“I also noticed how incredibly unified people produce music in these days, leading to a kind of monoculture where we’re all using the same tools and so produce, of course, something where the music sounds more and more similar. It’s really difficult to have a very radical approach of having completely different sound aesthetics.” Alva… Continue reading

“Everything’s so sophisticated in terms of equipment that you can just put a guitar through an effects pedal and you think, ‘Wow, that’s cool.’ But anyone else could have done the same thing. That ceases to interest me then because I’m not interested in doing things which are simple. I don’t think less of people… Continue reading

“If you’re focusing your attention so strongly on listening, it’s a form of meditation. Which is so nourishing.” Annea Lockwood database (a cache of perceptions) Continue reading

“I try to avoid doing beats which are very obvious sounding. In fact, I strictly avoid 808 and 909 drum sounds altogether, because everybody is using them. I use synthesizers to generate drum noises and sample them. I find that more interesting. It’s essentially the same thing, but more interesting.” “When I bought a DAT… Continue reading

“I’m not trying to re-create anything, especially not early music, but I am also attached to the fact that human anatomy and the mechanics of violins and recorders haven’t changed in over a thousand years, so we are inherently connected to the physical feelings and patterns that musicians would have experienced throughout the last millennium.”… Continue reading

“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