Nick Norton Releases 'Waiting for Pho (feat. Garrett Wingfield)' Video

09-12-2023

(CCM) This Friday, Los Angeles-based composer and sound artist Nick Norton will release his debut solo full length album, Music for Sunsets (mixed by Lewis Pesacov) on people places records. The tracks on the album combines vintage synth grooves, field recordings, acoustic instruments, and studio magic to create tactile sonic experiences.

The songs are evidence of this amalgamation of musical technique: an ambient electronic voyage that documents his slow recovery from and acceptance of a severe mental health diagnosis in 2020. To celebrate the release, Nick Norton has announced a free hometown release / listening party for the album on Friday at The Semi Tropic in Los Angeles.

Today Nick Norton is excited to share "Waiting For Pho (feat. Garrett Wingfield)" the final pre-release single to be shared from Music for Sunsets. The song and video debuted today at Electronic Groove and is on all streaming platforms now. The track follows pre-release single "Soviets Make Good Games" and "Slow Night At The Arcade."

On the song Nick Norton says: 'Waiting for Pho is the song I am most unabashedly stoked about on Music for Sunsets. It's wild, and far and away the most complex, and even ends with a radio fade.

The title is what I was doing when I first started sketching it. I had some time til my food arrived and wanted to mess with the stock 808 plugin in Pro Tools because I don't have a ton of experience with drum machine workflows. I also wanted to try writing a fast paced song that never lets up-I was kind of thinking about the vibe of The Past Is A Grotesque Animal by Of Montreal.

When I was showing the album to my friends before it was done, *everyone* had an opinion on this track. The chord progression in the chorus was too out there. The rhythm with the drum accents didn't make sense. The melody didn't line up correctly. I tried a few fixes, then decided that instead of taming it I would add saxophones. Thankfully I am friends with some ungodly good sax players, and Garrett Wingfield answered my call. We talked about the OG Sonic the Hedgehog 2 soundtrack, the solo on Kokomo by the Beach Boys, Giant Steps-era Coltrane, and our friend Patrick Shiroishi's record Hidemi, and then Garrett just ran with it. He texted me "is all altos the move?" and I suggested that adding one tenor for low end support could be good, and next thing I knew I had the most insane sounding sax parts that also somehow matched what I had imagined. No notes, and I would not be surprised if it was a first take. I added a few more layers of synths in reaction, and some guitar that I would be extremely surprised if anyone could identify as not-a-synth.

A friend said it feels like driving upside down through Miami in the 80s. There's even a neon dolphin on the cover for the single version. Yeah, this is the one.