Art + Music + Technology (Darwin Grosse)

In doing a little research on YouTube and the Cycling '74 forums, I kept on running across a user "baz" that seemed to be knowledgable, engaged and really active. His tutorials on YouTube were quite phenominal, and I wanted to find out more about this guy. Surprise to me - it is Barry Moon, someone that I think I ran across on the old Max mailing list. It turns out that Barry has been around the electro-acoustic scene for a lng time, but has been working on teaching, visual cration, composition and various collaborations. A cool interview, and another change to talk to a multi-talented artist.

Enjoy!

For me, the Mod Devices story began with their very impressive debut at the NAMM show. But guest Gianfranco Ceccolini has been working on the product for quite a while - and on the concept for even longer. Creating more than a guitar pedal, Gianfranco and company have succeeded in creating an entire ecosystem (they call it a platform, but that sounds only technical...) that can be used for the development of pedalboards for guitars, synth rigs or whatever.

I started to work with the company when they wanted to support building Max's Gen code to run on the device; thanks to heroic efforts by some of my co-workers (Jeremy, here's a shout-out!), we not only got it running, but it is as smooth as silk. But in working on this, it was clear that this wasn't a system that just appeared because of a Kickstarter campaign - there was obviously something more behind the device.

Thus, this chat. And it was really interesting - taking a love of music and a love of Linux, combining them into something that a guitarist could use, and eventually into something any musician could love. That's quite a trail, and Gianfranco maps it out for us.

A great chat about the history of a company from its founder, and a neat roadmap to their future as well. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did talking!

Brian Crabtree (monome.org) dropped me a line and suggested that I consider chatting with Rodrigo Constanzo. I wasn't sure I'd heard of him, but when I checked out his site, I realized I'd been following his work for a while. The Party Van software was certainly a hit in its time, but I was most intrigued by the karma~ MSP object, and the ability to bring advanced looping to my Max programming.

Spending time with Rodrigo was great, because he revealed both how he works and why he works, something that people find difficult to talk about. But he was super-willing to explore why he likes looping, how he uses software to both play and collaborate, and how he engages with his audience using DMX lighting.

Really fun talk, and a great view into this creative multi-artist. Enjoy!

One of the things I've always been curious about has been the Institute of Sonology, a Dutch center of electronic music studies. I knew that Gregory had been a "Sonologist", as had Gerhard Behles of Ableton and many others. But I knew practically nothing about the place. Gregory had always been circumspect about it whenever I talked to him, so I finally cornered him w/r/t doing a podcast about it, and here we are.

The podcast starts with a continuation of the Dockstader discussion, but it folds into the Sonology discussion quite easily. I think that you'll find the whole thing - including the influence of the Philips Corporation on the world of electronic music. If you ever wondered why scenes grow up in different places, this might open your eyes a little.

Thanks again to Gregory, who always teaches me without making me feel stupid - the primary attribute of a wonderful educator.

I'm trying to explore some new parts of the media art world, and one of those less explored areas has to do with broadcasting. So often, media art seems to be driven by net-stuff, computers and streaming something-or-other. But if you look at some of the most interesting media-based storytelling, it occurs on and through the radio.

My guest (and coworker) August Black has a history with this stuff, having worked with art-broadcast people in creating guerilla radio systems. His view on 'creating a place' for art to happen is an interesting view of an alternate media art, and his distrust of traditional art structures makes it seem a bit radical - until you start thinking about it, and it just seems smart.

August has got a lot of work on the web - he just chooses to hide it well. You can see some of his work at the following links:

standupradioSimple World
userradio
fundamental radio
datadada
The Wavefarm Project

Enjoy!

Joshua Kit Clayton is one of the people I respect most in this world. He lives a thoughtful life that embraces technology, artistic practice, politics and spirituality in a holistic way that I find remarkable.

In our chat, we talk about his background (Ukranian Beet Farmers?), his involvement in the San Francisco 'scene' from the 1990's and 2000's, pulling together Jitter and his current work as both Cycling '74 CTO and live performer. We also talk about how he views politics, in particular, as part of the culture of an artistic life.

I've known Joshua for a long time, but I learned a lot during this discussion. What a treat!

This episode marks the first year of the podcast, and I really appreciate everyone that has been involved: interviewees, tech helpers and listeners. This has been a great ride so far, and I'm looking forward to the next 40!

Enjoy!

One of the most enduring record series from the late 90’s and early 00’s is Pole’s 1/2/3 combo. These albums turned people’s heads when they were released, and remain often-mentioned favorites of the introspective ambient/glitch world. Stefan Betke – aka Pole – has just released a new album, Fading (http://mute.com/mute/has-announced-the-brand-new-album-fading), and opened the door for a chat. Woot!!

In our discussion, we spend a fair amount of time on his production process, learning how he builds a track, some of his tricks for honing the work, and how he sets things up for live performance. He also fills us in on his history – and why his famous 4-Pole Filter failure could speak to him when it would have felt like a failure to most of us.

You can learn much more about Stefan on the Pole artist site (https://pole-music.com/) and Bandcamp site (https://pole-stefanbetke.bandcamp.com/music). And, of course, the release is available on Mute Records: http://mute.com/

Enjoy!

Transcription available at http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0342.html

I recently returned from a Cycling '74 company retreat, and had a chance to spend some time with this week's guest: Rob Ramirez. Rob is an interesting character, fluent in both 3D graphics and conceptual art, and was willing to submit to the podcast. So I took him up on it!

One of the things we talk a lot about is a recent work he was involved in: An Evening With William Shatner Asterisk. You might want to see a bit of it; you can check these out:

The first episode, full experience: https://vimeo.com/110142074

A closeup of the video and captions: https://vimeo.com/86626560

In this discussion, we talk about the technical side of art, but we also talk about the 'soft' side: how the design of a work comes together, what it is like to be showing work in the hothouse of New York, and how attribution happens in a complex work. I think you'll find it quite interesting...

Enjoy!

OK, so this is a little different…

I, and many of my coworkers, tend to do special things around the number “74” (the company name is Cycling ’74, if you didn’t already know). For #374, I decided that I’d talk to David Zicarelli again – just like I did in #74.

When I asked him, he rejected the interview format, and wanted to do a Q&A, where we’d each get to ask each other questions. It started off interview-ish, but ended up with some interesting personal revelations. It helps that David and I have a great relationship, and that we’ve been chatting each other up for decades.

So, given the chance to ask anything, what did we ask each other? Well, it ranges from vinyl, to performance context, to self-motivation – and a million other things. Frankly, it’s hard to even remember everything we talked about, but you get to find out yourself!

Enjoy!

Transcription available at http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0374.html

Exclusive extra content on the Patron page: https://www.patreon.com/darwingrosse

Among a certain set of music-makers, Oli Larkin's work is critical for making things happen. He's an audio programming guru, and has created systems as diverse as a virtual Casio CZ synth, an automatic plug-in parameter-scrambler and he is involved with the development of a new web audio plug-in format. He is also deep into the Faust programming language, Max/MSP and the iPlug plug-in development system. His work is simultaneously inspiring and workmanlike, and it always delivers what is expected - and then some!

Where does that level of sophistication and programming talent come from? Even Oli doesn't seem to know - but he's put his whole career behind the effort and really enjoys sharing. In addition to programming, he's also been experimenting with immersive audio experience (something we didn't get a chance to talk about - this time), and continues to dive into the depths of the Faust language and the iPlug system.

You can check out his work at his personal site: http://www.olilarkin.co.uk/, and try out the web audio synthesizers at https://www.webaudiomodules.org/. This was a great chat, and left me with even more respect for Oli and his work. Enjoy!

In our first interview with someone specifically not self-identified as a programmer, we talk to David Stout. David is one half of the performing group Noisefold, and is also a faculty member at one of my (many) alma maters - University of North Texas. David has some very specific views on the creations of art with new media tools, and he share some of them with us in this chat.

I really enjoy exploring these areas, and hope to have a follow-up interview with David sometime in the near future. In the meantime, please enjoy this sip from the firehose!

I'm a sucker for a great book, and especially a great series. I also like knowing about books that will help people become better Max programmers. That combination comes into play with Maurizio Giri and Alessandro Cipriani's "Electronic Music and Sound Design" a (so far) two book series that explores Max/MSP programming through electronic music technique.

But Maurizio is into more than that: an active composition teacher, he exercises his electronic music muscles by creating pro-level Max for Live devices and iOS apps under the name Amazing Noises. The Amazing Noises Outer Space device is one of my favorite beyond-reverb plug-ins, and those apps feature some of the most intuitive user interfaces seen in audio development.

In this chat, Maurizio and I talk about the development of both books and applications from the standpoint of a traditional composition professor, and also discuss the way that modern (and often computer-enhanced) classical music is managed today. We get some great insight into a great mind, and get to see how all these things get created.

Enjoy!

Back in episode 66, I first chatted with Bert Schiettecatte - who, along with partner Celine, has been making the Percussa brand of music interfaces purr for the last decade-and-a-half. When we talked to them back then, they were about to run with a Kickstarter for their SSP Eurorack module; now, it's a success - and has spawned a new progeny. The Micro SSP has its own kickstarter (http://kck.st/2FB69kg), and looks to be a smaller and more affordable way for anyone to get into the SSP ecosystem.

As with our earlier conversation, talking with Bert is pretty easy - he's got his hands in every part of the development of the device, and is willing to talk about it all! I enjoy talking with him because he tends to downplay the amount of work he's done, but is also realistic about the amount of work it took to accomplish the result. He's killing it with this module, but he's been killing it all along with the development of Percussa interface devices.

I hope you enjoy this 'cast - it's a revelation to hear about the SSP design process, and will hopefully inspire you to dig in a little more. Check out Percussa at https://www.percussa.com, and take a good look at the amazing designs they are producing.

Cheers!

Tom Hall is one of my ‘pocket’ favorite artists, and I’m pleased that he was willing to be interviewed. His music is a blend of many influences, but the end result is very particularly his own. We talk about his background growing up in Tasmania, touring off his MySpace connections and even his favorite guitar pedals (as a non-guitarist).

It all ends up quite a lot of fun, and informative as well. If you’ve not yet heard Tom’s work, the best place to start is at tomhall.com.au. Try it out - I'm sure you will enjoy it.

There are lots of conferences that come along - and move along - without making a dent on anyone's attention. Thorsten Sideboard's Algorithmic Art Assembly is *not* one of those; it's first outing, last year, was one of the buzziest conferences I'd heard about. Now with the pandemic, conferences are a little out-of-bounds, but talking with Thorsten not only revealed a lot about the development of a conference and the community surrounding it, but also about how you can expand your personal passions into something powerful.

In our chat, we learn about how Thorsten ran across the live-coding scene, how San Francisco transformed him and led him to create the Algorithmic Art Assembly, and how he came to create his own live-coding environment (called SBShell, or Sideb0ard). We also learn about the power of knowing people, and how small the world sometimes can seem. It's a fascinating tale, and it's fun to imagine being in the places that Thorsten found himself.

