Art + Music + Technology

NOTE: This podcast is presented as a collaboration with Synthtopia.com for the presentation of people designing and producing unique instruments. 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 detailed information by viewing the transcription at http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2017/07/03/junkie-xl-the-art-of-scoring-with-synthesizers/. Tom Holkenborg - Junkie XL - is everywhere right now. If you've seen any blockbuster movies in the last couple of years, you probably have heard his soundtracks. His recent releases are also widely heard, as are some of his early works (especially his rework of Elvis' "A Little Less Conversation"). And if you are really dedicated to sound design, you've probably stumbled on his website (www.junkiexl.com) and especially his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/junkiexlofficial), where he has a series - Studio Time - that really gives you a close-up view of Tom

NOTE: This podcast is presented as a collaboration with Synthtopia.com for the presentation of people designing and implementing synthesizers. 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/2017/06/25/neural-audio-synthesis-with-google/ I first got to know the Magenta Project at Google when I heard a podcast with Douglas Eck. I subsequently interviewed him for my podcast, where we talked about using machine learning to do interesting work with composition. This led to an invite to meet with the team, and I got a great introduction to their work at their Mountain View headquarters, and first got to me this week's guest, Jesse Engel. But something interesting happened a few months ago: I got blindsided by the project when they put up details on their 'NSynth' project. This effort is about using machine learning fo

NOTE: This podcast is presented as a collaboration with Synthtopia.com for the presentation of people designing synthesizers. 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/2017/06/19/axel-hartmann-on-the-art-of-synth-design/ Axel Hartmann runs a design firm - designbox - that is pretty sneaky-influential to us synth folks. This is the company that does designs of hardware synthesizer for companies like Waldorf, Arturia and Moog. They also do user interface design for software and plug-ins for Antares and Universal Audio. Their designs are everywhere, and adds a lot to making our music lives a lot better than the dull black boxes and drab interfaces we'd otherwise see. Axel has a great history, though, including the design of some of the most significant synthesizers to come out of Waldorf (including the Microwa

NOTE: This podcast is presented as a collaboration with Synthtopia.com for the presentation of people designing the synthesizers we love. 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/2017/06/11/tom-oberheim-on-the-art-of-synthesizer-design/ In this first podcast in our series on Synth Designers, we talk to one of the people that was at the forefront of synth design - so much so, that his original synth design is still at the heart of his work! Tom Oberheim and the Synthesizer Expander Module (or SEM) is widely known for its rich, smooth and musical sound, and Tom's work has been featured on recordings by almost anyone that has used a synthesizer. In our chat, Tom talks about how he got started in both electronics and music, and how he stumbled upon musical electronics. We also talk about how the SEM has been a

Cristian Vogel has been around for quite a while - with his work in dance music being many people's introduction to his work. But he's moved into the realm of sound design and expansive composition, and the work has matured into something that I'm finding really compelling. His Bandcamp site (https://cristianvogel.bandcamp.com/) will give you a great introduction to the work he's doing, and I'll be you get just as drawn in as I did. But Cristian is about to premiere a pretty serious new project: a spacial sound and theatrical performance called The Ballad of Agnete and The Merman, commissioned by the Aarhus European Capital of Culture 2017, and placed at The Åbnescene theatre at Godsbanen in Aarhus, Denmark. Cristian has been working on this piece for 18 months, and it promises to be both a compositional and technical tour de force, especially with Cristian's close cooperation with Funktion-One for the loudspeaker array, and Sonic Emotion Labs for the spacialization tools. But in our chat, we talk about every

Chris Dobrian is responsible. He's the person that put together the documentation that got me on my road with Max - a road that still, in many ways, defines my daily existence. Chris' work taught me a lot about both programming in Max and manipulating sound and MIDI events, and he also taught me about writing in a way that was approachable for everyone - no matter where they were in their personal path to musical creation. I bump into Chris rather often - he is at a lot of the trade shows and conferences that I attend. Each time we see each other, I say something along the lines of "Hey, man, let's do a podcast!" and he says "Yeah, let's do it, any time!". So when I was in St. Cloud for the SEAMUS conference, I saw there was a paper with his name on it, and I thought we'd get to do that dance again.  Alas, he wasn't there (a paper was presented where he was a collaborator), and that made me somehow more motivated to talk with him. So there you go - maybe distance does make the heart grow fonder or something.

