Nicholas Deyoe is a Los Angeles based guitarist, composer, and conductor. He is a member of the etherial doomgaze quartet Serpentine Transmission, noisy ambient duo Toil to Gather, and the electric guitar duo KillDry. In 2012, he co-founded the wasteLAnd concert series, who produced concerts presenting over 300 works between 2013 and 2024. His music has been called “intriguingly complex and excitedly lush” by the LA Times. The New York Times wrote that Deyoe’s a new(er) anxiety “contrasted filigree lightness and explosive loudness…without seeming to strain for effect.” His relationship to music is driven by the tactile and physical immediacy of his experience to sound. The feel of a bow on strings, fluctuations in finger pressure, the relationship between breath, muscle tension, and pacing, are foundational to his experience as a performer and as a listener. The resulting sounds of his music, whether by way of composed chamber music or playing in a band, combines noise, delicacy, drama, fantasy, brutality, lyricism, and joy to create a diverse sonic experience. As a guitarist, Nicholas strives to further the already vast sound world of the electric guitar by experimenting with microtonal tunings, non-conventional instruments, preparations, bows, beer cans, and lots and lots of pedals. His recordings appear on Desert Drone, Orenda, New World, Populist, New Focus, Hat Art, Sono Luminus, Spektral, Innova, and Microfest. Nicholas is currently on faculty at California Institute of the Arts where he leads ensembles, teaches composition, conducting, and guitar, and is the program director of the Instrumental Arts specialization.