• By RACHEL JONES
• Special to 2theadvocate.com
• Published: Jan 8, 2009 - UPDATED: 6:03 p.m.

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Some bands choose to make music for fame and fortune, while others -- like Baton Rouge-based band Nadjia -- love to create an experience that pushes the musical envelope.

Band members Mark Williams (vocals), Chris Deaton (keyboards), Jeff Smith (guitar), Nik Sharp (bass) and Kenny Cohen (drums) have a passion for writing and sharing music that is unique and anything but ordinary.

Nadjia has been around for nearly a decade, and while the personnel has changed and grown over the years, the original idea of making music with a fresh take has remained the same.

“I started this band in ’96 when I was in grad school, and it was myself, a violin player and a computer, essentially,” said Williams, the band’s founder. “It was a different sort of vibe, because we didn’t use a drummer, and we would sample a toaster or a steamroller or a washing machine and make rhythm out of that. It was real avant-garde and real different having a violin player opposed to a guitarist or a keyboardist.”

These days Nadjia has added drums, guitars and keys, but they aren’t used in the traditional sense. They are continuing to use their new instrumentation to push their sound even further.

“The guitar and bass in our band are more the rhythm section, and the focus is more on the keyboard. Chris is left-handed so he plays a lot of his rhythm with his left hand in the bass section of the keyboard. It gives our songs a different rhythm and a different spin to them as well,” Williams said.

It’s no surprise that Nadjia strives for more than the standard rock sound when you understand their influences and what they take away from some of their favorite bands.

“My four favorites are Depeche Mode, Ministry, Skinny Puppy and Nine Inch Nails. It was nontraditional music, and it had a different kind of feel, a different kind of vibe to it,” Williams said. “It wasn’t that cookie-cutter rock-n-roll. It was experimental and aggressive and emotional, a new sort of art. It’s not as new now, but those guys were constantly pushing the envelope and breaking barriers to look for a new angle and a new approach to music.”

They not only take a unique approach to their music, but their lyrics and writing are inspired by the world. Williams’s career sends him across the globe, and it’s his experiences the band incorporates into their lyrics.

“The vibes from the cultures definitely adds a different perspective to what we’re doing. One of the longer trips I took this year was the full tour of South America. I was in earthquakes in Mexico, isolated in Rio because it was the off-season, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, there was a lot of political unrest. I write what different things are happening in these countries and how they affect me and then we try to build that into the music,” Williams said.

Building everything into their music is no easy task. They claim that 10 weeks of preparation goes into every 10 minutes of music. It’s the cooperation of the entire group that puts Williams’ writing in the sound of Nadjia.

“I’ll be writing down ideas as I go around, and I’m in constant communication with Chris. A lot of times he’ll be writing something as I’m experiencing a different country or a different place, and we’ll bounce ideas back and forth, and then when we come into the studio, we’ll work through the song and piece it together. If you look at all of our songs, every one kind of relates to one of my trips or going to another country,” Williams said.

Time spent traveling has given the band a chance to gather more material, and they have begun putting together one more album. Still in production, this new album should be out sometime in 2009.