00:16why do i use the mask? Well I think it was....
When i started the project
00:21nine years ago i was going through a hard time in my life going through a bad breakup,
00:26death of my father, working a dead end job or
a job that became dead end for me at the time
00:30and i was going through some depression
i want to create find music against some sort of
00:36therapy and get all that negative energy out into
something positive for myself so i wasn't really
00:42feeling like i wanted to show my full self yet i
wanted to build back up on who i thought i was in
00:47the past and by doing this music and using that
as a therapeutic element i wanted to hide myself
00:53just create naturally for myself for myself and
hopefully that would resonate with the people
01:19this project is completely electronic i use very
little if any field recordings or real instruments
01:26i'm a trained guitar player
and i went to music school
01:29but uh pretty much adapting
everything i learned into the machines
01:34has been you know a lifelong mission
and a great challenge and very enjoyable
01:43most of the time the works that i make that are
the best for myself the ones that i'm most happy
01:47with are things that come out of an idea or a
feeling or something that happened in my day
01:54or week prior or occurrence so there's definitely
a inspiration just kind of pops its head up
02:01unexpectedly so uh when i start doing
something it's less of the time i
02:07sit here and just experiment and play with
things so something happens most of the time
02:11i have a concrete idea like a little small chord
progression or a feeling of movement a color uh
02:17some sound pops to mind and i try to recreate that
using a software and and the instruments as well
02:28for me i spend way too much time trying
to make sounds that are unique that sound
02:34lively and not so static so i really put a
lot of effort into layering lots of sounds
02:40till something sounds like uh otherworldly in
short i use a lot of plugins a lot of in the box
02:47uh software there's incredible software
software can keep up with hardware these days
02:52the hardware i use the most is definitely like
move voyager and arb odyssey even tight effects
02:59i like having things that are tactile that i can
touch and move with that you know really brings
03:03excitement to making things those are the definite
main pieces of hardware in this studio that i use
03:13as far as the since they're concerned and
experimentation i rarely save presets on synths
03:18because i think it's you know it could become a
wormhole that you always go back using the same
03:22priesthood or sound it's nice to have some you
know meat and potato sounds like in the move
03:27in the prophet i have like you know my favorite
pad in the move like a beautiful kind of 80s
03:31evangelist style pad on the move there's
some really heavy bases i have the you know
03:35the pitch wheel assigned to them so i get some
of these really heavy growlers out of that
03:40those are like bread and butter sounds but for
the rest of things i can pretty quickly get to a
03:45point where i make something that is aesthetically
pleasing for me and uh i'd like to for each piece
03:51of music my output is slow sometimes but i don't
want to just rush tracks and they don't have any
03:56meaning to me but uh i think it's uh the more you
use certain devices or plug-ins whatever it is
04:01you're using it's easier for you to load something
turn something on and hone into what you like
04:06because it becomes sort of a muscle memory but you
know you don't want to repeat yourself every time
04:10i mean i don't want to read myself right now
i want to do something unique each time i sit
04:14down and make something so i'm excited about
it and not you know reinventing my own wheel
04:19there's often things that i don't use so much that
one day i'm wondering hey how can i make something
04:22new out of something special out of what i
haven't touched yet i'll try something that
04:28i've never used before immediately record
whatever experimentations come out of that
04:33because when you don't know how to
use a piece of gear it's nice to
04:36try to break the thing and see what comes out
you'll make a sound that you can never reproduce
04:40because it's a completely organic and coming from
yourself as far as the sound design and computer
04:46a lot of reactor absence from native instruments i
use battery a lot for the drums because it's kind
04:52of a one-stop shop for really getting dark and
dirty with drum samples or individual hits you
04:56can turn the snap into a huge explosion pretty
simply in that software so it ranges really
05:03i do reuse drums quite often i mean
there's a 909 in here and the 808
05:09sure recording them and sampling them
you can do that for the rest of your life
05:13it's fun to do that it's fun to run them through
different processing you know you already have
05:17uh you know if you're gonna use a kick
drum sound that already sounds meaty
05:21and beefy those boxes do without
any further dynamic or equalization
05:26um there's a lot of sounds i've designed myself
over the years and i've made my own battery case
05:31so i have certain sounds i'll go back into i'll
load an instance of battery and i'll have maybe
05:3620 kicks and i'll go in there okay here i have
my bread and butter sounds they're all good to
