Ascending into the realm of Electro/Disco-House is the Brussels-based group Nervian Society. New on the Brussels scene, the group is exploring the sonic depths of Electro and Disco-House music and turning their projects into sonically groovy pieces. Nervian Society is D&D’s project surrounded by talented guests. The first D is the composer, producer, and sound engineer, who has worked with some renowned artists such as TTC, DJ Cam, JC De Castelbajac, Holden, Instructor, JL Aubert, and Que La Suite Soit Douce — while the other D crafts the unique electronic tools they use for their production. The project is devoted to their dance music passion: Disco and Electro with accents of House music for good measure. On stage, they perform a hybrid live DJ Set that is a wall of sound made of loops, effects, mashups, modular synths, and live vocals.
In addition to creating groove-hitting masterpieces, the members also take pride in finding their haven for recording, producing, and collaborating with like-minded artists within Brussels’ scene in Spector Studio and their label Sub-Continental. The studio has had successful collaborations with artists such as the Flemish French-speaking Pop band Que La Suite Soit Douce (aka QLSSD), the Electro-prose duet The Cultural Studies, and the Punk-Hardcore act Instructor. Now, the group continues to celebrate their love of dance music with their latest EP Ducpétiauxlaan, which explores various shades of electronic music such as Electro, Italo-Disco, and of course, House.
Now sharing with 6AM, Nervian Society gets into their perspective and music history within the scene in Brussels, building and maintaining their own music equipment, operating their own studio business and label Spector Studio and Sub-Continental, collaborating alongside the vocalists Flavia Clementi and Mien Heyvaert on their latest EP Ducpétiauxlaan, the advantage of exploring different genres, and emphasizing their support towards Fuse Club. Nervian Society’s 5-track album Ducpétiauxlaan is now available to stream on Spotify and SoundCloud.
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Thanks for joining us Nervian Society. We’re glad to have your group on 6AM so that we can learn more about your group’s artistry, your upcoming 5-track EP Ducpétiauxlaan, and the group’s journey into dance music. First and foremost, we love to hear about the different perspectives of the house and techno community from international-based DJs such as yourselves. What can you tell us about the dance music scene in Belgium that makes you feel proud and inspired to be a part of it? Care to share any favorite clubs, venues, or DJs from your hometown that evoke great memories?
Belgium has always been a land of choice for dance music and club culture. At the end of the 60s, the first clubs opened and soon loads of American funk records arrived at the docks of Antwerp. That’s how the Belgians like to dance and party so much. During the 90s, there was the Boccaccio with a 2,000 clubbers capacity every evening — at that time, Belgium was the country with the most important number of record shops per inhabitant in the world.
Today, there is a very active scene of Amelie Lens, Charlotte de Witte, The Magician, and other leaders of this scene, as well as many famous nightclubs — but, this club culture can turn any corner of the city into an insane place to party! The underground scene has always been a nest of talents — people like Dance Divine, she’s a producer and an amazing singer and performer who’s working on deconstructing gender and identity. There’s a rising DJs crew called Voltkick with the techno DJ Sekter 4 and the brothers Matt & Diego who perform a powerful uptempo set with melodic tracks and a lot of attitude. There’s also Tomorrowland, but this is another story.
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Speaking of Belgium and music, how did the group come to find one another in Brussels’ scene, as well as find a musical connection over the genres: Electro, Italo-Disco, and House?
We work with many different artists in our recording studio, Spector Studio. We produce, record, mix music, and do some mastering — this is also where our synthesizers are built (D&D Modules). We build our own equipment and have a repair/maintenance workshop — this is how we became a kind of hub; meeting musicians from different scenes and influencing each other.
“We build our own equipment and have a repair/maintenance workshop — this is how we became a kind of hub; meeting musicians from different scenes and influencing each other.”
Respecting art is also respecting the equipment and/or intstruments by taking the time to maintain them.
When we started Nervian Society, we met a guy called Paolo Danese Turbokrapfen through DJ Alessandro Parisi — he wrote a “Disco Survival Plan for the End of Times” called “Discoteca Clandestina”, a crazy story where he explains how you can reach the 5th dimension with edits of Italo-Disco — and, he explains the structure of Hi-NRG tracks making parallelisms with the chakras. It’s a really inspiring and insane book — I guess the Italo-Disco touch comes from there.
