Art + Music + Technology

First off, thanks to my friend Ben Bracken for opening up a door to one of my favorite artists: Keith Fullerton Whitman. Label/distribution runner, live performer, recording artist and sound designer, Keith does it all - and talked about it all as well. This is one of the interviews I most looked forward to doing, and it was even better than I could have hoped. You can check out Keith's work through the typical digital locations, on his Soundcloud page (which has a lot of live recordings) and through his work on Mimaroglu Music (here and here). He's also to be found on YouTube and other fun video-oriented places, and you should be able to track down some of his old Hvratski tunes. Take the time to dive into some KFW - even if you aren't a lover of the aggressive, you will find some deep work in Keith's catalog. Thanks to Keith, to all the listeners, and to all the people I met at NAMM. I've got to go back to bed now - enjoy!

There are a few people who represent "Great Producer" to me in the electronic music world. These people have great taste, work with great people, and have a vision for their work that seems laser-guided. I consider Dave Fulton to be one of these people. As a founder of the group Dweller At The Threshold, he was responsible for some of the albums that reignited my interest in classic electronic music, while his solo work took me to darker (and perhaps more interesting) places. Dave is a long-time modular user, and we talk a bit about the influence (and practicalities) of modular synths, but we also dive into "playing in a band as a practice", the pecularities of Portland and even the politics of radio. It is a wide-ranging discussion that is one of my favorite chats ever. 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!

In the past I've interviewed some 'hyper-media' people - folks that seemed equally conversent (and comfortable) in video, music or network theory. But I don't think that I've yet chatted with anyone that is so clearly cross-media savvy as Henry Warwick. From his portable libraries to his music releases, from paintings to videos, he has both done the work and studied its history; the result is a tremendous depth as well as breadth of work that is rare for an artist/academic. This discussion ranges all over the place, and there is probably something for every listener. But the more interesting this is that way that Henry is able to stitch it all together into a coherent whole. I had a blast talking to Henry, and I hope you enjoy listening in!

My friend and co-worker Wesley Smith joins the podcast today. I'm excited to talk to him for many reasons, but his work in heavy-duty graphics/OpenGL is the stuff of legend. It was interesting to hear about the trail that he's taken to get to his current position, where he sees himself going in the future, and what he's doing now to make our heads spin! When you talk to Wesley, you are often surprised to find out how personable he is - and how willing he is to share. Talking to him about his approaches to graphics, math and collaboration gives us a unique opportunity to see how a complex character is able to combine dense theory, heavy tech and great artistry into a single - and compelling - outcome. 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 some

Sometimes you can't plan a good thing - you have to let it come to you. I wanted to talk to another 'maker' in the modular synth area, and reached out to Andrew Kilpatrick of Kilpatrick Audio; he was enthusiastic about it, and a call was scheduled. A few days later I saw a posting on Synthtopia for a new Kilpatrick synthesizer - the Phenol. What luck! So our chat includes discussions about his Euro modular creations, the development of his own format (the Kilpatrick Modular format, a 4U variant), and the design decisions behind this new device: the Phenol patchable synth. While talking about this, we learn a lot about Andrew's background and his design process when creating new devices. This was an awesome talk, and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed doing it!

Otso Pakarinen is one of the finest composers that I personally know. He runs a company out of Helsinki that does jingles and soundtrack work, but he is probably most widely known for his work as the primary personality of Ozone Player. His compositions are a masterful mix of complexity and tunefulness, and he combines influences with a deft hand. Love his work, and I also really like the man. I'm really excited to share this discussion with you! One of the things that I appreciate about Otso is the pragmatic approach he takes to composition. Especially important is the discussion about how he takes on new projects: he gives himself a lot of time to come up with ideas, then expands from there. So much the opposite of the way that I approach thing, but so sensible. Thanks to everyone for putting up with my less-than-ideal sound quality while I was on vacation; but the content definately makes up for the crappy microphone! Enjoy!

My friend Mark Mosher doesn't get adamant too often, but when he does, I have to listen. He was adamant about getting into his friend AfroDJMac, and the work that he's been doing on Ableton Live packs. I jumped into my research (i.e., I took things for a quick drive then started digging deeper), and was really impressed with the work. Reached out to see if he'd be up for a quickie chat, and he jumped on the opportunity. So you get this - my Thanksgiving gift to you. Great talk with a really insightful programmer, sound designer, songwriter and Ableton Certified Trainer. I always like when someone opens a door for me to explore. Brian's ideas about vocal music (especially mixed with electronic music concepts) are really unique, and the way that he mixes music and teaching is also very interesting. Listen to his work here, and enjoy the discussion!

I've been wanting to do this interview for a while, but Andrew kept pushing me off - he thought that too much of the stuff that he does is just related to us working together. Alas, I had to point out that he works with a class of instruments that I've never touched, he lived 40 years before we even met, and he has a completely unique view of how electronics is used on-stage. So he ended up saying "OK"! Since we've known each other for a long time, the conversation is relaxed, filled with laughter - but also filled with interesting new information. We discuss the role of electronics on stage, how computers change the performance game, and how you approach practice when you are working with massively augmented instrumentation. Super fascinating, and something I'm hoping you'll enjoy. Andrew has put up some audio of his work. Check it out at this link. And enjoy!

