Making Music: noclip

Originally based in Manhattan Beach, Calif., a bustling beach city just outside of Los Angeles, Riley “noclip” Thomasson ’15 has spent his past three years at Princeton juggling electrical engineering and EDM. As a senior, Thomasson has begun to taste breakthrough success, with his most recent track “world-01” just released onDiplo’s Mad Decent label and EDM.com — a deal he struck by sending his music out to EDM outlets from the Terrace Club library on a whim.

“world-01,” a chiptune track saturated with an auditory nostalgia, will transport any 20-something back to the childhood euphoria of playing video games. The happily retro vibe made with new synthesized sounds was born of Thomasson’s unrelentingcreative process.A casual gamer ever since he was little, Thomasson has always approached producing music by capturing what he feels in the moment no matter what else is going on, even if that means putting schoolwork and sleep aside to have a late-night producing marathon.

Thomasson has always been engaged with music — studying piano up until college, playing percussion in Mira Costa High School’s prestigious music program and taking music theory classes while there and also at the University. As for his musical influences, Thomasson has always loved the constantly evolving music scene happening just beneath mainstream music, whether it is alternative rock or EDM’s diverse offspring of subgenres.

Perhaps a late start by today’s standards, Thomasson’s foray into EDM began in junior year of high school, when a friend of his showed him Excision’s “Wasted,” a prototypical dubstep track. Soon after, Thomasson started to produce his own works after concluding, as many aspiring producers do, that “somebody made this on a laptop; I can do this.” With that, “Synapsis” was born — the first of Thomasson’s many stage names.

When he got to college, Thomasson continued to progress through genres, exploring house and downtempo through his first EP released independently under his new name “Rize.” The summer after freshman year, Thomasson gigged all over Southern California and released his second EP through Into the AM Records during sophomore year. Thomasson explained that his inspiration “comes in waves,” so after that busy summer, he decided to take a break from producing while waiting to discover his current muses.

This transition was accompanied by most recent third name change to “noclip,” a common video game cheat that enables players to move through physical obstructions. Under his newest moniker, Thomasson has continued to explore electronic music, currently drawing inspiration from future bass as well as other innovative sounds from artists such as Porter Robinson, Mr. Carmack and Lindsay Lowend.

As for his future plans, Thomasson already has a desk job awaiting him after graduation, but he said he is also open to whatever EDM has in store for him. When asked about EDM’s recent mainstream popularity, Thomasson replied with enthusiasm towards the broader implications for electronic music, saying “every week someone is putting out something new, and something that is evolving so fast. It is kind of a waste to just listen to the same thing over and over.”

For now, this means we can look forward to hearing more fresh sounds out of Thomasson soon. In the meantime, though, you can check out some of his work on Soundcloudor catch Thomasson tearing it up live on campus, as he regularly performs at Terrace and other eating clubs.