Page 26 - The score

Ketan Bahirat a.k.a

OCEANTIED

Your sounds are very unique and different from each other. Tell us how you
go about deciding the way a particular track has to sound.
I usually never "decide" the way a song is supposed to sound. Usually,
I just sit on my desk and start trying out different sounds and putting
down ideas, and then work on it more only if I've liked the initial idea.
It's usually a mixture of trial and error and experimentation.
Tell us a couple of artists you look up to and are inspired by in your space.
There's many artists I look up to in the huge world of electronic music.
My biggest inspiration in India comes from my Dasta crew (Kumail,
Tarqeeb, Sandunes, OX7GEN, Zokhuma), they're always around and
ready for a conversation when the going gets tough, and it's always great
to have such freat musicians and producers giving you such valuable
feedback. They really inspire me a lot constantly both as producers and
as people.

If you had to come up with a wild idea of mixing two different sounds, how
would you go about it and what two genres would you mix?
I think the music I make is a mixture of a lot more than 2 genres
already, this is quite a tough one to answer to be honest. But to give you
an example, Dasta did a Six Sample Project (SSP) recently where we
used only bird sounds to make tunes, and I ended up making a techno
track, so.. Sounds pretty wild to me!

Considering how popular EDM music is in India, how do you place yourself
in the Indian music scene? Do you think it is challenging to get your music
across to people?
People being interested in EDM is in a way great for electronic
musicians of all kinds, there's going to be some familiarity with certain
sounds across the board between pop-culture EDM and sounds from
other electronic musicians, which paves a way for listeners to get very
interested in all sorts of electronic music, which is what makes things
very exciting in a place like India. As much as it is challenging to get
this music heard there's many new channels opening up and raising the
bar and shortening the gap between big stage EDM and smaller stage
electronic music.
For aspiring producers who are intimidated by the complexity of the music
tech world (plug-ins, DAWs etc.), what advice would you give to simplify
music making?
Making music may seem simple at times to a lot of people, but my
advice is to never get carried away with the market, start small. All you
need is a DAW, and some sounds. Take it step by step and spend your
time trying out new methods, just creating music as much as you can.
Practice is key. When you keep working hard on your skills and create
your own methods, it will also help in creating your own "sound".
Tell us about your tech set up
When I'm producing music, it's just my laptop with Ableton, headphones/
speakers and a midi controller. When I'm DJ-ing it's CDJ's and a mixer.

If you had to create an ideal producing environment, what would it be?
A completely solar powered,as eco-friendly as possible hi-tech studio
with all the synths and drum machines I've ever wanted, with perfect
acoustics, somewhere in Iceland. Oh and in a house like Deadmau5.
Picture Credit: Maria Jose Govea
24 The Score Magazine
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