Aidan Moffat

As Aidan Moffat prepares to launch his second album as alter ego Nyx Nótt, Kevin Fullerton chats to this thrillingly filthy frontman about instrumental albums and sex-drenched dream diaries. Strap yourselves in . .

Despite the world-weariness of his lyrics, there’s a restless energy about Aidan Moffat. Calling him to discuss the instrumental album he’s releasing under the pseudonym Nyx Nótt should be straightforward, and yet a conversation with Arab Strap’s frontman is a treasure trove of countless creative threads and tangents. The most intriguing of which is the mention of a spiritual sequel to his criminally underheard spoken-word album, I Can Hear Your Heart.

‘I’ve got this album that I haven’t released yet and I don’t know if I should do it. It might be a step too far,’ he tells us. ‘I Can Hear Your Heart was all about me. It was about a point in my life when I was utterly perplexed and drinking too much, and there was a lot of sex in it. But these days I’m a middle-aged man with two children and a partner. The only way to write about sex . . . well, I wrote down this dream diary. I’ve been tinkering away with it and I don’t know if anyone should hear it. Does anyone want to hear what goes on in a middle-aged man’s mind when he’s asleep?’

It’s a question that Moffat must have toyed with before in a career which has partly charted his sexual id from youthful nihilism to reluctant monogamy. Yet his latest project as Nyx Nótt, titled Themes From, feels like a break from his usual preoccupations, tying together a series of instrumental pieces with the loose theme of channel surfing. ‘The idea was that I’d make an album of 90-second tracks, about 20 of them, designed as wee theme tunes. But it just wasn’t very satisfying.’ The kernels of these ideas, though, proved rich enough to develop into a full album with track names like ‘Docudrama’, ‘Hardboiled’ and, because it wouldn’t be a Moffat project without some sauce, ‘Porno’. ‘I stuck with the themes idea because it was a nice way to tie them together. They’re a bit of a blank canvas for people to enjoy, so I try not to put too much emphasis on the details and things.’

The result is a diverse and exhilarating series of tunes which lie somewhere between his own now defunct found-sound project L Pierre and the calming ambience of Andrew Wasylyk. It’s also worlds apart from the constant stream of collaborations Moffat is best known for, shifting his creative process to something more personal and specific. ‘I suppose it’s a more private process, you’ve only got yourself to please. In a sense it’s a more intimate album than when I’ve worked with someone else.’

His drive to experiment is what makes Moffat’s career so compelling. Whether you’re wrapping your lugs around his solo projects, his collaborations with Scottish music’s finest talent, or as one half of Arab Strap, he’s always evolving. ‘The music industry is completely different now. You get older but you keep learning and I think that’s the key. Always keep a curious mind and always be excited to try new things.’

Themes From is released by Melodic Records on Friday 2 December.