This is the second in a new series of interviews where one artist interviews another, five questions each. Lately i’ve been hearing daily interviews and I’ve noticed too many similar questions keep coming up again and again. I’m hoping that the artist/artist format can give readers a better idea of what’s on the artist’s minds. I’ve also asked each artist to pick two songs which they’ve been listening to, all of which are posted above.
LOSCIL INTERVIEWING LUSINE
LOSCIL: If the world lost electricity tomorrow, would you continue to make music and how?
LUSINE: I would for sure. I used to plink around on the piano quite a lot. But, I’m not great at trying to come up with musical concepts before I mess with samples first, so it would be a challenge to write. And I think it would force me to collaborate a lot more, something I’m not always great at.
LOSCIL: Being a resident of the Republic of Cascadia, how (if at all) has this place influenced your music?
LUSINE: I love it up here. I think it’s nice to write music when it’s rainy outside, and it’s also a great place to escape the studio and go on a quick hike. As much as I love the big city, being in Seattle gives you a nice balance between the urban and natural settings.
LOSCIL: I’ve not heard any of your soundtrack work but I would really love to know more about this as I’m a big fan of soundtracks in general. How does your approach to music change when you work on soundtracks?
LUSINE: It changes in the sense that I’m not really making the music for myself. It’s nice to take direction and have a clear focus on what sound the director wants. And it forces me outside of my own set style limitations. It’s a good way to learn how to write different music and use instrumentation I normally wouldn’t use. But, I like to be able to balance that with the total freedom of making my own music, so I can take what I learned and apply it to my own music.
LOSCIL: Assuming music is your first love, what form of art is second closest to your heart either as a maker or appreciator?
LUSINE: Film. I am a slight bit of a nerd when it comes to movies, and maybe a bit too critical (or so my friends seem to think). But, it’s definitely my first outlet when I am wanting to think critically about an artform that I’m not completely invested in (although that has been changing over the years).
LOSCIL: What is your favourite sound and why?
LUSINE: My favorite sound?? When all is said and done, it’s probably the sound of laughter.
LUSINE INTERVIEWING LOSCIL
LUSINE: I think that maybe I hear a lot of ebow in your later releases. Regardless, it inspired me to get an ebow myself.Do you write any of your music on the guitar first, before layering it with electronic sounds?
LOSCIL: I didn’t play the ebow parts on Plume, they were played by my best friend Steve Wood and my lovely lady Krista Marshall. Despite being a guitarist, I seldom use the guitar in the creation of loscil music. Motoc is an exception. The main chord progression on that was created on the guitar and the pads are formed out of samples from those chords recorded on a classical guitar.
LUSINE: I still kind of have gearlust, despite that fact that a lot of the things I’m interested in probably won’t change my music all that much. Do you still have instruments or equipment that you would like to add to your studio?
LOSCIL: It’s funny because although I too love gear, I’ve always been a bit of an economist (read cheapskate) in this department. For years as a drummer, I didn’t own my own drums. But every now and then I certainly succumb to the desire to own some special piece of gear. The Monome is up there on my list.
LUSINE: Does making sounds for video games give you any ideas that you can use in your solo work?
LOSCIL: Sometimes. The fortunate thing about my day job is I’m always practicing and honing my sound design and composition skills. It is a real joy to spend most of my days thinking about sound. On the other hand, I tend to do a lot of the same things at work. It is a job after all. Spending long hours during the day in front of the computer does not bode well for doing the same with my evenings and weekends so it can be a struggle at times to sit down to work on loscil after working on game audio 40+ hours a week.
LUSINE: How long have you lived in Vancouver? What’s your favorite aspect of that city?
LOSCIL: I’ve been here for a little over 20 years now which is hard to believe. Vancouver’s physical beauty is pretty hard to escape. We are surrounded by mountains, forests and oceans and they are all accessible. The population is growing but it is still reasonable. The coffee and beer are good.
LUSINE: Is there any sort of emotional subtext, or something that inspires you to write such hypnotic and fluid music (possibly other artists/artforms past/present?
LOSCIL: If there’s a subtext, it is pretty subconscious. I’m ultimately inspired and motivated by feeling itself. I enjoy the moment I can create a chord progression or a particular texture that speaks to me and feels expressive of something I cannot otherwise express… it’s not something that I can put into words or draw on paper or realize in any other fashion – it is just that gut feeling of something having meaning beyond myself. Ultimately, I’m inspired by many musicians of all sorts but I think it’s that core act of searching for expression that inspires me to continue to make music.
I’ve always wanted a proper Kate Bush playlist for the ISO50 readers but i’ve never been able to completely take in the whole catalog, so I asked my girlfriend since she’s a true lover of Kate and her music, so please thank her for this gorgeous playlist.
-JA
I grew up listening to Kate Bush; but I did not understand fully her grace and power until I saw her eyes blink in the video for army dreamers. Above is a playlist of some of my favorite songs.