“I guess the Italo-Disco touch comes from there. He [Paolo Turbokrapfen], explains in a “Disco Survival Plan for the End of Times” called “Discoteca Clandestina” how you can reach the 5th dimension with edits of Italo-Disco. He explains the structure of Hi-NRG tracks making parallelisms with the chakras.”
Nervian Society connect with the genre Italo-Disco on a discerning and authentic level.
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From the group connecting through its passion for dance music, Disco, House, and Electro, you all eventually accomplished the debut of your 2021 single Club D. Currently, your group is on its way to releasing the next upcoming project Ducpétiauxlaan this year alongside vocalists Flavia Clementi and Mien Heyvaert; both featured on two different tracks. Walk us through the entire creative process that went into Ducpétiauxlaan. Are there significant meanings behind the track titles or the EP’s title?
The songs are created on old machines like the original MPC 60 Akai — a beat, a bassline, a series of chords, and one or two riffs. I use our modular synth (D&D Modules) for monophonic basses, riffs, and arpeggios — and, the Korg Trident and the Prophet VS for their amazing pads, and virtual synths. Now, the Elektron Octatrack has replaced the MPC and the advantage is that it can be easily transported, and it’s the most creative machine I know. Then, melodies for the vocals are created which can be very quick or take weeks, and the lyrics are written at the same time or afterward. Sometimes, we work together on them.
“I use our modular synth (D&D Modules) for monophonic basses, riffs, and arpeggios — and, the Korg Trident and the Prophet VS for its amazing pads, and virtual synths. The songs are created on old machines like the original MPC 60 Akai. There’s a lot of work with Flavia and Mien to produce the vocal parts, and find the right tune, but when everything is recorded and edited, our goal is to make danceable and emotional music.”
For Nervian Society, their goal is to create music that pierces the mind, body, and soul.
There’s a lot of work with Flavia and Mien to produce the vocal parts, find the right tune, and get the track that rocks. Then, everything is recorded and edited on Pro Tools, mixed, which can also be long or very short (like for “Elegant Ride On”). The songs are about human relationships and love — and, for “Mainloft”, we wanted a feel-good and summery vibe. Our goal is to make danceable and emotional music.
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In addition to working with Flavia Clementi and Mien Heyvaert, your group has had other successful collaborations with artists such as Que La Suite Soit Douce, The Cultural Studies, Instructor, TTC, DJ Cam, JC De Castelbajac, Holden, and JL Aubert. How does your group know when it has found the right artist to collaborate with? That feeling of, “yup, they’re just what we need for this project to sound amazing.”
When we collaborate with someone, it’s not a matter of style, it’s when the music and the project sound sincere that we go for it — which explains the big differences between Instructor, LD50, Terre Neuve who plays Hardcore Punk, and the Electro projects or the pop of QLSSD. We’ve also done a lot of Rockabilly, recorded live like in the 50s. Recording and mixing music that isn’t originally our style is a great advantage because it allows us to work like a child discovering a new world with new codes while respecting that universe. You have to be schizophrenic when you play multiple roles in music. But of course, Electro, Disco, and dance music, in general, remain our favorite territories.
“When we collaborate with someone, it’s not a matter of style, it’s when the music and the project sound sincere. We go for it, which explains the big differences between Instructor, LD50, Terre Neuve who plays Hardcore Punk, and the Electro projects or the pop of QLSSD. Electro, Disco, and dance music, in general, remain our favorite territories, but recording and mixing music that isn’t originally our style is a great advantage.”
Going with what feels right is how Nervian Society approaches music creativity with other genres and artists.
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Before we end, this EP is described as “a glorious celebration of their love of dance music”. We agree as we can see that this celebrative spirit of your group’s love for dance music has definitely played a role in Spector Studio becoming created. Your group’s studio is also affiliated with Sub-Continental — the label that will be releasing your upcoming EP Ducpétiauxlaan. From working together, when/how did your group know that you were all on the same page of wanting to share this celebrative appreciation for dance music with other artists on a business level?
Sub-Continental is our label and publishing company, we only publish projects we produce or co-produce. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to develop projects other than those in which we are involved. But, for example, we are currently co-producing a Bossa Nova EP with Peixe e Limao which is the group where Flavia also sings.
Is there anything else your group would like to share?
We support the Fuse, the temple of techno in Brussels which is threatened with closure because of a new neighbor; a greedy person who bought a cheap building next to the club and is now attacking them in justice because of the noise, a problem faced by many party venues in Brussels.
Connect with Nervian Society: Website丨SoundCloud丨Facebook丨Beatport丨Instagram