You can check out Thorsten's work at The B0ardside website, track the current state of the AAA at https://aaassembly.org/, and hear/see more of his work at his Bandcamp site and YouTube channel. And keep your eyes out for the next Algorithmic Art Assembly conference - it's sure to be worth the visit to SF!

Transcription: http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0325.html

If you are into electronic/computer music, you already know the name of this week's guest. From the Computer Music Tutorial, through Microsound and his latest book (Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic), he has been pushing the envelope for all of us, bringing spacialization, granular synthesis and complex timing systems from the realm of the theoretical into everyday studio use. But he is far more than a technological cool-hunter; he's an active composer, and is just about to release a new DVD in collaboration with Brian O'Reilly.

In this chat, we get to hear how Curtis went from band-kid to music researcher, and we also talk about how he goes about making the music that he produces. Since he works with such intricate sound elements, you can imagine that it is painstaking work.  Well, his description doesn't disappoint, but his use of tools - and perspectives on what makes a great composition - might surprise you.

This was, as hoped, an eye-opening experience for me, and a great way to learn more about both Curtis and his work. You can find out a lot more about him from his updated website at https://www.curtisroads.net, and by checking out his books and recordings.

Thanks to Splice for their support of this podcast. You can help out the podcast by checking out our special link to their system, and or by using our code (MUSICARTTECH) to get a free month trial of their sample library offering. Help us out, and check out the cool collaboration tools that Splice provides!

When my friend Tom Hall first introduced me to the music of Deru, I was immediately drawn in. It was the combination of complexity and structure that I love in ambient work, but it was also unabashedly electronic and had edge that I liked.

But I got a surprised when I did a little digging around, and found out that Benjamin Wynn, the man behind Deru, was also deeply entrenched in the music-for-TV world, having done music and sound design (with his partner Jeremy Zuckerman) for Avatar - The Last Airbender, Kung-Fu Panda - Legends of Awesomeness and others. A couple of Emmys speak to the quality of that work.

In addition to that (!), he is also one of the founders of The Echo Society, a composer's collective that is gaining traction by producing a concert series that pushes people's perception of classical music concert - and modern music.

All of this points to an amazingly efficient music and sound producer, and one that is able to work within - and embrace - many different sound environments. In our chat, we talk about how each of these opportunities presented themselves, but also how he is able to pull off all this work, and to keep such a high level of quality.

I'm a fan, but I'm also fascinated by someone with this kind of process and one that is so consistent with their work. I learned a lot in this, and I hope you do too.

Enjoy!

Doug Geers keeps on popping up in my radar - and has for over a decade. He was at the head of the charge with the Spark Festival in Minneapolis, one of the best electronic music conferences in the history of ever. He's quoted on the back of one of Curtis Roads' books. His performances keep coming up in my social media feeds. And, of course, when I went to the SEAMUS 2017 conference, who is the first person I run into?

Doug Geers!

So I had my wits about me enough to blurt out "Hey, dude, I need to get you on my podcast, um, yeah!", and he unwisely agreed. Thus, this interview, where we not only find out a lot about Doug, but we also learn about his views on community building, preparing scores to be played, and developing music both within and outside of the typical scoring frameworks.

I also found out how much I appreciate Doug: Midwestern to the core, surprised at the luck that appears at every turn, and consistently pushing personal boundaries because that's the work that needs to be done. An inspiring story from a fun and interesting guy. Oh, and make sure you check out his work (including scores!) on his website: http://www.dgeers.com/

Enjoy!

If you are involved in electronic/digital media creation, you've surely run across Julien Bayle. He is a performer, installation artist, programmer, writer and is heavily involved in almost every facet of media arts. He is also a public figure that spends a lot of time investigating systems - and sharing what he's found with the community. I find Julien fascinating, because he seems to be incredibly productive, and seems to finish more work than most people can even conceive of starting. In this conversation, we talk about his background, how he became comfortable with the many technologies that he uses, and how he is able to accomplish so much.

As I suggest in the intro, this podcast was a bit of a scramble; both technical and scheduling issues pushed this right to the brink. But this conversation is a great way to peer into the mind of a self-described "obsessive", and understand how Julien decides on which work to pursue as well as which decisions he's decided to make. Great stuff. To learn more about Julien's work, please check out julienbayle.net, where you can read his blog and follow him through some of his tech-exploits.

The bumper music was again created using Max Million's sample library, this time Discrete Energy II. Cool stuff, and really handy when you've got to pop together something quickly...

For my audience, Anthony Rolando probably needs no introduction. As the product designer at Make Noise Music, his work is found in almost every modular system you’ll run across. From his earliest designs (such as the Maths) to his latest (like the Morphagene), he’s helping to define the future of modular systems.

Recently, Make Noise has come out with a new standalone device – the Strega. This is a remarkable system-in-a-box that includes integrated effects and tone generation, and is particularly focused on live play. As a collaboration with Alessandro Cortini, the Strega is a deep, opinionated view on noise/sound manipulation, and launches a new perspective on what an ‘instrument’ is all about.

In our discussion, we dive into depth on the development of the Strega, Tony’s personal musical adventures, and a bunch of follow-up from our previous podcast (https://artmusictech.libsyn.com/podcast-152-tony-rolando-of-make-noise). As with any discussion with Tony, it was revealing, challenging and inspiring.

Enjoy!

Transcription available at http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0352.html

Joshua Eustis is one of the busiest and most focused people you'll run across. From his many recording/performance entities and collaborations (Telefon Tel Aviv, Second Woman, Sons of Magdalene) or his work with mainline acts (Puscifer, Nine Inch Nails), Josh's influence is woven throughout electronic music.

And you know what? Good for us! If you aren't familiar with Telefon Tel Aviv's music, take a listen - it's among my favorite music at the moment. Doing a little research will help you understand the difficulties surrounding that project - including the heartbreak surrounding the death of Charlie Cooper, Josh's collaborator with Telefon. 

But there's a lot more to talk about: what was it like touring with Puscifer - or NIN? What works better for Josh's work: hardware or software? And what are some of the tricks that he uses in order to keep up his aggressive playing and release schedule? All this and more...

I'm really grateful that Josh would take the time to chat with us, and thanks to Tom Hall for making the introduction. And make sure you keep up to date with Telefon Tel Aviv's activities as well as his other project, and keep an eye for a gig near you.

Enjoy!

One of the big surprises of the late 2010’s was the acquisition of Buchla and Associates by someone local to me: Eric Fox of Foxtone Music. I’d heard of Foxtone, but never visited, and never expected something like this to happen in good ‘ol Minneapolis. But sure enough, Buchla was now based out of the Twin Cities.

While I’m not a Buchla user, I’ve always been fascinated by Don Buchla’s work, and I was interested in this new iteration of Buchla – especially given the recent announcement of the official Tiptop 200-series modules, along with the revamp of the Easel that was shown at Superbooth. There was no time like now to reach out to Eric for a chat.

Our discussion is pretty interesting: from his start as a punk guitarist, to his entre into music retailing, and finally landing on synthesizers as his ticket, Eric hasn’t ever taken the easy road. But through perseverance, and a willingness to be “that irritating guy”, he has created a place – not only in music retailing, but in synthesizer history.

See what Eric is up to by checking out the Buchla website: https://buchla.com/

Enjoy!

Transcription available at http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0368.html

Exclusive extra content on the Patron page: https://www.patreon.com/darwingrosse

Most of my podcasts are with people that are established in a thing that isn't going to change - they are builders, musicians or coders that have chosen the tools and directions of their craft, and are sticking to 'em. Har is different - he's decided to step away from one milieu and into another. I didn't know much about this at the time that I reached out to him, but as he filled me in on his transitions, I realized that this was a great opportunity to see someone as they change tack.

My original goal with talking to Har was that he is an ambient musician that doesn't really use keyboards; rather, he uses guitars, basses, Chapman Stick and other stringed instruments. When I played with him at a planetarium gig, I watched with awe as he set up a rig with perhaps 50 guitar pedals in a ring around the stange - and proceeded to use 'em all! The sound was both beautiful and mighty and something that I'll remember for a long time as a completely unique experience.

Anyway, in this podcast, we talk about his instrumentation and his style, but we mostly talk about the process of change: leaving behind his internet radio show, embracing a new style, learning new skills and starting a new project with a here-it-all-is video.

You can learn more about Har's work here: http://music.ambientguitarist.com/

Enjoy!

As a young(er) dude wrapping my head around music technology, there was one person that was consistently inspiring to me: Larry Fast. From his work as Synergy (which you can learn about here: http://synergy-emusic.com), or as a backing musician with Peter Gabriel, or doing composition and sound design across the industry, Fast's work was always pushing my ideas of what synths could do. So it was an amazing opportunity when I was introduced to Larry - and got a chance to record this chat with him.

Larry has never not been busy, and that remains the case: he's been working on a documentary (Saving the Great Swamp), creating archives from his Synergy work and putting together the material for a new release. This in combination with working with the Thomas Edison National Historic Park, and is deeply involved in historic preservation information.

Preparing for this interview got me diving back into the Synergy catalog, and I was reminded how much some of those albums (particularly Cords, Audion, Computer Experiments) lit my mind up with alternatives to the easily-patched voicings and preset sounds. I owe him a lot for that, and I hope you enjoy this discussion with Larry Fast.

Sometimes my attention is grabbed by something unexpected. In researching Peder Simonsen, I was very impressed with his production work, his work with modular system – but then I read about his work with the tuba. Microtonal tuba. In a group. That stopped me in my tracks, and I had to learn more. I ended up having a fascinating conversation with Peder, and got an amazing education about so many things!

In our discussion, we talk about microtonal tuba – and it, how does it work? – the application of microtonalism with his modular system, and his unique compositional and structural concepts. His recordings have a unique way of developing over time – there’s a linearity to them that I found really intriguing, and we explored how he hears the music that he’s making.

Peder is also involved in a lot of groups, and also does a fair amount of production work with others. This puts him in a position to work on many types of collaboration, and we dig into this as well. How do you write for a microtonal tuba trio? How do you mix a modular system with an experimental jazz orchestra? So damned interesting…

For more information, you can check out the following:

Peder’s web page: https://www.pedersimonsen.com/

Robin Hayward’s microtonal tuba - https://robinhayward.com/eng/mitontuba.php

Sofa Music - label of microtub and many other experimental Norwegians: https://www.sofamusic.no/

Tubbutec microtonal tuning module - https://tubbutec.de/%C2%B5tune/

Enjoy!

Transcription available at http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0376.html

Exclusive extra content on the Patron page: https://www.patreon.com/darwingrosse

I think I've seen the handle VICMOD bouncing around the internet forever. I've also been listening to the music of Cray for a while, too. But only recently did I actually put 2 and 2 together to realize that this was the same person!

I've always like the Cray music for its breadth and honesty - it really sounded like a person's inner voice, rather than whatever a synth might naturally produce. And in talking with him, it is clear that this is his primary objective: heartfelt improvisation and sound design.

From his earliest work with a janky 486 computer to his current obsession with Omnisphere (with Buchla, Serge and Eurorack in-between), Ross has exercised almost any machine you can imagine. The result is a person that is looking to be surprised by his environment - and is constantly searching for those surprises.

