Name: Pedro Da Linha
Nationality: Portuguese
Occupation: Producer, musician, DJ
Current release: Pedro Da Linha produced Anna Moura's new album Casa Guilhermina. He is also on of the contributors on the new Batida album Neon Colonialismo.
Recommendations: I would have to say Soundtoys plugins like AlterBoy and Crystalizer and the Prophet Rev-2, a really, really nice analogue synthesizer.

[Read our Anna Moura interview]
[Rread our Batida interview]

If you enjoyed this interview with Pedro Da Linha and would like to know more about his work, visit him on Instagram, twitter, and Soundcloud.
 


What was your first studio like?

In the past years, I've worked in various studios but I never had a proper place for my own. Up until recently, I never felt the need to have one either. But as I get older and start doing different kinds of productions and specific works that require special care and attention, it has been a wish of mine to get a place in order to do just that.

For now, regarding composing and producing music, I'll do it pretty much anywhere with my gear and it feels really comfortable.

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?

When I started, I just had my laptop and used to make music, hearing it through my laptop speakers until I got some proper headphones. When I started growing as a DJ and it became something much more serious, that's when I felt the need to evolve my setup.

This is because the tracks I made for the club weren't at all sounding good or even ok. So I was gradually enhanced my setup until I got to a place where I was happy with what I was doing and what I was delivering - for myself and for the artists I’ve worked with and I’m currently working with. It took some years to find all the stuff that suited me and a lot of learning from other producers and musicians.

The most important pieces of gear for me are, without doubt, the headphones (at the moment I’m using a pair of Audio-Technica M-50x) because I do almost everything without speakers until a certain point. Then, my midi keyboard, the M-Audio Keystation 49 or the Arturia MiniLab MK2, are also important elements of my set-up.

The digital studio promises endless possibilities at every step of the process. What is it that you actually need from these potentials and how do go about youselecting it? How do you keep control over the wealth of options at the production stage?

Usually I know exactly what I want to do and achieve, up until a point where I know and feel the need to spice things up and include something weird with what I’ve created.

You really need to know when it's the right time to stop with the experiments you've been doing, select a small group of outcomes and then just trust your own taste and what adds more to the result you're trying to achieve or hope to achieve.

I really like the endless options you have to get to almost everywhere. But at the same time, I have to be aware of what is adding to the track and what is taking something away from it.

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?

Personally I prefer the more intimate studio approach because, from experience, I feel that the ideas that come out from a situation like that are way more viable. There's something really nice about the idea of having people in a more "realistic" space, working together and getting to know what each wants to do. Rather then doing that in a massive space where there's always some kind of "pressure" for always making something that builds up to the moments spent in those kinds of scenarios.

Obviously I’m saying this regarding the composition process and the production phase. Not saying that you couldn't do a really nice recording of vocals on a nice living room with a nice view and a really good environment. But it's easier to realise that process in a nice studio, with the right people.

The most important thing, way more important than the equipment and the big, nice studios, are the people you're working it.

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 have to say that technology makes it easier for nice and good ideas to come to life without the need to get musicians to play a specific instrument for example.

Usually I try to record anything the comes to mind on my iPhone and then, when I’m at my laptop, I scroll around the ideas that I had and try to work on them if I feel that they are nice or add something to any work in progress I have. Even if I record a vocal idea or some sort of guitar melody for example, using my voice, I always end up trying to play that for myself, before thinking of a real instrument from a musician.

Even with the some of the organic sounds we used on Ana Moura's album Casa Guilhermina, I always try and process those instruments in a way where they could sound weirder or maybe like a sample. I feel that's really interesting and gets you really unique textures. And sometimes, new melodies and sounds that a human person wouldn't make can result from this process as well.

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 never delete anything that I feel could be nice at some place and time later. I never had the habit of thinking "oh, this is just bad and I never want to hear this again". I feel that it's always a learning curve and that you can always go back to something you made on a bad day and get the most out of it. Maybe it's something that didn't make sense in a certain period but then you go back and find something really nice that could add up to the stuff you're making today.

I've had a lot examples where I would go and get, for example, a chord progression I made in 2017 or a lead I played that was cringe for me at the time and use those elements in tracks that, today, I’m really proud of.

My album Da Linha, which I released in 2020 via Enchufada, the label of Buraka Som Sistema members Branko and Kalaf, for example, has a lot of situations like this. There were a lot of leftovers that I had from previous years and stuff that I used to dislike a lot that turned out to beat tracks that I really like, and stuff I produced for other artists as well.



There's this track called "Nova Lisboa" by Dino D'Santiago that came out in 2018 and it used to be a bootleg I played in my DJ Sets with some other vocals and a different, more clubby beat before it turned into a proper song that I’m really proud of.



Despite the aforementioned near endless possibilities, many productions seem to follow conventional paths. How do you retain an element of surprise for your own work – are there technologies which are particularly useful in this regard.

I really don't think that technology has a part in the conventional paths musicians and producers take because I feel it's always up to the people creating the music to make something a little different everytime they make something.

If you follow a formula or a familiar process, even if it works a lot of times, I think people eventually will get fed up by it and even the people who are making it. Or at least, I hope they do because I think that the really nice aspect of making music and creating stuff is that you evolve in a personal and artistic way and that you can translate that in you art. If you keep up doing the same stuff over and over again, for me at least, it makes me feel like I’m at a dead end.

Obviously not everything single thing is new and fresh. But the path you take to make something sound different or better is way more rewarding.

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?

For my music, I have to say that 90% are already ideas and concepts I have inside my head.

I feel that you can really count on software and apps to compose something as a nice starting point for when you have like writer's block or to unlock something that you haven't been able to do by yourself. But personally, I rather do that process when I already have thrown everything I have in my head on to the session.

How important is it for you that you personally create or participate in the creation of every element of a piece – from sound synthesis via rhythm programming to mixing?

The only part that I could potentially skip would be the mixing. But I'd only be willing to do this if I know the person who's doing that - their process and their taste. But whenever I can, I really enjoy working on the mix also.

Everything else I would rather be involved with because I like to work with people and discuss ideas and work on these ideas through teamwork, in order to reach better results.

But I have to say and not to be selfish, it's really important for me to be the person who starts the entire process.

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

No, not at all or at least, I’ve never felt that.

Even with things like Splice and other services like that, I feel that it's always how the user plans on using that technology.

To some, the advent of AI and 'intelligent' composing tools offers potential for machines to contribute to the creative provess. 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?

No, I really don't think technology can develop a form of creativity.

I wouldn't be able to that what I do without my tools but I don't feel it could go the other way either. There are no limitations in making music and any idea could come and develop into something really beautiful and for that, you really need to have emotion and to be human in order to achieve something that can connect with other people.

Even if it's just a two chord song and a vocal, that can have enough depth to reach millions. That's something a machine would never be able to do.

Do you personally see a potential for deeper forms of Artifical Intelligence in your music?

No, I do not and I hope it would never come to that.

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

I don't have a specific answer because I really feel creativity is something that can be worked on and trained. It's always a matter of taste and personal ideas and how you reflect and feel on the stuff you're trying to make.

What I feel is that the need to make something that needs to go big or viral and tries to follow what's popular, really has a negative impact on creativity because that's not something that comes from your own imagination. Rather, it comes from other things that I feel shouldn't be mixed up with the process of making music.