A DIY musician and producer located in Sudbury is getting ready to release an album that explores our relationship to technology during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nick Barss will release a new experimental alt rock album titled “Orchestration” on July 17 – a date that also happens to be his 25th birthday.

“I am really excited about this upcoming album, and I’ve been really pushing the promotion behind it because I think it’s really gone to another level sonically,” he said.

“I’ve done a lot of experimental stuff in the past, but with this album, I was going for more of an alternative rock vibe that speaks to people in a way but also deals with some of the issues that we are hearing and seeing around us every day.”

All 10 songs on the album were recorded in Barss’ home studio located at his residence in the Flour Mill during provincial lockdown. The album was mastered by KRAMER of Shimmy Disc fame who, according to Barss, said it was some of “the most interesting music he had heard in a long time.”

Thematically, the album addresses concepts like technological desensitization, media saturation and queer identity. Songs often combine 90s alternative rock with electronic influences like Aphex Twin and Gary Numan.

“The whole album thematically deals with my own experience with technology, since I work in the software industry, and how it relates to people. Technology kind of puts up this wall of desocialization and desensitization to people’s issues and how we kind of look at everything through this big glass filter that is our computer screen,” he said.

“This is all especially relevant in the COVID-19 environment. For me, it’s a very existential record.”

Barss is leading with two singles titled “San Francisco” and “Gay,” both of which are available on Bandcamp. All proceeds of each single purchased on the website will be donated to Black Lives Matter Canada.

The artist has been self-releasing his music since 2016. Two years later, he officially established his own record label called Black Worm Records (BWR).

“BWR is a record label that I run out of my house. I collaborate with other artists and release different types of experimental rock music and electronic music on the label,” said Barss, who will be releasing his new album through the record label.

“Since 2018, we have released four complete albums, four EPs and a few singles along the way. We’ve also done a music video for one of my older electronic songs, and we worked on that back in 2019.”

While attending Ryerson University to study computer science, Barss was active in the Toronto indie scene, where he played a lot of shows with lofi/shoegaze bands Manitou, Dishwasher and Jokes.

The band Dishwasher dissolved when Barss moved to Sudbury in April to start a new job at an Indigenous-owned IT company that has its main headquarters in Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation on Manitoulin Island, where he grew up.

Because of his experience working with technology, it has become an important theme in his music.

“I’ve been writing about our relationship to technology for a while now. Because I went to school to study computer science, I learned a lot about the science behind social media platforms and the algorithms that run the way we use the internet,” he said.

“I think they have really peaked from a sociology and psychology standpoint. Just looking at the way humans change when they have a computer screen in front of them and how we can kind of turn into these creatures that don’t really seem human at all.”

The artist has been making music since he was 11.

“I wrote and recorded my first song at around that age. It was just a little guitar composition, but I remember getting out my parent’s computer, a mic, and recording the song. Then I made the track title and sent it to all my friends. I actually performed it in front of a talent show at my school. That was one of my experiences,” he said.

It was 2015 when he first worked up the courage to start putting his music on Spotify and began establishing himself as an artist in Ontario.

For Barss, Sudbury is an ideal location to be because the music scene is thriving.

“It’s a really happening place, and I know a lot of fun people and some cool bands here that are really trying to bring the Sudbury arts scene to a new level,” he said.

“Right now, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been hard for local musicians, though. A lot of artists have been moving online and doing Instagram Live shows and stuff like that. But it’s really hard to do, and many people aren’t used to promoting their work online because it’s a lot harder to connect with your audience that way.

“I think people are really eager for shows to start up again because that’s what really brings the energy into the music scene and gets people excited about local artists.”

“Orchestration” will be available for purchase online at www.blackwormrecords.bandcamp.com/album/orchestration.

It will also be available via all online streaming services and online music stores.

For more information about the artist visit www.nickbarss.ca and visit www.blackwormrecords.com for more information about the BWR record label.

The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government.

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Twitter: @SudburyStar