Part 1

Name: Kat Epple
Nationality: American
Occupation: Composer, Synthesist, flutist
Current release: Kat Epple is one of the musicians featured on the new Hunter Complex album Airports And Ports, out via Burning Witches. Also, a remastered version of the Emerald Web album Traces of Time is available via Stoned to Death.

[Read our Hunter Complex interview]

If you enjoyed this Kat Epple interview and would like to stay up to date with her work, visit her official website. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

It was an unlikely beginning for an ambient electronic musician, but for my first fourteen years of life, I lived n the Appalachian region of the USA, in a small rural town in the foothills of Southern Ohio, during the 1950s and 60s. My childhood could be described as very earthy, bucolic, and “off the beaten path.” It was far away from a concert hall, symphony orchestra, or University.

The music performances I heard as a child were Appalachian musicians playing bluegrass, gospel, and folk music in my grandmother's country church, out in the hills, hollows, and backroads of this very rural area. It was exciting to hear and to watch those musicians play! They called it “hillbilly music,” and it was not the style of music that I wanted to play. But I loved the way they all improvised, collaborated, enjoyed playing, and did not rely on sheet music notation.

At home, I listened to classical music records such as Beethoven and Grieg, because the music took me to distant lands and wonderful adventures in my imagination. That music inspired me to start playing piano at 5 and the flute at 8 years old. I wished that I could play the sound of the entire orchestra, but was told that was impossible. So I decided to create my own musical stories.

My family later moved to Florida’s west coast where I started performing on flute, voice, and guitar with small acoustic ensembles that included guitars, piano, flute, and vocals. It was an original fantasy folk music style, and the lyrics told stories of dragons, wizards, magic, and far-away lands. I later began playing flute in a community orchestra where I especially connected with the music of Gustav Holst, Antonín Dvořák, Claude Debussy, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Gustav Mahler.

I also listened to albums by bands such as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, The Moody Blues and Yes. Then in college, my interests branched out to jazz, and the music of Wendy Carlos, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Ennio Morricone.

[Read our Steve Hackett of Genesis interview]

My passion for electronic music, synthesizers, and in composing music for film scores began when I watched the vintage motion picture “Forbidden Planet.” The film’s music score is entirely electronic.
 
All of those components of my childhood musical influences: the improvisation of the “hill folk,” classical music elements, orchestration, and electronic music became a part of my original music.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours.

Music is visual to me too. When I create music, I see images, colors, and landscapes. Music looks like a painting with moving layers of colors and textures. When composing, I choose a timbre or sound “color” to incorporate into the music by seeing and feeling how it fits with the other existing timbre tracks.               

I feel a kinship, and enjoy collaborating with visual artists such as painters, dancers, and filmmakers. For example, my friend, legendary visual artist Bob Rauschenberg, invited me to perform music for his art openings around the world. At Rauschenberg’s art openings, the music I performed was specifically created for his art, and for the room itself. The venues were often large museums such as The Guggenheim Museums (New York, Bilbao, and Venezia,) NY Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art.

So the music I played was created for the reverberation, intonation, and sound of the physical space.
                        .
What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

When I listen to music, I experience the sound throughout my whole body, mind and spirit, and that inspires me to dance. Moving as I listen to music makes the listening experience more immersive, as my physical body and spiritual self feel the music. I love to dance to any style of music, including classical, EDM, Funk, electronic, rock, hip hop, and ambient music.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

In the early 1970s, as I began to study synthesizers, electronic music, and to compose “Space Music” on a variety of analog synthesizers, my music began to change. In fact, it was the beginning of a major shift in the world as the computer and technology industries were just getting started, growing fast, and would eventually transform the globe.

One obstacle that I had to overcome was the negative comments and attempts to ridicule me from a few male musicians. They did not take my music seriously and said that a "girl" couldn't possibly know how to play a synthesizer, which was a complicated technical instrument. This attitude extended into some music journalists and album reviewers, who would not credit me with playing synthesizers and other electronics.

It is important to note that most of the male musicians that I met were very encouraging and supportive of me, and they were great to work with. I learned to seek out the “good guys”, and try to ignore the negative ones.

Thankfully, attitudes toward women composers and female electronic musicians have improved. We have evolved.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

I am a spiritual, intuitive person, and that influences my compositional music preferences. I try to create music that will take the listener to a place of inspiration and introspection. As I mentioned before, I am also a Science Fiction fan, so sometimes my original music includes Science Fiction elements.

As a film score composer, I enjoy creating a variety of emotional landscapes, from an unsettling, frightening place of horror to adventure, history, future or inspiration.

Especially as I have grown older, I want to create powerful and positive music in a hope to make the world a little more peaceful and loving through my music.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

My intention is to transport the listener to another place, emotion or dimension. Music has that power. It can create a peaceful mood, support healing, and inspire, or it can be angry, rough and painful.
               
Throughout the years, I have received many emails (and letters in the early days) from fans who write about how my music has made a huge difference in their lives, including how it made them feel that they were not alone, and reminded them that there are kindred souls out there. Sometimes, listeners tell me that my music inspired them to create their own music or art, and that my music has touched their spirit.

That is a super-power that musicians have. Music changes the world.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

My music was often described as “music of the future” especially back in the 1980s when, as Emerald Web, we were creating “Electronic Space Music”. I continue to compose music that I feel is the future, although I do include the “traditional” element of utilizing acoustic musical instruments, in addition to using electronic samples, loops, and synths.

I think the future of music is Artificial Intelligence!. Like it or not, much of the music of the future will be composed and performed utilizing AI. It is already used in a lot of the music we hear now. Music created by Artificial Intelligence will be used for Pop Music production, backing tracks for singers, film scores, and for almost every style of music. It will be faster and cheaper to produce with AI than hiring a real musician.

There will continue to be an appreciation for “real” composers, meaning an artist with a unique or genuine vision that requires a human being with a brain, emotions, life experiences, and a spirit. Live performances by musicians will continue to be appreciated.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools - and what are the most promising strategies for working with them?

Probably the most important instruments that I began using in my composition would be synthesizers which, as I mentioned before, I began playing in 1973. At that time, electronic synthesizers were new, unfamiliar to most people, and hated by many.

At that time, in the late 70s and early 80s, the New Age Music genre was new. There were very few musicians creating it, and it included amazingly diverse music styles, such as a chanting Tibetan bowl gong player, New Age folk singers, and acoustic piano players. This new music genre sold primarily through New Age book stores, spiritual centers, and festivals, and was not generally carried in record stores. We were delighted that Emerald Web’s “Electronic Space Music” could be included in this eclectic new, diverse music category.

As the band Emerald Web, we were always on the cutting edge of technology, and we performed live on stage with a wide array of analog synthesizers, analog sequencers, acoustic instruments, audio effects, and a mixing board. It was a lot of technology for us to manage during live performance. The first synthesizer that I performed with on stage, was an Arp 2600 which was programmed using rotary knobs, sliders, and patch cables.

Another important tool that I learned was recording engineering. Of course, when I first started, recording studios used reel-to-reel audio tape. I continue to engineer my albums and film scores, and am constantly learning new technology. It is a skill that has been integral in my career as a producer and composer.

I am also interested in musical instruments from other cultures and traditions around the world. I have traveled the globe, collecting unique indigenous music instruments, which I often incorporate in my albums and film scores.