After our chat, Ross was apparently spurred into digging into the archives, and has release the following for the listeners:

https://vicmodcray.bandcamp.com/album/geometric-patterns-made-of-love-and-understanding

You can also check out the whole VICMOD label catalog here:

http://www.vicmod.net/

And, as Ross himself says, check out his work on discogs.com to dig into more of his past:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/621720-Ross-Healy

Enjoy!

You may not have run across Jill Fraser's name before, but you almost certainly have heard her work. With hundreds of TV commercials under her belt, as well as several feature films and a couple of tours, she's become part of the world's earworm. She's also been performing more recently - with Peter Grenader - as zZyzx Society, and even occasionally taking her gear into the desert to play for the coyotes!

Jill is part of the CalArts group that came of age in the late seventies, featuring Morton Subotnik as one of the key instructors. Moving from school almost directly into feature films as studio work has given Jill an uninterrupted line of creative work for almost four decades! Listen in while we surf Jill's Serge-driven career.

You can find out more about Jill's work, and see/hear some of her performances, by checking out her website: http://www.jillfrasermusic.com/. And if you are in LA, keep an eye out for the zZyzx Society gigs, since they combine composition, improv and modular instrumentation in a very unique way.

Enjoy!

I was having an email chat with Mark Vail when he suggested that I think about an interview with Tim Caswell, one of the founders of Studio Electronics. I jumped at this chance, since I've long been a fan of SE's work, and wanted a chance to find out more about the start of the company and what it is going to do for the future.

The discussion was wonderful, and I got a chance to dig into Tim's head about design (and especially filter design), old-school music and new-school electronics. Additionally, we find out a little about Studio Electronic's future product plan (a scoop!!!), and learn more about Korg filters than anyone has a right to know!

I hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did; Tim is a gracious and thoughtful synth designer, and it was an honor to be able to talk to him.

As I started digging into VCV Rack, I was entranced by the number of people that had done interesting third party work. One of the developers that caught my attention was Jeremy Wentworth - the creator of the JW Modules selection. Interestingly, he also reached out to me to find out if I was interested in talking to a third party person about VCV Rack. Works out, right?

I started digging into his background, and it was clear he was going to be a great guy to talk to. His interests are all over the creative coding map, and his VCV Rack modules were sneaky-good, featuring graphical and generative modules that went way beyond simple Eurorack emulations. Seemed like a great opportunity to get to know a true creative coder.

The result is a conversation with a person that loves to do it all, swamps himself with the work that he loves, and spends a lot of time interacting with (and often helping) others. Jeremy has a great vision for his own future - and he has some ideas for us, too! You can find out a lot more about Jeremy on his personal website: http://jeremywentworth.com/

Enjoy!

Alec Brady is a new friend - he introduced himself as part of my "if you know somebody that should be interviewed" request, and I realized that I'd seen a bunch of his work in the Max for Live Facebook group. He's also a fan of the podcast - so that helps!

Alec presumes to be a beginner, but I find his MFL work to be inventive and fun, and his perspectives on music making to be quite mature. He is also surrounding himself with music-making and music technology, and the result is someone that can talk with experience on many, many topics.

This is a little different from most of the podcasts: it isn't single-focused, but rather wide ranging and current. This makes sense, because Alec believes that he is at the beginning of his journey - although we should all be feeling that as well. I really enjoyed this chat, and I hope you do too!

Roger Neill is living a pretty charmed life. Working on film, TV and game music, he is able to dive deep into music of all styles, and create extended storytelling by working with directors of films like Valley Girl, 20th Century Women and TV work like JJ Villard's Fairy Tales. All of this requires the depth of knowledge that comes from getting an advanced degree in music, but also an emotional connection that comes from playing guitar in teenage rock bands.

We had a great conversation that covered his education, his entre into the film composition work and how he approaches film score development. It's an improbable tale - but one that also shows the combination of talent, hard work and good luck that it takes to get a gig in Hollywood.

You can learn more about Roger's work at his website (http://rogerneill.com/), and check out his music at his SoundCloud page (https://soundcloud.com/roger-neill-2). It's a pretty impressive body of work, and hearing about its creation makes this a fabulous interview.

Enjoy!

Marielle V Jackobsons has a very interesting practice: she's part of Date Palms, does live work with bassist Chuck Johnson, and has developed an amazing instrument that she calls a "Macro-Cymatic Visual Music Instrument". She actually was a history of building unlikely instruments - and most of them are focused on vibrations in some interesting way.

If you can't quite imagine what I mean, you should start by checking out her website: http://mariellejakobsons.com/ (click on the big image to get into the site...). You can get a nice tour of her artistic statement as well as a lot of her work; once you see it, you'll want to find a way to see and hear a live show. 

With her recent release on the Thrill Jockey label, Marielle delves deeper into the mix of computers and analog systems, melodies and ambiences. It's an excellent release, and has been on constant play here in my hideout. But diving back into some earlier work (Date Palms, the Glass Canyon release) you can find a variety of styles, influences and even instrument use.

A relaxed and enjoyable chat - it was awesome to find someone with so much comfort talking about their process. Enjoy!

Ícaro Ferre is one of those people that I ran across because of his work, and we've ended up getting to know each other a bit. His work on the CV Toolkit was an eye-opener, and it turned me on to working with a computer in a way that was different than I'd ever approached. All of a sudden, the computer was an assistant (rather than an overlord), and I really liked the feeling.

I've also started playing around with his MFL devices, and am finding them equally enjoyable to work with. You probably should take a look at his site:

http://spektroaudio.com/

In this chat, we talk about Ícaro's background, his perspective on software development, and the state of the music/music-tech scene in his native Brazil. He also lays down some knowledge about interesting ways to approach creating variation during performance that immediately had me patching my modular. A great guy, some great products and an easy style translate into an excellent podcast. Enjoy!

Kenneth Kirschner's music first got on my radar in a New Music Minnesota email, which pointed to a fabulous video  (https://youtu.be/I9P2Whq_-uc). In this video discussion, Kenneth talked about his process - and his feelings about recorded work as its own 'thing'. I found it fascinating, and reached out - and this chat is the result!

If you want to see an artist 'put it all out there', you need to check out http://www.kennethkirschner.com/. This is a rolling history of Kenneth's work, and it goes back to 1989! The music ranges from cinematic to experimental, but always seems to walk the knife's edge of classical, electronic, experimental and, well, Kenneth's own voice. It's a great body of work, and it is amazing that it is all so freely shared.

Kenneth was so free in revealing his process, his ideas (even his naming process...) and his compositional system, and this is one of those occasions where learning about the creation process loops back into ones enjoyment of the listening. After our talk, I found myself going *way back* into the archive to hear the artistic transformations he talked about in the interview. Beautiful.

This chat also got me inspired to get a little more serious about archiving my damned work! Hopefully that seriousness sticks for a while...

Enjoy!

One of my weekly pleasures (introduced to me by Gregory Taylor) is the Vital Weekly newsletter. This is a weekly compendium of recent music releases (generally in the experimental/artsy area) with quick reviews, and it has a companion podcast that provides an ear on many of the works that it reviews. In a recent edition, they included a review of this week's guest - Phil Maguire - along with an excerpt from his 'Solo Computer Music' Verzimprint release, and I was quite taken.

So, as I often do, I started diving deeper. I ran across his site, and got to hear a variety of his work. I also enjoyed an ATTN magazine session that included an interview with Phil drew me into his work in a very personal way. Of course, this led me to reach out, and the next thing you know - we've got a chat going!

Phil is a super personable, interesting guy, and one that is willing to go from performance programming, to broken hardware, to detailed editing - and doesn't get bogged down with any orthodoxy on his way to expressing his voice. His description of his process points to his work finding the right way to produce his work.

All-in-all, a great interview (marred by some recording difficulties on my end...) by a great artist, and an inspiration for anyone trying to find their voice among the millions of ways to do the work. Enjoy!

There are many different loop library companies out there, but nobody seems to be doing it quite like The Loop Loft. These guys are combining impeccably recorded instruments with timeless (and ultra-clean) mixes to create some of the best loop sets around. Ryan Gruss, the founder and CEO of The Loop Loft, is our guest this week, and he opens the door to his past at Berklee, inside the loop at Atlantic Records, and the development of The Loop Loft from its beginnings as a blog to its current position as a killer loop-lib company.

In addition to the interview, I want to take the opportunity to point to a Kickstarter campaign that a friend is putting together. Linz Craig has been working in East African maker spaces spreading the word about Open Source software, hardware and the opportunity that comes from making things. Please visit the Kickstarter site for his documentary project, and help him spread the word about the power behind making things!

Have a happy holiday season, and drop me a line if you know someone that would like to be interviews - even if that someone is you!

Become a Patron!

Andrew Baschyn is a bit of a legend here in Minneapolis. With 30 years of music-making behind him, and a set of both new and re-releases about to hit, he's been super active. So I was very pleased to get to visit his studio, have a chat, and get to know a little bit more about the man behind Baschyn Musik.

What's interesting is the surprising number of people I've interviewed whose stories start in Iowa! In Andrew's case, it started there, but really came together in Chicago - where he got to experience 'juice bars', DJs, a broad variety of musical styles and some great music stores. This led to his embrace of gear, and his love affair with the E-mu Emulator III.

Andrew is a big fan (it holds a prominent place in his studio), but is equally adept at working with MPC's, analog synths of all sorts, and Waldorf synths in particular. He is also massively into analog effects, with racks and racks of old Roland rack-mount effects, tape echos, spring reverbs, flangers and phase-shifters, all running through a pristine Toft board. This place is set up for a beautiful, thick sound.

All of this is pretty useless, though, if you don't get music to come out of it. While his career is not so easily searched (we talk about it in the interview - his most prolific work period was in-between print and web publicity, so much of his work is somewhat undocumented), there are a few things to peek at:

The Baschyn Musik YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/baschyn

A SoundClick location for Autonomous: https://www.soundclick.com/artist/default.cfm?bandID=314758&content=songs

Andrew's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/baschyn/

The Baschyn Musik Facebook Connection: https://www.facebook.com/baschyn.andrew

Check out his work, enjoy our discussion, and have a great week!

[ddg]

I've become a big fan of Isotonik Studios' work - their Novation Circuit editor makes that hardware sing for me, and some of their innovative Max For Live work lights up that platform. We happened to follow each other on Facebook; when I reached out to him for a chat, he was into it - and here's the result.

One of the things I really like about the offerings from Isotonik is that they are varied, super useful (both the control and audio devices are innovative as hell), and come with excellent support from the team. So I wanted to know more about that team, what it takes to keep something like this moving forward, and how someone might use Max For Live as a commercial platform.

Darren's story, like so many others, is a unique path to a cool end-game; it isn't a straight line, but it is one that is driven by passion and a love of music-making. If you haven't tried any of Isotonik's work, you should check out their site: 

https://isotonikstudios.com/

And if you happen to be a Novation Circuit user, make sure you are checking out the new work they've been doing lately - many new options are now available, and different people (like my friend Mark Mosher) are finding that different versions work best for their particular systems. Cool stuff, that's for sure.

