Check Out Nakisso Peralta’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nakisso Peralta.

Hi Nakisso, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Humboldt County, CA. My mom was a Spanish teacher and my dad was a musician. He left when I was six days old and me and my mom fended for ourselves and lived poor until I was nine years old. She met my stepdad around that time and I remember I started listening to a lot of music presented by them. Artists like: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and a lot of blues artists. Some of my closest friends at the time were also getting into music and playing instruments and video games like rock band and guitar hero that introduced me to even more music and further fueled my desire to pick up the guitar. When I was about 12 or 13, I became really obsessed with the guitar and would listen to records and videos on Youtube and learn guitar parts, solos, and songs all day. I really liked Blues music when I was younger. Artists like: B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Muddy waters really spoke to me. I started a band in high school and at that point, I just decided that playing guitar and making music was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

During those years in high school, I also realized I wanted to learn as much as I could to be able to express whatever I thought in my head so I chose to go to music school and get my bachelor’s degree in guitar. I moved to Los Angeles when I was 18 years old and went to Musicians Institute. There I met a great deal of friends and musicians and went in and out of bands but eventually settled on my current band CHILLERS INC. At that time, I started also getting really into the Indie rock scene and all the modern psychedelia bands that were blowing up like Tame Impala. I started noticing that these artists I liked were writing and recording all the instruments themselves and it was usually just one person. When I was about 19 that’s when I first started learning how to record my own music on my laptop. I got a cracked version of Ableton and a few mics and just began recording. I never really began singing until I was about 21 when I heard Mac Demarco and a lot of other bands in the indie scene and thought “I can do this”.

My band CHILLERS INC plays and loves many different styles of music and have released two records now in 2020. One instrumental and another full album. The new record was done by me in my bedroom apart from a few drum tracks and features recorded in studios. I have my degree currently and now I just continue to make music and work in the music scene. I genuinely just love making and recording music. I do it for myself first and foremost. I just turned 26 years old and today, I work as a studio musician and continue to record, write, and perform with my band CHILLERS INC. The new music will be recorded with analog tape machines that I’ve just acquired. I’ve been getting really into the analog world and am excited to see how that goes and what’s in store for the future.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I moved to Los Angeles, it took a while to get used to the city. It was indeed a culture shock coming from a rural small town. I think it’s really hard to be a real person in Los Angeles. Money was an issue, by barely having enough money to pay the rent and bills and being able to save up to get gear that I needed to record my music properly. Finding musicians and bandmates that would take things seriously and do what they needed to do in music was definitely an obstacle. Also finding the right people and connections that can take things to the next level of business is probably the toughest, it’s almost just luck timed right it seems. Dealing with the loss of friends and musicians through drugs, death, and mental illness was also a struggle.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I have a band called CHILLERS INC that I play lead vocals and lead guitar and mostly write and record the music at home. I do it with some of my best friends that help play the songs and we also collaborate. I love to play 12 string guitars right now and use a lot of trippy effects and I like to try to make the guitar not sound like a guitar. Right now, I’m really into psychedelic sounds inspired from the 60s through the 80s. I think what sets me apart from others is my melodies, my tone, the way the songs are constructed and the way I solo on the guitar and use different effects that I don’t see a lot of people using. Also, the diversity in my music I think is different than most bands. A lot of bands I’ve noticed just stick to one kind of sound. You’ll see bands that only play chill music and don’t ever throw in some heavier rock stuff. Which I do and love both.

Also, I think the fact that I went to music school really helped develop my ear and my technique to play proficiently in many different styles of music. Not a lot of people get the chance to do that or have the ability to do it. I’ve been making a lot of Vaporwave music lately. Vaporwave music I think is super underrated. It is a very new kind of genre and still has a lot to be explored upon. I don’t meet a lot of people that listen to it and I’ve been seeing it slowly get more popular. A new fusion of 80s, 90s and 60s styles of music I think is coming back and definitely sets me apart from others. I think the main thing that separates me and most artists is melodies but I don’t really know. I am proud of me getting where I wanted and dreamed to be as a guitar player and musician my whole life. Also, I am proud of my first record under CHILLERS INC self-titled that just came out on Halloween this year 2020 on Bandcamp. It should be out everywhere soon.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I use Instagram. I don’t have a favorite book but Siddhartha was pretty chill. I like Joe Rogan video podcasts. I like to watch t.v.

Contact Info:

• Email: nkperalta@gmail.com
• Website: https://chillersinc.bandcamp.com/
• Instagram: @nakissoperalta @chillers_inc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChillersInc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-e7_TqiTpE
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYEItGKUYug