of a passion project that we started exploring. We do everything together. We write the music together, and we're starting to play live now.
P: I'm Pedro. I play the drums with Neon River. I also have other projects, such as Nausyqa. I love playing the drums, and making music with friends.
C: My name is Chaerin. I play all kinds of keys. In Neon River, I play the synths. And yeah, we do sound-makings together. I also have my own projects and I play in different kinds of bands. I also play improvised music a lot. And now I'm exploring more electronic.
M: My name is Mateo Mazzù. I play the bass, and a bit of the Moog when they let me. And yeah, aside from Neon River, I have a bunch of bands playing all kinds of stuff from kind of dancey electronic jazz, or indie, or free jazz, all around.
How do you feel in this current chapter of your life, in your music, in your art?
P: I think I can say this is a very early stage, baby steps. This performance that we're about to do is only our fourth performance. Because we mainly started this project in September of last year. And since then we've been rehearsing a lot, trying to create a sound together. The first performance we did was in June in Amsterdam, and then we got super lucky to perform in Korea in Seoul in September. And in Rotterdam last week. So things are very new. And we're just focusing on creating a sound together. And then translate it into, hopefully, an EP that we're gonna work on very soon. That's kind of the idea.
M: Yeah, like Pedro said, this is really exciting, because since we really decided to write all of the music together, and mostly we had a couple of demos that we did, which I didn't write before but aside from that, we just kind of meet and do, which takes a lot longer, I think. It asks for a lot of time and a lot of brain work and logistics, you know. A lot of logistics. So for a year, we were really preparing the material and it was a quite intense period with all the other stuff on the side. So it feels very exciting and there's this sort of release now, playing these shows finally, and we get to try the songs live and get a bit of, you know, interaction with the people, with the audience, and get some feedback and stuff. We're working on more repertoire and also slowly starting to work on our first EP that we got some funding for. So we're just trying to find the time to do it. It will probably be with a producer that we all like very much, producer drummer, Mark Schilders, who's based in Rotterdam and we've already talked with him. So that's the exciting part for the next couple of months besides hopefully more shows also.
If you were to describe the sound of Neon River, how would you describe it?
P: So it's electronic music, mostly groove electronic music being drum and bass, other types of groove oriented electronic music, and then it's just human beings trying to humanize the electronic music. That's especially for me, the drums, most of our references are drum machine type things. So for me, I really try to translate it on the real acoustic drum set the best way I can. And then for them, I think it's also to put their playing into it, Chaerin with the synths, Matteo with the bass and also with the Moog. So I think it's maybe that. Humanize a bit the electronic sounds.
C: Also to make music that we can feel something. It's still electronics, but we try to make more touching melodies or harmonies time to time. Like we can, we of course like to dance and stuff, but we always try to put that kind of elements into the music. So yeah, like dancey, romantic, maybe romantic is not the right word, but yeah. So that kind of elements are quite important for this band, I think.
M: I think we all gravitate towards producers or bands that kind of have these two dimensions very strongly, because we all like to dance and we all enjoy kind of also just the hard techno. That's really great when you can dance and also be moved and kind of listen to it. And we're really trying to find our balance. Maybe if it helps, like there's some names that we're, I think very influenced by. We also trying to kind of recreate some of their songs. We did a Flying Lotus song that was a part of our process. A little sneak peek, we're working on a Aphex Twin track and we're trying to see how we can bring it to our own world. And not necessarily really recreate lnote by note, but just kind of, you know, make it our own, and find this kind of in-between space between the head and the heart and the body.
Tijmen de Nooy Photography
Is there a message you’d like to convey in your music?
M: Maybe honestly, not that much. I think it's very instinctive for the three of us and we're all very deep in the music and we all care a lot about it. We care a lot about other things, of course. But for me, I like music to be, to be what it is for what it is. I think we play, we know maybe the kind of emotions we are trying to convey and the kind of reaction we want and the kind of experience we want, but it's maybe enough for me at least. And people can find a message in it if they like and that's fine, but if they don't, it's okay.
C: I think it's also nice to leave it open for the people, how they want to experience this music because I'm sure within the three of us, we also have different experiences for each song and every song can feel differently for people. What we are trying to create here is to make, at least for me, warm dance music. So that's how I feel.
P: I agree. If I would have to add something is that us three, we play a lot in different settings and I think this band specifically is kind of just us being ourselves in, of course, in a very specific way because there's still a context and a music context. But I think, at least for me, I think it's, because I remember we used to jam, we did some jams way back in the day in between our jazz endeavors. But it's nice to come out with like, this is us and we like, because it's also very personal, like we really listen to this stuff. And I think it's nice to say this because we come from the Conservatory, you know? Jazz is fun and it's nice, but it's also nice to put in efforts. If you really enjoy some other music, it's also nice as a jazz musician to also just do the other things, you know, and put your heart into it because music is a lot of things. And then, hopefully, everything we love and then the way we play it, hopefully it creates something that people will connect with.
What's in store for Neon River in the near future?
M: Mostly we have, I think, kind of two big things. The live side, we're working on organizing more shows. There's a thing that's in the work, I guess I can mention. We have some friends from Brussels that also make very cool music and we're working on some double bill shows with them in March. I think that's gonna be our main focus as live performance goes. And then on the other side, we're kind of entering the writing room again and preparing our first EP that we hope to release in around a year or something like that.
P: So we're kind of entering that phase now, making more music. Just exciting to finally be releasing the band, right? Yeah, exactly. Also doing this today, it's gonna be very fun. It's also, for us, it's very nice to have this opportunity early on. Because also, we spent the whole year literally in their house, just playing. But it's nice because you kind of go rehearse, and then you listen back. But at least for me, it's like once you start playing live and you start getting the feedback from the other people, I think that really tells a lot about the music and then you can tweak some stuff. I think now we're a bit in that process. I think also for the EP, hopefully we can also play the new songs and see how people react and also adapt.
M: So keep an eye out for the shows. And keep an eye out for the EP. Yes. And let's see how it goes.
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