As more and more musicians touch on the dark end of electronic you find yourself weeding out the fakers and honing in on the honest ones that you can tell were born to make it. With Ellie Herring I have a feeling she has a love for haunting side of music, no matter what is popular now she would have made Touch Point without any trends influencing her and that makes me want to keep my ears open for her in the future.
Crystal Stilts have a recognizable sound and i’m not going to say it because I don’t want to ruin the pleasure i’m getting from listening to this track right now.
Legendary and just a big influence to some of my favorite musicians Sun Ra has to pop in soo often on the daily posts, expect a Sun Ra playlist soon on the blog from someone I find very talented.
I love some Active Child in my life and I love How To Dress Well but I can’t handle this auto tuned intro BUT BUT BUT once its over this song shapes into a sound that Patrick was made to make so it has my full support.
For of those you who follow Mux Mool know this EP has been coming, Mux shared the EP at a low quality for free awhile back but now its back from the mastering studio and include a new cut which is my favorite called Flying Dreams.
We get a taste of some more of that Memory Tapes record that is coming out on Carpark with this new video that premiered today, see below.
Anyone else found the last Balam Acab EP addicting? I play it all the time, its a great go to if nothing sounds good in your music collection.
One of the first Broker / Dealer tracks ever just got re-issued on Kompakt last month, super deep cut and very hypnotic, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Its usually hard for me to trust the youth, sometimes I fear their going to take my medicine away that i’ll need when i’m 80 and laugh while they pour Mountain Dew all over it and then i’m stuck with Mountain Dew medicine, no one wants Mountain Dew medicine except for them, they love the idea of Mountain Dew flavored medicine….but Zack I trust Zack even though i’ve never met him, I think he’s 17 and lives in Denmark and listen to this track above he’s making stuff that is just as good as Mount Kimbie I think. If you like it check out the Shigeto, Beautiful Bells, and Danaet remixes or just grab this song for FREE.
I was just on iChat with Machinedrum, he moved to Berlin a handful of hours ago so anyone in Berlin please make this talented man feel at home. He can whip up a track better and faster than Emeril making a spicy omelette(don’t google omelette, they don’t look appetizing in photos). He just signed to Planet-Mu and has an LP on the way but before you wait for that release check out this EP with this song Listen 2 Me i’ve actually stopped typing a few times while listening to it so I could dance in my seat, its sort of an African influenced dance if you needed to know with a lot of bouncing, try it.
Alright time to slow the roll with Hotflush label owner Scuba, this track brings me back to Skam days, makes me think about Bola….*drools* too good. If I knew how to make that pulse-y deep airy sound I wouldn’t do anything else kind of like when you watch the summer olympics and they do the floor routine and you imagine yourself only doing backflips all the time like out the door and to the store because you can and you want to do it forever.
Samiyam is beastly here, just rough and raw, listen to that cymbal, its taking a beating, this needs to be played by a live band.
This week I had Loscil and Lusine interview each other and I should have it up in a couple days but until then I HIGHLY recommend you pick up Loscil’s new album Coast/ Range/ Arc, it came out today, download it here.
I finished a free EP under Heathered Pearls last night, download it if you want, all the donations keep my Netflix account paid for so I can watch American Dad with one eye open in my bed from my phone. #truth.
I need more oOoOO in my life, this EP is not enough.
Has anyone seen OOIOO live? can you share how amazing it must be? **sits down and puts fists on cheeks and waits for a story**
Oneohtrix Point Never’s other project Games has changed their name to Ford & Lopatin which I can appreciate more just for google search purposes since I hate not being able to find music by musicians I like. As for sounds in Channel Pressure i’m floored, you get these glimpses of Dire Straits guitars marrying these pitch bent red headed step child synths that no one would have touched 10 years ago, love it.
I love summer because all of this field recording based material starts to thaw out and has room to breathe like this newer artist Blithe Field, makes you want to go back to some older Bibio.
I dug really deep for this older Reuber track, he’s all over the place when it comes to style/genre but this one always stayed with me.
I thought CVLTS was some rock band that my ears probably couldn’t handle but after hearing this track I was put in my place instead i’m treated with kindness from distant dreamy reverb.
Hype Williams is pure, its as simple as that. He makes music that most wouldn’t argue and start naming off artists he’s trying to be like, he doesn’t care what we think about it i’m sure, I feel like thats the best head space to be in right now for creating music.
Beacon is a Brooklyn duo that are heavily obsessed over visuals/videos and live performance, when I heard this song Rapture all I thought about was Underworld meets U2Zooropa, 2 things I haven’t thought about in years.
I need a cut like this from Aeroplane, I thought they were going a little softy/pop on us, not too wild about the string choice but everything else is cosmic and has that drive to it.
When I read the description “…synth bounce anthems” as something that Sweden’s Sand Circles sound like I had to check it out.