Name: Timothy Nolan Belcher aka Nolan
Nationality: British
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Current release: Nolan's "Can You Feel This", featuring Amber Jolene and including a remix by Sasha, is out via Last Night on Earth.
Recommendations: My 2 go to effects plugins at the moment are Shaperbox3 and Portal by Output, both of which deliver insane and innovative sounds.

If you enjoyed this Nolan interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit him on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.
 


The views of society towards technology are subject to constant change. How would you describe yours?

I love a bit of Tech me! Advances in technology for music production has made my life easier and more fun for sure.

I mean take sampling for example, the limitations in the early days of sampling on an Akai S900 were severe and time consuming. Whereas now you can sample pretty much anything, edit it and use it in an infinite amount of ways immediately.

Although I still have nostalgia about the old S900 … so much so in fact we even wrote a song about it under our Flip Fantazia guise - S900
 


What are currently your creative goals and how are technologies helping you reach them?

To create music with more depth and atmosphere using 3 dimensions. I've been experimenting with Surround Sound ever since Logic Pro integrated Dolby Atmos into their latest update. Getting a feel for how to create sound design in 3D.

One of the first tracks I stemmed out to mix in Spatial Audio / Surround Sound was my “See The Stars” release on Mobilee.



It was a very sharp learning curve and all done monitoring through binaural headphones. It wasn’t until Eric Horstmann at his Immersive Lab in Berlin did a proper experienced and professional mix on it using his custom made 7.1.4 speaker set up that I heard how it really could and should be done in Spatial Sound ...

This surround sound mix was release on Apple Music and Tidal thanks to Ralf at Mobilee Records.

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?

My set up has changed quite a bit over the years, having actually started out with a lot more outboard analog gear in the early days to stripping back town to just Logic, a Moog Sub37 and a Juno Stage keyboard.

More recently, I've been using Logic since the emagic days around version 5. So I've seen it progress massively as a DAW and with it’s native plugin synths and all the 3rd party soft synths, effects and plugins I don't feel the need (or have the space) for the gear I once had to play on.

(Although a friend did just lead me an Oberheim OB-X8, a Syntrx and some Erica Synths modular gear to have a play around with!

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

Logic Pro in general. Its advances have been huge over the last 20 years I've been using it. Some effects plugins like Portal from Output too which can really mess sounds up in an incredible way. You can hear some of this in the breakdown of our track “I see Colour” we put out on Crosstown Rebels under our Cypherpunx guise with Luke Brancaccio.



From my point of view, the three key factors which have driven music technology over the past decades are mobility, affordability, and (easy) usability. How important are these for your own work – and did I miss any?

All very important for sure. It’s crazy to see companies like Ableton and Logic making apps for smart phones and iPads to make beats on the move.

I've personally not used them yet but am sure they must be fun to use and sketch ideas out on.

Technology is usually associated with innovation and progress. Are these also important considerations for your music? What is the relation between innovative tools and "innovative music”?

Innovative tools are there at everyone’s disposal but producers aren’t being encouraged to be innovative or even try to push boundaries these days it seems.

A lot of label’s A&R only sign stuff they are familiar with that they know will sell on download stores or tick all the virtual algorithmic boxes the streaming sites are prioritising in their hallowed playlist slots. Radios are still playing it safe too as are so many headline DJs all dropping whatever the current beatport top 10 show after show after show!

Not many boundaries are being pushed despite the technology enabling everyone to do so!

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?

On one hand giving yourself limitations can be a good thing, it makes you get the best and learn the most out of what you have in front of you. Too many times I've bought more fancy software before really getting to know exactly how the last thing I installed works!

The choice in creative tools can be overwhelming. Are there ways to deal with- and embrace this wealth and channel it to support your creative goals?

See above! It’s all too easy just to keep buying more and more synths, plugins, SFX units, all the latest software and only touch the surface of what you can do with it before moving onto something else new, shiny & exciting.

Put the time in to learn as much as you can with what you’ve got before getting new gear! (I wish I could stick to this advice myself!)

The sound sculpting capacities of current music technology are remarkable. So is the abundance of high-quality and ready-to-use samples. Which of these do you prefer and what does your process of working with them look like?

I love making music from scratch with real musicians, learning to play instruments myself and recording them as well as learning sound design and audio manipulation. So I tend to shy away from pre made loops. Not saying I've never used them though, they do come in useful for certain quick fixes and also to get some ideas down around loops.

There’s certainly some incredible producers out there making sample packs for people to use and it’s defo a fun and easy way to get into music production to begin with.

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 sometimes go back to very old projects to see if I can use part of it or revive the idea totally. I rarely every delete an entire project, there’s usually something in there that was special at the time of writing it.

One of my next releases started out life on my HD around 15 years ago and has seen many different incarnations until finally now it’s going to come out!

In many of our 15 Questions interviews, artists have emphasised the happy accidents as a result of human imperfections and unreliable machines. What's your view on this and how does an element of surprise enter your productions?

I use a lot of Analog Tape emulation plugins to ‘rough up’ recordings or parts and give them that ‘unreliable machine’ feel. Sometimes a little too much!

Also, there’s a very useful function in Logic called Capture Recording (hidden in the Customize Control Bar menu) which can recall the last piece of MIDI played. So if you’re jamming along on the keyboard to the track you’re making in Logic trying out ideas and hadn’t hit Record but come up with an incredible riff or do the performance of your life, you can simply hit the Capture Recording button afterwards and it will give you all that lovely MIDI from your last performance right there.

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?

As an engineer for other producers I’d say all of it comes from ideas they come to the studio with. I simply have to create the sounds and style they had in mind using the tools I have to hand.

For my own work I’d say 90% of it is what I had in mind but the last 10% is using crazy effects plugins like Portal or ShaperBox3 to see what daft but exciting directions it might take the sounds I’d already created in.

So a bit of hit and hope in the final stages. Sometimes I get lucky. 

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?

Fears: I worry that most of the music I make for TV/SYNC companies at the moment will be replaced by AI created music the companies can own all the publishing rights to themselves instead of paying writers for.

Hopes: I hope this won’t happen and that they would prefer music with human emotion in over money.

Plans: When my fears are confirmed I’ll have to look for another job!

Technology has continually taken on more steps of the compositional process and "creative" tasks. From your point of view, where does "technology" end and "creativity" begin?

Technology is useful to a degree, especially with visualisation tools at the mixing & mastering stage. But as always I make sure I make all my final mix decisions with my ears and not my eyes.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in tools/instruments you would like to see and hear?

To get paid royalties immediately after every time my music is used (on TV/Media) or played in a Club or at a Festival! The technology is there already, we just need the PRO’s around the world to correctly implement it.

And just imagine if some how it could be backdated 20 years too!