Enjoy!

I first got to know Jesse Terry during a trip to Berlin, and we've remained in contact ever since. The product 'owner' for the Ableton Push, he has been involved with hardware controller design and development since the Akai APC controllers. So when I got a chance to chat with him about his method - and interests - it seemed like a natural fit.

Jesse has a long background with 'knob-ful' designs (he's an old-time analog head, like me) as well as 'pad-ful' designs (he and I also share a background with MPC devices), so he was probably an obvious choice for working on the Push controller. However, it is his attention to detail and tireless search for perfection that helps push the envelope of what we consider 'state of the art' controller systems.

If that sounds like a sales pitch for Jesse - well, I'm sorry. But I really like Jesse's work a lot, and his willingness to talk about the fun and the pain in creating the Push and Push 2 controllers might help you understand why I feel that way.

Enjoy!

Gregory Taylor was at my house last week to work on an upcoming show, and I pinged him for his third AMT podcast interview. This time, though, I had something really specific in mind: I wanted to know more about how he did his radio show, how he selected music for it, and what he used to determine material that would capture his attention. As before, he did not disappoint!

Gregory's work in broadcasting is quite astounding. He's run the same radio show, with a few short breaks, continuously for 30 years, programming interesting mixes of experimental music on a Madison-based community radio station (WORT FM, 89.9), and has listened to more of this music than probably anyone ever has. His knowledge of both labels and artists is encyclopedic, but his discussions of them are - as always - interesting and story-filled.

Gregory's show, RTQE, is from 9-11pm (CST) Sunday Evenings, and the shows are archived and streamed for off-time listening for up to two weeks. I hope you enjoy this discussion about the development of a community station, Gregory's RTQE show, the loss of NMDS (and its effect on music selection) and having *your* work played on the radio. Fascinating stuff!

Enjoy!

Peter Grenader is a bit of a lightning rod. He's a 'personality' in a rather staid business, he's been part of the electronic scene for a long time, but he's always willing to speak his mind and provide his perspective. Some in the industry have written him off for good (he notes in the interview that he's been 'banned for life' from Muff Wiggler, for example), while other people that I respect - like Jill Frasier - find him a compelling creator and collaborator.

What you can't argue, however, is his importance in the history of electronic music and the growth in popularity of modular systems. The Plan B business drove things forward from where Doepfer had started it, but brought a level of quality and creativity that was needed to move things forward.

Alas, a tumble of problems occurred which caused Plan B to go under, and it was at a time when the modular community was just growing, getting some leverage, and was unwilling to let this just dry up. The result was a huge fight  - one that I didn't witness at the time, but whose footprints are still seen all over the modular synth landscape.

Peter's willingness to talk about this, along with his assurances that his debts had been paid, should help us get past some of the problems of the past, and to be able to look that Plan B in its proper historical light, as well as illuminate the work that he and others are doing in the future. I hope that you enjoy getting to hear Peter - in person - talk about his excitement for the future, admission of past failures, and emotional enthusiasm for the electronic arts.

This episode of the Art + Music + Technology podcast was supported, in part, by centrozoon - a trio consisting of Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Markus Reuter and Tobias Reber.

Chuck Surack is a legend in music circles, having created one of the largest MI retailers in the world with Sweetwater Sound. It is interesting to understand how he got there - from a mobile recording studio-in-a-bus, through his initial (and sometimes painful) experiences as a sound designer, then into building a massive business getting us the gear we want.

Chuck is much more than a successful retail businessman. He continues to be an active musician and complete gear nut. And he is actively involved in helping young people continue to make music part of their lives through his work with non-profit organizations.

Chuck has also been one of the great supporters of user groups and online communities. I saw this first-hand when he helped make the K2000 mailing list and online users group one of the most vital places on the web. It's been my great pleasure to interact with Chuck over the years, and this interview should help you understand why I hold him in such high regard.

Enjoy!

Jean-Marc Pelletier popped onto my radar some years ago; I was doing my Masters program, and was (of course) paying attention to the work of a lot of people around me. One thing that I noticed was that everyone was using the Kinect hardware, but were also using it in combination with a variety of blob tracking, color tracking and optical flow tools. And doing them in Max...

Digging a little deeper, I found that almost all of these projects were based on a single person's work: the work of Jean-Marc. His library of computer vision objects for Max, called the cv.jit objects, we at the heart of a lot of work. As I started exploring it myself, I found that this library offered an extensive set of functions, but also included help files that were great starting points for my own projects. I was a believer.

Over the years, the cv.jit objects were getting a little creaky - mainly due to changes in the Mac OS and Max itself. Luckily for all, a group of us at Cycling '74 chipped in to rework it into current shape, reformat it for the Max packages system, and generally make it usable in Max 7. The new work, along with some focus on the project that use cv.jit - as well as Jean-Marc himself - can be found on maxology.club, the site that we've put up to focus on third-party libraries and technologies.

Want to find out more about JMP? You can read his bio, and check out his other work at http://jmpelletier.com. Enjoy this chat with him, where we explore his obsessions, his interest in both music and visuals, and how he sees the future of mixed media art.

There are a few artists I've wanted to meet for a long while, and Lawrence English is one of them. His music exudes a dark elegance, and the titles of his work make suggestions to his interests and sensitivities. Whether it is Cruel Optimism, The Peregrine or even Suikinkutsu, you can get a sense of where Lawrence is coming from!

And the chat didn't disappoint! Lawrence is clearly introspective about both his work and the politics of our current time, and seems to have synthesized some interesting theories about community, togetherness and shared interest. He is also keenly aware of how information gets passed through non-obvious means; setting up a channel between artist and audience isn't simple, but it can benefit both parties...

This is a deep conversation; I hope that you enjoy it - and that it gets you thinking about how you do your work, and how you listen to others'. And you can check out the breadth of Lawrence's work at his website: http://www.lawrenceenglish.com/

Enjoy!

I've been talking to Herbie about doing a podcast for a while now - I'm glad it finally came together for this episode. Herbie is an amazing man: he's obviously an amazing musician, but also deeply involved in both technical and spiritual exploration. All of this is based on his abiding curiosity - and his willingness to learn. Our discussion ranged from Buddhism to Miles Davis to robotics, and it's a really great example of have a change with him - you never know quite where the conversation will land.

It's almost impossible to imagine the road that Herbie's traveled. From trying to keep up with Miles, to pushing the jazz envelope with the Head Hunters, to his embrace of technology and the awakening that was Rockit, and through his work in collaboration with artists like Paul Simon and Carlos Santana - it's all been stunning. In this chat, I don't spend a lot of time talking about his background (you can learn about this in his autobiography Possibilities); instead, we explore how things influence him - and how he can influence others.

It was an amazing discussion, as is every discussion with Herbie. Many thanks to him for sharing his time with me - and with us. Enjoy!

Robert Rich is one of my favorite musicians in the world, and I'm always happy for the opportunity to have a chat with him. With his current efforts - working with Paul Schreiber of Synthesis Technology - in developing on a new effects platform, it seemed like a chance to talk to my friend about something that is somewhat different.

In this case, we do get a chance to talk about some music (I'd been dying to ask him about his percussion background), but we quickly move to effects development, and it is pretty fascinating to hear how a musician can have a critical role in the development of something as highly technical as a hardware effects module.

From algorithm ideation to howling filter blowups, we get a great view of being on the inside of working on a development team for a hardware device. This is something that we don't often hear about, so it was pretty cool to get the blow-by-blow view of the project in action.

The E520 early bird offer is only available for another week, but the device will probably be available for the long run. Hopefully you get a chance to play with the E520 at some point, and get a chance to hear the chowder delay, spectral delays and other bleeding-edge effects in action. You can check out the module here: https://synthtech.com/eurorack/E520/

And of course, you can check out all of Robert Rich's musical and other work on his site: https://robertrich.com/

Enjoy!

I don't often get to talk to superstars - there are simply too many layers between who I am and what they do. So, generally, gear and creativity talk aren't in the mix for most stars' PR blitzes. However, Jesse Carmichael (Maroon 5) and Jason Lader (pretty much EVERYBODY!) have put out an EP as "The Circuit Jerks", and they reached out to me to talk about the process. This release, called EP1, features some unusual tracks, including two 1:11:11-long tracks that are pretty mind-bending.

What I really enjoyed about this conversation is the recognition that star status doesn't change your passions - and these two guys are rabid modular fans. I'm sorry that this chat is going to disappoint Maroon 5 fans that want to know about Jesse's love life, or train spotters that want to know what kind of shoes Elvis Costello wears in the studio. We talked hard core gear-geek talk, praising Doepfer modules, video performance tools and imagining a future of net-based sync.

Alas, at the end of the chat the real world steps in (the manager hung up on us *exactly* on schedule), and we go on our merry ways. But for a little bit, we really got an insight into the point of passion in your work, and how excitement expresses itself in music-making. This was a lot of fun, and I owe these guys for sharing the time with us.

Enjoy!

I got to know Andrea Mazzariello fairly soon after I moved to Northfield Minnesota. I saw him perform his one-man performance project at a local theater, and hung around after to talk. Things led to other things, and we started talking about Max, playing drone bits in his basement and more.

This podcast was prodded into action by a release party for his new album, which dropped at the end of February. This piece - Make A Wish Then Build A Ladder  (https://www.onemorerevolution.com/am-jt) features something new for Andrea - working with another percussionist. In our discussion, he talks about that decision, how he translates this back to working a live/solo show, and how it helps him cope with the stresses of creating his work.

But we talk about a lot of other stuff as well. I mean, who remembers the old Brother MIDI Sequencer? Well, Andrea does, because that was his starting point for electronic music. Who is willing to talk about the affordances - both positive and negative - of modern software? Andrew is. I appreciated his candor about both his own experience and the difficulties he's faced over the years. If I've come to know anything about Andrea, it's that he is a brave soul.

Enjoy! And check out his work on his website: https://www.andreamazzariello.com/. For Patreon patrons, I have more information about the podcast interview, and even an except from his book.

NOTE: This podcast is presented as a collaboration with Synthtopia.com for the presentation of people working with and creating expressive MIDI controllers. You can listen to the podcast here, on the synthtopia website (in an embedded player) or on iTunes. But you can also read the article as well as search for information by viewing the transcription available here:

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2016/11/27/roger-linn-mpe-interview/

Roger Linn is one of my Music Tech heroes. His development of the sampling drum machine has defined a significant portion of my musical life, and I still surround myself with tools that he designed or helped develop.

In this podcast, Roger and I get to chat a little about how he got started (including his design process for the MPC, which is a little mind-blowing!), his current mission to replace on/off switches and how he perceives his own future. He also gives us some real-life example of the value of expressiveness in MIDI controllers, and talks about the musical implications of this effort.

I was blown away by Roger's relaxed attitude about these incredibly genre-altering creations, but he's the first to admit that it's the musicians, not the gear-builders, that make the difference. But in the meantime, he's out there obsessing for the good of us artists, and I couldn't be more excited.

Enjoy!

