Name: Atelier
Members: Jás Miszewski, Alexander Inggs

Nationality: South African
Current release: Atelier's new full-length album Lights Towards The Exit is out May 31st 2024 via lossless.
Recommendations:
Jás: Book: Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
Film: Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola
Alexander: Book: Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers
Documentary: Classic Albums: Nevermind

If you enjoyed this Atelier interview and would like to stay up to date with the band and their music, visit the duo on Instagram, and Facebook.



Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in production and technology?

Jás Miszewski: I’ve always been a feeling-before-function type of person. So for me, it was never a case of learning the best production methods or keeping up to date with technology. If anything, I tried to avoid that part of the process and just live in a way of openness to my thoughts and feelings and allowing them to bleed through onto the page.

Alexander Inggs: If it’s strictly production and technology, then probably not since I started music lessons when I was around 5 years old and had no idea about music production. But definitely the thrill of music creation has stuck since then.

What were your very first active steps with music technology and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

Jás Miszewski: At one point I had a guitar teacher who convinced me to buy a BOSS BR864, a simple 8 track recorder with a memory card that had 128mb of space. I think it was my first experience of messing with effects. I was 12 at the time so this really opened my mind to a lot of possibilities. At the same time the amount of options overwhelmed me so it eventually began to gather dust until I donated to a school many years later.

Alexander Inggs: My first experience with music technology was making some kind of GarageBand mash ups on my dad’s laptop in the early 2000s. I remember that although it probably sounded terrible, I really had fun doing it.

Were/are you interested in the history of production and recording? If so, which events, albums, artists, or insights stand out for you?

Jás Miszewski: I’m sure George Martin is mentioned a lot in this section but the tragedy of his studio burning down due to a volcanic eruption comes to mind.

Alexander Inggs: More so now than when starting out. Recently, I’ve enjoyed listening to Butch Vig talking about his experiences and techniques recording Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins in the early 90s.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches, and musical forms you may be very familiar with?

Jás Miszewski: There’s nothing playful about making music to me, I love it and I enjoy it but I play football during the week for my sense of ‘play’. Making music for me is deeply personal and scarring but I enjoy that. So I guess in a way I’m a sadist.

Alexander Inggs: I think the surprises honestly come from working with each other. Setting up instruments and simply playing seems to create a space where accidents and surprises can happen. This helps to avoid repetition or a formula putting a song together one instrument at a time in front of the computer. 

For your own creativity, what is the balance and relative importance between what you learned from teachers, tutorials and other producers on the one hand – and what you discovered, understood, and achieved yourself? What are examples for both of these?

Jás Miszewski: I started with Spanish guitar and the fundamentals of rhythm have definitely stuck with me from that. However, one of my greatest teachers has really been Alexander because of his impressive technological knowledge. I’m often in awe of how he uses the techniques he’s learned over the years to make things sound high quality but not overproduced.

Alexander Inggs: I feel learning from teachers gives you tools and techniques that are important in getting a better understanding of technical aspects of music making and software. However, your own ideas are significantly more important when it comes to composing a song than being technically proficient.

How and for what reasons has your music set-up evolved over the years and what are currently some of the most important pieces of gear and software for you?

Jás Miszewski: My pedalboard is an extension of myself and is really the only ‘nerdy’ part about myself when it comes to music technology. Rearranging the signal path, adding and subtracting pedals, happy accidents with feedback loops - you don’t need a lot to get lost for hours.

Alexander Inggs: Moving to Berlin meant that I left a lot of my hardware collection of synths, drum machines and rack units behind in South Africa. It also meant that I brought with what at the time I considered the most important pieces of equipment.

Those being a few from Roland, namely the SH-101, Juno 106, RE-301 Chorus Echo, TR606 and also a few others like the Lexicon PCM 91 reverb. I also use Ableton for composing and Cubase for mixing & mastering.

[Read our feature on the Roland Juno-106]

Have there been technologies which have profoundly influenced, changed or questioned the way you make music?

Jás Miszewski: I’m useless with DAWs but I find them extremely interesting. Paper and pen are still my mode of emotional transport.

Alexander Inggs: Making a switch from Cubase to Ableton for composing was significant - it’s really fast, intuitive and feels fun.

Already as a little kid, I was drawn to all aspects of electronic/electric music but I've never quite been able to put a finger on why this is. What's your own relationship to electronic sounds, rhythms, productions like – what, if any, are fundamental differences with “acoustic“ music and tools?

