Name: Reade White aka Reade Truth aka Fiction Life
Nationality: American
Occupation: Producer
Recent release: Fiction Life's debut LP Basic Moves 17 is out via Basic Moves.

If you enjoyed this interview with Fiction Life and would like to find out more about his music, visit him on Facebook.



Where does the impulse to create something come from for you?

Inspiration comes from real life always. Everything I write is about something that happened to me, a feeling, or an experience. Lots of successful people in this genre just copy what they hear, put their take on it, and thats that, but I think a true musician’s music is everything they experience in life presented to you sonically. Both their highs and lows cause that’s honesty and thats reality.

Personally, am very sensitive to all the positive and negative things I experience in life and I learned at a very young age the best way for me to process all the information is to filter all of it through music diverting its power and recycling all of it into something new that shares how I feel about my experience here on earth. Thats’s my technique, I am making my statement about life, and it is draining. But it is totally worth it to see the results.

DJing and Producing is about being a bit of a voyeur— you are inspired by watching people in motion, watching them react to sound. It’s a high. And when you mix in strong emotional content making music becomes making art, that’s how I view it, like painting a painting. Tuning into the mind, targeting feelings and exploring them, turning emotions into mantras. Creating hypnotic, ritualistic grooves that can be reflected upon over and over.

Matching emotion content with sonic vibrations results in a form of magick that happens simultaneously in one’s mind and on a dancefloor with a group of any size. That’s what I’m really doing; casting spells. I want people to think. To MOVE and think. For me this is an un-quenching thirst.

Electronic dance music is a mental exercise, it is about being clever, how do you progress the beat? The programming reflects your style, how clever your groove is. Music is a crazy mixture of this, mathematics and emotions. So yeah, it should have some inspiration. I abhor music that is formulaic or has no meaning. My vision has always been keenly anti-commercial, and trying to keep it deep, keep it real. I am a proud part of the underground, and it is a lifelong fight against commercialism.

There is a lowest common denominator that is present in music; sound and beats are super subliminal people are wired to expect the obvious, our job is to keep it interesting, colorful and filled with flavour. But sadly, as a DJ/producer you can also play to the expectations and too many do.

The end result is that it propels tons of mediocre people and mediocre music to the forefront just because some are lazily following any formula they can cling to. Many artists start out pure but stop exploring when the money gets good and do the same thing over and over again. Business techno.

It is important to say what has to be said, cause it’s too easy to lose sight of the truth. I am 1000% against this and always try to push boundaries. There is a wonderful world of unique and weird music that is being suppressed. We all have to do our part to free it.

What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

There are some strong themes running through all Reade Truth productions. The main one is from my original project, Crimen Excepta, which started when I was 16.



Love is the Crimen Excepta, which means the most exceptional crime in Latin. For a very long time I have been fascinated with and have explored all the aspects of love, sex and relationships. These things can be a major distraction from perfecting our own inner spirit. All the talk and enthusiasm for love, and the feelings of empathy can suddenly seem un-genuine when we lose it.

My poignant conclusion is that people are often mistaken about their feelings for others, and ultimately, the whole concept of true love. People helplessly fall victim into this sticky trap time and time again. And then the memories invade and unceasing anxious feelings about those that once came to play persist and persist. It has reached the point where no one can no longer distinguish what a genuine emotion is or establish what has been programmed in their minds. I try to address these topics and do something to help.

Much of my work is descriptive of this subject and it’s various stages, its like a therapy I suppose. I like to present the tension but mix it with elements of hope, its like working things out. Turning negatives into positives by processing raw emotion. This is what my music is. I was a lyricist / poet in my high school years, and a lot of the work from time period gets incorporated into my productions.

I rarely delve into world politics in my music because my world happens completely on dance-floors. I don’t believe in political parties, I believe in techno parties! Therefore my focus is on a different kind of politics, the social politics of daily life, the scene and how people interact. What emotions are triggers, what makes friends friends, what makes enemies hate? What are the peer pressures on a dancefloor? Especially in DJing, there is a lot of peer pressure and judgement. This is the stuff that interests me.

For instance, so much about acceptance should be described. To this day, your appearance; what you choose to wear, your sex and a lot of other ridiculous minutia prevent many people from sharing that rebellious electronic sound flying out of the speakers because they are being judged by others. The reason rave cultured started was so that people could be FREE and everyone was welcome, as long as they danced and loved.