At the beginning of this podcast, I talk about "KMI" as if everyone already knows who they are. And I suspect they do: Keith McMillen Instruments is the home for some of the most interesting portable keyboard and control systems in the industry. But Keith has come through a long line of inventions (and companies), starting with Zeta Systems, through some software iterations, and now with KMI. In this chat, we talk about his history, how he got to the point of playing with unique materials for hardware creation, and what he sees in his (and the industry's) future. We also get a chance to talk about the future of musical instruments, and learn why Keith feels like we might not see any more instruments in the future. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the podcast!

Chris Blarsky is a guy that has his fingers in a lot of pies. He's the main man behind the Ninstruments brand, which puts Gameboy music systems into play for well-wired studios and stage setups. He's also been hacking in the Eurorack world, with hacks of the Pittsburgh Oscillator, Moog Werkstatt and the TI Speak & Read. All of it is awesome, and the build quality is impeccible. Where does someone like this come from? Well, it turns out that for Chris, like many other hacker/musicians, it all starts with the Commodore 64. Balancing black and white hats as a youth, he found his calling in game music, and the result is some amazing hardware tools. This chat gave me a chance to explore some of the ancient days of gaming, PC's before the PC and hackery in general. Enjoy!

This week's chat-ee is Mirko Vogel. Mirko first reached out as a listener, and invited me to a show that was going to happen last week. I told him I'd love to go, but would also like to record a conversation. Hence, this podcast. Mirko is a pretty amazing cat; he's worked as both tour developer and tour manager for bands, has done a lot of his own work, and also collaborates with a number of interesting people. As a result, he's got a pretty unique view on how the music world works, and also some hard-earned understanding of working with people. In this chat, we talk about the process of transferring music from album to stage, how you manage working with analog synths in a touring environment, and how you choose the people you work with. In the end, though, Mirko just opens up about what he is in this for - which is pretty revealing. Enjoy!

I've been working with Jane Rigler for a while - I've been helping her with some technical options for her performing rig, and I've been a guest lecturer at some of her classes at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. I've also had the chance to see her perform several times, and she is a stunningly good flute player. She also pushes the instrument to its limits, creating multi-timbred soundscapes with her flute and Ableton Live. I was really curious to find out how she became the player that she is, so the last time I visited UCCS I asked her to do an interview. It turns out that she's been listening to the podcast, and also has her students listening to it for class. Cool! She was game for the chat, and I was blown away by the result. This is a great way to kick off our second year of podcasts, and I'm grateful to Jane for the opportunity. If you get a chance, please let your friends know about the podcast, and also feel free to drop me a line with suggestions or interview requests. 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!

It's hard to compartmentalize Jeff Kaiser. He's a monster trumpet player, a music label impresario, ethnomusicologist and technologist. Somehow, he finds a way to live his life where he can be all of these things - all of the time. He's a force, but also an incredibly nice guy to talk to. In our chat, we talk about coming out of a religious music background, driving into (and through) an academic endevour, and coming out the other side with a hard-to-define career. We also talk about words, which might sound funny, but it really important when you think about how people interact with art and music's place in history. Props to Jeff for the talk; you can find out more about him at jeffkaiser.com. Oh, and that's Doctor Jeff to you (and me)!

This chat was a real treat. I ran across Daria Semegen's work on a compilation of early Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Studio recordings, and was quite taken with her work. A little more digging revealed great depth in both style and performance, and I found myself drawn into her work wherever I could find it. Fast-forward to a recent Facebook discussion with Meg Schedel, where I was talking about some people I was interested in interviewing. Her response to my suggestion of Ms. Semegen was "I can help with that!", and indeed she did. The result is a discussion about composition concepts, processes and perspectives that will prove to be an inspiration. In addition to all this, I want to point something out from the podcast: Daria was incredibly deft about moving the conversation away from tools (gear) into tools (source material). Every time I talked about tools, she shifted the conversation to her collected material and choice process. Brilliant! Enjoy.

I've told the story before - I first met Brian Crabtree when he was working in LA, and he showed me a button/light combo that was a "" for me. Little did I suspect that the concept would end up being at the heart of the music industry of the future, and that I would be the proud owner of several devices that use exactly that technology. In this chat, Brian and I talk about the past, present and future of monome.org, including the continued development of the grid and the new modular devices they are creating. We also talk about his recent music releases, his design philosophy and how he feels about the state of grids in music technology. A very involved conversation that was also quite revealing. The bumper music for this episode was actually composed (in about five minutes) using a Monome 128, a White Whale module, my portable modular and an Eventide Space. Not exactly a Super Demo, but it does tell you that this combo (Monome/White Whale) has already wedged its way into my rig... 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.

If you spend time around the media art technology forums, you've probably run into Tommy Dog. The iconography is pretty striking (some sort of moose/dog combo smoking a cigarette and giving you the finger...), and the posting will almost always be opinionated - and well-informed. I've had the pleasure of interacting with Tommy over the last decade-and-a-half, but we've never gotten to talk in any depth. Doing that reveals some surprising things: while Tommy embraces the Punk asthetic, he also considers himself a fan of many kinds of music. He also has significant learning disabilities - which (as you can imagine) make working with media tech a particularly difficult task. And he is fascinated by tech both new and ancient, but he has some specific ideas about what makes for useful technology. All-in-all, a stellar chat. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!