“My basic mantra when working up an arrangement, applying fingers to strings and frets, is ‘revoice, revoice, revoice.’ I will trial-and-error several versions of a phrase in search of resonance, playability, and emotional conviction.” “This approach is more of a game of subtraction, rather than construction. Instead of building up my arrangement from my own… Continue reading

“Speed is really important to me in production, and I love taking the first take of things and making that work. There’s something in the first take that has a quality I can’t quite put my finger on, but it’s almost like you can hear the excitement of playing something for the first time. Maybe… Continue reading

“I think there’s a very fine distinction between limitation and hindrance. When I started, it wasn’t that I was limited in what I could do, it’s more that I just didn’t know certain ideas could be done in certain ways. So I think within those limitations you have to actively look for ways to make… Continue reading

“A lot of [“Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This”] was trying to create as much space as possible so that Annie’s voice sounded crystal clear, pure, and not drowned out. But making sure the backing track still sounded incredibly powerful. A lot of that has to do with literally not having anything in the stereo… Continue reading

“First of all, you can’t simply design what the musician wants, because he or she may not know all the possibilities. And on the other hand, you can’t spend all your time only worrying about the oscillator drift and the power supply and all that. You have to do this gray-area thing.” – Tom Oberheim… Continue reading

“I’m responding to the recordings that I took and layering things on top, but I always started with the field recording. The recording is a collaborator. The world is a collaborator. I find it really difficult to sit down and make something out of the blue. I’m not someone who hears melodies in their head,… Continue reading

“I’ll drag a file into Ableton to see it visually. I’m just looking for activity within the waveforms. Like, something happened here, because the signalling changed. There’s obviously a reason for that. I’m interested in that reason. Something is happening and I need to get it out. I guess that’s important to me.” Claire Rousay… Continue reading

“I found with a couple of the right pedals I could go anywhere and sound like me, which has more to do with limited playing skills and the chords that I make than anything else. It evolved from my frustration with being a really fucking mediocre guitar player when I was learning to play. A… Continue reading

“Most of the time, the bedrock of a track is created through chord structures, so I’m starting from a harmonic point rather than a sequence or arpeggio. Once I have that harmonic foundation, I’ll use some sort of aleatoric randomisation or program a sequence or arpeggio into the sequencer.” Steve Hauschildt Continue reading