Richard Devine came into town this past weekend to play a STS9 after party, he brought a module I requested – the Doepfer A101-3 Vactrol Phase Filter. Of everyone I know with a system, only two people come to mind (Richard being one of them) who own this module and they speak very highly of it. I’ve never heard it in action before and I know many of you haven’t either. There are some examples of how we used it but not a proper run through. Anyways, here’s some random things I did this month.
Pro-Modular will be joining the manufacturer roster at the Synth Meet 8. I’ll write up a complete list in a few days because the list is growing. If you’re interested in coming, write an e-mail to trashaudio@gmail.com and I’ll send you the information.
A friend sent this to me last night and on so many levels this is the best thing I’ve seen recently. The song is recorded by The Hickey Underworld. NSFW unless you work here.
For the past couple months, Alessandro’s life has taken over mine. He handed over a few gigs of video for the teasers and because we approached them in a minimal fashion, we were left with nearly an hour of unused footage. I tried to make sense of it all in the video below and think it tells a story of a few cats that live with an annoying roommate.
In his first interview about Sonoio, Alessandro is shedding some light on his new project touching briefly on the background of Sonoio, the method and not the lyrics.
SONOIO comes from the Italian “sono io”, which means “it’s me”. It’s the first time that I write a whole album on my own.
Starting out
The bulk of the songs were written on the Buchla in January and they all started from sitting in front of it, not knowing what to do. I sit in front of it and I feel like a baby playing with something new: no rules, a lot of colors, unknown sounds and lights. It’s easy to be creative that way. There is no feeling of working. It does however apply to other instruments I have found. The main obstacle was at the beginning, when I thought I was going to record a modwheelmood album. Once I realized this was a different thing, with a different set of rules, everything went quite smoothly, especially thanks to Jon’s feedback while working on the tracks.
A song never just comes to my mind. It has to be triggered by a sound, a sequence, a rhythm, then add a bass line or a melody, it really depends. If you listen to a song like “just me”, that one started with having my friend Reed Hays showing me a trick on the 281 module, where the envelope emulates a sidechained compressor. That became the main part in the song. I started realizing fairly early in the process that I was coming up with more interesting material for my standards if I concentrated on writing with only one tool, as opposed to layering different instruments like I used to.
What instruments were you used to layering?
A Jomox XBase 09 for the more standard sounding analog drums, NI’s massive for some of the drones, a lot of UAD plugins for mixing, SoundToys Decapitator, Crystallizer, and a healthy dose of Eventide H8000FW.
Are there any additional hands and ears helping you out?
The name says it all, Starcraft boy*.
Just for that, I’m posting our scores. Answer the question.
Jon Bates from BigBlackDelta helped a lot with his expertise and opinions. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and not knowing what sounds good anymore. It was mostly a situation of having a trusted person who shares the same musical attitude to come in, listen, and pull me out of an endless circle. He also sang on one of the songs, Houdini.
Did you intentionally leave out instruments?
Yes, for the most part. The challenge was for me to utilize a very low number of instruments and preferably the modular only: that way you end up coming up with sounds that might recall others but never quite sound like them. Some of the songs (Just me, Not Worth Remembering, Hold On, Let Go) were recorded as one takes on the Buchla, and then vocals were overdubbed. There are no more than 8 tracks of Buchla at once, plus Vox + vocoder.
Aside from Blindoldfreak, is this your first full length release since your time with Nails?
First full length on my own, besides modwheelmood’s Pearls to Pigs, which came out as an album last year. I spent the last few years working on other people’s music and touring a little but mostly cat sitting.
What are your rates for cat sitting?
I charge one thousand dollars an hour.
Can you talk about your lyrics or themes you were exploring?
No! Good, cause I didn’t really care.
Do you plan to tour?
I don’t enjoy playing shows as much as I enjoy writing and recording music. It always feels like you have to prove yourself in a foreign field. The studio is were I am happy and feel like I do something worth listening to. That said, yes, I will play shows eventually.
How does Sonoio stand in your existing catalog of music?
It’s what I do now, might not be what I do tomorrow! It’s difficult to look back at what i have done and analyze it. Everything sounds great until you release it…. Then you are ready to move on… it’s therapeutic.
How would you describe collaborating with Harvestman for your SuONOIO Synth?
Natural.
*Actual score of a game of Starcraft Alessandro (purple) and I (yellow) played. All those years on tour and in the studio must’ve fried his killing skills.
Alessandro got a prototype of the SuONOIO, which he made in collaboration with The Harvestman, in the mail today and made some quick demos. Apparently they’re selling incredibly fast even before these demos!
Information and news at: Sonoio.org. Questions can be asked here: Sonoio on Facebook.
