Biography
No Hype is Alan Aerts.
Music is a passion for me; it always has been. And, you’ll probably realize from the music I write, I truly believe that music has no genre. I now live in Dublin, Ireland but grew up in Toronto, Canada. That’s where I soaked in all of the North American cultural diversities, and it was there that I found music to be my biggest passion.
Growing up, I was heavily influenced by much of the music I heard around me as my father listened to many different sounds from rockabilly to classical. My tastes were a lot more varied than most of the other kids my age and, oddly enough, I found my one seclusion in the dark sounds of Ludwig van Beethoven at a very early age. I wanted to create something as emotional and, when this highly determined kid received his first guitar, it really helped music become more than a friend.
As a child, I was impacted by a lot of the 60’s pop music listed on the various compilation records I had. I later became influenced by Neil Young, Tom Waits, Kris Kristofferson and other singer/songwriters of the 70’s, and then punk/new wave acts like The Clash, Elvis Costello, The Cult and The Cure, country singer-songwriters Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, the ‘Americana’ of Bruce Springsteen and (of course) Elvis Presley.
I eventually started to be interested in hard rock bands such as AC/DC and Led Zeppelin as well as progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd, Rush, Triumph and Queen. I began writing my own songs and tried different ideas and different styles.
In the late 80’s / early 90’s, I began picking up on the sound of the more ‘different’ bands, like dEUS, Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Massive Attack, Mono (Japan) and Rancid.
In the mid 90’s, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do film and documentary scores for Discovery Channel in Chicago and began working with orchestras in post-production, which opened the door to so many wonderful future song ideas.
After playing guitar and keyboard for various bands, I didn’t find myself comfortable writing or recording with others, so decided to found No Hype in 1999. I began creating my own songs for what would eventually become my debut album ‘Empty Lullabies’.
INSPIRATION
In general, Joe Strummer has always been a huge influence on me, both as a musician and, especially, as a person. If anyone has always shown me which direction to take in life, it’s him. As a guitarist, Rik Emmett showed me, at a very young age, that a guitar can be used as more than an instrument in any genre, playing anything from classical to flamenco to jazz, blues and rock. I was lucky to later have him as a professor while studying Music Business in College. As a songwriter and from a darker perspective, Trent Reznor has been a great influence – being able to mix classical and ‘broken’ sounds with more structured songwriting – something I’ve used quite a bit with my own music.
The ideas for most of my songs come from my own life experiences because music is how I open up. I love writing meaningful, yet complicated songs and I find my own personal life a huge inspiration for them.
They’re all about old memories and forgotten photographs…
Artists who I currently love or who have inspired me:
(in no particular order)
Nine Inch Nails
The Clash
Tom Waits
Bruce Springsteen
Gaslight Anthem
dEUS
Jeff Buckley
Mono (Japan)
Ed Schmidt
Rancid
Matthew Ryan
Ryan Bingham
Damien Rice
South San Gabriel
Social Distortion
Die Blind
The Cult
Jacques Brel
Ennio Morricone
Mark Lanegan
Pink Floyd
Archive
The Cure
Soulwax
Beethoven
Radiohead
Skinny Puppy
Hans Zimmer
Tragically Hip
Kwoon