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FerrariLover presents Barely Black



Ferrarilover is a dark ambient gothgaze guitarist, outward-looking dj, and darkwave producer / vocalist nico wyland aka the goth ladyboy, who represents non-binary / genderqueer art in the scene. he / she is known as the founder of Ace of Spades, aka L’Ace of Spades, aka Ace of Spades Recordings (aceofspadesrecordings.com), and for his lush, haunting sound and downtempo // progressive // darkwave dj mixtures.


We have had the pleasure of talking to him about his latest releases and this has been the result.


Can you tell us a little about your experience? Where are you from / how did you get into music?


I’m from North County Coastal San Diego. Music has been my earliest and constant love, and this materialized in a very concrete way starting at around age 18. I was in college (or for Brits ‘university’)… My friend at the time was playing PJ Harvey’s ‘Dry’ and Suede’s debut albums a lot. The records had been released when we were preteens. Both of them really hit me. PJ was on and we were working tirelessly on a tough English paper that was a kind of right of passage. I very vividly remember ‘Dry’ playing, sitting with my laptop there on the floor, focusing… at that point though, it was the music that was changing my life more than the paper that I don’t remember.


When I first heard Suede, in that very same room north of NYC, I didn’t like it… then about 1 minute 30 seconds in… and that album changed everything for me. It was like nothing I had ever heard, but everything I had heard that I loved. From then, from 20-26, I discovered classic shoegaze during the 90’s revival like MBV, Cocteau Twins. It was a decade of total immersion in music, including early goth and dance/ remixes. I’ve always been into obscure bands as well. I lived around the corner from Kim’s Video Music (RIP) in NYC, and I would go in there and buy the weirdest thing I could find. I remember wandering a dorm hallway one night and this girl had a Spritualized sticker on her door. That’s how I discovered that. I listened to Pulp and Echo & the Bunnymen a lot then too. We would drive to Manhattan in the middle of the night blasting techno and then alternatively things like AIR’s spaced out mellow debut… and take photos of the sunrise over the Brooklyn Bridge. I had some friends who performed in the Electroclash scene.


How is your sound evolving? What artists and genres do you enjoy mixing right now?


I really love Arabian / Turkish sounding downtempo / organic / progressive house, and mixing that with new music in the post-punk scene. I do have a dance music obsession, but a lot of dance I not like. The stuff that hits me has a particular feel.



How do you feel that your music influences or impacts your listeners?


Illuminating dark things… making them 1. confused and 2. fall in love…. with the inner hidden parts of themselves they have tried to suppress or of which they are unaware.

What projects are you working on right now? What can you tell us about your last job?


A new record called ‘Silk Stockings.’


It has been a lot of study of production DAW stuff, which was grueling during a period when I could not play guitar and had a bad injury/ illness which affected my fretting hand. As nightmarish as it was, the good that came from it was that it forced me not to focus on guitar. There were many bleak feeling days where I would drag myself out of bed and have a music lesson, often seeming to get nowhere. It paid off, though, when I was able to hone the specifics of how the new Logic drum machine is laid out. I had experience programming drum machines before, but with the constant updating of software, it took some time to come together.


Where are you and what have you been doing now?


I’m being reclusive, nerding out listening to synths on youtube and doing some custom work on my guitars. I’m pretty deep in a spiritual time of excavation and integration. Dare i say it: ‘shadow work.’ But it’s a real thing. Also setting up some new studio equipment. This past year I finally ‘came out’ as androgynous or genderfluid/ genderqueer. A child of the 80s, these terms were totally verboten and non-existent for my generation; and yet this is who I have been from my earliest memories.


I’m learning from outspoken youth fighting for change, while at the same time becoming relatively fearless about speaking my truth. I’ve been dealing with more dramatic mood swings than I’ve had in quite some time, finally finding the harmony. Then I come back to greater peace. Real work can be done watching trash tv—- it’s the truth.


Has that sound changed a lot in recent years? What is your musical criteria?


My sound was always there. The new stuff is really ‘old—‘ it just had a longer than average incubation period. I spent countless hours singing karaoke late at night on my own at MAX karaoke in Little Tokyo in downtown L.A.. That almost taught me more than voice lessons.


Do you feel safe now to play a more experimental sound?


Oui.


We all know that the digital revolution has affected sales, but has it affected creativity?


I just remember spending so much time watching the same early Siouxsie & The Banshees live performances over and over, or that obscure Vladislav Delay dj set somewhere in Berlin, circa 2006 in between greeting guests and helping very minimally with installations at the Orange County Museum of Art’s ex-satellite video art gallery in South Coast Plaza where I worked. Youtube was a revolution. It was a true education then and still is now.


Can you tell us what your present and future projects are?


Releasing Barely Black, dj sets, a new mystery record in the vein of my newest release, “Draacool” (dark ambient Joy division meets Cocteau twins) will be out on vinyl in 2022 with Barely Black and Wild Abandon. I’ve also been spray painting custom furniture and working on the house/ studio. When I found Shannon Hemmett’s infamous pedal prints, after hearing Actors and instantly loving them, I asked her to do a custom FerrariLover print. That will be involved in the insert for the new vinyl. This has been part of a trend, where I’m finally going through things and framing old concert posters and relics from my past, along with collecting new works and making paintings.


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