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.
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.
Again and again Stones Throw artists are pushing themselves into genres unrelated to their last release and doing it from unique angles, really amazed by this new James Pants, its like Tom Vek singing over….I got nothing, pretty damn one of a kind.
Young Montana? has soo much going in this song, I would love it way more if it didn’t stutter it up all the time, other than that i’m in love with the change at the 4 minute mark.
I swear I think Christopher Willits is in Fourcolor or maybe Taylor Deupree loves signing cut up guitar samples music mostly, not complaining at all I could listen to this song repeat for hours.
Dear Bon Iver, you sir are a great songwriter but you need to throw away that T-Pain iPhone app. Love, your fan Jakub.
For all the early 80s PBS watchers take a second and download 2 FREE EP’s from Jacob 2-2. I was introduced to David via Com Truise, the guy is really nice and super talented with his synth work, Communicore is the music that should be played on that one show How Was It Made on Discovery Channel.
What is there to say about My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts that hasn’t been already said? my favorite track off that album has to be Mea Culpa. Those drums with that deep vox and then that hypnotic effected guitar with the howl?? pssssssshh untouchable.
“VHS hooks” thats my 2 word review of Midnight Television, pick this track up here, so much good emotion from a track that’s less than 2 minutes.
Gang Gang Dance might be one of the best live shows i’ve seen in years, Mindkilla is the first single from their new album Eye Contact. I don’t know if you remember the Drawing Restraint 9 but the singer probably does since he’s definitely borrowing from Bjork at times but that doesn’t matter, no one right now is bringing such creative high energy music that is this easy to get into.
John LaMonica put together an album that mixes and mashes together some of my favorite styles of music from early 2000s, it was best described by Boomkat in the UK as “Squarepusher being given free reign to bugger around with a Radiohead record“, download Heartling for FREE here.
The new Julian Lynch record is something i’m still digesting, one song that grabbed right away was Clay Horses, the guitars are soo full and warm like honey shining in the sun and tuned just the way i’d love to hear a clear played.
I love Delia Gonzalez and Gavin Russom, i’m committed to hearing everything they produce. Recently Gavin remixed former Games duo Ford & Lopatin and came out with a morphed early 90’s pulsing soundtrack to machines working with their lights blinking.
I’m not going to complain on how many Mountain bands there are, that would be stupid :). This one is for all the Steve Reich fans, I love this track **lowers himself into a volcano waving slowly in a knight suit pointing his sword into the sky**.
Just saw a Lincoln car commercial use a Kiln song soo well, it made me go back thru their huge catalog, soo glad I did since I love the song Templefrog. Can you imagine sitting down and composing this song? the guitars kind of sit in the back I love it.
Benoit Pioulard sent me this song by Jeans WIlder, reminds me of Pictureplane a bit, its almost too slow, it has that stutter on the release that makes me squint a little but the synth melody makes up for it.
Do you want to hear my favorite Top 40 cover? Courtship kills it here, FREE DOWNLOAD.
The cover art above is for this Pigon track on Dial, deep dub I can’t get away from it, I can’t believe I get soo excited about a closed hi-hat coming in, oh and the subtle breakdowns aren’t full of shitty sirens and coke infused trance piss streams just a perfect glide back into the song.
The new Radiohead album popped up yesterday, if you’d like to at least hear a stream of it before you bought it then listen above. To be honest there isn’t a bad song on this, a solid listen straight thru for me. What I love about each song:
The King Of Limbs tracklist:
01 “Bloom” – The loose drumming with the looped keys.
02 “Morning Mr Magpie” – Again excellent drumming, this time tight and when it meshes with the airy break down, you almost feel like your getting lifted off your feet.
03 “Little By Little” – One of my least favorite, the electronic ride throws me off alil but Thom’s voice holds it together with the reverse backing instrumental popping up.
04 “Feral” – Alright now were talking, some of that dark low tone driving with Thom samples sprinkled around perfectly, probably my favorite track.
05 “Lotus Flower” – That short fluttering synth with the bass line.
06 “Codex” – Ladies and Gentlemen the brass section.
07 “Give Up The Ghost” – That lo-fi recording of Thom’s voice towards the end looping.
08 “Separator” – One of the strongest songs on this album, loving the echoed out guitars toward the second half that keep the track floating.
This Brooklyn duo is at it again, bringing Dub and background R+B vocals together into one blissful cruise. One thing I noticed when I listen to Sepalcure is that it makes me so happy especially Your Love, every wash of soft noise feels like a breeze hitting you while you fish off the coast of Greece with the sun blaring down on you.
This Chad Valley song will be my theme song for the summer, soo much swagger in the bass line , makes me want to lower my sunglasses to check out a girls booty. If we can’t dance to this then we all have a problem.
I’ve posted some of my favorite Dark Party tracks earlier last year but I keep going back to their album for the impressive synth work.
Belong is doing vocals! along with their dirty swirling guitar that sound like their under mud, I want 10…20 more songs like this.