But, everything always breaks back down into super-basic tribal concepts of this should sound like this, and you have to look like this. I want to expose and help fight against this kind of social politics.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?

I don’t have any preparation phase other than there are productive periods and then there are not for a long time. This only pertains to composing, editing music in post happens every single day of my life and never gets old.

But as far as sitting down and composing, I go through long periods where I don’t touch any gear. I need time to process life events and recharge my psyche.


Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

No, none of that matters, when it’s the right time it’s the right time. I will say it can be hard to work in a foreign environment, so having your home studio or studio space set perfectly is ideal. You also want to have all the gear connected and ready to communicate, nothing breaks creative momentum like having to fix hardware and software problems.

What do you start with? How difficult is that first line of text, the first note?

There is no real start point. I make primarily dance music so it almost always starts from a basic rhythm and develops from there.

Once you've started, how does the work gradually emerge?

For me it’s a quick process. Create the groove, decide the mood, record vocals and find samples. To make a strong groove, make each drum machine be able to carry the track on its own. I usually use several drum machines. I record a few live takes as it creates a more natural vibe.

Then it goes into editing and detail and measuring out the sound effects. All the stuff that people generally do not notice, the mathematics part of it, measured in millimeters or much less.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control over the process or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

No, there is no control. It goes where it goes and you have to follow it, and catch it, and tame it, and make it work for your track.

Often, while writing, new ideas and alternative roads will open themselves up, pulling and pushing the creator in a different direction. Does this happen to you, too, and how do you deal with it? What do you do with these ideas?

When I compose I am very prolific. I focus on implementing new ideas and usually end up with an explosion of material which gets streamlined into different directions. I then take my time with editing

There are many descriptions of the creative state. How would you describe it for you personally? Is there an element of spirituality to what you do?

This is immortality, we are leaving something behind, and in sound we live forever. Spirituality is everything in this music it is like a religion. If you don’t have this you shouldn’t be making music. Cuz then you are just making business techno and are part of the problem.

Too much soulless garbage clutters the market and prevents true art from being heard or appreciated. It's like going to a museum vs. going to a chain department store where everything is mass-produced assembly line bullshit.

l also think humans invent unnecessary structures to guide them thru life. Most likely this is all to cope with the reality of death. Since our minds are so complex in their nature, we in turn make excuse after excuse for our abysmal behaviors. Music is part of spirituality. Meditation with music definitely helps us fight against manifesting preposterous lines of thought that in turn promote unbearably pompous human superiority complexes.

Believe me we need it.

Especially in the digital age, the writing and production process tends towards the infinite. What marks the end of the process? How do you finish a work?

I’m a perfectionist. Everything has to be perfect, so a work is only finished when it is released.

A lot of people don’t understand this. They think something is the final product and it can not be changed. But the music is like a fluid, it's changing all the time until it's time to be mastered and cut.

Once a piece is finished, how important is it for you to let it lie and evaluate it later on? How much improvement and refinement do you personally allow until you're satisfied with a piece? What does this process look like in practice?

I work on multiple tracks every day. Then I go running and listen to my creations. It is the best way for me to evaluate things. It is some kind of Kraftwerk “The Man Machine” meditation thing, just getting lost in physical exercise and letting the music be the fuel for the body. Afterwards I know what changes or updates need to be made. This is my daily routine for the past decades.

Interestingly, I have also moved past the idea of old vs new music. Today there is so much rerelease and emulation of the past sound that I think electronic music moves in every direction not just forwards. The past has become the future and vis-a-vis.

Besides that, as I said before, I never stop working on ideas until they are released. Therefore some of the tracks have very old beginnings and many early versions and some others are recent. I have always done this since day one because i think the combination makes it unique.

What's your take on the role and importance of production, including mixing and mastering for you personally? How involved do you get in this?

Electronic music is all about production. So every producer is therefore fully invested in finding the right sound sculpture. If you are not good at this you, you can not succeed.

It's sonic vibration we are talking about. People are absolutely dialed in and very very, sensitive to this. Sonic deficiencies are not well tolerated.

After finishing a piece or album and releasing something into the world, there can be a sense of emptiness. Can you relate to this – and how do you return to the state of creativity after experiencing it?

No, for me it’s a feeling of accomplishment, for the most part.

However, being prolific, I often forget to really enjoy the moment. I let go of the tracks and focus on what I am releasing next.