How BARDXM Turned Dark Memories Into Something Beautiful
Punk Head: A lot of electronic music is discussed in terms of technology, gear, and production techniques. Your description instead emphasizes atmosphere, memory, and storytelling. How do you balance the technical side of electronic composition with the emotional narrative you're trying to convey?
BARDXM: For me the emotional narrative is always the starting point and the most crucial part of the process. I think it’s easy to get caught up in the intricacies and technicalities of electronic music as the sound possibilities are really quite endless. And although I do love designing and sculpting sounds, I’m also never hesitant to strip things away again when I feel it’s not serving the narrative. I kind of consider the whole technical side of electronic composition as a nice outer shell that you can dress up with a lot of bells and whistles. However if your song or composition doesn’t have a clear emotional narrative at its core it will merely be an empty shell. So I’m always very mindful of that when I’m writing music.
Punk Head: The image of the modern bard is fascinating because traditional bards relied on lyrics and spoken stories, whereas much of your storytelling seems to happen through texture and sound design. How do you think narrative operates in largely instrumental or abstract music?
BARDXM: The bard analogy is on the one hand a play of words because it resembles my given name very closely but on the other hand I do like the idea of being a storyteller through music. Actually, I think that narratives can be told equally well through lyrics as well as through sound. With lyrics you have of course the meaning of the words but sounds can also carry meaning or set a scene. For example, a harsh, metallic texture can create a sense of friction or anxiety whereas a warm, decaying tape loop can feel like a fading memory. As a listener, your brain naturally tries to make sense of these shifts in environments and emotional valence. The narrative of the song then becomes experiencing the emotional arc of moving through those spaces— for example moving from the tension of a rising sub-bass to the relief when a melody or chord finally resolves.
Punk Head: The album's sound is described as existing in "uneasy tension" between organic and digital elements. Do you think that tension reflects something about contemporary life, or is it more personal than that?
BARDXM: For me it’s both. Nowadays most people’s lives are so entangled with the digital world – staring at our computers and phones all day while still also craving physical and emotional connections in the real world. In this way you have an everyday tension between the organic and the digital world that I think is reflected well in this album.
On a more personal level the tension between the organic and the digital elements in this music is more about me trying to cope with very messy and raw human emotions by repackaging them into these gritty electronic sounds that on the outside feel cold and distant but on the inside do carry these emotional narratives that I talked about previously.
Punk Head: Falsetto vocals appear to be an important thread connecting the album's sonic landscapes. What role does the human voice play in a project that is otherwise deeply invested in electronic textures?
BARDXM: For me, even when the vocals are wordless or heavily processed, the biology of a voice carries an innate vulnerability. Weaving my own voice – sometimes heavily processed, sometimes more natural - into these tracks was vital to making the music entirely my own and giving it a visceral, human dimension. While I’m fascinated by everything electronic music production can do, the core of songwriting will always be the emotional narrative. What better way to convey that than with your own voice? For me it acts as a timeless anchor that you can always hold onto.
Punk Head: These songs were born during a difficult period, then left untouched until life looked different. Do you think Night Chorus became a better album because you waited, and what did that gap between writing and releasing reveal about the relationship between memory and art?
BARDXM: I definitely think Night Chorus became a better, more authentic album because of that pause. Re-opening these songs two years after writing them was a real surprise; I realized they had served as a vital outlet for a lot of dark energy I was experiencing at the time. I actually hesitated to release them at first. My musical tastes are constantly evolving, and I was genuinely surprised by how dark the material was. However, I really wanted to put it out in the world as a sort of ‘official record’ of where I was at that time both musically as well as personally. Finally, finishing this project allowed me to approach these songs with a sense of grace and distance that I didn't possess when I first wrote them. You could say it helped recontextualize my memories of that time period, turning something heavy into something beautiful that you can finally let go of.