One of the things that I try to pay attention to is this: situations where people are doing or using a thing, but not necessarily talking about it. This is the case with Noise Engineering modules: it isn't necessarily the 'I built my case around...' thing, but it seems almost everyone sneaks an NE module into their systems. But when you dive into it a bit deeper, there is an extreme passion about those modules. With devices like the Basimilus Iteritas, you find people having that 'pry it from my cold, dead hands' reaction - many would consider it central to their recording/performance rig. And NE has been on a roll, and is on the way to being able to have a NE-only system; something that few modular companies can manage. It's cool that this hot, fast-moving company is run by two of the coolest people you'll ever meet. Kris and Stephen (with some help from WMD manufacturing) run the whole show, from design to support, and are as passionate about their modules as we are. They also have an interesting and unique

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!

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 stor

Jim Aikin is one of my heroes - he introduced me (along with David Friend) to synthesizers in a way that I could grasp at the time, but also led me down many musical paths through his album reviews, deft editing of columns and excellent product reviews. I was lucky enough to corner Jim for an interview, and we ripped off a great one! One of the things I love about Jim is that he has real, heart-felt opinions - and is willing to share them. So we get to hear about his views on music, synth development, writing and the publishing industry. But more than those tidbits, we get to hear from someone that has been on the front lines of the synth business for decades. He's written about everything from 2600's to Kontakt libraries, and has a singular feel for synth design from having experienced it all. I'd strongly recommend that you check out some of Jim's writing: his music blog is available at https://synthage.wordpress.com/, and Keyboard Magazine has a collection of his work here. We also reference the review of

Hot on the heels of two releases (Escapist and Punish Me), we get a chance to talk to producer, sound designer and Mau5trap artist Matt Lange. I'd first caught wind of Matt with his Ephemera album, released in 2015, but really was floored by the Patchwork album that he released in 2016. I caught his interview on the Pensado's Place video-cast, and was really excited to get a chance to talk to him. What was fun was to talk to someone that isn't in love with electronics/modulars/gear for the sake of the gear; rather, Matt is into the emotions of music-making, and is one of those people that wants to express as much as impress. But he's got the chops to impress as well, and the combo is a lethal needle-drop. This discussion is a wild ride through break-ups, scary jobs, poverty and rebirth. But with a family background in the arts, Matt was perfectly set up to succeed in the difficult-to-navigate music industry. If you imagine a smooth ride into Producer's Heaven, you'll want to listen to this podcast to get anot

While Youtube is a force in the media arts world, it isn't very often that a Youtube video will cause me to jump into email to try getting a podcast guest. But it really happened with this video: https://youtu.be/hh_5_CAySXY Christoph Cox did a lecture about Sound Art (sponsored by the Barnes Foundation) that really caught my attention. Only later did I realize that he was also responsible for the book Audio Culture, which was very influential for me in art school. https://www.amazon.com/Audio-Culture-Readings-Modern-Music/dp/0826416152 In our chat, Christoph explores the tie-in between philosophy and sound art, discusses the temporal nature of sound art, and also considers the importance of sound within the art world. We also get off on a few tangents, which is the nature of a good conversation. You can find out a lot more about Christoph at his faculty link: http://faculty.hampshire.edu/ccox Talking about the difference between sound art and music-making is an interesting debate, and really opens as many

