Electronic experimenter Nick Leng moved from South Africa to the Bay Area at age eight, later moving to San Diego in order to study music at Point Loma Nazarene University. “My friends know when I’m coming because I’m always whistling,” Leng says in his distinct Johannesburg accent, “either this one classical piano song by Chopin or just making up little things. But I’m whistling wherever I go.”
Leng makes his own beats and records by playing a MIDI keyboard into Ableton software while triggering samples and modified vocals on a Novation Launchpad. After his live debut in summer 2013 at the Whistle Stop, he released a debut single, “Opium of the Steeple.” That was followed the next year by “Crawled Out of the Sea,” a popular track on SoundCloud where it quickly garnered nearly 70,000 listens.
A comic video/short film for his song “Crawled Out of the Sea” was directed by Swedish filmmaker Christian Svanlund.