Database: James Leyland Kirby On Musical Technologies, Creating Errors, Finding New Sound Worlds, And Risk-Taking

“I love what technology affords me. Although some of my work can seem nostalgic, believe me I work in the now. I have no desire to set up a studio with a ton of old modular gear, that game is like a fruit machine: loads of people putting money into an expensive setup with flashing lights, very few of them know how to play to win, so only one or two hit a jackpot. It’s a dead end, people being impressed because somebody has spent a lot of cash on colored wires.”

“I’m sick of reading ‘Limit your tools to keep focus…’ I like having everything I can at hand and then knowing what will be best for a situation or work. I love the chaos of that, I love getting new sounds to use in wrong ways, I love seeing what can happen if I do something tools are not designed for.

“I love digital innovation, I’m passionate about it, I work constantly on my possibilities. I want to expand them daily, I want to ask questions, what if? I want to create errors to see what can happen and to be surprised. I want to try to find some new sound Worlds. Music right now should be so much more risk-taking and progressive based on the tools available. I can’t understand why we are at this impasse. Pop music is completely banal, experimental music is more or less stagnant. Only a handful of musicians seem to truly want to push and surprise.”

James Leyland Kirby (aka The Caretaker)

database



Leave a comment