Name: David Newman
Occupation: Producer, sound artist, label founder at audiobulb
Nationality: British
Recent release: David Newman teams up with Porya Hatami and Ian Hawgood for their sophomore album as Monogoto, Partial Deletion of Everything (Vol. 2) on Polar Seas. He also has a new release out with the group Soft Generator, On a Map of Sounds.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: This is an interesting read from Christine Rawls who has aphantasia and talks about thinking in sound.

[Read our Porya Hatami interview]
[Read our Ian Hawgood interview]

If you enjoyed these thoughts by David Newman and would like to find out more about his work, visit the audiobulb Instagram account. We also recommend our interview with Francesco Gagliardi (Sound Designer and Programmer), David Newman about the Lissajous Software.



Can you talk about your interest in or fascination for sound? What were your early experiences which sparked it?

I have a vivid memory. I had fallen asleep on the living room floor. I was eight years old, and it was 1978. The sun was streaming in through the patio windows. As I awoke, I could see dust particles floating catching the sun light. The sound of birds outside. The vinyl record I had been listened to. The needles now covered in fluff creating vinyl noise. The little repetitive click as the needled jumped stuck at the end of the record.

My breathing synced. It was as though time stood still except, I could concentrate on and detect tiny variations in the ambient sounds. Mesmerising and warm.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances using sound in an unusual or a remarkable way captured your imagination in the beginning?

From the beginning Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles. The Wurlitzer organ on “Mr Kites”, the alarm clock, the breathing, the wall of noise in “A Day In The Life” blew my mind.



Later I read Mark Prendergast books who notes Sgt. Pepper as the Beatles' "homage" to Stockhausen and Cage with an emphasis on "rich, tape-manipulated sound". The ‘allowing in’ of ambient noise was always fascinating to me and rendered clean music tracks all the more interesting as they appeared to diffuse from clinical productions to more of a moment of sound caught within an environmental context.

From Depeche Mode to The Orb to Future Sounds of London to Boards of Canada the same is true with environment being allowed into musical arrangement spaces, bringing new texture and context.

Working predominantly with field recordings and sound can be an incisive step. Aside from musical considerations, there can also be personal motivations for looking for alternatives. Was this the case for you, and if so, in what way?

By the late 1970s and early 1980s the music on the radio and on television was all in the realm of massive bands who dominated popular music.

Although my output was very different the DIY punk aesthetic was one I understood and appreciated. Music or indeed sound recordings needn’t be the domain of an elitist few. We could save for a mic and a tape machine and we recorded what we could.

Sometimes overdubbing new sounds played from one tape machine positioned next to an adjoining machine. All the while hiss and background ambience building.

How would you describe the shift of moving towards music which places the focus foremost on sound, both from your perspective as a listener and a creator?

A beautiful tune can be played with uninteresting tones, it becomes plain and uninspiring, it does not capture the ear or move the mind. A beautiful sound can operate without a tune and capture the imagination.

Sounds are more important than music. Music is the collection of sounds and the quality of each one and how they interplay and dynamically move in relation to each other creates the experience. We should always start with sound. The tone, the character, the movement of a sound whether created by a musical instrument or a natural phenomena is the focus both as a listener and a creator.

If the creator chooses to arrange sounds that are perceived as musical tones, we have music. The listener at the edge of a babbling brook listening to water and birdsong has sound. Creators and listeners now have choices to listen to one or the other or a blending of both.

What are the sounds that you find yourself most drawn to? Are there sounds you reject – if so for what reasons?

As described above I do love vinyl crackle, tape hiss, bird song, field or beach ambience. I love breathing, mouth and body noises – the little nuances of lips and tongues articulating and resting.

I once removed all the words in an interview with John Lennon and left the sounds in-between. Little breaths, gulps, sighs and inhalations – life the person functioning regardless. I also love to pitch them down, reverse them find pockets where panning, reverb or delay can produce interesting interplays or break them into granules with software such as Audiobulb’s AMBIENT. 

