The 67-year-old DJ making backyard industrial techno beats
Once a brake pad salesman, Nick Hayes has launched a second career, spinning techno and hard industrial dance tracks from his yard in Yorkshire.
Watched over by his mascot, teddy bear Bert, Nick Hayes' videos show him at a desk or out in his garden, Elektron Syntakt groovebox perched on an ironing board, performing relentless techno and hard industrial dance tracks.
Hayes, 67, from Wakefield, Yorkshire came late to the world of techno he told RNZ’s Sunday Morning, and he uses a simple set-up.
“I've just got a one-part synthesizer, what you actually call a groove machine, which is a Syntakt drum machine, which you can programme and create your own sounds in it, and then it's just another set of speakers,
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With these simple pieces of equipment, he makes hard techno beats which are garnering a global audience.
“I really started off with industrial dance and hard techno. And so, it's a combination of both sounds, really, because techno is quite a broad spectrum.”
A friend suggested he film his sets and that’s when things really took off, Hayes, AKA The Last DJ, said.
“I didn't want to do it, but I did. And that really was the game changer. That video got 3.3 million views.
“I didn't know what was happening. When that happened, I was completely overwhelmed.”
Now he has 247,000 followers on YouTube and 188,000 on Instagram. Some famous admirers among them, he said.
“I've been asked to write music for some quite famous people, but I won't mention them. I've been asked to ghost write.”
And he’s getting offers to play live sets.
“I do play regularly at electronic and electronic open mic nights, but this year is the first year I'll be doing some official gigs. I've been approached to do two festivals.
“One would be in Hull one would be in Bristol. But the one I'm really looking forward to is going to be a rave called Rejuvenation in Leeds, which is only about 10 miles from here.”
Nick Hayes laying down industrial ironing board beats in his Yorkshire back yard.
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Overseas offers are coming on too, he said.
“I get more offers to play in Croatia, Belgium, and Germany and France than in the UK at the moment.”
Something which started as a hobby for the retired brake pad salesman has became a second career, he said. But he would still be doing it even if no one watched his videos.
“I just enjoy the whole process of making music. It relaxes you. It puts you in a good mood. It makes you feel happy. Even if you make mistakes, even if it sounds terrible, it still puts me in a good mood.”
