Q:
Can you tell us a bit about how you came to
be making music? How did the Heyoka project get started?
I have always been obsessed
with music and have wanted to make it. I've played real instruments
before, but I'm a lot more into geeking out on projects, and
spending time creating things than I am into playing traditional
live music. I started taking electronic music classes at the
local community college where I finished high school. after
my first glimpse of it, I immediately got totally into it.
After taking a few classes in reason and protools, I knew
I wanted to go further with it, so I got myself a computer,
and started compulsively spending long amounts of time exploring
the different music programs and teaching myself how to use
them. I also started getting into dj-ing. I've spent so much
of my life listening to music, and overall found making electronic
music to be a really great way to kind of give back into the
creative pool.
Q:
Your approach is quite unique in the
dub field – why did you choose this style?
Psychedelic dub was the style
that I really got crazy about in my teens, and was the first
style I ever tried to produce. But, my musical interests change
all the time. The sound I'm going for is a sound that borrows
from what I like in genres, but doesn't exactly fit into any
of them. At the chill rooms at trance parties, I used to remember
hearing dub tracks that sounded like all kinds of melting
bouncing around fractal sounds that all sounded like totally
foreign outer space sounds, but somehow made the overall vibe
of dub. It was a sound I was obsessed with, and always trying
to find after these parties, but never could. The glitchy
melting types of effects were something I was seeking out,
which kind of led me into discovering idm and paying more
attention to more dance styles, like breaks and jungle. In
these styles, I was finding a lot of the kind of elements
I was wanting to hear incorporated into more downtempo and
psychedelic genres.
Anyway, my obsession with trying to find a sort of fusion
of these different kinds of styles made me naturally start
wanting to make it myself. There is something about dub that
I think kind of lets you be able to use random weird sounds,
but still have it flow well musically and feel really good.
Q:
How do you go about making your music
– any special techniques to get your sound?
I always start by making a beat.
For pineal dub, I made about half the beats in logic ultra
beat, and half in battery. Then I work on a bass line. I use
Massive for almost all my bass sounds. Lately, I do the sub
and midrange basses on different tracks, playing the same
notes, often on different octaves. On some of the more wacky
basses like "bass spalls", I take the midi notes
and move them into many different instances of massive, so
I get the sort of bouncy random bass vibe. I usually try to
make a couple alternate bass lines before I move into live's
edit view, so I have the basics down for the different parts
of a track. Then, I just play with different sounds, build
melodies etc. I kind of have a habit of using very similar
layouts in all my tracks, that are intended to make them mixable
how I like it, but that is something I want to change. I want
to make more interesting arrangements that don't have so much
of the dj material vibe.
I want to work on making a full length album that plays out
more like a journey than like individual tracks.
Q:
What gear do you
find useful when making your music and why?
My production centers around
the laptop. I edit in ableton live and sometimes logic, and
use native instruments software for my instrument programs.
I use the krk rokit series monitors and subwoofer. The only
other gear I use is a keyboard and other midi controllers.
One of my big focuses is trying to make a sound that has fat
sub basses, with an open spacey feel in the music, so for
me, producing with a sub is very important to be able to hear
the crossover. I usually test everything out without the monitors
on, just to make sure that the subs feel solid. I also test
them in pa speakers, to make sure those sound good too. For
me, without a subwoofer, I notice that my mixes are often
too bassy, because I try to get that same subby feeling with
only my monitors, then if I play the same track with a sub,
it might sound too dirty or rattle everything in my room too
much. Subs are tricky, because on most systems, they are the
least noticeable thing, but on a club or festival system they
are in the forefront of everything.
Q:
What was your aim
in creating the Pineal Dub CD?
The first music
I was into producing was kinda glitchy psydub, but I sort
of shifted from that for a while and got into producing mid-tempo
whompy breaks. Recently, I was working with a friend, on remixing
her music in a dubby style for her project, and I had so much
fun doing it that I just fully got into that mode and made
a bunch of dub tracks, and was stoked to revisit the style
with all of the knowledge of production I had gained since
my old dub tracks. The whole thing was basically me working
on my overall dub technique. I was also wanting to make stuff
that was a little more spacey and simple that some of my more
glitchy whomp stuff. The stuff I was working on before Pineal
Dub was more aggressive and I noticed I could barely sit through
some of it chilling out at home, so I really wanted to make
something with a very spacey blissed out vibe.
Q:
How has the album been received –
any particularly pleasing feedback?
In honesty, it's mixed. many
people like it a lot, but I've also been told by some that
they like my heavier whompy stuff more. It doesn't matter
much to me. I feel that musically it sounds a lot more evolved
than some of the other stuff I was doing. I'm into doing different
projects in different styles, and hopefully they all help
each other evolve more.
Q:
What led you to working with Muti Music?
My friend,
Mimosa and I were recommended to Dov by our friends, Neptune
and Kitty D who through a bi-monthly party called "Beat
Church". Dov was into our music, and it all went from
there. I was very happy about it, because I was already a
fan of a lot of the music on muti. I also just really like
the community and overall vibe of muti,.
Q:
Is anyone else especially involved in
your musical process?
On the track,
Kombulade, my friends, Tina Malia and Poloka Lele worked on
it with me. They are both acoustic musicians and singers.
I have made tracks with Mc's too. I made a beat for my friend,
Souleye, which became the track, "underworld". While
in Uruguay, I made a couple tracks with a reggae/latin musician
named Javier Manik. Those tracks ( "Mundo" and "Mister
Business") were some of the first ones that got a lot
of good play from other dj's, and definitely were some of
the first tracks that helped me get noticed in the San Francisco
underground music scene. Right now, I'm working on a remix
for Sub Swara, and have some other remix projects in the works.
Q:
How important do you think the right
visuals are when releasing an album?
I think it's
very important. I'm into the full audio visual sensory overload.
Especially for music that is more about creating an atmosphere
or headspace, it is good to have the visual aspect to put
you there too.
Q:
What are you working on next?
I've already made another ep called the
"Whomp Gland". It is very similar to pineal dub,
but more heavy. It has fatter hip hop beats and really fat
squishy basses. I think it has an overall cleaner more balanced
sound too.. Overall sound quality is something I'm constantly
trying to work on improving. I plan on releasing it on vinyl
soon.
Q:
Where would you like to get to musically
long term?
I want to work on my musical abilities, my
production skills, my overall sound quality, and basically
shaping the kind of sound I really want to hear.
Thanks to Andrei and the Dov
guys at Muti
Music for allowing us that interview.
