Exposed Vocals just sat down to interview with 12 year old Namorog “truly is an ethereal experience and gives him a unique claim to his own musical universe”

Born in Washington DC, Namorog has been living in Paris for the past few years. His primary language is neither French nor English however, it is music. At a very young age Namorog immersed himself into music for hours at a time. He didn’t speak much as a kid but early videos show a 6 year-old saying plenty through his first true friend with 88 keys. So it was piano everyday as a means of expression until he got his first PC as a birthday present. By that time he had already spent hours online obsessively studying all that can be done with music on a computer. He knew to play the piano pieces from Deadmau5, Kaskade and other EDM masters. He installed FL Studio and plugged in a keyboard only two days after unwrapping his PC and the rest is history. The crazy thing is that this was only a year and a half ago. Namorog is now only 12.

His first official release with the label Ocean Sky Lab is an EP entitled Thoughts. It is good representation of Namorog’s affinity for mellow, chill out music with a kick. Namorog makes deep visual and sensory melodies people often associate with movie soundtracks. The rhythm and sub underlayered often catchy groove are both a reflection of his generation who “lives for the drop” and his internal conflict between the yearning for peace and beauty wrestling with the energy of youth that makes kids want to explode and forget everything around them.

It is not unusual nowdays to go on soundcloud.com and find good young producers. However, Namorog’s capability to produce complex and layered tracks mixed with his natural talent for the language of music truly is an ethereal experience and gives him a unique claim to his own musical universe…

Exposed Vocals score 8.3/10

Exposed Vocals Exclusive Interview

Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?

I was born in Washington DC and spent the last few years living in Paris. I wasn’t the loudest person growing up if you know what I mean. Music was what I used to express myself very early on, I felt the need to create music. So I played piano a lot then received my first computer and got very inspired by what people on YouTube and SoundCloud were doing so I asked for FL Studio for my bday…. 

Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?

I’m still very much a start-up though I’d say this – never stop learning. I mean this about everything – social media, software, music theory, playing live, the music industry. I’m just not sure what you can accomplish without a good sense of how all of this works. It does get overwhelming…I mean there is a lot to know but it’s worth spending a bit of time everyday learning something new.

Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?

I do make mistakes when I play, especially on keyboards. But this is when the learning stuff kicks in. Music theory helps me understand what works with what chords so when I mess up I keep going and use what I know to make it sound OK anyway…

Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?

Nope. Not yet. I’m still trying to get the whole live sessions thing right.

Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?

Well, I have kind of a basic set up right now: FL Studio with a bunch of cool plug-ins (Serum, Kontakt 5, Addictive Keys,…), Novation Launchkey, a piano – Yamaha U1 mounted with a silencer and a midi interface…, Rokit 5 monitors – pretty standard stuff. I’m trying to get my hands on a bunch of nice keyboards like the Nord Stage 2 or Yamaha MX88… that’d be a nice upgrade…

Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?

You mean other than talking to Exposed Vocals? It’s tough out there, I’m on all the platforms: Discord (Namorog), Twitch (Namorog), Facebook (@Namorog) ,Twitter (@namorogofficial), Youtube (Namorog) and Instagram (@namorogofficial)…but building an audience takes time. It’s a fun process anyway so I guess that’s ok.

Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?

Seattle (cause this is where I’m moving to in a few months and I heard the music scene there is pretty cool). And with Haywyre. I’ve been learning a lot from his music lately. I think he’s great! He is a pianist too…

Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?

Well, I’ve been all about Jazz music theory lately and I think I’m ready to incorporate it in my music so you can expect some more jazzy stuff for my next release…we’ll see. I’m also helping Ocean Sky Lab (my label http://www.oceanskylab.com) with finding artists for a compilation project. At least a couple of the tracks will be mine.

Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?

Listening to other people’s music, like all the time. I don’t know, I’d do sound engineering but that’s pretty much making music isn’t it? Tough one…

Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in the next year or so?

I hope to release a lot of new stuff and experiment a bit (Future, Neuro Jazz, stuff like that). Expect a variety and I hope to manage to make sense of it all somehow so people can recognize my style…something I still have to figure out.

Exposed Vocals: Any Shout-outs?

Yep, to everyone on my Discord server (https://exit.sc/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdiscord.gg%2FRF8WFfz) and to @syrge and @galyax – the two other members of my trio:

AIKO https://soundcloud.com/officialaiko