A/s/l?
32/M/Vancouver Island, BC
Process when making beats. What’s the normal studio day?
I usually work best when I should be doing something else. Through university, I would get creative spurts when I needed to study in a bad way. I think this is common. I just listened to an old Aphex Twin interview where he talked about having too much free time, and how he wanted to get a crappy day job to keep the juices flowing.
Another big part is sending myself emails, ideas and sounds that catch my ear. Usually YouTube clips, but it could be anything. I have a bunch of pinned, unopened emails that read like “Yengi through text to speech freeware convert to midi chef john coughs at 3:26 motivational Japanese piano music novosibirsk train station”.
Virtuous.scr available through Planet mu
Does the AI character have an artistic process of its own? Could you describe it?
The AI takes sound-elements – bits of dance-music, advertisements, melody, internet free-sound, lonely YouTube vids etc., and arranges them in an unfamiliar way. It’s not that the AI lacks the technical ability to faithfully generate recognizable sound constructs, but lacks the humanity to understand contexts.
But there is no actual AI. The theme is a way exploring the music making process, and a way to reflect on myself. The music dictates the conceptual direction as much as the opposite. I think I just tap into a counter-intuitive area of my brain. I’ve been getting EEG brain wave mapping done recently, for an unrelated reason, but maybe I’ll see if I’m making strange connections or something.
How would you say your music is informed by your visual art?
They both complement each other. I tend to get consumed by an idea or theme and will only work based on it.
How do you find Vancouver Island influences you?
Being isolated works to my advantage. I’m on island time.
What’s next?
Rihanna voice emulator, PSI startup, Eruption, surveillance cameras, paypal ads, viral gaming vids, 100 rounds of Google Deep Dream, Drake through Max/MSP, Alter/Ego, ASMR sponsored content.
and this…
Interviewed by Vincent Parker
illustration of antwood by Vincent Parker