Tony Rolando of Make Noise of North Carolina was in Chicago and brought over a RENÉ matrix sequencer for me to beta test for a couple days. Excuse the quality of the video – I had just gotten back into town from Pittsburgh, took a shower and Tony was at my door. I didn’t even decide to start recording until he was already explaining things. You can tell that my brain was melting and I was trying to keep up with such a feature heavy prototype. With different modes like forward, backwards, pendulum, quantizers, separate pages for X and Y gates, XOR gates, latch modes, and so many other things, this thing is controlled madness! I’ll try my best to answer any questions you may have. The finished product will be presented at our Synth Meet 8 on September 18/19th. More details on that later.
Background
Born in Venezuela. Grew up in Miami. Lived in Boston. Hung out in LA and a woman bought me a drink. I never went back. True story.
I started playing guitar when I was around 13. I was good at it and could shred & shit, but it had no musical value. I didn’t really start listening to music and trying to write songs until I was about 19 or 20. Being a late bloomer is cool, cause I’m still freaking out about bands that people were over by the time they turned 16 (I’m 31). Besides jealousy, the prospect of a new sound or a simple song coming my way is the greatest motivator. The current name of the game is Big Black Delta and I also did stuff as mellowdrone
Currently
For Big Black Delta, Im planning to release an ep every 3-4 months. Im tired of spending a year and a half on LP’s. For this first EP, I’m giving a free mp3 download of a different song every couple of weeks. I’m using Topspin to do this. Down the road I’ll print up vinyl and CD’s but for now, I just want to get music out there. There will be AAC and every kind of format available once im done giving this first EP away.
My friend Caspar at Version Industries has been designing the visual media and website. As well as teaching me how to use Topspin. Could not have done this without him. While making the EP, Alessandro Cortini and I would meet almost weekly to trade each others music and critique. It really helps to get an objective opinion when making your own music. As all of us do, I tend to get lost in the wilderness and sometimes need a simple slap in the face.
Favorite Hardware
My Grado headphones, Akai LPK25 and a Shure SM7B. Not knowing where I’m going to record means I need a portable standard. These headphones help do that. SM7B cause it just works. I tried the mini controllers stuff from Korg, but I went through 3 of them in a month. The Akai is a lot stronger. Hate having stuff. Its just more shit to worry about, so the less hardware the better for me. I just end up bothering my friends.
Software
I write and record in Logic because of the ease and access. Its glitchy, but its worth it. The SoundToys suite has been a favorite as of late. Echoboy and the Decapitator are incredible. Michael Norris’ suite is great and free. Olga is a great shareware synth I use a lot. But what I use the most is the standard Logic compressor. When used incorrectly, its pretty neat. Besides that, I love collecting samples of non instrument-based sounds.
Workspace and Environment
The more isolated I feel, the better my imagination works, the better the music. So a space could be cocoon-like or outside in a field, as long as people aren’t around, I can create freely. It feels like my whole life, I’ve been recording in an apartment, or a friends house…
Ideal Location
In the woods, not far from the ocean. With lots of light and a quite bar nearby. I would like to try in Alaska one day. Or in one of those industrial-grade tree houses they have in Hawaii.
Ever Hear Your Music Playing In A Public Space?
Yes. It was like graduating from high school. I was like :”shouldn’t this be cooler or something?”
Extracurricular
I’ve had the pleasure of recently working with or producing/mixing: SONOIO, White Sea, M83, War Widow… and I just finished a Yogi Gong record.
Listen to Big Black Delta in the player below, or visit him at BigBlackDelta.com
Prometheus Burning invited I, Parasite and Surachai to play at their release party in Pittsburgh this past weekend. They also had a number of local multimedia artists to display and sell their works as well. This was my first in depth look into Pittsburgh and as always, I was shooting in my chaotic documentary style and probably focused too much on Diesel. For more information on the events of the passed night, view the previous post: HERE.
Alessandro Cortini and I have been putting together teasers for his upcoming project’s album called Sonoio which comes out on July 28th 2010. Sign up below for updates and additional information. This is the second teaser, the first one we did is: Here! Enjoy!
One of the best movies I’ve seen that had amazing room for creative sound design. While watching the movie yesterday, I definitely noticed that the team went beyond the calling of standard sound design. This video is a great summary of how the sound department approached into populating the soundscapes of Inception. I hope a longer version of this video surfaces!
I’ve been helping Ezio Alessandro Cortini put together some teaser videos for his latest project and album named Sonoio. In the following weeks Sonoio be posting videos, interviews and downloads that will lead to the release of the album, all of which will be found here.
For more information and up to date information visit his site: Sonoio.org
