Just two days before his passing on May 21st at age 51, legendary Megadeth drummer Nick Menza and SceneFour announced a new art release, Influx, to be made available on June 16th. Understandably, SceneFour and Nick’s family postponed the release for a later time. Author / musician Joel Gausten recently caught up with SceneFour's Cory Danziger to discuss the project. Following is an excerpt from the story.

Much like the SceneFour drum art projects with Bill Ward, Dave Lombardo and Steven Adler that were previously discussed on this website, Influx was created by having Menza play drums in the dark using an array of drumsticks and rhythmic accessories that produce light, much like a painter utilizing brushes and oils. The movements featured within the captured rhythms were then studied and developed into abstract artwork. Menza’s session took place at his home in early 2015. Danziger recalls him being an enthusiastic and hands-on participant in the process from the very beginning.

“Nick loved working with the different sticks that we used. He was doing tests without us; before we got [to his house], he had been working with lights. He wanted to have his art look different than everybody else. One of the things he did was create different surfaces for the drum heads that he played on, and different effects were created based upon the surfaces he was playing. For example, he put Mylar onto the heads, and it would reflect as the light was hitting it.”

Each hit that Menza made was not only captured, but reflected – leading Dosaj to describe the images as “explosions of power.” Once the images were captured, Menza continued to work directly with SceneFour in turning them into unforgettable art pieces.

“Nick was pretty adept with the software that we used to work with the captures,” Danziger says. “He was actually supplying us with ideas and working with the captures as well. One thing that he was really enthusiastic about was the mirroring or reflecting approach to rhythm – taking a rhythm and then reflecting it to make a complete image. He was doing that and liked the fact that it brought up these 'faces' within the different visuals."

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On July 23rd, Nick’s birthday, this art release will now be available. More footage of Menza discussing the collection can be seen below:

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