Terminal V Podcast 052 || Nancy Live

Whatever you do, expected the unexpected when it comes to NANCY aka Lauren Rusowicz. The Manchester based artist has a sleeve full of tricks and many different ways to make her mark on the dance floor. Her sound is rooted in techno and acid and is designed to make gritty spaces drip with sweat. After starting out as a DJ, she is now a live specialist who takes her array of synths and drum machines up on stage and creates immersive sonic carnage.

She has proven that everywhere from Space Ibiza to Warehouse Project Manchester and now does so again with this week’s mix. It is a great snapshot of her sound so whack it on, strap in, and read about her move to Dublin, the rave scene she is entrenched in, why she has so much love for acid and techno and plenty more…

 

As we in the midst of changing seasons, how different is the music you make and play and listen to in summer vs winter?

I actually didn’t ever realise I did this but I do… I always thought my music changed purely depending on my mood, which I suppose is kinda correlated to seasons and weather changing and what not. but yeh I’ve realised everything I’m making right now, is quite heavy and dark. Whereas I look back on the stuff I made in the summer usually, made in between playing festivals, and it is a little lighter and has a bit more of an anthemic buzz to it.

What draws you to techno, and acid? Why do they excite you most?


That 303 squelch. There’s nothing like it is there? Just simply playing about with the resonance and cutoff allows you to make some absolute WILD sounds. Whenever I hear it it just makes me smile so much. And twin that with a techno kick and ooooh – it’s beautiful!

How long did it take you to find your own musical voice? What were the key steps in that do you think?

Oh god! Sooooo long like! I think not knowing the key steps is where I went wrong, and took so long to find my sound. I used to try and follow trends, everything I made was stuff I didn’t like but stuff I thought others would. I understand you have to, make music people will dance to, but that’s the hard bit about it all, finding that balance.

I’m self taught when it comes to production too, I’ve been using DAW’s since Ableton 7, bearing in mind we are now on Ableton 11 and really, 12 years on it’s all only just clicked properly, with regards to having a productive workflow and completing tracks. It’s hard, but you just gotta get disciplined with it. Constantly try and learn new things too.

My sound is kinda cross genre I suppose, I love the techno heavy low end and them warehouse percussion elements, but god I love my trance synths. Big emotional chords too. Basically, anything that makes you feel warm and gooey inside at the same time as giving you an old gut punch!

Tell us what you can about the ‘not so legal’ rave you play and/or are a part of!

1st rule of Secret Society, don’t talk about Secret Society. Nah just kidding, I can’t say too much but I will say, I’ve never loved a rave more, we were like a proper family and had the best times. That was in Dublin but I’ve since had to move back, due to the pandemic, to the UK and now based in Manchester. I’d love to do something like that over here – it was magic like!

Explain your ‘refusal to look cool’ and what that means?! Usually that is actually the definition of someone cool!

Haha I’m just a bit of a geek and I dunno, if you see me at a gig I’m just in me normal clothes nothing special, me hairs probably a mess and I’ll probs chew ya ear off about how excited I am to try out my new guitar pedal at a show or whilst another act is playing be like “omg did you hear how that delay hit that metal perc sound’ . So yeh it’s less a ‘refusal to look cool’ and more an inability.

What do you have coming up?

I’ve a few gigs coming up Liverpool, Ireland TBC and then… Australia tour!! Absolutely buzzing tbh. Luft festival is the one I’m most looking forward to over there. The lineup is insane! Then I’ve 7 tracks incoming for release too, and more to follow. Can’t give away all the labels yet. But they’re bloody cool. The ones I can share are a Kneaded Pains release, and also Awesome sound wave which is Carl cox and Christopher Coe’s Live Label. So yeh that’s mega exciting.

Tell us about your mix, the aim you had with it, and what you wanted it to say.

OK so the mix is a Hybrid mix. Meaning I’ve gone rogue Haha I’ve tried to be a DJ on a set of decks and also you’ve got me playing some live tracks in there too! Hopefully it works. I wanted it to showcase my releases and my live sets as well including music from one other artist, my good pal Luciid. Amazing producer!I love his music, he’s just the best so I really wanted to include his tracks in here too, man’s talented! There’s also a cheeky collab in there from the pair of us.


The mix starts off slow enough and just continues to get faster and build to a crescendo where it crashes right back down to a recently signed, more slow and melodic tune of mine. So yeh I just had a little fun with it, this is the type of set you’d most likely hear from me at one of my live shows.

What gear did you use, is that important to you in any way whether in the booth or studio?

Being a Live artist every piece of my equipment is like a child to me haha – I do have faves, although I don’t think you’re supposed to have a fave child are ya? I mean my parents did… me obviously!

My faves though are my Roland MX1 and my Elektron Digitakt. I couldn’t do without any of my hardware but these two pieces are like the brains of the operation. My live setup is also the exact same setup I use in the studio too. The other pieces, if anyone’s interested, are my Roland tr09, Elektron Analog rhythm mk2, behringer td3, boss os2, boss rv6, Access Virus TI Snow and Arturia MicroFreak.

 

Interview by Kristan Caryl