I have to admit loving the looks of a good wooden modular case. There is something about it that offsets the overly high-tech look of a modular system, and turns it into an organic, living beast. And of all the case work that I've seen, it is Lamond Design's work that catches my eye most frequently. So when I decided to have a chat with a case maker, guess who I called?

This chat was one of the most comfortable I've had, simply because Ross is a very laid back guy that is quite taken by the fact that people like his work, and also grateful for the opportunity to do case-building as a gig. And with his background as an attempted musician (and it is clear that he still keeps his hand in it, even if he downplays the musical thing...), he always keeps his eye on the artistry of the work.

In our chat, we cover everything from getting started with modulars through learning woodworking from scratch. And in the meantime, it has been growing, tweaking and pumping out the best looking cases you've ever seen. If you aren't familiar, you should check it out here: http://www.lamonddesign.co.uk/index/

Enjoy!

If you would give me an hour and ask me how I'd want to spend it, talking with Paul Schreiber would be at the top of my request list. I appreciate his sense of humor, his strong feelings about thing, and his willingness to share openly about any subject that might come to mind. I also appreciate that, by having been a 'hobby' synth maker, he has always been able to stay at arm's length from the grittier side of the industry.

Some of this podcast covers similar ground to my first discussion with him (podcast 13), but as is the case with Paul, each discussion about something reveals new information. And Paul is a treasure trove of information, having been there at the crusty beginnings of the new modular revolution.

Enjoy, and let your friends know about the podcast!

Scott Jaeger is responsible for a lot of modular makers getting into the game. When he started making Eurorack modules under The Harvestman moniker, there were relatively few players: Doepfer (of course), Plan B, Livewire and - well, that was about it. Scott came into the game with something completely different: digital devices that turned the analog-based modular concept on its ear. He also was aggressive about design, control layout and user interface, and the result was that almost everyone doing a Eurorack system - especially if is was going to be used for performance - would have some of The Harvestman modules in the rack.

After expanding into more products, the company morphed into Industrial Music Electronics, and is making updated versions of the classics as well as a broad array of new modules. He is also collaborating with Vladimir Kuzmin as Iron Curtain Electronics, creating the Polivoks modules based on designs from the classic Russian analog synth. But regardless of the collab, Scott's design focus comes through on all of these synth modules, and his attention to detail makes them among everyone's favorite devices.

In our chat, we discuss everything from the name change, through Scott's explorations in music electronics, to the development of the Polivoks devices and his own work - including how he approaches synth design. We also talk a lot about how his perspective of performance and instrument design is seen in his module creations. I came out of this discussion understanding a lot more about his decision-making process, and also about why these modules feel so perfect when playing. 

A great talk with an amazing developer. Enjoy!

During a recent Cycling '74 retreat, I was helping out with some sticky support issues - and I ran across a really cool thing. A guy with a Gen issue was asking about some deep details - and was talking about sharing the info on his blog. I checked out his blog, and my eyes popped out: it was amazing. I had to know more, and that led me to discussions with Martin Russ.

Once I saw the name, I knew who I was talking with. The author of the book "Sound Synthesis and Sampling", a column-jockey for Sound on Sound magazine and an adept Max for Live programmer, I was excited to learn more. And so, this podcast!

Martin does something that few people do: he shows his patches. Not only does he show them, but he describes them in detail, and talks about his thinking while he was digging into the details. This is the kind of introspection you don't often see in Max programmers, and I found his blog (http://blog.synthesizerwriter.com/) to be a great location for interesting details on MFL programming.

It turns out that Martin has a long history of electronics, writing, music, synthesis and coding. When you listen to the podcast, you'll be a little floored at his background. It's also interesting to hear about his perspectives on the current state of gear, and what he thinks is the most exciting thing in the audio universe (it might surprise you...).

Enjoy the chat, check out his writing and his Max for Live devices (available on maxforlive.com) and learn a bunch more about Martin. Cheers!

One of the most interesting meetups I've ever attended was the Rocky Mountain Synth Meetup, led by Mark Mosher. Mark started this as an outgrowth of his own desire to meet people, but it has expanded into one of the most active synthesizer-based meetups in the world - and is now a must-visit for anyone that likes (as Mark states) "drinking with a synthesizer problem".

From its humble beginnings in the basement of a Louisville CO restaurant to the huge launch party for the Ableton Push 2 release, the meetup has gone through a number of changes - some of which would hamstring a lesser meetup. Venue changes, personality riffs, people moving in and out of the area; the RMSM has continued to expand, and is healthier than ever.

Mark has provided the following information for us to share:

Meetup Summary

The Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meetup - founded in 2012 - is the home of 480+ Denver Front Range synth geeks who share their passion for synths, build their network, get inspired, get hands-on with gear, tell people about projects and find collaborators. It is synth technology agnostic and features broad variety of rotating presentation topics and experiences each meetup - most presentations given by members themselves. The after-meetup features a performance by a meetup member.

• Landing Page:  http://www.RockyMountainSynth.com
• Meetup Page: http://www.meetup.com/Rocky-Mountain-Synth/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RockyMountainSynth/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rockymtnsynth

Referenced in Show 

• Laurie Anderson - New York's School of Visual Arts 2012 Commencement. Tom Hodgkinson mentioned around 17:25 - 5. Commencement Speaker's Address: Laurie Anderson
• Tom Hodgkinson's "The Freedom Manifesto" - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C2C8XUS/
• Logo by http://www.Cuttlefisharts.com

Related Mindmaps

• Meetup 411 - https://www.mindmeister.com/270324871/the-rocky-mountain-synthesizer-meetup-411-established-june-2014
• How to start a synth meetup - https://www.mindmeister.com/276513397/how-to-start-a-synth-meetup

My Links 

• Links to Mark Mosher's Art, Blog, Podcast, and event schedule - http://www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Many thanks to Mark for his openness about the meetup. I hope you'll consider doing one for your community!!!

Enjoy!

I'm always encouraged when I hear about academics that are battle tested in industry in some way. Doug Bielmeier, a professor at Northeastern University, has that - Doctorate in Education, but also time in a DC-area hip hop studio, and time banging out track in Nashville, Doug has the background that brings weight to his music industry teaching.

He also has a really interesting musical practice. He combines audio processing with a variety of sound sources, with the most significant being his use of the lap steel guitar as his primary instrument. That alone was enough to make me want to learn more!

He's done two solo albums that we discuss at length: Betty and the Sensory World (http://www.ravellorecords.com/catalog/rr7972/) and Beast of Bodmin Moor (https://soundcloud.com/douglassbielmeier/sets/beast-of-bodmin-moor). In addition to these links, the content is available on Spotify, Amazon Music and other streaming locations. It's useful to listen to this work, since it is so revealing to how Doug approaches his work.

Enjoy!

As an electronic music-head, I've been using computers, DAW's, synths and other tech crap for decades now. However, one of my favorite software packages is a program that doesn't try to do everything - in fact, its creator steadfastly refuses to take one certain tasks that he doesn't feel belong in his bit of code.

That creator is Jim Coker, and the software is Numerology (found at five12.com). I started using this at version 1, and it is now up to version 3 (with 4 right around the corner). In this podcast, I take the opportunity to corner Jim, talk to him about his background, his vision of the software/hardware combo, and his view of the future.

This is another case where I've known someone for a long time, but this is the longest conversation we've ever had. What's wrong with me? I need to spend more time with these people!!!

Enjoy!

As one of the founding members of the band Can, Irmin Schmidt left a permanent mark on the world of music. Since Can’s breakup, Irmin has left his mark on film music, having been credited as composer on more than 40 films and TV shows. Recently, he has released two albums on Mute Records featuring solo prepared piano work, with “Nocturne: Live at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival” coming out earlier this year.

In our chat, we talk about his background, his sources of creativity, and his interest in prepared piano. We also learn more about his development of an opera (Gormenghast), and how he chooses the work that he releases. It’s an amazing view into the imagination of a groundbreaking artist.

You can find out more about his Mute releases at mute.com (http://mute.com/artists/irmin-schmidt), and check out “Can – All Gates Open”, the book he co-authored on the band (https://www.amazon.com/All-Gates-Open-Faber-Social/dp/0571311520).

Enjoy!

Transcription: http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0338.html

Here's one of the great ones.

Tom Erbe is an amazing cat. He's been on my radar for almost as long as I've been serious about electronic music; his early work with Soundhack (subsequently expanded into plug-in and app form) was inspirational, and opened my ears for computer music outside the realm of standard sequencing. He's a serious experimental music engineer and producer, and has implemented a Williams Mix performance and recording (available on his personal website). Most recently, he's garnered a following for his work with Make Noise on the Echophon, Phonogene and Erbe-Verb.

I watch amazed as Tom float from hardware to software, all the while creating head-bending, fun results. With all of that, it's amazing to find that he's the most laid back, easy going person you'll ever talk to. What a great talk!

Enjoy.

[ddg]

I'm always intrigued by a good story. How about "from early music player to Buchla master"? Todd Barton's story is as good as his music - which is damned good. His use of serious electronic music gear to create focused worked is quite unique, and it is reflected in the way that the music sounds awesome regardless of the technology used to create it.

And the list of technology is pretty serious: Buchla modulars and Music Easels, Serge modulars and the Haken Continuum - and even the Hordijk Blippoo - are all pulled into play as necessary. Todd has been releasing recordings, but also recently did a series of live shows throughout Europe and the western US.

In our chat, we go over his entre into electronic music, how he got drawn into Buchla and Serge gear, and how he makes his choices now. He also talks a bit about the process of doing live modular teaching via Skype, and how he creates his live musical sculptures. Very in-depth conversations on creation; this is a discussion that will prove inspiring.

Check out Todd's work at his website: toddbarton.com. And enjoy the podcast!

One of the more influential people in my adult life has been Trace Reddell: he was a professor in the Media program at University of Denver when I was there, and he opened my head to thinking about music, sound and video in a new way. His Expanded Cinema class rewired my brain for visuals, and his Technicians of Space series helped my understand the connection between many different kinds of musical production.

In this chat, we dive into his explorations into sci-fi sound - going way deeper than the typical "The Barrons did it..." approach. Whether you are talking about the musical scores developed by Vangelis, or the sound of a character that helps it seem alien - all of these sounds are subject to review and understanding.

This was a great talk with an academic that is also a friend. I hope that you enjoy listening to our chat. Cheers!

Bana Haffar's profile in the modular world is growing by the day. She really hit people's attention with her demo video for the Moog Mother32: Liquid Light Solid Motion, but is also gaining momentum by being involved (with Eric Cheslak) in creating and coordinating the Modular On The Spot performance series. Although a self-professed 'beginner', she's obviously found a way to express herself in the modular instrument, and has a release coming out shortly as well.

Surprisingly, in this interview we find out about an artist that has embrace Death Metal in Dubai, musical session work and the inevitable move to LA. But rather than let any of this define her (or swallow her up, as it can with many artists that move to LA), she's expanding herself with more experimentation, trying out more instruments and more collaboration.

Alas, Bana did this interview from an outdoor cafe while I was huddled in my over-heated Minnesota house; I was more than a little envious! But I was also inspired by an artist that is seeing success without ceasing her own development. That's something we can all learn from, right?

