Page 63 - Zone Magazine Issue 030 - Lexicon Avenue

What first got you into music, and what were
your early influences?
I've been fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends and family that are all music lovers. To this day my Mum has an original vinyl copy of Abbey Road on display in our kitchen at home. I also remember driving around with my Dad in his car at a very young age listening to Luke Kelly. I was also the fifth kid in our family so I had a lot of different stuff trickle down to me from my older siblings. I ended up playing bass in a band with some friends by my mid-teens, so I guess I was pretty engaged early on. I began to pay attention to electronic music from my late teens onwards. I was a big fan of Here Comes The Night with Donal Dineen. I remember I used to record his show on cassette because I couldn't stay awake for the whole thing. I could then listen back to whatever I'd missed the next day when I got home from school. I still have a stack of those cassettes lying around.
What made you want to become a producer?
It's actually quite odd in many ways that I've ended up as an electronic producer. For most of my life all I did was play the bass guitar, which I was really passionate about. I was in a few bands and I even made a bunch of guitar-based music that I never published. I guess after so many years of playing an instrument you eventually want to branch out. I bought the synthesizer I use now – a Moog Sub 37 – at the beginning of 2016 and it completely blew my mind. I have literally barely made physical contact with a guitar since I got a synth. I've been writing pretty intensively for the past three years and I'm actually sitting on quite a lot of material at this point.
How would you describe your sound?
I would describe it as being down-tempo, melodic and ambient, yet with plenty of groove, darkness and even aggression at times. There're actually a few different styles throughout the album, which is very deliberate. I don't like the idea that artists should be associated with one specific genre or style. I prefer to to wear as many stylistic hats as possible and let other factors bring consistency to the sound.
How did you first start out?
I've been playing and making music in one capacity or another for most of my life, but often doing so in a very private capacity. This feels like a continuation or even a mutation of a lifelong past time. That said this is very much the starting gate for me too though. The first time I actually published a piece of music was November 2019. That's not very long ago.
Any go to vsts that you couldnt work without?
Honestly no. I don't use any VSTs at all in fact. I know people will find that a bit bizarre. I'm pretty conservative when it come to VSTs or plugins full stop. I only use very commonplace effects units, generally limited to your bog- standard Ableton EQ, reverb, delay and resonator. Ableton is my primary DAW but I've also used Logic in some situations.
What are your biggest influences?
If I were to name some of the less obvious producers it’d probably be Pye Corner Audio, Nils Frahm, Rival Consoles, Teebs, Lukid, Shigeto, Dabrye, Andy Stott, Jan Jelinek and Stars of the Lid.