If you have been following TwoGroove for any amount of time, you know I’m a geek for electronic music. This is especially true for breakbeat. And just my luck, I get bignic in my SonicBids inbox! The music is a mix of dark synths, big beats, and fuzzy basslines. Basically, it’s everything I like. At times, bignic evokes thoughts of Moby while at others it’s pure Chemical Brothers. Despite the comparisons, the sound retains its uniqueness.

bignic shows his musical maturity and experience by not catering to one specific style, instead offering a variety of sounds.Tracks like “Down” will have you rocking out while more ambient offerings like “War” will drop the beat in favor of delicate rhythms. For my money, though, it’s all about “Modern Pentathalon” and “My Trip”. They are big, danceable tracks that are making this post take longer than it should to write due to my propensity to get lost in them.

Our interview with bignic is below. Additionally, he’s giving away some free mp3s including a track from the new album. Check the post for the download links.

Members/Instruments
Nic Gorissen – synthesizers/programming

Year Formed: 1999

1. Past: What is your musical background? What has led you to this point?

I’ve always been a computer nerd and since my father was a musician, we had MIDI gear and synthesizers and computers kicking around all the time. I had been playing with keyboards and MIDI based composition software for years by the time I discovered the tracker scene in the late 90’s and got hooked.

I used Jeskola’s Buzz tracker for quite a few years (and 2 studio albums) because it was the most powerful and flexible tracker available (and it was free!) Most of my music during this period was very heavily based on samples from other artists/pieces.

In 2004 I started moving towards Ableton Live because it afforded me a lot more flexibility when working with the really huge sounds/samples that I found myself recording more often. Once I got comfortable with Live, my use of samples really dropped as I began to record my own keyboards, vocals, bass, guitar, etc.

In the past three years I’ve won a few awards:

o Five songs placed in Top 500 – 16th Billboard World Song Contest
o Third Place ‘Electronic’ in the 2008 International Songwriting Competition for “The End of Something Big”
o ‘Best Electronic’ at the 2008 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for “Phone”
o ‘Best Electronic’ award at the 2007 Ontario Independent Music Awards for “Inexplicable”
o Finalist in the 2008 Great Lakes Songwriting Contest for “Inexplicable”
o Semi-Finalist in the 2008 UK Songwriting Contest

2. Present: Where are you at now in your career? What are you currently working on?

I’ve just finished my 4th studio album (“The War on Peace”) so I’m working on getting that out to listeners – submitting to lots of college radio stations, and just trying to get the word out.

My last three discs have sold just by word of mouth and a few Internet Radio shows that have picked me up. This time around, I’m trying to push myself a little bit more into the mainstream (marketing wise, not music wise) because I’m confident that my music is finally ‘accessible’ to the average listener.

I think I’ve reached a stage in my musical development where I can finally bring an idea into the studio and get it down (and sounding good) very quickly, without having to fight with the technology or my own ineptitude at playing a keyboard riff correctly. Now that ideas can come out quickly without a hassle, I’m finding that I’m writing more ‘songs’ rather than soulless ‘tracks’ which are just noises and loops. It feels more organic and natural now, and I think that it comes across in the music.

3. Future: What’s coming up for you? Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I’m hoping that the recent slew of awards will translate into some licensing opportunities or distribution deals, but I’m just taking it a day at a time.

I’d like to be doing more live shows and more high profile remixes.

I think I’d like to collaborate more with other artists and perhaps produce an album for someone else. I think there’s a lot of really great indie stuff out there that just isn’t produced or engineered very well and that limits its exposure and acceptance.

4. Where can people find more of your music?

My website’s MP3 directory usually contains a few free MP3’s of remixes or stuff that I’m currently working on. My first album is also available there, as a free MP3 download. Free track from the new album for download – “Inexplicable”

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thebignic (several streaming MP3’s from “The War on Peace”)

ReverbNation: http://www.reverbnation.com/bignic (several streaming and downloadable MP3’s from “The War on Peace”)

5. Anything you’d like to plug?

“The War on Peace” CD’s for sale on my site.

($10.00 plus shipping)

“The War on Peace” MP3’s for sale on BandCamp:

($1.00 for high quality MP3/FLAC/etc… or $5.00 for the whole album)