I'm 29, and I've been making noise my whole life. Silence drives me nuts; I'm always humming or doing something to make noise, which probably drives everybody around me crazy, but it keeps me sane. Anyway, I was trained in classical voice, mainly art songs and arias, from childhood thru college, with some guitar lessons and a few years of trombone thrown in. In high school, my dad hired a private vocal coach - this weird old swing guy who'd made records in the 50's and had been on the Lawrence Welk Show a few times. That was an odd fit, but valuable. I spent some time in Nepal and Tibet in my teens, and came home obsessed with the sounds I found there. So all those influences definitely contributed to my slightly psychotic sound. In college, I spent my practice-room time banging out deranged pieces I'd written on piano or harpsichord. I drove my professors nuts, but some cool people heard it and like it, and I ended up in the first of many bands. I've had some cool experiences, toured a little, did an unremarkable soundtrack for a Romanian art film, but I've always end up frustrated with the band dynamic. So I started The Narcissus Effect about a year ago, as a solo outlet.
 

Angel: Are there any members?

Hugh: It's usually just me. I collaborate occasionally, but generally only with old bandmates who want a particular sound in one of their own tracks, or if I need a sound that I can't supply on my own.

Angel: What are your duties?

Hugh: I do it all. I write my material, play the instruments and tracking, lay the vocals and backup, and usually do the mixdown and mastering on my own.

Angel: Whats the meaning of the song Hitchcock Blonde?

Hugh: Originally, the track was about all of those amazing actresses, the 'Hitchcock Blondes', who left a huge impact on pop culture and how we view glamour, sex, and women's roles. But if you read about it, there is this disturbing underbelly behind those films; Hitchcock had this bizarre, obsessive way of controlling almost every aspect of his actresses' lives. So that's there in the lyrics, at least abstractly. But as I was recording the vocals, I scrapped half the lyrics and added new ones. I'd gotten back into contact with some old friends from my college/cokehead days, and I was remembering clubbing and hanging out with these people. We'd all had this obsession with film noir, vintage glamour, and Hitchcock films. So it ended up being a mishmash; inspired by these legends, but more about being the spectator.

Angel: What equipment do you use?

Hugh: I recorded Hitchcock Blonde at home. I occasionally go into a studio, mainly if I need input on the mixdown. But it really depends on the track. I'll generally at least do a demo at home, and if I'm happy with that, I'll do some polishing and call it a day. I prefer to record vocals at home; I've got a Blue Mouse that I love, an EV Blue Cardinal, a couple of cheap, dirty-sounding Schures, and an Audio Technica AT813a. I run those through an M-Audio Fast Track Pro if I'm away from home. As for DAWs, I prefer computer-based over integrated. I like mobility, and love recording found noises and atmospherics, so I've got a Vaio laptop on which I'm running Pro Tools, Sound Forge 8, and Cakewalk Pro Audio (primitive, I know, but that's what works for me). The setup's especially good for recording my live piano tracks, which I prefer over using piano VSTs. I've got a battery of VSTs for instruments, NI's FM7 and B4 being two of my fav's, and I'm using mostly Waves Platinum Bundle or PSP plug-ins for compression and mixdown. I've also got an old Polyvoks, a vintage Steinway baby grand which is currently in storage, and a Takamine custom acoustic that I rarely use, as I'm not really guitar. My next planned purchase is a harpsichord.

Angel: Do you write all of your material?

Hugh: Yeah, I write all of my material. Occasionally, I'll get someone to write a guitar piece for a track-in-progress, because I'm a horrible guitar player. I've currently got a couple of local musicians supplying trombone and trumpet for a piece I'm working on.