Jás Miszewski: I grew up mainly on folk and reggae so I guess the latter influenced my electronic leanings more with individuals like Lee Scratch Perry and his beautiful techniques with reverb and delay. Growing up in the 90s it felt like things were less genre fluid than they are now, but I remember buying my first Cafe Del Mar CD for my first car and I remember that having a huge effect on me.

Also in South Africa, with such beautiful nature, psy-trance parties were happening every weekend in the summer on farms just outside Cape Town. This was a very important time for self-development and friendships that I still hold close.

Alexander Inggs: We all know what traditional instruments sound like, and they no doubt have a timeless feeling. So, I think there is something to be said about sound creation. Trying to create ‘new’ sounds, whether that be with traditional instruments, electronic instruments, or a combination of the two that you feel haven’t been heard before definitely still feels special.

Late producer SOPHIE said: “You have the possibility with electronic music to generate any texture, and any sound. So why would any musician want to limit themselves?” What's your take on that and the relevance of limitations in your set-up and process?

Jás Miszewski: Love Sophie. Alexander and I have always had creative limitations, either self-imposed or born out of life situations. We love a challenge and always believe that less is more.

Alexander Inggs: I think it depends on what you are trying to achieve as a musician - or what exactly it is that you’re striving for. Are you trying to purposefully reach a wide audience and make something popular, or are you purely enjoying the process of sound discovery with no real end goal?

There can also be a middle ground of course.

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, what does your current production workflow/process look like?

Jás Miszewski: Currently we’re setting up all our live gear and running it to a computer that’s in a separate room, acting strictly as a recording device. We’ll jam for around 50 minutes, then pick our favourite parts. I think it’s the most fun we’ve had in years.

However I must say that it's different every time. Sometimes I’ll write a track on acoustic guitar with a verse and chorus and we’ll take it from there, or Alexander will sequence a new piece of gear and get a beautiful loop which acts as a jumping off point.

Alexander Inggs: I feel like it changes, and that’s a good thing. When it starts to become a formula, it gets monotonous.

Rhythm, sound design, melody/harmony, something else – when do the different elements of a piece come into play for you?

Jás Miszewski: My brain thinks in melody. I’ll often wake up singing some kind of phrase that came in a dream. Sometimes they stick, often they don’t. I can say that we do love ambiance and putting nature into our songs to give it a sense of grounding, as if it comes from a place and not just out of thin air.

Alexander Inggs: Similarly to the last question, any element could appear at any moment during the process - especially when starting something new.

In relation to sound, one often reads words like “material”, “sculpting”, and “design”. How does your own way of working with sound look like? Do you find using presets lazy?

Jás Miszewski: I’m not a fan of presets but I appreciate their use. I think we’ve always endeavoured to use technology in a way that feels personal. Everyone has access to a lot of the same vsts or plugins online so creating our own sounds through instrumentation and manipulation is a lot more fun for us.

Alexander Inggs: I think we’ve only used a soft synth (vst) in one song. For our project we find it more enjoyable to experiment with our hardware setup, combining different elements with each other and finding new ways to experiment with our equipment. Trying to get too technical with fine mixing adjustments when a song is in its infancy seems to kill the excitement.

What, to you, are the respective benefits of solo work and collaborations and do you often feel lonely in the studio? Can machines act as collaborators to you?

Jás Miszewski: I’m very lucky to have Alexander in my life because making music on my own takes a lot longer and I can be really self-critical. Having a childhood friend who you trust to bounce things off without fear of judgement is hugely beneficial to me personally.

Alexander Inggs: The benefit of collaboration is feeding off each other's energy and finding inspiration in what each one brings to the table. With solo work, you don’t have to compromise on anything but you also have to find the belief, energy and motivation yourself.

Loneliness isn’t a factor if you are excited by what you are doing. If it’s not exciting, then I think it’s better to find something else to do that day.

To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. What are your hopes, fears, expectations and possible concrete plans in this regard?

Jás Miszewski: I don’t fear AI but I fear the way the consumer will use it. I think it has no place in music, art or film and should be directed towards real issues like healthcare, housing, etc.

Alexander Inggs: At the moment, I feel like AI is a helpful tool in post-production but not the creative sense of composing (at the moment). I feel if it does work its way into the composing part, it might again take the excitement out of it in the long run.

If you could make a wish for the future directly to a product developer at a Hard- or Software company – what are developments in tools/instruments you would like to see and hear?  

Jás Miszewski: Slow down. I don’t need another upgrade. Give me time to enjoy this version.

Alexander Inggs: If someone could make a robust hardware controller for Ableton such as the APC40mkii (or if Akai could update it to handle more than a bit of dust), I’m sure others would also appreciate it.