Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Geoff Hirt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Geoff, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Mostly error and trial. The two active projects I have right now are nothing like I started writing. For a fews years I had a hard time finding my direction and it just had to be worked out of me until I settled on the approach I have now.

I don’t think there are hacks to getting better at anything. Sure there are little things here and there that can help you progress, beyond what work you are already putting in, but you have to be putting in the work to take advantage of the bits of wisdom you find along the way. Practice. Practice. Practice.

The skill of saying NO. There are an endless amount of things vying for your attention, and most of it isn’t worth your time. Boil things down what you think you need in your life to be satisfied and don’t try to heap more and more on top of the pile that already exists. You can’t succeed if you’re being tossed to and fro by everything that passes in front of you.

My only obstacle is myself. Everything else I have no control over.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Geoff (21 Jumpstreet gif) and I write music. I have two active projects: NIHILUM and Red Face. NIHILUM is a conceptual Black Metal project, and Red Face is an Electronic project, that will become an R&B project whenever I put out the most recent batch of material.

To sum up NIHILUM: think Lord of the Rings combined with Star Wars. I have been creating a universe since 2020 that serves as the lyrical foundation, Each song is like a page, and each release is like a chapter in a larger book. I have 3 releases out so far, with Cascading Darkness being the first full length album, which was released this past February. My plan is to have something coming out each year, that way people have something to look forward, NIHILUM related, each year. Influences for NIHILUM are Mastodon, Mayhem, Between the Buried and Me, Watain, and the dozens of other artists that I grew up on.

With Red Face though, I have shifted the genre from instrumental Electronic to R&B, with a heavy emphasis on the Blues aspect. I am sitting on some stuff right now that I may release next year or the year following. It just depends. Red Face-esque material is what I first started making when I began writing music, and I credit it with the majority of my songwriting experience. I put out a full length in ’20 and a single before that, if I remember correctly. The best way I can describe it is: “cruise music”. You know when you’re out cruising at night and just want something chill to listen to while you drive around? Red Face started out with that vision in mind. I enjoy cruising around with no destination in mind and my idea was to create a musical soundscape that your mind could paint with, work out thoughts and problems that you are having in your life with. I have since moved on to incorporate the Blues into it’s sound and have added me singing as well. Though it still has some of the old RF feel to it at times. More to come in the future!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The way that I see the world. I see the world through an abstract lens. That is to say, what could be, as compared to what is. GOD gave me an artist’s mind and I am eternally grateful for that. While He created those who gravitate towards the more mechanical side of everything, I am not one of those where that comes easy to me. If you’re an artist, embrace it! You’ll stop comparing yourself to people who don’t share your perceptions and will feel much better. Don’t beat your head against the wall trying to be someone you aren’t. I did for a while.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Just to use the gifts that GOD gave me to point people to Him through my music and to help people through hard times. To serve others because life isn’t about what you can get from it. The mission isn’t the mission, the mission is the people around you!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nihilum.bandcamp.com/releases
• Instagram: @nihilumusbm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NIHILUMusbm
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFs3HXzFT6w4vFvhc6L-pTw

Image Credits
Yousef Hasanin