Name: Theodore Ian Iagö
Nationality: British
Occupation: musician / designer
Current release: The Chemical Wedding
Recommendations: Arte Scara, Egisto Macchi / Paris Texas, Wim Wenders.

If you enjoyed this interview with iagö visit his website www.iagoofficial.com for links to social media and latest work.  

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I guess it depends on the scenario.

As much as every kind of music has its appeal, entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted the strongest pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

The image, still or moving. I need to be transported into a sub-reality.

What were your very first steps in music like and how would you rate the gains made through experience?

DJing was the catalyst, beginning at around the age of 13. I had this fascination surrounding the act. It then transcended into a period of discovery, from music production to learning and understanding the history of music more coherently.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I guess it was an escape, but it also felt so vast and exhilarating. Now my world of music is much smaller.

How would you describe your own relationship with your instrument, tools or equipment?

I’d rather not say. It’s quite intimate.

Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

Other mediums certainly do influence, even if indirectly, specifically film and literature. Thoughts though, they come and go, some I note down and some I don’t. When the time’s right I digest and begin defining. A lot of the exploration is built around research, written and visual. There needs to be a foundation, a story or reason for me to produce; I guess it’s finding that purpose.

Are you acting out parts of your personality in your music which you couldn't or wouldn't in your daily life? If so, which are these? What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music?

I’m certainly drawn to darker sounds, but I wouldn’t say I’m a dark person, it’s more of a feeling that I’m drawn to. It’s really a balancing act between the darker and at times maybe violent sounds, paired with the equally more emotive or romantic palette – it’s like why people enjoy watching thrillers, it’s not because you have a psychotic personality but there’s an attraction to this unsettling nature.
To develop a narrative in which I can conduct a story through sound.

If music is a language, what can we communicate with it? How do you deal with misunderstandings?

Possibly through juxtaposing sonic and lyric. Happy against sad, or, anger against calm. I hope this answer isn’t misunderstood.

Making music, in the beginning, is often playful and about discovery. How do you retain a sense of playfulness and how do you still draw surprises from tools, approaches and musical forms you may be very familiar with? 

I don’t tend to listen to new music. A decision made to avoid it from interfering or influencing me too directly. I listen to a lot of classical or film scores, or older catalogues. Equally I don’t think you ever truly master or fully discover any medium or tool, be that an analog synthesizer. There could be multiple new approaches, simply by rerouting a piece of hardware. I think it’s about continually pushing yourself, the feeling of discomfort I believe is important in any creative pursuit.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Sahara Desert. Pure silence. An incredibly deepening experience. Isn’t music a means to escape? Maybe we need more silence and solitude.

There seems to be an increasing trend to capture music in algorithms, and data. But already at the time of Plato, arithmetic, geometry, and music were considered closely connected. How do you see that connection yourself? What aspects of music do you feel can be captured through numbers, and which can not?

Kraftwerk, Numbers.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Music is a construct of the curator’s energy, how they may be feeling at that given moment in time. Like a painter, you can see the pain or emotion through their strokes.
In some cases, music is transmitted from a place that’s extremely personal to how an individual or group may be feeling, significantly songwriters. It emits context or meaning behind a feeling stronger than possibly any conversation could emit.

Johnny Cash, Hurt written by Trent Reznor. A profound sense of regret.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Sound separates us from reality. Ultimately, I think the best art is built on refinement, when something is stripped to its fundamentals. Silence in essence represents the truest form. How would sound be perceived if we lived in silence?

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I tend to avoid caffeine.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I hope for the decline of digital forms; social media. We’re stuck in the chase for the algorithm or what’s trending. We need more honesty and integrity.