Name: Gavin Lynch aka Matador
Nationality: Irish
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Current release: Matador's "My Yellow Coat" which includes a remix by Levon Vincent is out via Damian Lazarus's Crosstown Rebels.

[Read our Damian Lazarus interview]

Recommendations: An ERM Multiclock: it’s a time clock for old drum machines, linking everything up – arpeggiators, sequencers, and drum machines. It allows you to shift the time position and also lock in a certain amount of swing and groove with the 808, the 606, certain machines that don’t have a swing or a flam setting on them – an amazing piece of kit!
Also, the Eventide plugins – the Shimmer, in particular, is a really nice plugin. They give them away at Christmas time, and all users have to do is sign up to their website and download them. I have had them for over a year and have used them in every track since.
You can buy them also at any time of the year for about $30/$40 each – amazing reverb for creating spacey tails, it’s a blend of a reverb and a delay with a randomised pitch on the harmonics – quite a unique thing.

If you enjoyed these insights by Matador and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official website. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter. To keep reading, visit our earlier Matador interview about a wider range of topics.



What was your first studio like?

My first studio was very basic; a Sony Vaio laptop, an M Audio soundcard, a set of M Audio speakers. All very much introductory range stuff, and software.

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

One of my friends, at the very start of my career, told me that he bought equipment any time he needed inspiration, so this was something that I held onto. With wanting to be in the studio every day writing music and needing inspiration, that was my excuse for buying lots of equipment.

In my current studio, my essential pieces at the minute are my Yamaha CS 60, a Mini Moog, and guitar pedals – various Boss guitar pedals.

I’m going through a phase with guitar pedals ☺

Some see instruments and equipment as far less important than actual creativity, others feel they go hand in hand. What’s your take on that?

I feel that I can achieve the same things with a very simple set-up, soft synths and plugins, and it’s really down to making the best use of what’s around you.

Some people get inspired by hardware, and some get inspired by software, it’s really whatever works for you. But most of the time, the hands-on approach with the hardware is what works for me for inspiration and fun.

A studio can be as minimal as a laptop with headphones and as expansive as a multi-room recording facility. Which studio situation do you personally prefer – and why?

I’ve worked in big studios and also in very small set-ups. I prefer the middle ground, a home studio I can access 24 hours a day – be it a spare bedroom, a takeover of a sitting room, whatever it is.

But once the room is reasonably well sounding, treated, and it’s a comfortable space to work in and write in, and you want to be in it – that’s what it’s about for me.

From traditional keyboards to microtonal ones, from re-configured instruments (like drums or guitars) to customised devices, what are your preferred controllers and interfaces? What role does the tactile element play in your production process?

I tend to use an Arturia midi controller keyboard, and a Livid controller for pots and faders if I need to map anything. Interfaces, I use Apogee Symphony soundcards. I also use Universal Audio and Apollo soundcards for my mobile set-up when I’m moving around.

With regards to tactility – a lot of the stuff I use is hardware, so I don’t really have the need for midi controllers. But when I do, it’s Livid Maschine or one of the Arturia midi controller keyboards.

In the light of picking your tools, how would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

I think it’s about a balance of both of them things and finding some middle ground.

I think with AI being introduced into the industry, we’re going to see a lot of music that’s come before slightly refreshed and twisted into something that appears to be somewhat new. I think this will push a lot of producers to really innovate and push themselves to create new sounds that don’t exist and that AI cannot tap into yet.

Most would regard recording tools like microphones and mixing desks as different in kind from instruments like keyboards, guitars, drums and samplers. Where do you stand on this?

I think the deeper you get into audio, the more you come to view certain pieces of stationary equipment - be it a compressor, a mixing console, or a microphone - as an instrument because it has a certain tone.

And as our ears develop in the industry, in our trade, as we progress and get better and better, we notice these nuances. They become a tonal element and then an instrument.

How would you describe the relationship between technology and creativity for your work? Using a recent piece as an example, how do you work with your production tools to achieve specific artistic results?

I think the combination of technology and creativity goes hand in hand with a lot of my work. I used sequencers, different time-triggering machines, and various communication devices, be it midi or audio, to sync everything up in the studio.

I think sometimes the technology can take on a life of its own with how it ages – one particular synth, the Roland VP330 that I used on My Yellow Coat EP for Crosstown Rebels, is nearly 40 years old (same as myself ☺) and it needs to be serviced. So some of the elements – the oscillators – have been drifting slightly in and out of tune, and there was something very beautiful about this imperfection.

That was the technology doing something that I hadn’t asked it to do, and sometimes you have to recognise this and capture it for the creative aspect of it. And that went on to inspire the rest of that writing process that day – everything was based around this one set of chords.

Within a digital working environment, it is possible to compile huge archives of ideas for later use. Tell me a bit about your strategies of building such an archive and how you put these ideas and sketches to use.

I finish everything, that’s one of my golden rules. I’ve worked that way since day one. I finish everything I start. Whether it’s finished and ready to send to distribution or press to vinyl – that’s another question, I guess, but as far as I can possibly take it.

I’ll go back and make some tweaks, perhaps if it’s going to be released. But I’ve hundreds if not thousands of projects and tracks that are sitting on hard drives that will probably never see the light of day, but they are complete.

Many are just ideas that led to another idea which then became the release. But even if a track doesn’t get released, it usually helped to progress or generate an idea in the next track.

How do you retain an element of surprise for your own work – are there technologies which are particularly useful in this regard?

Yeah, there are randomisers and various different tools, both software and hardware, that you can use and get a surprise out of.

But realistically, the way I progress is to learn more things: more music theory, more programming, a new piece of equipment – that’s how I keep things exciting and fresh. Listening to lots of different types of music, watching TV shows and movies and listening to the music score.

I try to absorb a broad range of musical information to keep things interesting.

Production tools can already suggest compositional ideas on their own. How much of your music is based on concepts and ideas you had before entering the studio, how much of it is triggered by equipment, software and apps?

I would say about 25-30% of my music is based on an idea I’d have before I go into the studio that ends up being a completed track.

A lot of the time, I go in with an idea and it turns into something completely different, and that’s through using different synthesisers, or different patches, or playing different notes or chords and changing key.

Before you know it, it’s a whole different track from what I intended to make.

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

No, not really, because midi was invented a couple of years before I was born ☺

I’m quite traditional in how I make music, and the techniques I use have been around for the last 40 years. I haven’t delved into AI and don’t use samples, loops, or splice.

To some, the advent of AI and ‘intelligent’ composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative process. Do you feel as though technology can develop a form of creativity itself? Is there possibly a sense of co-authorship between yourself and your tools?

I feel that there are certain elements within, say a synthesiser, random settings, for example, that touch on that idea, but realistically – do Fender look for co-authorship with a guitar player?

And that’s very different to what’s happening with AI. It’s literally taking tracks from start to finish and pulling every single human element out of the process, re-harvesting everything that’s already out there.

So I think the challenge for us as producers is to be as creative and innovative with our sounds as we possibly can and leave behind the formulaic approach to writing music.

What tools/instruments do you feel could have a deeper impact on creativity but need to still be invented or developed?

An AI synth repair robot ☺