1)
Firstly, thank you for taking the time out from your busy schedule to
complete this interview. Could you tell us a little about yourself
and what first appealed to you about music?
More
than happy to.
Between
my dad and my uncle I was exposed to loads of 70’s prog before I
was even a teenager. My brother was also music mad, plays guitar and
is a keen audiophile.
Even
before that my gran was a good old fashioned knees up pianist who
taught me the basics at a young age. But instead of particularly
playing pieces of music as such I mostly ended up improvising dreamy
arpeggios for the feel of it, which in retrospect, is a bit like
electronic sequencing.
I
grew up in Birmingham which was a good place to be in the late 90’s.
You had Oscillate doing ambient electronica nights with Bubble Club
and Planet Dog doing dance nights. Add to that the fact that you
could see bands like Ozrics and Porcupine Tree live regularly.
So
music was all around me really growing up and I had slowly expanded
into a fledgling budget studio with four track and sampler by the
time I went to college.
2)
You also release music under the name of Spatialize, what was the
reason for releasing these productions as Experiments in Silence?
When
I had completed the 2014 Spatialize albums Radial and On the Edge of
Forever I felt I had spent a good amount of time with all those
carefully crafted multi layered parts and that I wanted to do
something a bit more spontaneous. I’d always been a fan of deeper
ambient music, in fact that was mostly what I listened to for quite a
few years, and of course there’s a lot of atmospheric intros and
outros in Spatialize.
Then
in 2013-2014 I saw that Mauxuam, Greg Hunter and Master Margarita
were doing what they called nightly builds / remixes and posting them
on sound cloud. It was a refreshing approach to music after the
slower in-depth mixing in Spatialize. So I decided to have a go at
remixing one of their Cloudform tracks in a deep ambient style, but
in one session. That decision was important as it would give me an
opportunity to flex the techniques and knowledge that I had built up
with Spatialize into a condensed, free flowing, spontaneous form. I
uploaded my remix the next morning and felt that I had suddenly a
brand new project in front of me. I needed a name and named it after
a long abandoned Spatialize track which was called Experiments in
Silence.
3)
Matt Hillier (probably best know for his work as Ishq) is also
involved with this project. Are you both part of the creative process
or is he just mastering your compositions?
Instead
of being a full collaborative member as such, Matt has been more of a
mentoring tutor and friend who dips in and out of the project. I met
Matt just as I was in the nascent form of the project and he shared
his working philosophy with me and encouraged me to develop the
project. At the time my approach was still in the Spatialize mindset
which is to multi layer everything and build structures. That was
hard to let go of. What Matt did was encourage me to work in a much
looser and spontaneous way, often without midi clock. I would play
him a track idea and he would say “take that out, take that out and
take that out”. I know it’s a cliche but it became evident how
less is more, particularly with deep ambient.
We
collaborated on two tracks on the first album (Hidden Harmonic)and he
has done remixes on the 2nd (Encrypted Transmissions) and 3rd albums,
in particular the massive 37 min remix on Suspended Form.
We
would probably write more together but I think we find it good fun to
just sit together in a studio and just investigate sound, introduce
each other to new working methods, drink tea and generally chew the
ambient cud without the aim or pressure of creating something. Though
I’m sure we will do a project again sometime in the future.
In
terms of mastering the albums I did that myself, but again Matt did
share his working methods with me and helped get me going. He has
also helped with CD artwork and in encouraging me to approach to
release through Txt which got the name known to ambient heads
throughout the world. So, yes. Without Matt’s help I’m not sure
the project would have got to this point. Big up to Mr Ishq!
4)
Do you prefer analogue or digital when composing your work? Or is it
a blend of the two?
I
have a small range of outboard gear which I I’ve folded into the
mixes (novation x station, Roland Gaia, bass station 2) but the
majority of the sounds come from within the computer where I use
Logic X. Although I love the tactility of hardware I’m a big fan of
the sound and convenience of digital. There’s a lot to be said for
both approaches but I think the advantage of analogue now is less
about the sound quality and more about the way it allows you to
interact and be expressive.
Actually
on the last album Escape to the Skyline I wrote the majority of the
tracks on a laptop with headphones via a mini keyboard in a
conservatory with my feet up on a sofa. I then took the laptop
back to the studio and added a bit of extra hardware synths and mixed
on my monitors.
Some
of my core plug ins of late have been NI Reaktor (particularly the
grain sampling), the ExS24 sampler, Valhalla reverb, Uhe Pro One and
TAL Juno and sh101. There’s a lot to be said for all that
convenience in one box and being able to create whenever you feel
spontaneously creative and inspired.
5)
You recently played live with Banco de Gaia and Andrew Heath. How did
this come about and do you have any up and coming gigs?
A
few years ago when Toby Marks was looking for music for his first
Strange Eyes Constellations compilation, Paul from Templehedz sent
him a Spatialize link and I ended up with a track on that album.
So
when Toby came to the next compilation I suggested the Experiments in
Silence project and I think he really dug it as he played a few
tracks in his Glastonbury radio show. I’d also got to know Andrew
Heath a bit online and had seen their live ambient show and chatted
with them afterwards. Then when the banco/ heath show was coming to
the south west in Exeter I was asked to open the night.
Unbeknown
to Toby it was excellent timing as I had been investigating granular
looping on the iPad with Samplr; an app where you can play the sample
with your fingers on the screen and loop it. The prospect of a live
gig helped me to put it all into practice and I added live midi
looping and synth step sequences from soft synths on a laptop in
Ableton Live as a second, unsynced system to the iPad. Normally with
live electronica you have to rely to a large degree on pre-prepared
loops or backing tracks. So being able to build up a properly live
and reactive ambient set was challenging but very rewarding.
I
haven’t looked into getting more EiS gigs yet but I’m certainly
open to it. The crowd in Exeter were certainly very knowledgeable and
appreciative so I would love to do more.
6)
Are you working on any Experiments in Silence productions at the
moment? Or is it currently taking a back seat to Spatialize?
In
terms of recorded material 2018 has been taken up completely with
creating new Spatialize material. It’s been a productive year and a
new Spatialize album called Beyond the Radar will be released on 11th
January 2019. It’s going to be a high vibe release of psychedelic
electronica, quite different from EiS, but also drawing on the
insights and production techniques from the deep ambient work.
7)
What other artists are impressing you at the moment?
The
music which has been really shaking my tree in the past year has been
desert blues from North Africa. In particular artists such as Ali
Farka Toure and Tinariwen. There’s a really great combination
between earthiness and sky and a sense of the astrength of the human
spirit that I absolutely love. And some badass grooves.
In
the electronic world I’ve been exploring Steve Roach quite a lot
this year. I’ve also been appreciating the very slick arrangements
and production of Hedflux. It’s really nice to hear a producer who
uses glitchy effects etc but does so in a very considered and
effective way. Matt Coldrick’s new album is also very musical and
pleasing.
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