Name: Frederic Blais aka Fred Everything aka All Is Well
Nationality: French-Canadian  
Occupation: Producer, composer, DJ
Current release: All Is Well's debut full-length studio album A Break In Time is out via Compost / Drumpoet Community.
Recomendations: Not exactly on the subject but David Byrne's How Music Works is a great book to better understand, how music works!

If you enjoyed this All Is Well interview and would like to stay up to date with the project, head over to Instagram, or Facebook. Fred Everything also has profiles on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.  
 


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?

Both. When I’m in the studio and the project is taking shape, I like to turn off the screen. When I played some of the demos for this album to a friend and turned off the screen, all of a sudden, it was like someone else had made this music. I couldnt understand where it was coming from.



How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

Headphones put you in a more intimate space with the music. Stereo puts you in the room with the music. Like you’re part of an art installation.

For this album, we also mixed a version in Dolby Atmos, which gave me a whole new perspective on listening and being immersed in the music.

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

I love pads and textures in general. They make me feel safe/at home.

This project in particular was written as a sort of calming therapy during the forced isolation of the pandemic. It was a way for me to be ok even if the outside world wasn’t.



There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

I hate the sound of dishes on a counter.

I love any warm soft synth sounds, or an analog mono synth sequence through a tape echo.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

I’m lightly claustrophobic so caves are a no no. The only thing close to that was swimming in a Cenote in Mexico. I had to fight my fear.

I don’t think I could go to an anechoic chambers. I have Tinnitus so silence is not my friend unfortunately.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

I mostly record inside and direct in the computer. I’ve been toying with the idea of recording keyboards with a microphone through an amp more to add air, but I’ve only done that a handful of times.

I also used quite a bit of field recording on this album. It’s subtle, but it’s there. It helps bring another dimension to a previously “electronic only” recording. I look forward to playing my music live in an immerssive surround system on November 30th at Centre Phi in Montreal.

The Dolby Atmos version of the record will also be available for a limited time in a special listening room, Habitat Sonore, also at Phi, where we mixed the record.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

Not material no. But I do “see” it somehow.

I remember my first year of high school, our religion teacher, a priest, was trying to find a way to explain to us why we should believe in God, even If we can’t see him. So he asked the class, who here can see music? I’m the only person who raised his hands. I don’t have to tell you how the rest of my high school experience was!

Sculpting is definetely something I try to do with frequencies and textures.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

I’ve become very interested and involved in ear health as of late. As I mentioned previously, I have Tinnitus and it got worse last year after an ear infection. As a result, I now have Eustachian Tube Dysfunction and there’s no quick fix for that.

I recently spoke in a ear health panel for people in the music industry and I got the club where I work to install a Db meter. I wear musician’s earplugs now when I work and when I go out. People don’t realize how fragile our ears are, and for someone like me, a lot of emotions are linked to that organ.

I’d like to help more people being aware and hopefully save people from any bad conditions.
 


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?

Good question. Walking in the bamboo forests on Maui was certainly an interesting experience. Hearing those trees fall on each other was something a bit creepy but also beautiful.  

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?  

I think we communicate with our pets in one way or another. Sound carries emotion that can be universal.

Matthew Herbert, amongst others, has used animal sounds on his records. That would be one creative aspect I can think of.

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

I covered some of this earlier, earplugs 100%.

I also installed a Db meter in my studio and try to be careful with loud noise, without overprotecting my ears, which can lead to hyperaccousis.

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?

SIlence is something I can only dream of. Does true silence really exist, or will or brains constantly look for something to hear. Almost as a way to protect ourselves from potential danger.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

Stevie Wonder can play just about every instruments on his records. He can work a modular synthesizer without his eyes.

Maybe not being able to see enabled him a higher level of hearing and overall understanding of what is the effect that sound have on us. He definetly knows things we don’t.