Thanks to Tom Hall for this great connection. Enjoy!

Dan Goldstein has been living his dream for 20 years. He started off with Sonic Foundry - back in the golden days - creating the future of audio software from scratch. He went on to be a main developer of Mixcraft, and has recently been involved in the release of Cherry Audio's Voltage Modular synth software. It's a powerhouse, and you can tell that Dan is really excited about it.

We took the opportunity to roll through some of his history, and I learned a lot about Sonic Foundry's world. But I also got a chance to see the trajectory of a guy - in Dan - that knew what he loved, and spent a lot of effort pursuing it. You hear it in his voice; despite the fact that he's been doing it for 20 years, he sounds as excited as a teen with his first car.

It was cool to talk to Dan about history, but also about his current work on Voltage Modular. If you are interested in playing around with a new kind of virtual modular, you should check it out - it's breaking some new ground, and is a blast to play with. You can check it out at https://cherryaudio.com/

Enjoy!

There are some people that you just want to get to know quickly - because you know that they will turn out to be great to know. Chris Muir is one of those people: he's user "cbm" on almost any platform you can find, because he loves being an early adopter, he's worked for all kinds of interesting people, and he's had his fingers in a lot of interesting software and hardware. But he's also a fun guy, and a great storyteller.

Listen in to our chat as we go from Zeta to Beatnik to Gibson to Eardrill, with other droplets along the way. You can also hear about Chris' penchant for destroying hobbies - a concept I know all too well. But mostly, you get to hear a guy that's been in the middle of the West Coast music and computer scene for a long time, and just seems to be able to smile and laugh about the whole thing. So relaxed...

My introduction to Chris was in the hubbub of trade shows, and we got to know each other better over time. We've kept in (distant) touch; still, the second we start talking, it's like the conversation has the momentum from the last chat. A great cat, and I'm glad to share this conversation with you.

Enjoy!

Micah Frank has been doing it for more than a decade. And by "it", I mean pulling amazing sounds out of the air, formatting them to be playable, and releasing them through his company Puremagnetik. I've long been a fan, and finally was able to corner Micah for a podcast chat.

In this one, we talk about everything from his background as a New York session drummer through the development of his favorite sample packs, and also talk about the tools of the trade that he finds useful. We also talk a little about the business of sample pack creation and even a little about collaboration with other artists. But mostly we talk about how one becomes a sample pack developer, and the joy that comes with embracing that gig.

I really respect Micah's work; if you haven't heard it, check it out at the Puremagnetic site, try out some of the free packs, or maybe pick up a little gift for yourself (I'd recommend the "b-systems" packs made in collaboration with Richard Lainhart, or the new Cinematic stuff we talk about in the podcast...), but enjoy our discussion!

I first got to know Ned Rush through some glitch-based sample packs that he made available - a long time ago. He's continued creating - making sample sets, music releases and Max for Live devices, and has also been making interesting videos on his YouTube channel. Now, he's started a remote weekly performance series called "More Kicks Than Friends" that brings together a lot of people that you know from other online locales.

I was very excited to get Ned on the horn for a chat, and we cover a lot of ground - from his background as a guitar nut, to his entry into electronic music, through jacking into making videos and running MKTF. Along the way, we dig into his preference for cut-up editing, and some of his ideas for meshing guitar playing with effective music production. Very interesting, very revealing.

You can follow Ned through his Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/NedRush), YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIbbeIvZgBiXikUJaYWXTcQ) and his Isotonik device page (https://isotonikstudios.com/vendor/ned-rush/). Such a fun conversation - I hope you enjoy it, too!

Transcription: http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0335.html

I was really looking forward to this interview, since I knew it would not only be interesting, but educational. I don't know that much about analog video processing, but I've always loved the results. Liz Larsen, of LZX Industries, spends some time teaching me about the history and mechanics of analog video, introduces me to the core concepts, and helps me understand more about this fascinating world. LZX, if you don't know, is the primary developer of modular analog video systems, and the results of their users' work is quite beautiful. But beyond that, we get a glimpse into the world of an innovator, and learn about the struggles in developing a creative system that doesn't place a restrictive stamp on the work of the artist.

Follow me into this brave new world, and see if you don't want to take out another mortgage too!

As a result of talking with Guy Ben-Ary last week, I was reminded of my need to talk to another Perth-ian: Andrew Fitch. Andrew is the man behind the sound-making machinery in Guy's cellF project, but he also runs the incredible Nonlinear Circuits modular synth business.

Nonlinear is one of those places that is focused heavily on the DIY/kit world, and Andrew (along with friend/collaborator Nathan) do a monthly workshop that is helping people get over the hump on synth building - and getting a system of their own as part of the project!

Our discussion ranges all over the place; from the pleasures of Perth to my absolute terror over working with SMT's (and Andrew's assurances that it'll all work out in the end...). He is also a very fun and funny guy, and this was one of the most relaxed chats I've had.

Take a listen, and learn about the DIY business and the work that Andrew is doing on his rapid-turnaround module business. And if you end up wanting to go to Perth (as I now do...), all the better! Enjoy!!!

I'd heard about the artist Strategy from Portland friends in the past, and always appreciated the subtle complexity that threaded throughout his work. When Joshua Clayton opened the door to speak with Paul Dickow - Strategy - I was excited to take the chance. As I prepared for the talk, I was surprised by the number of projects that Paul was involved in, and also his involvement with community support.

As we got talking, I also found out that we shared something else: a love of samplers. Getting a chance to dig into the quirky differences between different machines is loads of fun, but also a way to find unique ways of pulling unique sounds out of a variety of gear.

Paul also talks about how collaboration keeps him moving forward; how different group efforts lead him down different roads, and different labels helped push him into completing different sonic expressions. I came away with a sense of a guy that is sensitive to the world around him, and remains open to its influence.

Check out Strategy's work at http://soundcloud.com/strategydickow and https://strategy.bandcamp.com/, the Community Library project at www.community-library.net, and the Common Language label at commonlanguage.bandcamp.com. So much great music!

Enjoy!

Transcription: http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0337.html

Tim Place is one of those amazing guys that, at a fairly young age, has already accomplished so much. He is one of the main designer/programmers behind the Jamoma project, developed the Teabox sensor system (as well as designing and building the best sensors in the business...), created the Hipno plug-in package and has been developing objects and systems for Cycling '74 for almost a decade.

I was anxious to talk to Tim for many reasons, but one of them was to talk about his efforts in getting his doctorate in music, why he sort of stalled out on that process, but how he was also able to leverage that experience into a useful career. And his discussions about career are somewhat familiar to me as I surf the variety of people that make it in music tech: he puts out a lot of feelers, works really hard on a lot of things, and one of them happens to 'hit'.

In Tim's case, a number of these things are still on-going concerns, with the Jamoma package at the forefront. But it's interesting to talk to Tim about his continued interest in C++ coding, his re-entrance into math (a subject he abandoned in high school) and his approach to trying many things in search of The Right Thing.

Enjoy!

Mike Monday's adverts are all over the web. And if you get on his mailing list, you will see him even more. But it's hard not to be intrigued - especially when he has a lot of free information available for you to view, and it tends to be pretty spot-on. But I'd never seen a detailed interview with him, so I tried reaching out, and was pleased when he responded favorably.

The chat went off better than planned, because it turns out that Mike is as engaging in person as he is on his video lessons. And his history is fascinating: from double-bassoonist at Oxford to club track maniac, he'd had his hand in a lot of different musical environments. But it is his descriptions of the methods - and failures - for making music that will probably be his lasting influence on music-makers, and he spelled it out pretty openly during our talk.

I've become a believer in his work, and also appreciate how he approaches his teaching practice. But I also like the fact that he's willing to describe his influences, talk about his methods and even challenge his own perceptions; these are the hallmarks of a useful teacher. I hope that you enjoy this, and I hope you come out of it inspired as well.

Enjoy!

I got a random email from a listener saying "Hey, I started digging through some old video and digitizing it - you might be interested!" So I checked it out, and I was (interested). It probably helped that the first video I checked out featured a young-as-a-pup Seth Cluett, but the range of performers and artists in these videos is astounding.

All of this was recordings of work done at a performance space called Deadtech, a Chicago spot that ran from 1999-2008, and had performance artists, DJ's and musicians cracking off work at a blistering rate. To have access to this work in video form is amazing!

If you want to check it out, go to: http://deadtech.net.

The person behind this space is Rob Ray, and he's a great example of how personal passion makes an extraordinary difference in the world of art. Through his own desire to make a community, and with the help of friends and colleagues, he stitched together this space and provided a place for a lot of people to do amazing things.

We talk about the space, the art, the difficulties of running a performance spot and the wind down. We also talk about Rob's current work (as Shimmering Trashpile), and how running the space affected his own work.

In addition to the Deadtech link above, you can check him out on Instagram as "shimmeringtrashpile" and on Twitter as "shimtrashpile". And Patreon subscribers will have some additional info as well (Thanks, Rob!).

Cheers!

Not long ago I taught a class at a local college that was about the history and practice of electronic music. As part of that, I wanted to find good articles about various artists that could inspire as well as inform. I was surprised how often I ran across a single name - Geeta Dayal - behind the best articles. When I asked some friends for names of people to interview, Geeta's name came up, and I leaped on the opportunity to talk with her; I was fascinated to learn how she did such consistently great writing on subjects I care so much about.

Turns out, she's a worker. Deep research, digging out the details and not settling for simple Google searches. A love of both the people and the engineering. And a desire to reveal something different from what had been written before - that's a pretty good cocktail. The result is the articles I've grown to love.

If you want to go into a deep dive, you can check out her writing at http://theoriginalsoundtrack.com/, which is a compendium of some of her recent work. She also has started a Patreon site (https://www.patreon.com/geetadayal) where you can help support her work. As she states in the interview - Patreon has a powerful position in helping journalists like her pursue the best possible stories.

Enjoy the podcast - and the reading!

For this podcast, I want to express my appreciation to 1010music (https://1010music.com/) and the Deft Esoterica zine (https://deftesoterica.bandcamp.com/) for creating products that I enjoy, and that keep me engaged with the art and music world. Cheers!

Last week I mentioned that I had a release out on PoL with my long time collaborator, Gregory Taylor. I decided that, if I was going to mention it, I should also record a conversation with Gregory for the podcast. So here it is.

Gregory is an incredible fount of knowledge about many things, but an interesting aspect of this is that much of his knowledge comes from experience. In this conversation, we focus on 'how we become the people we are', and we get an insider's view of the Cassette Culture world.

This was a great chat, and I'm glad to be able to share it with you. Enjoy!

BTW - you can check out his radio at WORTFM.org; the show streams live on Sunday evenings from 9-11 pm (CST), but the shows are also archived for a week for you to catch up. I find something new each week that I listen, and suggest that you give it a try.

Talk about a career! Stephan Schmitt started his journey into audio development by making noisy object as a kid, then got into electrical engineering to work on large format consoles (which is where he took on software...), then co-founded Native Instruments, creating Generator/Reaktor. After years with NI (including the development of Spark, Skanner and Kontour), he set off to work on his ultimate project: a keyboard player's dream synth, called the Nonlinear Labs C15.

