Nostalgix on Building a Universe in Music

Emerging house artist Nostalgix says her moniker chose her before she ever touched a DJ controller. 

From a young age, she knew she wanted to sing, rap, and pursue music. In fact, she bases her discography on the nostalgic music she listened to when growing up in Iran. At home, her parents played Persian artists, however, when she traveled to her grandparent’s house on weekends, they played MTV on their cable TV.

The iconic era of music videos on the retro cable channel introduced Nostalgix to a world of icons including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliot. Her early exposure to these pop and rap stars planted a lifelong dream for her.

Nostalgix throws in elements of 90s records, and music that influenced her childhood in Iran including MTV music videos. She encapsulates nostalgia in her mixes and raps.

Her newest release, “Heat Rush” dropped on July 27. The track features vocals from Dyer over a synthy, addicting, psychedelic groove. Nostalgix told MP3 MAG she worked on “Heat Rush”‘s execution amidst the pandemic lockdown and felt more vulnerable to releasing it since it focuses more on an emotive melody than an empowered party anthem. 

“Right now I’m making what feels true to the moment for me,” she said. 

Sitting in a pristine hotel room in Las Vegas, Nostalgix’s blonde hair fell past either side of her shoulders and she stretched back into her chair. She prefaced the conversation with MP3 MAG mentioning her stay in Vegas was for her agent’s birthday.

Her openness to conversation and kind nature emanate through her musical talent and emotive tunes. Over the past few years of her performative career, Nostalgix followed the different moods her music evoked. Even though her name remains the same, her music shifts between G House, rap, and techno trance.

The environment Nostalgix creates in her sets calls back to a specific time in her life, one when she attended film school. During our conversation, she spoke about the intersection of film and music in her musical career. She said the creation of music and film coexist perfectly.

“The way that I think is very visual,” she said. When I’m even making a song, I sit there and I can visualize what it’s gonna look like, what the colors are gonna be, what the visuals are going to be like, what I want the video to look like. So automatically, I’m like, this is the vibe of the song, and I can visualize it. For me, it helps to create a universe around the music that goes beyond just what you hear through your ears. It creates more of an all-around experience of this is the music.”

Her new beat was released amidst a summer of two festival sets a weekend and more throughout the year. Nostalgix recently wrapped a show at Canada’s Shambhala festival. She entranced the audience at Shambhala’s Pagoda stage, a multicolored, haunted house, with iridescent lasers fit for musical wizards such as Nostalgix.

“I’ve done a lot of sets [where] I just walk away and I feel holy,” she explained. “You know, that was incredible. But that set was just like, I want to say one of my favorite sets to date. One of the best sets energy-wise. It felt so good. The entire crowd was going insane the entire time.”

Some artists lend unique and creative sounds to their performances. Nostalgix adds a special kind of energy to her shows. She described her musical moniker’s creations as a fun, energetic, sweaty, dance party. If and when you attend a Nostalgix set, “[You] listen to the music and just lose yourself and lose yourself in the moment. To be where you are now, and reminiscing all the times you’re having right now, and being present in the moment.”

House music boasts genre-bending as a staple in its history, and Nostalgix favors meshing rap with her upbeat house tracks, lending her inspiration to artists like Missy Elliot, Princess Nokia, and Iggy Azalea.

Before she discovered her infatuation with rapping over her beats, Nostalgix did what any experimental musician would do and tested out the rap process for fun. As she continued learning the foundations, she fell in love with the steps. She produced an instrumental, freestyled over it, and built on the creation. Moving toward the future, that process became her motivation.

“For me, it’s really important to have different elements to my sound, I can be emotional, and I can make a party song, and I can make a really sassy record about being dope as hell,” she explained. “But, I think that where I’m at right now, I think just expanding on more high-energy records because I’m having a lot of fun with bass house and experimenting with speed house, like 150 BPM house music.”

Nostalgix ended our conversation with a positive affirmation for her listeners. 

“To anybody reading this, I hope you’re having a beautiful day and life is good, and if you dream about something and if you want to do it, you can do it. You can do it all yourself. You can do the damn thing, you just gotta put in that extra work.”