Producer Q&A: Hovatron
March 15
You may have noticed Hovatron popping up on here when Ed was raving about his mix for Low Riders Collective. Which is indeed ace - so ace, in fact, that we were COMPELLED by the mighty hand of CROM to get him in to do one of our somewhat-dormant producer Q&As. We boned a snake woman and punched a camel first though.
How do you approach a tune? Drums first? Melody?
It can start from anywhere really... noodling on the MS20, getting lost in over-complicated synth patches, or maybe it's one little sound somewhere, or a melody in my head... But generally I think it usually starts with melodies. I have way too many in my head at the same time and I just need to GET THEM OUT otherwise I go crazy.
What time of day do you work best?
When I am completely exhausted, despondent and stressed out about other things. Which often happens to be late on weekdays when I should be resting for full work days. I can't make anything if I'm sitting around and have all day to do something, I need to feel anxious in a way that I need that release or however you want to put it.
Where do you get your inspiration / motivation from?
Besides the above answer, I get musical inspiration from a lot of house and techno... radio rap, old electronic stuff, a lot of rock music. The best inspiration however comes from things outside music, such as contemporary art (Marcel Dzama,
Cai Guo-Qiang,
Anselm Kiefer, Tara Donovan, Jeff Koons being some favorites) I'm not altogether sure how it specifically interacts with my music and creative process, but I know I get more inspired from their work and stuff like movies much more so than listening to someone else's record.
What do you do when you're not feeling inspired?
I think I've been so busy with other things in my life that the times I do get to work on music things just pour out. The few times I do have time for music and inspiration doesn't strike I,ll leave my apartment, go downstairs for a few coffees, maybe go for a bike ride and then try making music standing up. Making music sitting down is as different to standing up as working on a computer is from playing a real musical instrument, so that can change the way you do things. I think.
Do you start a tune from scratch, or do you usually have a drumset/template/etc to work from?
I'll start from scratch... in fact the synth I use the most (the Korg MS-20) has no preset memory so I'm somewhat forced to... and I'm not really good at managing saving and loading presets on the Juno either so I usually start from scratch on that one as well... as for drums I have quite a few kits I've constructed and like going back to some similar sounds and mix and matching some things. I also love drum machine sounds... I currently only have the Roland TR-707 but would love a 909 at some point, or maybe a Machinedrum. But when it comes to starting a track, the lack of presets and memory is great and makes me start anew and keep things fresh.
If you got a chance would you write pop stuff for a major label (if the money was good?)
I said it earlier, I love radio rap and I have an undying love for pop music. I would write material for Cassie, Rihanna, Keri Hilson or any of those great pop acts in a second.
What's the boring, workhorse plugin/piece of kit that you use all the time?
The preset digital reverb on my Phonic 8-channel mixer. That and the ableton software workhorse effects... they don't sound great but they are all there and easy to use... usually I tell myself to remove such and such chorus or delay or whatever and re-record using a better plug-in but usually they stay there.
What's the coolest bit of kit you've got and do you actually use it much?
Cool probably depends on who you ask... I'm always really excited to use my MS-20 and the Modular synth... the modular hasn't quite reached its full potential yet and is arguably more nerdy than cool, but it's definitely the most fun to use. And I use both of them extensively, I'm even starting to play shows with them. As a general rule if I don't use something all the time it gets sold. I loved having a Yamaha DX-7 but it was big and had only one slider and took an hour to create sounds with so it's gone.
Do you mixdown your own stuff? Reckon there's a stigma around this?
The few things of mine that have actually gotten released such as the Lo-Fi Funk single with Gold Star Radiation and stuff were professionally mastered and mixed down. Every thing else I do myself... It's not ideal. Hopefully one day I can man up, buy some good EQs and compressors and start doing professional masters at home.
What production technique do you think is really overused / annoying?
Glitch VSTs. It makes a lot of electronic music sound like a Discman from the 90's is skipping. It was fine when Aphex Twin did it 10 years ago, and it can be OK in small doses or something, but for the most part it sounds tacky to me and I think we need to move on.
What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?
Restraint and minimalism is more effective than over-compensating by having way too many things going on at once. I'm getting a bit better at that... but it's still challenging to know when enough is enough.
Cheers brodude!
Posted by bassmusic
