Contributing Writerid – as in ego, and superego – is a South Coast-based artist who produces in his rural studio. His aim is not to pander to the zeitgeist, but to explore his own timeless mix of authentic, Detroit-infused acid, house, and techno. His music seeks to do away with traditional genre boundaries and challenge dancers, moving them on both physical and emotional levels.
Hey id, thanks for sitting down with us today. How have you been?
Hey, pleasure to be here. I’m really good thanks. I’ve been pretty busy recently, which is good, but tiring!
You’ve got a new EP coming out on The Bubble. How did this label and release come about?
Well, I guess both of them came about because of my wife really! She kind of poked and prodded me into taking music more seriously. I’d been messing about with ideas and playing with machines and stuff for years, but without ever taking it anywhere or doing anything with it. I’m quite chaotic really left to my own devices! She’s really organised and focussed. She gave me the direction and the focus really, as well as putting up with the obsession for noise and machines!
The Bubble was an idea that we came up with while we were walking the dog one evening. We used to refer to the bubble as a period of time after we first met. We felt like we were living in a bubble. The bubble was a refuge away from the world, where everything was good and anything was possible; it was positivity, where nothing could touch us. So, this is how I see the label really: a place inside which things can be different. Where you don’t have to be the same and that can be good. It’s something positive; a force for good.
Can you tell us about the writing and production process behind your EP and the story that inspired it?
From a practical point of view, I recently (finally!) got my studio space sorted out after moving house a while back. It took me ages to sort it out and I was doing music on the kitchen table just on my MacBook and I don’t think that was very conducive. So, I was finally able to get my machines back down from the shelf and plug them in again. Having that proper, dedicated space to be creative in is massive and made such a difference in being able to make the EP.
In terms of the process, I first get a kick running that I like, and with the tracks for this EP I would then develop the acid line. I tend to have an idea in my head of how I want the acid line to sound, the form it should take rhythmically. It doesn’t always sound how I think it will sound though! So, then I’ll tweak the pattern till I’m happy with it. A lot of the rest is through a process of experimentation and improvisation really: playing with sequences on differing synths till I find something that complements. I then create my rhythm patterns. When I have the basis of the track set-up, I sort out an arrangement which I can the use to play the midi patterns on the various synths. I record the output of the synths as continuous takes, so it’s like a performance, improvising using the synths. After that it’s a matter of producing the track as a coherent piece in Ableton live.
I don’t think there’s a story as-such that inspired the EP, but there’s definitely an ethos. I wanted a sound that was raw and powerful, with a natural feel to it. For me, it’s important that’s crafted and carved out; it’s not glossy and perfect, it’s real and honest. But I also want to challenge, both musically and from a cerebral point of view. The vocal samples are intended to make people think; they’re representative of the dislocating experience of living in the world today.
I find it hard to judge my own stuff though, so I’m still not really sure how successful I’ve been in creating the sound I wanted. There’s definitely a level of insecurity there for me.
You say you produce out of your rural studio. Do you find that your environment has a big impact on your production?
That’s a really interesting question. Like I was saying earlier, I think space is really important. So, on one level, there’s the immediate space that you use for making music. Getting that set-up properly is really important. But yea, the wider environment is really important too!
I live in a fairly rural place, not far from the coast. It’s really beautiful and I do love living by the sea. But I do also connect with the city as lot. Most weeks I’m in London two or three times. For me personally, that balance is really important. I love the countryside, but I also think keeping that connection with the city is incredibly significant for my music. I think I would be in a very different creative space if I didn’t get into London a lot!
Keeping connected with London gives the rhythms of the city, the sheer mass of people and all of the difference and variation that it embodies. I love the rapidity of it all, and the feeling of so much life going on in such a concentrated space. But on the flip side, the beauty and tranquillity of the country maybe gives the headspace for the creative process to happen; I think I need both!
You’ve said you prefer not to pander to the zeitgeist and create timeless music. Is this important when producing authentic music? Do you think trends have a significant impact on the music industry and the expression of artists?
I don’t think that trends are necessarily a negative thing. Everyone has influences and sounds that inspire them, and types of music that they fit into to greater or lesser extents (and I think you need some idea of form to be able to challenge form!). I think they can have a stifling effect on creativity though. But this is more about the way that people engage with trends. I think it’s all about that engagement and why you’re making music. Do you make music that is intended to replicate a particular sound because that sound is popular, and you think it will be sell? Or do you use trends or sounds as a source of inspiration and explore where these things, and your own creativity, will take you?
I think authentic music comes from making music for yourself first. That doesn’t mean that I’m not bothered if other people like my music or not; I’m actually really bothered about that! I really want people to like it and for it to move them, it’s really important to me. But the starting point is making music that I love and that makes me want to dance. I couldn’t make something that I didn’t engage with in this way. I think that’s where authentic music comes from. It’s crafted with love using a wide range of inspirations that you draw on, rather than something that is made to fit a certain type because you think it will be popular.
That doesn’t mean that something that is authentic can’t be popular though. But I think you can tell when something is made in that authentic kind of manner. I do think though that both things have their place and their individual merits. I just prefer to listen to and make music that has that ring of authenticity to it.
You’ve cited Detroit-infused house and techno as a key influence. Is this place and scene that inspires you a lot when producing? Are there any other particular influences on your music?
I think I’ve always been drawn to darkness! So, yea, I think that kind of sound is a big inspiration for me. People like Robert Hood, Jeff Mills, DJ Bone, Kevin Saunderson, Blake Baxter or Kenny Larkin (among others) are really important to me. I would also say that people like Frankie Bones, Truncate, Josh Wink, Surgeon, A Guy Called Gerald or Honeysmack are also highly influential to me. I’m also listening a lot to Paul Renard and Acidulant at the moment.
But like I said, I draw from a wide range of inspirations. I listen to lots of different types of music and think I take some sort of influence in differing forms from all of these types, be it The Beastie Boys or Run DMC, or The Stone Roses, The Beatles, or Meet Beat Manifesto!
Away from making music, what are the things that excite you; other work, passions, hobbies etc?
I love to spend time with my wife and my kids really. We have a really busy household so there is always something going on here! We have two dogs, an American Bulldog and an American Bulldog-cross so it’s great to get out in the country with those two or take them down to the beach. One of my favourite things is when me my wife and I can go out (which unfortunately doesn’t happen enough!), just the two of us; just go for a burger or something like that and then to the cinema. I think the last thing we got out to see was The Phonecian Scheme, which I thought was fantastic. I do love cinema.
I also recently completed a PhD in Sociology. My academic work is really important to me and though at the moment I have moved outside of academia (I just couldn’t see myself in an academic role just now), I would love to carry on that work in some way: write something further of an academic nature. I’d like to maybe turn my PhD thesis into a book. But I’d also like to write something of a non-academic nature! I suppose in that way writing is another form of creative expression for me, like music. I have a few ideas for novels and have started them, but not got very far with them! There always seems to be something else to do that takes precedence! Finding the time for those things is the difficult thing,
It’s been great chatting with you today. What do your plans look like for the rest of the year?
Christmas is a big thing in our house. We have a large family so there’s a lot of preparation for it! We start early so have been buying presents for months.
I’m working on a new EP that I hope to release early next year. I’m also working on preparing my music for a live act. I think I should be ready to go out on the road with it in the spring, so that’s really exciting!
Buy HERE