![Stefan Noons]()
“I suppose this is the result of me rediscovering all these forgotten toys…” – Stefan Noons
One of the things that puts huge, ear-to-ear grins across the faces of us here at team WTGR is when a new artist gets in touch with something really special. No PR. Sometimes not even a photo. Just a genuine urge for people to hear and connect with something they have created.
Yesterday, Edinburgh’s Stefan Noons did just that. Only a few months in to the project that has seen him use his own name, ‘Signals’ is the second track to come from the 23-year-old – preceded by the wandering, lush ‘Riverine’ – and again, comes perfectly formed.
There are hints – in his vocal at least – of a gospel-tinged James Blake, but unlike Blake, Noons wraps his words in comfort blankets of sound. These are deep, warm and intimate recordings. Sonic butterflies float around the periphery, while the airy, echoey vocals bounce off one another.
“I found I had the space to unpack the instruments and equipment lying around in boxes,” said Noon when we asked him about how these first few songs came about. “Just stuff I had collected growing up, from ebay and car-boot sales, and so I suppose this is the result of me rediscovering all these forgotten toys.”
And what a rediscovery it was. One that we are particularly thankful for. By stacking up swathes of the instruments Noon grew up around he has been able to create, in ‘Signals’ especially, a song that skips with the giddy, woozy nostalgia of never ending childhood summers. With so much going on, so many ideas being thrown around over the course of their combined nine minutes, we were keen to hear from their creator as to exactly what goes into these sonic melting pots.
“I was brought up on Cocteau Twins and My Bloody Valentine, and so these come out in most things that I write,” says Noons. “I learned to sing listening to that record ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ on repeat endlessly as I farmed for experience points on Final Fantasy VIII. Maybe more subtly, there’s some Scottish traditional folk song mixed in too, which I was immersed in back home in Ayrshire.”
With such a range of influences, most of which belonging to the 80′s, it’s surprising that Noons’ songs sound so present. So of the moment. These are no 80′s pastiches. There are little glimpses of chillwave. Cut up samples. Organic, throbbing bass drums. And of course, Noon’s voice. An alluring beast, often stacked up ontop of itself, both ‘Riverine’ and ‘Signals’ posses the most powerful vocal ability of them all. That being, Noons vocals make you forget about everything else. You feel he is singing to you and you alone. All in all, it is mesmerising.
When discussing lyrics, Noons likes the opaqueness. “I like to leave them semi-undecipherable. Maybe I adopted that from Liz Fraser too; I’m more concerned with how the words sound. But they are personal, in an abstract way.”
As a summation of what Noons has released so far, it works perfectly. Say hello to our new favourite musical alchemist. Abstract, but in a deeply personal way.
Download ‘Signals’ and ‘Riverine’ below.