Name: Libby Hsieh aka Alvidrez
Nationality: American
Occupation: Composer, writer
Current release: The new Alvidrez single "Little Heart" is out via Memorials of Distinction. The piece is an epilogue to full-length Antiphone, released earlier this year.
Recommendations: Bad Thoughts by Nada Alic; Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

If you enjoyed this Alvidrez interview, find out more on Instagram, and bandcamp.



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 listen while in movement.

I can’t for the life of me sit down and listen to anything—my mind is akin to a rat's nest or a swamp.That usually translates into restlessness or inattention. When on the road, in the bike lane, or on the sidewalk, all that stupid jitter is focused moving forward and my brain can actually pay attention.

I think if I closed my eyes while I was riding my bike, I would crash.

Entering new worlds and escapism through music have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to listening to and creating music?

I’m not really interested in performance or technical shit. I just want to make and listen to music that is honest and true.

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

I started playing and performing in bands when I was young—gigged constantly.

Discovered I loved writing and recording more than any of the other stuff.

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?

My family was super active in a very conservative church, so I was barred from listening to a lot of music. I snuck a lot of burned CDs my friends made for me. Full of stuff that fueled my teen rebellion.

My headphones were the secret place I could think and feel things I could never say out loud.

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

It’s just the tool I know best.

If I learned how to use acrylic, I’d probably be a painter. If I ever learn how to express myself through gardening, I’ll use a spade and a shovel.

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?

It’s like throwing up!

I feel so sick and weird and I’m like, “Should I drink ginger tea? Should I go for a walk? Talk to a friend? Lie down?” And then I throw up all my feelings and go.. “Oh…..”

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?

Well yeah, I really don’t think it’s socially acceptable to go up to someone and say, “I’m having a crisis about the existence of god and what it means to be a human” on a daily basis.

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

I just try to be as honest as possible. What else can I do?

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?  

God I think that’s something I’m terrible at. I think I need to live a lot of life in between making stuff.

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”?

I love this question so much. My absolute favorite sound is what you hear when you’re underwater. I think it’s technically the sound of your own eardrums - but everything has this weird muted and bassy feel to it.

Actually, there's this really fun transition moment from being above water to submerging where you can hear this brutal difference … it’s like naturally EQing out all the high end.

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?

There is a reason why I decided not to be a Woman in Stem.

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?

Yes, I am an emotional bitch in music and in my daily life.

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?

I hate silence. But I need it. It lets me hear the music in my own head versus the music of everyone else.

That music is not always pretty, but it’s mine.

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 don’t know. I’m being driven by a motor. Someone else is pulling the strings.

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

I would like to see more dancing monkeys in heels.