Eric Cheslak is known by almost everyone as 'Rodent', and is one of those Pied Piper folks that draws people into his lair. His current pipe of choice is the modular synthesizer, and he (along with Bana Haffar) put together the Modular on the Spot performance series, which takes modular people, puts them in an outdoor context (generally near the LA river) and gives them a venue to play, share and hang out. It's a powerful thing, and something that has drawn a community together - first in LA, but now all over the world. Rodent is also a serious composer/player, and his work (which you can taste on his Soundcloud page) is a pretty unique style combo of dark industrial, experimental and idiosyncratic sound design. It's deep and satisfying, and provides an insight into the depth of Rodent himself. This was an amazing interview because I felt like I really got to see inside the enthusiasm of Rodent and his view of the modular synthesizer as an orchestra, a very personal instrument - and a tool for community build

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

When you meet interesting people, they often help you meet more interesting people. So it was with Bana Haffar - after doing the interview with her, she connected me with other talented artists in her LA circle. When she talked about this week's guest, she just said "He's The Shit." Anthony combines cinematic dark stuff with incredible sound design to create both deeply personal music and the outrageous music you hear in movie trailers. Matter-of-fact, just like that. So I did a little Google-surfing, and sure enough, there is some serious talent there. Check out his Soundcloud page if you have any questions, or read an older interview with him on the speakhertz site. There's some serious magic going on there. What was interesting is to hear how Anthony's sound design process has changed over the years. Moving from a sampling focus to modular synthesis might seem like a huge swing, but Anthony makes it seem pretty seamless - to the point where any sound he hears in his head seems to be available at his modula

I've seen Marcel Wierckx' name around for years, but hadn't seen his work in action. Recently, my friend Gregory Taylor ran across some of his work with dancers and was blown away. Of course, given my work with dancers and choreographers, I was really excited to learn more about what he's doing, how he builds up his performance system, and how he develops the work that he does. The more I dug around in his lownorth.nl website, the more I found to discuss. His view on the arts is unique, and has a depth that isn't often found in the media art world. But Marcel also has a particular position on his work: he considers himself a composer, regardless of the media (visuals, OpenGL, audio, music) that he is working within. We mostly talk about work with dancers/choreographers, which was timely; I'd just done a panel at the Berklee Voltage Connect conference about live performance, and talked extensively about working with a dance company as a means for interesting new performance options. Marcel takes this to a new

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 are

The first time I saw Huston Singletary I was on a ride. At the NAMM show, surrounded by amazing talent, all giving their best shots at demos. A guy gets up in front of the Ableton stage and starts riffing on the latest version, showing all the new features and stuff - standard fare. All of a sudden he stops, says to someone "Hey, that's a great question!" and wheels off into an impromptu clinic on how to perform some production magic that had everyone mesmerized. That is Huston at his best - in one of his lives. In other parts of his life, he does amazing sound designs. In other parts, it's feet-on-the-ground production. He's got bones in so many parts of the audio/music field, and it's wild to hear him talk about moving - frictionlessly - from one to the other. But above everything, he loves to help people learn about doing new things, and this is the legacy that Huston will always have to me. I hope you enjoy this longer-than-normal, wide-ranging talk with someone that was there as studios moved to DAWs, sy

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 s

Qu-Bit Electronix holds a special place in my heart: there was a time when I wouldn't do a gig unless I'd loaded up a thumb drive with some new samples for munging with a Qu-Bit Nebulae - that company's first product. Since then, they've gone on to do a lot of additional modules, including a new series of devices that are in 'sets of four' - which Andrew talks about in this chat. Talking with Andrew is also interesting because you find out about an accomplished musician that learned everything - design, programming, synthesis - out of a love of music and musical devices. Brought up under the tutelage of Dr. Boulanger at Berklee, Andrew took what he learned and made it concrete, literally wedging Csound code into a module so that he could further pursue his interests. At the forefront of bringing digital to Eurorack systems, Andrew remains excited and fascinated by synth tools, and has some pretty big plans for the future. Listen in and enjoy!