In our chat, we talk about his history through the creation of NI, how he finds the synth voicings that are his signature development, and how the C15 fits into the world of modern music playing and production. Along the way, we also learn a lot about the things that (according to Stephan) make a synth 'expressive', and how this can benefit the live synth player.

Super fascinating, and a chance to learn the history behind the earliest days of virtual synth development, and the on-going work creating a niche hardware device. Check out Nonlinear Labs at https://www.nonlinear-labs.de/index.html.

Transcription available here: http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0330.html

Trond Lossius has been in a similar orbit to me for a long time. I've known him (virtually) because of his activity within the Max world, but I also know that he was a primary figure in the Jamoma modular patching project. Then later, I found out he was also into a lot of surround environmental work, and I realized that he'd be a good subject for a chat. My friend Tim Place pointed out that he's got a fascinating story, so I went for it.

And I'm glad I did. I really enjoy the stories of people that deal with significant transition in their lives, and Trond definitely has seen this. Having started in the sciences, he transitioned into music composition out of sheer will. He also found a way to pull himself out of shyness, and is always pushing himself by transitioning away from comfortable territory and into new challenging work, technology or collaboration. I really respect this - it can be scary, but Trond has developed it into an artform.

So here's a great interview with him - enjoy! And to learn more about his work, visit his website here.

In my first two-person podcast, I meet with Pete Dowling and Matt Jackson of Surreal Machines (http://www.surrealmachines.com). Pete and Matt have just released a new MFL-based Live pack, and I hit them up for an explanation of the concept, a discussion about what it is like to collaborate on this kind of project, and how one might ever be satisfied with ones work. This is a revealing interview that provides insight on code-based collaborations.

If you haven't gotten a chance to test drive the Dubmachines Live pack, you should give it a try. The two devices are cool to work with, and have a very unique sound (and vibe) to them.

Enjoy!

It seems like I've known Dave Hill Jr. forever. He was writing magazine articles and book (Ableton Live Power for versions 2-4) about the time that I was writing a lot of magazine articles, running the Creative Synth website and writing about Ableton Live myself. We first met it person at a NAMM conference, and we've kind of been in touch ever since.

So when I decided to try something different with the podcast, my first thought was to talk with Dave, and I'm glad I did. It was a great way to get some insight on how marketing works in the music/art software space, but it was also a chance to talk about the past, the future and even the hardware vs. software thing. Oh, and we get to find out that marketing in the music gear space comes via players, not via Wharton School graduates. Whew!

Dave's super busy, so I'm glad he was willing to take the time to chat. I hope you enjoy this view into a different side of the creative business space.

If you have done any electronic music gigs in the US Midwest, or even if you've been listening to previous interviews with people that have come out of the Midwest, you've heard people speak about a mysterious figure: JP. JP helped set up gigs, encouraged people to strike out as players, or to try something new, or to show him something new. He's a dynamo in the area (he's based out of Minneapolis), and is also one of the founders of Slam Academy, a school for learning DJ'ing, production and sound design.

JP has a lot of great memories about how the scene developed, and also a lot of ideas (and opinions) about how people can learn this stuff today. He is on the front lines of getting people involved in making music, and some of his concepts refreshingly avoid the hype of 'get a job in the industry!' and replaces it with 'find a way to make your life better!'

I have to admit really appreciating that perspective.

I hope you enjoy this chat with JP - someone that is not only a friend, but someone who is an inspiration, and someone whose opinion I've come to trust. And if you are interested in the classes he has on offer, check out slamacademy.com for the whole scoop.

I've known Wes Milholen for a while - I first met him as he was working on some of his first replacement faceplates. He was part of the Denver/Boulder modular scene, and we spent time at meetups and performances. I always found his crisp and clean designs to my liking, and found him to be a thoughtful developer and talented performer.

He's gone on to do a lot more stuff: module development, more panel designs, and even design work for VCV rack. As you'll hear in this interview, he views design work to be his calling, and it shows in everything that he touches.

We had a great talk - some reminiscing, some product history talk, and a lot of discussion about the world of modular synthesis. Wes has his finger on the pulse of that world, and has some good insight on where things came from and where they are going.

Check out his work at https://grayscale.info/, https://1979.ws/ and https://vcvrack.com/. He's also hanging around mose social media sites and Muffwiggler's forum.

Enjoy!

I met a lot of great people at Cycling '74's 2019 Expo. Perhaps the most memorable is this week's guest: Andrej Kobal. He wasn't really on my radar before that (despite getting a ping from some co-workers about his application), but I ran into him early during the "Science Fair" (demo) portion of the Expo.

His corner of the room was constantly filled with people checking out his work, and I quickly understood why: it was an application (with optional iPad-based UI controller) that could make the simplest musical forms dance through a combination of processing, realtime mixing and control automation. It was immediately fun, and Andrej was really excited to share - and the moment was pretty exciting.

I bought the software and have been integrating it into my performance system, but Andrej and I have kept in contact, and it's led to this interview. I'm not sure if any previous chat has been as revealing about a person as this one: Andrej is really into music tech, exploration, working with other musicians as well as taking deep dives into his own work. He's inspiring to talk to, to be around - and I'm sure to work with, too.

Check out the software at granurise.com, and check out his videos on YouTube and Vimeo to learn more about the software - and his other work, too. And see if you can't embrace the enthusiasm that he has to bring some excitement into your world, too!

Enjoy!

If you know synths and movie scoring, you know Michael Lehmann Boddicker's work. He's one of those people that I've always followed - his work is impeccable, and always on-point. He's involved in a new conference - Synthplex - and I took the time to have a quick chat with him about it.

This conference seems like a combination of Superbooth, AES, TED talks and a music festival. There is a lot going on, a lot of industry focus, but it is specific to business-to-customer activity, so there will be a lot of information useful for anyone that can walk in the door. If you want to see a list of the performers, speakers or exhibitors, you can check out the site:

www.synthplex.com

I'm going to be there - if you will be, drop me a line and we can try to meet up. Enjoy!

(Oh, and I'm going to get Michael to have a regular podcast chat soon - I promise!)

Bruce Dawson came on my radar recently for a really interesting project: he is one of the two instructors for the Kadenze course on creating audio applications using the JUCE framework. He got that opportunity by being a C++ developer with one of my favorite sound and plug-in developers, Output. So I reached out, he was into it, and here's the podcast!

This is also another opportunity to quiz someone on their CalArts experience. There are so many people throughout the industry that have gone through CalArts programs to do great things, so I consider it a great chance to talk someone from there. And Bruce's path into CalArts is pretty remarkable as well. A great story, and some good insights into code-work-play-music balance, as well as giving us a chance to think about the details necessary to do the kind of work Output is known for.

Enjoy, check out some of Bruce's Soundcloud work (https://soundcloud.com/synchronometry) and put some eyes on that Kadenze course (https://www.kadenze.com/courses/advanced-audio-plugin-development/info)

Cheers!

Podcast 3 introduces an old friend: Meg Schedel. I've known Meg for a long time; she's part of the "New York Crew" that I interact with, and also was a co-worker at Cycling '74 for a while. Meg now teaches at Stony Brook, but remains very active in the whole region doing installations, performance and seminars - both in visuals and audio. This was a very interesting interview, where we discuss background, teaching concepts, women in art and Deep Listening. An awesome chat, and a great opportunity to spend a little time with Meg. Enjoy!

In a quiet and self-assured way, Tarik Barri has been turning heads. His visuals for Monolake established him as a serious visual artist, while recent work with Laurel Halo and Thom Yorke are putting him at the forefront of live visual performance and programming. But when you talk to him, you'd never know - he's one of those people that is somewhat self-effacing, and both open and honest about how he feels and how he reacts to his process.

With a backstory that included some solitude in Saudi Arabia, several swipes at academia and a long-form software development process, it's probably not surprising to see Tarik have a unique and idiosyncratic (visual) voice. But he is also one of the most insightful people I've talked to when it comes to self-realization, and he was amazingly free with his opinions on how he creates his work, interacts with other artists and balances tech with art.

Catch up on Tarik's work by checking out his website, or check out some of the live video captures with him playing with Monolake and Yorke. But don't miss this discussion, which is a fascinating insight into an artist's mind.

Enjoy!

When my friend and coworker Andrew Benson said "Hey, you ought to check out Jonathan Snipes!", I didn't think I'd get what I did. The work that Jonathan is doing with the band clipping is a whirlwind of machine-gun rap magic and bizarre - and amazing - sound design. The use of hand-grabbed samples and handmade synth lines conjures up the best of old-school rap while simultaneously pointing to the most up-to-date sound design and music production techniques. Remarkable.

Then, in talking to Jonathan, I find out that he's got his fingers into movie and TV music as well, and has a history doing show design work with Max, and does all this realtime manipulation during shows, and...

Unbelievable.

Rather than tell his story here, I'll let him do it on the podcast. But you should also check out his personal website: http://www.jonat8han.com/, and also see him in action, doing the live variation thing in this YouTube:

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J_TUYGUW7o

Enjoy!

Sometimes you run across a person that everyone respects, and that seems to be on top of their game for the long run. So goes the story of Katy Wood, who everyone seems to agree is the best at it - almost regardless of what 'it' is! This is a marker for someone that I'd find interesting, so I reached out to Katy and was very pleased when she agreed to have a chat.

Whether talking about the process behind sound for film, suggesting ideas about location recording or revealing tips on starting a career, Katy was open, honest and willing to share everything. It was also fun to ask her about Virtual Katy, a virtualization of a conforming tool that matches some of her production work on the Lord of the Ring trilogy.

I make mention within the chat of Katy's IMDb listing; if you want to check it out, take a peek here. This could be intimidating, but when you talk to Katy, she is anything but intimidating. It was great to talk to her about her work, and I hope we can find more about her in the near future.

One of my early podcasts was with Matthew Davidson (also often known as stretta). At the time, Matthew was working with me at Cycling '74, and was also doing some teaching at Berklee School of Music and working on some monome/modular stuff.

Since then, Matthew has left Cycling and has moved into a fulltime position at Berklee, so I decided to revisit our discussion, talk a little more about what things are like teaching at the school, and what it is like for students that are first attempting to take on something as heady as that program. We also get some insights into Matthew's ideas about ensemble work (with modulars!), personal practice and the excitement of teaching as a full-time gig.

Enjoy!

I'm a sucker for acoustic (double) bass. I'll admit it. Something about the low tones, deep resonance and the physicality required to play it keeps me entranced. It also helps that I can't play the sucker (a lack of frets sends me running!), so it remains mystical to me.

But mix the double bass with looping, audio processing and tons of sensing - and you've got my undivided attention. Robert Matheson (www.robertmatheson.net) does just that. He shared his latest recording, Day's End, with me, and I was completely down for a chat. But the more I found out about his playing rig and techniques, the more I needed to know. It was a fascinating chat, and opened my eyes about the kinds of sensing that works with an instrument as massive as the bass.

Enjoy, and if you get a chance check out Day's End on Bandcamp!

