Nephir

William Tristan Mullins (born December 20, 1997), known by his stage name Nephir, is an American chiptune music producer and singer-songwriter. In 2008, Mullins joined alternative metal project Below Xero and released the Polynomial Saturation EP in 2009. After figuring that the group wasn't "working out for him", he left and went on to join multiple failed projects with his schoolmates (e.x. Metal Fox, Epic Fail, Biopsy). "I then thought that if I couldn't get any work done with other people involved, why not try a solo effort?" In 2010 he did just that and began to make music under the name Nephir, a name that he had originally created for a comic book character he had made during his childhood.

Mullins takes serious singing influence from many alternative metal and post-hardcore singers including: Pete Loeffler (lead singer of Chicago-based, alternative metal band Chevelle), Jonny Craig (lead singer of Emarosa and Dance Gavin Dance), who tends to combine soul singing with post-hardcore, and Maynard James Keenan (lead singer of iconic experimental, art-rock band Tool).

Early life
Mullins always had an attraction to music, ever since he was a young child. At age 3 he was given his first guitar; "it wasn't anything much, just a really small guitar, almost ukelele size with some plastic strings tied to it. It seems almost like a joke in hindsight." His parents were music fanatics; his father Kevin Mullins had been a musician for many years which is probably where Mullins had applied the trait. He grew up listening to groups such as Guns N' Roses and Rage Against The Machine. He had become enthused about metal and the genre "nu metal" in general around the time he was in 1st grade up to 6th grade.

Mullins was always strongly attracted to melodies, the fact that his first video game he had played was Spyro The Dragon was most likely attributed to it considering that he claims it to be his most beloved game. Not to mention that the soundtrack for all three original Spyro The Dragon games composed by Stewart Copeland (former drummer of 1970's rock band The Police) had all used very distictive sounding melodies and all had Copeland's signature sound to them.

Below Xero (2007-09)
In 2007, Mullins began participating in music sessions with local guitar player Christian Thompson. It was this that they decided to record their sessions and then was formed alternative metal project Below Xero. The only release under the project was the Polynomial Saturation EP. The tracks were only acoustic sessions but still had a post-grungy sound to them. It was only made as physical copies and very very few were made.

Solo career (2009-present)
Mullins decided to begin working on a solo career once he realized that his projects involving other musicians weren't working. He began working on minimal sounding electronic melodies, many that would be held mediocre to the standard on his releases today. He had finally made his first release on March 9, 2011 with The Revenge EP. After the EP's release, the musical content he created became more complex and respectable. His latest works have been compared to other artists such as FantomenK and Insert Disc. As of 2012, he has released 3 full length albums and 2 EPs under the moniker Nephir. In fall of 2012, shortly after the release of Squares Are Forever, Mullins had gone on hiatus as Nephir.

Boomtick side project


During September of 2012, Mullins launched a hip hop oriented musical project under the pseudonym '''Boomtick. '''He began creating old school hip hop beats under the persona of a fictional character named The Ogre. The only hip hop beat released as Nephir was a track entitled "Long John Silver's" and was put available on SoundCloud for free download. On December 10, 2012 Mullins made his debut release as Boomtick with the EP 'Dem Cookies, which can also be downloaded for free.

Discography
Extended plays ​Studio albums Singles As Boomtick As Lil Samba-san With Below Xero With Purple Tomato Flop
 * 2011: The Revenge 
 * 2012: Twenty Twelve
 * 2011: ExKore
 * 2011: So Far Away...
 * 2012: Squares Are Forever
 * 2014: Palace 1997
 * 2011: "The Bad Medicine"
 * 2011: "A Lazy Day For An Alien"
 * 2011: "Galaxy Reach"
 * 2011: "The Perfect Sunset"
 * 2012: "Einzburn"
 * 2012: "So You Think You're Pierce Brosnan?"
 * 2012: "You Get High"
 * 2012: "Long John Silver's"
 * 2012: "This City"
 * 2013: "The Mill on The Summit"
 * 2013: "Vampire"
 * 2013: "Cosmic Radiation"
 * 2012: 'Dem Cookies EP
 * 2014: Sherbet Dreams EP
 * 2009: Polynomial Saturation EP
 * ​2011: Robotic Metropolis EP

Links
Official website

SoundCloud

Official Facebook page