1. How do you approach a tune? Drums first? Melody?
Generally the drums. Pretty much always, in fact. Probably should try a different approach I suppose, see if it brings me round to a different and interesting way of working, but I'm such a drum nerd it's pretty tricky! After that, the bass, then everything else.
2. What time of day do you work best?
Depends what for. I work better for 'specific things' in the morning - mixdowns, if there's a change I want to make on a track, invoicing people, stuff like that. I feel like I can get moving on something quite quickly. Otherwise, I don't know - probably after midnight, when everything's quiet. Apart from man's speakers.
3. Where do you get your inspiration / motivation from?
90's Drum & Bass is a big one, for the rolling drums and subby basslines. 90's dance music in general, in fact - detroit techno, early Plastikman, Ben Sims, DJ Sneak, Orbital... anything that vibes. Also some guitarry stuff - stoner rock especially.
4. What do you do when you're not feeling inspired?
Not write music! A week or two's break gives you a good chance to let a few ideas germinate. Or try and get some collaborations going. You can come up with what you think is a fairly standard beat, but it will inspire the other person, and the stuff they add to it might give you more ideas. It works sometimes...
5. Do you start a tune from scratch, or do you usually have a drumset/template/etc to work from?
Everything from scratch. Occasionally I'll pull in a sample or a patch that I've used before, but that's about it. Probably should do that more, I suppose, people seem to latch on to producers who have a consistent kind of sound, but it always feels a bit lazy in a way. That said, there are certain techniques I always use - my drum buss arrangement is usually one of 2 or 3 combinations.
6. If you got a chance would you write pop stuff for a major label (if the money was good?)
Absolutely, I'd love to. I don't know if I'm good enough though - decent pop music is really impressively produced and surprisingly creative once you get past the frequently crappy lyrics.
7. What's the boring, workhorse plugin/piece of kit that you use all the time?
Well, most of Logic's free plugins get rinsed pretty comprehensively - the compressor, the EQ's, the bitcrusher and the space designer are all solid and very useable.
8. What's the coolest bit of kit you've got and do you actually use it much?
I've got a Roland MC202 which is pretty tidy and was responsible for the bassline on Leaves. I've also got a Yamaha CS5 which is great but a bit noisy so I don't use it much, and a Yamaha AN1x which isn't all that cool but the rate this decade has just zoomed past it's probably gonna be considered vintage quite soon.
9. Do you mixdown your own stuff? Reckon there's a stigma around this?
Yes I do mixdown my own stuff, and I do think there's a stigma about it. Which is a bit of a shame in some ways, as I'd rather hear well-produced stuff that has been mixed down properly than some of the stuff I get. I had help mixing down a couple of my tracks in the beginning, and it improved them no end, and also helped me hone my own mixdowns on my later stuff.
10. What production technique do you think is really overused / annoying?
One thing that is going to drive me mad the next time I hear it (this will be tomorrow) is when tracks (or sometimes accapellas) have not been warped properly in Ableton and you get this strange grittiness in the sound. Makes my teeth curl, but the amount you hear it, I guess a lot of people don't notice it. Also, uber-bright mixdowns are starting to annoy me these days. You don't need all that treble in a club situation.
11. What do you know now that you wish you had known when you started out?
Loads! I wish I had known that finishing a track is as much a skill as any other part of writing, and if you don't practise it you'll never finish anything. I could have done with acknowledging that having good contacts is often as useful as having good tunes, and acting accordingly, too.
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i.d.
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