Name: Alana Schachtel aka  Lipsticism
Nationality: American
Occupation: Musician
Current Release: Elapsed Kiss with Phantom Limb
Recommendations: The paintings of Agnes Pelton / “Memory” by Rosa Pajaro

If you enjoyed this interview with Lipticism, you can keep up to date with her work on Instagram 

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 with my eyes open and closed. Often at shows I want to listen with my eyes closed to really focus on every nuance in the music. I often see colorful landscapes when I listen to music, both natural and surreal ones. I love textural music or music with a wall of sound quality because the landscapes can feel so immersive, complex, and beautiful. Music is definitely a very powerful tool for my body to feel different. I often use music to feel either calmer or energized, depending on how I want to feel. When a melody, chord progression, or harmony connects with me emotionally it can feel very physically intense and euphoric. My friend described this sensation as a puzzle piece fitting into its spot.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

I had no musical training growing up but I was a competitive dancer for a while. I first downloaded a daw in my early 20’s and would imagine choreography then make a soundscape that matched it. Once this process got started I would either continue to imagine choreography or start to hear sounds that I wanted to come next. My process has evolved a lot since then, but I still love centering intuition and experimentation. I love feeling as though something is contacting me in hopes of being expressed, and I am ushering it into existence. Of course, I have no idea where ideas come from but it does feel like I got a phone call or something and am hearing a voice other than the one I’m used to. I’m realizing I didn’t answer the question about how I rate gains, truth be told I don’t really think about my progress or gains much. I’m not against thinking about this but it doesn’t really come to mind naturally.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I was a big 60’s-70’s folk/ psychedelic rock person during those ages. The songwriting of artists like Neil Young and Crosby, Stills, and Nash was incredible to me, it gave me that puzzle-piece-fitting-into-its-spot-feeling. Since I had an internet connection back then I also did quite a bit of digging and came into contact with more obscure stuff of that era like Throbbing Gristle. Back then I wasn’t listening to much electronic music, but by the age of 18 I was started to become obsessed with it. I remember the first time I started to try and identify the individual instruments and components of music, this blew my mind because prior to that I was just listening to songs without awareness or thought of the composition or production. Electronic music posed a really fun challenge for me in this area because often the instruments and textures are mysterious. With lots of rock music I can hear drums, guitar, bass, but the sounds of electronic music and how they morphed were more elusive to me.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

The daw has been the most important tool for me by far. It has definitely shaped my perspective on music because anything seems possible in a daw. I pay a lot of attention to things like automation and panning, production is equally if not more important to me than songwriting.

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

I’m just interested in sitting down in front of a blank slate and allowing whatever ideas that come to me to emerge. I love beauty.  Whether visual or sonic or poetic, I am motivated by the process of finding and creating something beautiful. I do it largely for the enjoyable state that making music puts me in, I want to be stimulated to see landscapes and have ideas arrive in my mind. I’m also motivated by honesty and emotional outpouring without boundaries. It’s appropriate to do this in music (maybe while redacting names of people) but often not appropriate to express these things in reality.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I don’t really know what he means here but I do find a common thread in terms of sound across everything I make. My latest record has a cohesive sound across the whole thing, and I think it really ties it together. I used similar instrumentation and reverb across every song, so I attribute it having a distinct sonic world to those choices. I have never made a record that has a consistent or cohesive sonic world before this one and I really enjoyed the experience. I like the idea of a record as an environment you step into, similar to traveling to a place in physical reality.

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 bug sounds. In deep summer during the evening when the visual field is dark and the sonic field is filled with countless quick moving bug sounds, it’s brought me to tears many times. It’s such an enveloping and overwhelming experience. I guess every sound or soundscape that occurs in nature, or the city can be analyzed from a musical perspective. I’m not very interested in the discussion of whether or not it’s music though.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I’m drawn to a variety of music depending on my mood and what I want out of it. However, I have lately been into ambient music with deep bass and long melodic and harmonic elements. This kind of music helps me to drop into a deeper part of myself and is deeply calming. It makes me think of David Lynch’s book “catching the big fish” in which he argues that meditation and slowing down help you access deeper waters of your consciousness and catch ideas that may not have been there on the surface. Music with these qualities can connect me with emotions I haven’t been feeling as I live my daily life, and it can elicit ideas that feel more buried in me too.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

I’m often trying to make my songs linear and traditional, but it doesn’t always come easy to me. What comes most naturally to me is a song that evolves but doesn’t harken back to a familiar chorus or verse.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

My upcoming album Elapsed Kiss was made in seven weeks. It felt like an idea for a sonic world and the motivation to make it real arrived suddenly and in a surprising way. Previously, albums have taken me four or more years to complete. I work on them when I have the time or energy, and I make the songs months, sometimes years apart. When I was making Elapsed Kiss I woke up and went to bed thinking about it, and used most of my free time in between my other life responsibilities to bring it to fruition.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I’m always experimenting. I love to start with a new tool or piece of stimuli to see what it will evoke. I don’t think of it as a science experiment though and I don’t glean scientific insights from the process.

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?

My friend recently told me she likes music that feels like a Mary Oliver poem. To me, Mary Oliver poems are rife with perspectives that promote compassion, wisdom, and insight. Music both lyrically and sonically can do this. I am drawn to “Mary Oliver” music as well, and I have definitely been positively influenced by the depth and wisdom a lot of music shares with the world. Sometimes certain lyrics come to mind while I’m in a difficult situation and they guide or comfort me. The transcendent composition and textures of music without lyrics can do this as well, it somehow nonverbally communicates and delivers states like wonder, awe, and gratitude to name a few.

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?

To me it’s very different, but that’s just me! Music feels like a very comprehensive and cohesive way to capture emotion and to trigger visual and proprioceptive senses. It puts me in contact with ideas, feelings, and visions I have not been able to access from other avenues. I don’t doubt that making a great cup of coffee can do this for some though!

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Many! Andro by Oneohtrix Point Never comes to mind. It’s a mood I can’t put my finger on.

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

I would love if streaming paid more, and if artists could be better compensated for their work in general. I would love to see music reach people far and wide without the artist having to make content that appeals to the algorithms.