Novo Sensus is an electronic production project created by Aragon senior Colin Harrington and SMHS senior Patrick Wetherbee. The group publishes its work and finds its audience through a joint soundcloud account.
Created in 2013, the project began when longtime friends Harrington and Wetherbee got their hands on production equipment and a Digital Audio Workspace program. “Patrick at one point a while ago got Ableton and a keyboard as well,” says Harrington. “His dad actually bought him the keyboard out of the blue, so we just started messing around on that, and it all went from there.”
The name of the group itself has no particular meaning. Says Harrington, “We actually just used a random word generator. We figured we needed a name for the Soundcloud account, and as friends we wanted to have an account together instead of just our own pages, so we just randomly generated the name, and called the account that.” The Soundcloud page contains links allowing users to listen to and download their songs.
Venturing into a variety of audio endeavors, Novo Sensus often moves beyond simply creating electronic music. Harrington says, “Our music probably fits into general EDM [Electronic Dance Music], but we do a lot of different stuff. Sometimes we’ll just joke around and chop up vocals too.” The process of editing music for comedic purposes on soundcloud is called “soundclowning,” a fad that began when popular YouTuber The Living Tombstone began releasing song parodies online.
In addition to adding humor to their music, the duo also takes inspiration from a variety of famous musicians. “In terms of EDM, Patrick and I are both really into Deadmau5,” Harrington says. “I know it sounds cliche, but he’s great. We’re both really into Muse as well. They’re not EDM, but their music is also really good.”
“Hold On” is a recent song the duo published that features SMHS student Sara ‘Silvz’ Silva as a singer. Harrington explains, “Patrick goes to San Mateo, and he knows Sara well, and she’s part of the theater program, so he had heard her sing before. I think it started out kinda as a joke, like ‘Oh, you should sing for one of our songs.’ But then we actually did it.” The song features electronically-produced drums layered over a variety of synthesizers.
Harrington has advice for burgeoning electronic musicians. “Practice. Get to know your program,” he says. “You can do a lot more than music with these programs, so learning how to use them is really useful.”
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