So when my friend Clifton says "Hey, man - check this person out...", I tend to listen pretty intently. In this case, he pointed me toward someone that surprised me on several levels: a conductor-become-composer that also did electronics, a film composer that released a solo album, and an artist with both staff paper and a modular synth on her desktop. How could I not interview Leanna Primiani?

And it was a great chat - we discussed how a person makes the move from conductor to composer, and how the sound designer can take an orchestral approach to the work. We also dig into something that I'm always interested in: how does a person who already does a lot of work make the move into creating a release? What is this "new music", and how do you know when it is done?

Leanna is super open about her ideas, her process and even her fears, and was super inspiring to me about all the different aspects of being a performing/recording musician. She was also quite honest about how people are responding to her electronic recording work (and it isn't always positively...), and how she has to cope with that. A fascinating side of recording that I'd not even considered.

You can check out Leanna's new 5mice release at http://anasiaanasia.com/, and find out more about her conducting/composing/film work at http://leannaprimianifilm.com/. What is fascinating to me is the way that she has found to interweave her talent, passion and interests into a several result, but they all clearly have her personal voice. An interesting view into the mind and work of a true artist.

Enjoy!

I first ran across Joe Caputo's work during some random YouTubing, where his "Voltage Control Lab" was a real eye-opener - especially for a few under-supported modules like the Ornaments and Crime. Shortly thereafter, I ran into him at the NAMM show, where I got a VCL button from him - and the rest of the history is in the podcast...

Joe has pivoted the show into a live show-and-tell-and-interview format, but has also been very active in the educational realm as well - most notably as an instructor at Musician's Institute and Icon Collective. He also continues producing music (as Computo), and...

I assume he's taking a nap occasionally or something!

In our chat, we talk about education, video production (and production burnout), collaboration and the primacy of music-making. We also talk a bit about 'getting out', sharing your work, and being open to new experiences. Very interesting and inspiring.

You can check out his personal thing at https://iamcomputo.wordpress.com/. Voltage Control Lab is at https://www.voltagecontrollab.com/, or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9y4nruLDg5DYgzEn8bJxxA.

Enjoy!

Talking with Miller was amazing - he was in town (Boulder) to do some work and performances at CU-Boulder. I dropped him a line, he was up for a chat, and Eric Lindemann was kind enough to let us use his kitchen (after a nice dinner).

Wow - what a great talk. But that damned Tascam recording screwed me again, so the audio quality for the first 30 minutes is a mess. I pulled all of the software strings I could to make this interview work, because there is a lot of information being presented for the first time (that I know of...).

Miller is performing this coming week at a local planetarium; if you are in the area, you need to check it out. But if not, you'll want to keep up with Miller's work at http://msp.ucsd.edu/

Enjoy!

In a way, Jesse Stiles has a career I can really envy. Studying with Pauline Oliveros, traveling India while sitting in on music school classes, working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and teaching at Carnegie Mellon. Huh - sounds pretty great, eh? Combine that with an active performing and recording schedule, work on sound art installations, and you've got a full book!

But it's interesting to hear about Jesse's background, and how it really wasn't clear that this was going to be the outcome. A self-described "mediocre" musician, he zeroed in on music technology and mobile recording/performing as his process, spent time working with amazing people, and things ended up falling his way.

In our chat, we got a chance to dig into his background, how he approaches performance, and how he's managed everything from no-computer installation setups to LED-helmeted live rigs. A very insightful discussion, and it'll make you want to check out http://jessestil.es/ to learn more about his work. Enjoy!

Transcription available here: http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0326.html

Scott Morgan's Loscil music project has been in my ears for a while. He's one of the people that folks have always had in their 'favorites' list - and would recommend to me quite often. With a ton of releases going back to the early 2000's, his body of work really stands the test of time. And the music sounds so good...

In our discussion, we talk about his background, his working process and his vision for both recording and performing. I've appreciated Scott's work - his interviews in the past always pointed to a thoughtful approach to the work, and the sound is always impeccible.

You can check out his work on his website (http://loscil.ca/), or at his Bandcamp site (https://loscil.bandcamp.com/). As you will be able to hear in the interview - I'm a big fan...

Enjoy!

This is the third episode in a collaboration with Synthtopia.com, featuring open source developers of both hardware and software. More information is available at synthtopia.com...

The MeeBlip synthesizer has quietly shaken up music technology. It showed the way for a lot of innovations: small run manufacturing of synthesizers, open-source hardware and software production, desktop format synth tools. While touched on by others, the MeeBlip brought it all together in a way that shocked the system - and was on the front of today's affordably synth revolution.

The MeeBlip was designed by James Grahame and Peter Kirn (of Create Digital Music fame), and is the embodiment of many of their personal goals: make things affordable, make things open and make them fun. The fact is that they were able to hit these goals squarely on the head, and the result is a fun little synth that shows up everywhere.

James himself is articulate about his vision for the product, and how it holds up to the interests and concerns of a lot of people. By paying attention to both his own voice and that group of users that demand open development, he's created a roadmap to meet the needs of a surprisingly large group of people - and also made the entry path into synthesis much more accessible.

If you aren't familiar with the MeeBlip system, you really need to dig into it at https://meeblip.com/. And enjoy this conversation with the amazing and insightful James Grahame!

A few months ago, Paul Rothman from littleBits reached out about a new set of tools they were going to create: a set of audio, MIDI and CV bits that would allow interaction between the littleBits system, a computer and a modular synth. Once I picked my jaw off the ground, I started waving my hands and shouting "Ooh, ooh" to try to work with them. Apparently I made enough of a spectacle of myself; I got an early set of the interface bits and did some video/example work that showed the bits in action.

As part of that project, I got to know a little more about Paul, and was quite intrigued. He let slips some info about a NIME visit, and something about guitar pedals, and something about Max. And in this interview, we find about about his life as a maker, his development of the fridgebuzzz guitar pedals (with the awesomely named Land Of The Rising Fuzz) and more. This was a great dive into the brain of a full-on creator, and I hope you enjoy the conversation.

Sorry for the Skype buzziness, but the content is worth the sound issues. And if you haven't checked out those littleBits, you really owe it to yourself to check out the site, or YouTube videos, or something. They are a blast - but also super useful.

Enjoy!

How do you describe a person that was apparently born to be an engineer, but also born to be an educator - and born to be a musician, too? I don't know either, so I'll just point at Chris Meyer and say "That guy!"

Chris Meyer is currently putting together some of the strongest instructional information on modular synths in the business; his "Learning Modular" is a great way to dig deep into the modular business, and figure out everything from basic voice creation to all of the subtleties of a Random Source DUSG. He's found a way to communicate the necessary details without totally sucking the creativity out of the process. As a result, there are a lot of people that have come to depend on his work in order to get the most out of their modular.

He has an amazing history in the music instrument industry (most notably as an engineer at Sequential Circuits) and the media education world (where he did heavy-duty visual work and instructional videos). All of this has come together to his current work, and his experience and sensibility helps bring home some otherwise abstract details.

As he says in the interview, you can find his work almost anywhere by searching for "Learning Modular". Check it out and you're sure to learn something new and important.

Enjoy!

Ashley Bellouin's Ballads album is a revelation. On one hand, you could call it a drone release, but it's not quite that. You could call it electronic, or acoustic, or just plain alien and you'd be right, but not quite. It's the best of long-form music: subtly shifting, a dance with the collaborators and instruments, and a curiosity for the ear.

Ashley has been discussed in this podcast in the past - she often collaborates with Ben Bracken, and we talked a bit about her instruments in our interview with Ben. But we get into much more detail in this podcast - as well as the thinking and obsession behind the instruments. We also talk a bit about what how she processes interesting sounds into instruments, Max-based processes and location-specific performances.

We did this interview in a beautiful farmhouse studio, surrounded by instruments, recording gear, vinyl and books. I'll have to tell you - it was by far my favorite location interview ever, but you'll be able to tell in was in-person by the natural reverb in the room (and the different recording rig I had to use because I was traveling).

Enjoy, check out Ashley's work on Drawing Room Records and on her website: http://ashleybellouin.com/. And try to imagine what instruments you would build to get that sound from your head into the world...

I'm a fan of the K-Devices products - and one in particular. Holder, a simple little spectral hold function, ends up in almost every Live set that I work on. It's focused, efficient and easy-to-understand - all the hallmarks of an excellent devices. So when PR Master Marsha Vdovin checked in on a possible interview, I was all over it!

It turns out that K-Devices' mastermind - Alessio Santini - is as cool as his devices. He's got a great story (I've not met many people that move from a Doom Metal obsession to making synths!), and a long history in sound design. But his background is also one that will be familiar to many: when he found a passion, he dropped everything to pursue it. The result is making a life that is personal and complete: a story that is worth hearing.

I really enjoyed talking to Alessio, and was interested in his development concepts, his moves into iOS development, and his own work on an upcoming musical release. Oh, and the fact that he uses Holder on almost all of his Live sets told me that we had a lot in common!

Check out the K-Devices products in the Packs section of ableton.com, or at their website: http://k-devices.com/

Enjoy!

I've been working with Mike Metlay, in some capacity, for almost two decades. Mike is one of the people that I know that represent a fount of knowledge about the history and current vector of electronic music. I've been wanting to record a conversation with him where we could talk about the history of the internet and early media arts. Mike was over to my home studio to do some research for Recording Magazine, we needed to take a break; we grabbed a recorder, hopped in my truck, and headed out for dinner.

Of course, the recorder (a Tascam DR-07 mk2 - now considered an offical EVIL DEVICE to me) gave me a lot of grief and provided some pretty poor audio. But we also get to capture Mike in full-on, ultra-opinionated, ultra-open mode. Once I pieced together all of the segments, we end up with almost an hour and a half of interview time, and fly all over the place. You see: Mike likes to talk, I like to remember, and the next thing you know we are in full-on 'old guy radio' mode.

During an early part of the conversation, I can't remember the name of a network that was an early online mechanism for discussions about the music profession. I can't believe I couldn't remember it, but I was thinking about the PAN network. You can find out more about PAN on a website that still maintains its existance on the web: http://www.pan.com/. Sheesh, I can't believe I couldn't remember that...

Enjoy!

I've been hearing a lot about Walker Farrell lately. We interviewed him for the C74 newsletter, I heard a lot of talk about his live performances, and everybody has been suggesting his "Music for 0​.​∞ Musicians, Vol. 1" release as something I have to hear. And I've gotten sucked in - the work is expansive, varied - but still maintaining a artistic voice. So yeah, right up my alley.

I was glad that Walker was up for a visit, and I started boning up on his work (including his Bandcamp site and Soundcloud site). The more I listened, the more I got pulled into his work. I was also blown away by that amount of work he was able to produce - that's always something that keys me into someone that will influence me. And sure enough, learning about Walker's setup and his process got me revved up to try mimicking his ideas. Very interesting stuff.

I also think it is great to talk to someone that makes personal choices to produce creative limitations to work through. His performance plan, which creates a limited functional system out of his larger studio system, is a great way to consider making a functional performance plan, and has already influenced my process as well.

I hope you find this as inspirational as I did - and that you allow his ideas to permeate your own. Enjoy!