05:40go but then i'll further filter and you know use
some transient designs a little distortion change
05:46the pitch i like to pitch things in the track
if it's a melodic track i try to pitch things
05:50a third or fifth or seventh depending so they fit
me a lot of me so the drums don't sound you know
05:55too out of place i like things to be in doom for
the most part if it's a you know melodic effort
06:15everything in this room everything's patched into
a couple patch bays um it's very simple it's two
06:21usb outs from the computer one is handling all
the midi everything's daisy chained everything
06:27has its own port and midi going into the software
so you can access anything right here from the
06:32keyboard if you need to and patch any audio into
the sound cards which go into the little mixer or
06:36they can go direct into the computer sound card
set is very simple here it's an army digi face
06:42i'm going out digitally into two uh behringer
adat converters so we have 16 in 16 outs simple
06:49cost efficient works sound quality is fine just
recording it 24 bit simple setup it works it's
06:55reliable almost everything is hard quantized
except for uh any hooks atmospheric elements
07:02drones i always nudge them around so if i were
to jam it apart mess with the delay of reverb and
07:07get some grit and some crunch to it those parts
i'll take out and put them in a loose grid i'll
07:12undo the snap quantize and put them in a loose
grid as far as if it's something melodic it's
07:17really absolutely hard quantized to the grid um i
tend to do a lot with kick drums and low ends with
07:23sub a mid kick a deep kick layer those um lots of
compression eq etc but i'll nudge those slightly
07:31not very much usually i'll do it in the sample
editor itself so i'll play everything straight
07:36in then adjust giving some air in front of the
sample if i want to have something swung in a
07:41little bit different way just because i'm a little
bit ocd with that i want everything to be just on
07:45the grid visually when i'm working on it so it's
easier to comprehend where you are in the track
08:03headless watchman music is based on tons of
effects and trying to get things out of the static
08:08zone so any effects that use in the computer i
will modulate by hand or the rare occasion with
08:13the controller and record a take of the effect
chain on that sound press it to tape and then
08:20do it for the next one so if i'm doing like a
drone layer i'll record maybe you know modular
08:24synth some of the move record some abstinence
underneath take those stems do all the modulations
08:30uh the all the effects modulations and then press
them so i can't go back to them and then nudge
08:35out take out the good parts overlay the weird
parts re-tune them using the complex waveform
08:40in ableton and just trying to get something
otherworldly sounding out of that so you
08:43can always find new uh getting new sonic
territories as far as the hardware is concerned
08:48um i have the basketball time delay there's an
even tight space there's an event high delay here
08:54there's not a lot of outboard effects here but i
love using the even tight stuff because uh when
09:00you have a delay and you change the time it really
gives it this kind of digital modern uh sound with
09:06the delay flutters back and forth and uh just
takes it out of that being static range and it
09:10doesn't have to be something overly extreme but uh
it's nice to have some hand on effects and they do
09:15bring some of the life into it having them going
through the desk even though it's just a small
09:19you know not the fanciest mixer here um playing
around with some of the high and low mids and
09:25the sweeps just bring it back to life a bit more
than just having a computer being super static
09:34happy accidents they're a dime a dozen
fitting here turning everything on
09:38routing things how you normally don't route
them and just playing around to something
09:42good comes out that's a positive thing that's
the best part about experimenting and creating
09:46um a lot of my hooky sounds the weird random crazy
freaky sound noises this is popping out they're
09:52usually always some kind of random elements some
atonal sound where i could never reproduce that
09:58and wouldn't be able to put it together if
i thought about it because you hear these
10:01sounds in your head and they just sound bizarre
you go how can i make something that sounds so
10:07bonkers and weird and i think that's when
the experimentation comes in good just
10:11turn everything on go nuts when you hear that
point you know yourself hey that fits my sound
10:18grab it and for those of you who
aren't are still finding your sound
10:22those little nuggets you know are worth
saving and building into a track somehow
10:26sometimes these little hooks they become
the main element of the track they become
10:30the part of the track that speaks to you
everything else is just filler [Music]
10:40i don't overwork myself i do never force myself
to try to do anything i wait until i feel good
10:48i'm going to have a good studio day i'm happy
i have a concrete idea or i just want to come
10:53in and play around make noise and not even
record something so there's often days like
10:57that too that's fine the process is what brings
me the most amount of joy at the end of the day
