Part 1

Name: Isabel Munson aka Bell Curve
Nationality: American
Occupation: Producer, DJ
Current release: Bell Curve's Heart Alarm EP is out via Moveltraxx.
Recommendations: It’s really hard to pick just a few, but to mention some older work - Tom Calvert’s album Zanbor with an accompanying film is really cool. I love all of Luke Vibert’s work under the Amen Andrews alias. “Hana” by Asa-Chang and Junray is forever gorgeous
For books, Octavia Butler’s Earthseed series or Kim Stanley Robinson’s books like Ministry For The Future or New York 2140.

If you enjoyed this Bell Curve interview and would like to know more about her music, visit her on Instagram, Soundcloud, 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?

It depends, most of the time I listen to music with my eyes open, because I listen to music while I do most things. I’m listening to music as I write these answers! At shows I’ll close my eyes fairly often and listen / lose myself, and there are times at shows or at home where I see visuals or imagine visuals to go with a sound or what this sound would look like, but it’s not a constant thing while listening.

When a song is good/exciting to me I’ll just inadvertently start moving and dancing. It’s pretty incredible and mind-boggling how music is literally vibrations / waves, and songs can have energies that you resonate with or that even then shift your own energetic state!

To me it seems like sometimes a song will have an energetic charge that can suddenly catapult you to being super hype or happy, but when you listen to it at another time in a different mood or state, it could fail to have that same effect or sound “too hard”. It’s crazy how music can pull you to a different emotional or energetic level, in multiple emotional and physical dimensions/directions–it literally takes you to another place!

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

I am definitely fascinated as well with new worlds through music. I love how it can take you places, and in my own music I like to try and create that feeling.

I love sci-fi and from the start of creating music I was drawn to the idea of trying to make otherworldly sounds that transport you while having a heavy low end focus (bass transports you in a related but different way to sounds as a whole, they’re intertwined I guess).

In listening I like a wide range of sounds and approaches, it just has to pique my interest and make me want to hear it more. It’s not always clear upon initial listen how much I will later like a song as I listen to it more times, and taste is always evolving to some extent.

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 think in some ways I am a happy exception to that tendency, because I didn’t even discover a lot of the music I love and play now until I was in my 20s! But, I was laying the foundations at that age, when I got my first computer and was finally allowed on the internet, leading me to become an obsessive consumer of music blogs and sites during the blog-house era and start of EDM’s ascendance in America.

Music really became my obsession (I always loved it, but was previously limited to the CDs I had and limited to songs on my iPod, etc), and I was constantly digging for new music and making CDs for myself and others. I had little clue what anything was, genre-wise, and wasn’t part of any scene, but happily stumbled upon some musical threads that I can now connect to the sounds I like the most.

I think in many ways music meant the same thing to me then as it does now. I still find a new song I’m obsessed with and play it 40 times over a few days! After years as a producer, DJ, and scene participant, my relationship to music is a bit different than it was at 21 or 15, particularly in that now I have more of a “professional ear” for better or worse.

I can now identify genres and maybe how a sound design element was achieved, and name and focus in on one element of a track (like a “mixing ear”), which is nice to be able to do, but sometimes makes listening to music or a performer a bit less pure than it used to be, when all I’d really be thinking was “oh this is so cool, I like this part”. Now, it’s like “wow the panning on that hi hat is really interesting, how do I do that?”, and I sometimes miss the simplicity of listening before I knew very much.

There are also benefits of that kind of knowledge though, and being able to talk about and credit your influences, discuss sounds and describe what you are doing is important for many reasons.

Tell me about one or two of your early pieces that you're still proud of (or satisfied with) – and why you're content with them.

Really pretty much everything, but I’ll highlight:

“Imma Get U”, from my 2nd EP/tape in 2019. I absolutely love this one, the incredibly euphoric and pretty synths combined with the frenetic off-kilter percussion and zooming bass is kinda a perfect fusion of a sound I was trying to achieve and just hits my sweet spot sonically.



“Heaven And Hell” from my first EP, released on Sweat Equity in 2017. This one is again really hard, experimental, and brings in some great synth sounds that pull the track through different stages.



This whole release was kinda chaotic as I was very new to producing, but so raw and vibrant, a lot of the songs sound like they would be coming from an unearthed time capsule of indeterminate origins from the center of the earth–very otherworldly.

What is your current studio or workspace like? What instruments, tools, equipment, and space do you need to make music?

My studio is also my office space, which I’d like to change in the future and have a space that’s solely for creation (and where I can be as loud as I want). Most of what I make comes from my desktop computer that lives on that desk, and my Ableton Push (2, but I just upgraded to a 3 after many years).

I got a few synths last year to try and work outside the computer, but have not found myself very intrigued by them yet. I make everything with Ableton, most often with the Push, using a few different plug-ins, stock instruments, and mostly samples I download or make. I have produced using headphones and a Subpac for many years of apartment living, though in the daytime I play music on speakers, and in most spaces have been lucky enough to be able to play music pretty loudly.

I’ve been working on more stuff using my own vocals and have a mic now as well, more in that direction in the future.

From the earliest sketches to the finished piece, tell me about the creative process for your current release, please.

The tracks were made at different times. “Just A Lil Bit Of Sweat” was made after a sweaty summer rave years ago, while “A Second Obelisk Appears” was made in conjunction with my song “Obelisk” released last year, while I was reading an NK Jemison book series featuring magical floating obelisks.



“Heart Alarm” was the most recently made track, starting off as an instrumental with a vocal sample from me that I really loved (and was one of the few songs I made in that time period that I was SUPER excited about). I had the idea to ask They Hate Change about doing vocals for a tune on my EP and they picked that tune. I was blown away by their work when I got it back, they really elevated the energy and vibes, and I am a huge fan of their music.

The tracks were curated together based on label feedback and ended up being a really great pairing, but it wasn’t a situation where I made them all at the same time planning to release them together.

What role and importance do rituals have for you, both as an artist and a listener?

Not very much, really. I have basically none. I have things I like to do before a show I’m playing, like stretching, but I don’t think everything will be ruined if I can’t do them or anything.

I’m trying to establish more rituals these days as part of cultivating discipline about creating, to help have “cues” that transition you into “work mode” even when you don’t want to, and make the experience more pleasurable and nurturing.

I’ve heard people say things like making a cup of tea, lighting a candle, sitting in a special place, etc. can be good for this purpose, or rituals like getting up and stretching or going on a walk at a certain time.

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?

Hmm, yes and no? I feel like over time I’ve become more aligned with my music/musical persona, where it used to feel more embarrassing to dance or to like/play “hard” music. Now I’m like, no, I’m an artist, and this is part of what I do and I have an obligation to explore and express my callings to their fullest. It’s more embarrassing to sit around criticizing others’ expression while you’re too scared to do anything!

I think there’s still elements that I’m growing into, like really committing and being honest in some work. It’s easy to keep things distanced by being like, oh I’m just being silly–which is a great quality, don’t get me wrong–but I am working on developing a live show/vocal project that is more vulnerable, and that’s very scary to me.

There’s a lot more potential to be rejected or hurt when you’re being totally earnest instead of keeping on the cloak of irony or class clown vibes (or other forms of cloaks and “safe” things). So I think there’s still a gap where my ideal musical persona is more fearlessly embodied, ultra-expressive, unapologetic, and confident than real life me, but I’m getting there day by day!