Part 2

What is the relation between innovative tools and "innovative music"?

Not sure if there is one. Just because someone is using an innovative tool doesn’t mean their music will be innovative.

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?

I get where Sophie is coming from but I think limitations can actually be good from time to time. Even fun! I don’t think it’s too fun following a formula as a set of rules but if you create a little game with yourself you can think, “What can I make with only this machine or with only this sound?” Rules can be a way to get you thinking differently than you normally do in the studio which can then lead to something interesting.

It’s a new sort of challenge and you’re also self-imposing it so … if you don’t fully commit to a limitation in one session, you can then try again in the next one or create a different one.

I think the important thing in the end is making something you’re happy with while trying to push yourself. Don’t bore yourself.

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

It changes every time depending on my mood, length of time away from the studio, if I only have a few hours to play around or if I may have purchased something new or want to get back into an old piece of gear. So I’m all over the place, hahaha!

Maybe I would get more done if I had a better starting point but then I think I would bore myself or just become ridiculously redundant with my tracks. I have a bad habit of holding on to projects / tracks too long and trying to save them for one sound or whatever. Most of the time it’s a time suck. But sometimes it works out in a good way.

For example the track ‘Soul Starvation’ on my upcoming album. I think I created the drums and framework of the track in 2012. I always had ideas on how to flesh it out in different ways but my mind was never quite there. When 2020 came around and all we had on our hands was time, I finally asked Henrik to put some guitars on top in 2020 and it’s now coming out in 2023.

That’s a good example but I have others where it’s a complete waste of time.

From your experience, are there things you're doing differently than most or many other artists when it comes to gear and production?

If I’m being completely honest I’m not sure I’m doing anything differently. I don’t mean to sound like a bummer or anything but I think it’s rare that people are truly doing something different than one another.

Producers / Artists / Musicians can have ‘their sound’ so to speak but I think that comes from a place of feeling or deep understanding within oneself. Maybe that can classify as doing something differently but I guess I’m taking on the question in a more technical sense.

On two albums with Cesar and the most recent one coming on FRNTR, there’s a lot of genre blending which is my ‘go-to’ in album format. I hope I’m improving at it in my own way and continuing to push my sound bit by bit, but I feel there are quite a few artists experimenting in that way as well right?

I dunno, I have a hard time with that question.

In relation to sound, one often reads words like “material”, “sculpting”, and “design”. Do you feel these terms have a relationship to your own work of and approach towards sound? Do you find using presets lazy?

I guess one could say presets are kinda lazy, yeah … and by that thinking and statement one could say that I have been lazy myself in the past (hahah!). But if it’s a cool sound, start there and see what happens. Playing around with sound is fun and if a preset gets you to a good starting point I don’t see a problem. If it works, it works. If it makes you happy go with it I guess. Let the haters hate if they really have the time to waste.

I mean there’s that recent video (is it recent) of Damon Albarn from Gorillaz showing how he grabbed the chords from Clint Eastwood straight from an OmniChord preset. Do you think that guy is losing sleep over using a preset?

Sculpting, Design … I think those have had more of a relationship with my music from about 2017 till now. I tried to do a lot of that during the pandemic with Cesar on Cerulean, my Notes From Isolation series and We Can Only Ever Be Who We Are.

Sculpting and Design have been a function of time available which almost always correlates to when I commit to writing albums. The pandemic really gave me that time. There was so much time to experiment. I was rooting a lot of sounds through my very modest modular rig, which I never really had done before. Also, I was never really big on distortion in my dance music and all of the sudden during that pandemic, I was all about it for the album projects. It was like “WHY WASN’T DOING THIS ALREADY???”

I was also setting up mics around my studio and recording atmospheres or putting different objects inside frying pans or containers then throwing those through six different pedals and seeing what happens and then playing with those sounds again. I never really had the time or made use of my time that way on my own before. It was always in tandem with another person. It was fun as hell.

Production tools can already suggest compositional ideas on their own. Which of these have proven particularly fruitful in this regard?

I’ve come across some interesting modular clocks and rhythm generators via a few colleagues and they seem to use them well but I’ve never had much luck in this regard.

There were some modules in Reaktor I was using for a while but these were a bit more loose and I wouldn’t exactly call them compositional tools. At least the way I was using them. The generators would have very liquid type percussion sounds and you could alter delays and envelopes on the sound to sneak them Into grooves.

It often would require me to bounce to audio and then go back and edit but it was fun for a period of time.

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?

I think the obvious fear is that music de-evolves even further. In some of my circles at least, artists, venues, and promoters have been putting social media before music in order to have a music career or run a business. Will an AI composing tool exacerbate that problem even further?

Someone will choose whatever music the flavour of the moment is, write a prompt to copy that flavour ... it won’t be as good but close enough for people without ears. Then the next copy isn’t as good as that and so on. Most people will take the shortest route possible to success while sacrificing any sort of integrity and you definitely see that in electronic music these days. Sadly most people don’t care to learn. They want to buy the ticket but they don’t want to take the ride.

OR, maybe I’ll be completely wrong and AI makes music like we’ve never heard before that touches our souls with every note. Hoping for the latter. Can you tell this is a sore spot for me? Hahaha!

Hope would be on the other end of the spectrum where AI tools can enhance learning programs so people can accelerate their skills and knowledge at an even faster clip. They’re putting in the work but AI is making them super human. Whether that be composing, mixing, mastering, whatever. AI is enhancing, not replacing. I’d be Into that.

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?

With an idea that comes from the person. How is the person creatively using the technology in front of them even if technology is offloading certain “creative tasks”? How many of those offloaded “creative” tasks actually facilitate the idea in your brain? If it gives you a new idea great but how is someone then modifying the tools that control those creative tasks?

I think the creativity comes from the person and there could be a stagnant trail of evidence if producers start offloading too much on technology.

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?

I would love to see more advanced hardware sequencers that are affordable.

Obviously the Cirklon is the bomb and there are some modular sequencers out there that are affordable. But I’d like to see more in between the two and are comfortable to work with for long stretches of time.