I love a low hum, a fan or air conditioner, a coffee pot percolating and, yes, the deepest warmest subs that make my belly contract at volume! Very harsh sounds need to be treated with care, too much abrasiveness in pitch and frequency energy will induce a difficult listening experience particularly for those with sound sensitivities.

Where do you find the sounds you’re working with? How do you collect them and organise them?

I once requested from an email list to be sent sounds from people of their own bodies. Many came into my surprise – clicks, coughs, breaths and hair scuffs and scratches and some sounds I wasn’t anticipating!

Every sound is dutifully tagged and stored and backup. I’m quite organised. I have a huge sound library of collected sounds organised by type and description. Folders full of beach, fields, animals, machinery, spoken word, café, beach, street ambiences all organised. I have recorded many of these myself with my digital recorder, sometimes my phones.

I also recommend freesound - it is a great resource and community of sound collecting people.

From the point of view of your creative process, how do you work with sounds? Can you take me through your process on the basis of a project or album that’s particularly dear to you?

In recent months I have had the honour of releasing music alongside friends whose music I have loved for years.

The Monogoto project is with Ian Hawgood and Porya Hatami. The Soft Generator project is with Michel Mazza (OdNu) and Erik Schoster (HeCanJog), both of whom release on Audiobulb Records. I write intuitively as a preference. I sense and feel what is there and seek to carefully add to it or take away from it in a manner that will make the narrative more interesting.



Working in the two groups it was a process of one artist starting with a sound or tune, passing it to the next who would expand upon the idea. In terms of being more methodical I would listen and then analyse the sounds. Taking note of the stereo field and frequency fields they occupied. I looked for space where a contrasting of complimenting sound could enhance what was there.

In terms of sequential narrative, I like the track to build, to fade, to transform, to metamorphosise, to build, to decline and to die out. I seek sameness with subtle variation in builds and I seek contrast and new ideas in the metamorphosis phases. I love it when changes appear to organically spring from tensions of themes within the early motifs. For the sound to feel as though it has organically conceived of itself. That it is somehow self-cognisant or aware.   

The possibilities of modern production tools have allowed artists to realise ever more refined or extreme sounds. Is there a sound you would personally like to create but haven’t been able to yet?

Destruction / deconstruction / metamorphosis and change - there are so many possibilities to be explored and to aim for.

Take for example the wish to hear a sound of a singular guitar note exploding into a billion granules which fell into sub bass droplets before picking back up the scale to reform as the original note.

The idea of acoustic ecology has drawn a lot of attention to the question of how much we are affected by the sound surrounding us. What’s you take on this and on acoustic ecology as a movement in general?

I work as a psychologist with autistic people and people who have mental health difficulties. Research tells us that acoustics significantly affect a person’s well-being and quality of life. Children are more sensitive to this than adults.

This is a huge issue for neurodiverse people who are challenged by sensory inputs with particular frequencies, volumes or combinations of sound (including echo or reverb) being distressing and difficult to process. If we cannot locate ourselves, other or the external environment accurately due to disorientating sensory experiences we feel unsafe and out of control. This leads to profound impacts including psychological and behavioural distress.

In effect we need to pay as much attention to the sensory environment as we do the physical environment and be aware of the interdependencies between shape, material, form and function. Everyone needs to be able to moderate their sensory inputs and have a sense of meaning, control enabling a sense of peace and safety.

A loss of control, predictability, privacy and safety in sound can ultimately be a breach of human rights.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and composition?

Every sound must exist within time and space and there must be a listener to receive it. The character of the sound is critical to the evocations that it will stir in the listener and their perception of the composition.

Frederico Macedo (2015) wrote an interesting article on Investigating Sound in Space. He put forwards five categories through which to appraise and identify sounds including: metaphor, acoustic space, sound spatialisation, reference and location.