NURVIS is my main electronic music project, with a sound that is somewhere between darkwave and synthpop. The band name was derived from a combination of our last names (Nurminen and Orvis). NURVIS was formed in 1996 when I placed a classified ad looking for a vocalist that would be compatible with my musical stylings. I had tried in the past to write with a few others, but it never seemed to work out, or last. However, when Susan answered my ad, everything changed.
As a duo, we have recorded quite a few songs so far, completing our first album,
Un-Subferior in late 1998 / early 1999. We took a break after that to pursue other independent music projects, but in 2001, I started writing new NURVIS songs, and work began on our second album (which is still untitled by the way - any suggestions?)
We've done a lot of the usual things that small, independent bands do; sending out demo tapes to
record companies and music magazines, as well as trying to establish an Internet presence, both here
and on more popular sites like the now defunct mp3.com, and Electrogarden. For now though, we continue to release our music on our own label,
MixElektro Records; which is a label formed with fellow electronic musician and friend Ceaven.
So far, we have gotten a lot of positive responses to our music. One example is this review of some of our songs that was published in Transoniq Hacker magazine.
And more recently, we were mentioned in a review on
HitSession.com.
Overall, our music is a combination of our influences. I (Paul) draw on the sounds of bands like New Order, Depeche Mode, Yazoo / Erasure, and Cocteau Twins, while Susan gets her inspiration from vocalists like Kate Bush, Maria McKee, and bands like The Beatles. Together, we try to embrace those things from the past that got us into music, and at the same time, incorporate an overall new sound to create something original and different.
I approached the music from more of a DJing / underground dance club
kind of thing, since my DJing is what got me into
electronic music in the first place (one of my early electronic music projects
called Talent No More was with a friend and assistant DJ of mine named
Charley Finney), while Susan came from more of a pop music, classical
and opera background.
Susan received many years of professional vocal training, while I, with the exception of a few
piano lessons as a child, basically write and play everything by ear. This combination has proven to
be successful though, as our song writing together seemed to go very smoothly right from the start.
We hope to complete our second album by the end of 2005. And we are looking into doing some live shows in the Los Angeles area in the near future. And several other talented musicians and producers are working on remixes of some of the tracks from Un-Subferior, with the first one already done and available on our
Soundclick.com site. We'll keep you posted on any new developments there, and upload new tracks as we complete them.
Thanks for listening!