Talk me through your process of creating music.
It's hard to say because it's different every time. You know, you'll be messing around with the keyboard or just playing around with some drums or working with some virtual drum machines or stuff like that. It varies. It's never the same thing every time.
It's like if I hear something really interesting and it grabs my attention - I have a really short attention p - sometimes I'll just do it over and over or do it enough to just put it on my computer. I work with very good quality musicians, and I'll bring them in, and we'll go through the ideas, and we'll sit down and talk about the possibilities and compose parts of the song. Sometimes it's like a real collaboration and sometimes it's like I'm being a control freak for the whole thing. And, sometimes I'll just play off stuff myself, particularly if it's something I feel can be manipulated in a way where people won't focus on my bad keyboard playing.
Have you ever used a live band or live musicians when you were DJing?
I've DJed with various live elements: live percussionist, live horn player, but I don't think I've ever DJed with a whole band. That would be very frustrating - for the band and for me.
So, you've been DJing for Inner Sound System at Sonotheque for three years now...
I know I've been DJing at Sonotheque for at least four or five years - for as long as they've been open, I've been DJing there. But for the Inner Sound System, yeah, that's been about three years.
That's a long time to have something regularly for any type of genre, but especially in House Music. That must be something you're really proud of. Do you anticipate it lasting for another three years?
I think I always take everything one day at a time. I wish it would last three more years, but then again maybe after three more years that could be the worst thing to happen to me. I believe that every good thing comes to an end. I would really like to look back and at least have something to feel good about. I don't think about how long it's being going on. I don't think about how long it possibly can go on. It's a situation where I just deal with the now. Tomorrow is not now. Now is now.
Can you tell me about your three labels - Clairaudience, Circular Motion, and Infinite Audio and how they differ from one another?
Clairaudience is a label that I own in part with my friend in New York named Samir. It's been around for at least 15 years. It's a real special label because it's not a label to really to make money. It's just one of those labels that you think is dead and then it comes back every once in a while.
Circular Motion was started with the hope of rejuvenating some different music. I kinda developed it with Chicago in mind, but it ended up being more of just a label for me to put out some of my own stuff. So I'm not closed to the idea of someone submitting anything. It's like, in this day and age of the digital download - you know - you're sort of a one man operation.
Infinite Audio is another label that was created with the intention of releasing music that wouldn't necessarily be defined by a certain style - just something free-form.
Clairaudience is an established label. It's been around for a while, but my two other labels, they're just an outlet for me to just really get out some diverse music.
I know that you also go by Miquifaye. Can you talk about that?
It's just a production name that I go under sometimes because I'm always self-conscious about putting anything out under the name Anthony Nicholson.
Why is that?!
Miquifaye can act like a buffer between introducing me and can make it sound really freaky and can get people talking.
How did you come up with that name?
Actually, it's not real deep. People think it's like a voodoo name or something. Actually, my wife's name is Michelle. My son's name is Quincy.My daughter's name is Faizah. So, I called it Miquifaye.
