Name: Ian Hawgood
Occupation: Producer, sound artist, mastering engineer, label founder at Home Normal
Nationality: British
Recent release: Ian Hawgood teams up with David Newman and Porya Hatami for their sophomore album as Monogoto, Partial Deletion of Everything (Vol. 2), out now via Polar Seas.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: Microtonality and the Tuning Systems of Erv Wilson By Terumi Narushima (book); Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (film)
My favourite though would be Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata - it isn’t about sound design or music but is a work that focuses on quietude, a slowness of life and absorbing the past and present. I find this work deeply musical despite the traumatic nature. There is a focus on temples bells at New Year that has always stayed with me.

[Read our David Newman interview]
[Read our Porya Hatami interview]

If you enjoyed these thoughts by Ian Hawgood and would like to find out more about his work, visit his mastering page on the Home Normal website. We also recommend our earlier interview with Ian Hawgood about a wide range of topics.

For an interview with one of his collaborators, read our bvdub interview.



Can you talk a bit about your interest in or fascination for sound? What were early experiences which sparked it?

I had hearing difficulties as a child with a number of infections, having to wear hearing aids and learn sign language. At the age of ten, after a long stay in hospital, I regained my hearing and have been amazed by music and sounds of all kinds since quite simply.

I will always recall being fascinated by the sound of birds in our garden and was fascinated by TV static. And so my love affair with sound and music began really.

Which artists, approaches, albums or performances using sound in an unusual or remarkable way captured your imagination in the beginning?

My family were all musically very gifted so we would sit around enjoying piano, violin and any instruments laying around. Despite my hearing issues I would love these moments.

The most magical was watching my mother play the saw - it was so strange and haunting. I’ve never seen anyone play as beautifully as she did when I was a child.

What's your take on how your upbringing and cultural surrounding have influenced your sonic preferences?

As noted above, as I tuned in to sound in a fresh way as a child, I found myself obsessed by artists for years, not expanding my pool of music until I was fifteen. The first album I was given from a friend that really ‘woke me up’ to music was Inspiral Carpets Revenge of the Goldfish.



It had a huge influence on how sound could be designed around superb melodies, and I’ve have always loved the grime and grit in that sound they had.

I just started listening to every band I could on grimy tapes and that was the culture of music in the 90s in the UK - just the energy and purity of it all, pre-Internet age, and that has always stayed with me despite the dffferent genre I work within.

Working predominantly with field recordings and sound can be an incisive step / transition. Aside from musical considerations, there can also be personal motivations for looking for alternatives. Was this the case for you, and if so, in which way?

Not really. I started when I first lived in Japan more or less. As a band we recorded on DAT and I eventually got a cheap field recorder for these sessions. We’d drive around after each session and listen.

The one thing I loved was the sounds captured before and after a take, even the sound of traffic outside. I would walk home from recording or on my way to work and just started recording without really thinking then mixing this at home with my JP8000 ambient recordings on four track. It wasn’t anything I really focused on.

These days I record down at our local beach and my personal motivation is very much on simply meditating whilst recording down there. It is one of the most wonderful things you can do - a calmness in nature but recording it to capture the moment as well.

How would you describe the shift of moving towards music which places the focus foremost on sound, both from your perspective as a listener and a creator?

I don’t see it as a shift really - just a quicker shaping of sound really. Nature takes its time, and is so musical all on its own.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and working with sound? Do you see yourself as part of a tradition or historic lineage when it comes to your way of working with sound?

No I don’t consider that. I went back to college to study sound tech but that was just a very neutral learning curve for me to understand analog gear. My approach (if we can call it that) is focused on these learnings and my education in rewiring and messing about with equipment.

I just like to play with stuff to be honest.

What are the sounds that you find yourself most drawn to?  Are there sounds you reject – if so, for what reasons?

Tape sounds - whether reels or cassettes. I find it so soothing and just gels for me - reminds me of my youth playing with machines maybe.

I hate digital sounds to be honest. I just find them too cold and obvious.

As creative goals and technical abilities change, so does the need for different tools of expression, from instruments via software tools and recording equipment. Can you describe this path for you personally starting from your first studio/first instruments and equipment? What motivated some of the choices you made in terms of instruments/tools/equipment over the years?

I still have my childhood piano and record on it to this day. My first main electronic instrument would be my JP8000 synth which I love. At university I had an Ibanez guitar and an OD-2 distortion and amp I bought from a mutual friend of Supergrass (who I went to school with). My mate Ben had a four track and we worked on tape loops with this set-up.

My studios have evolved a lot, especially as a mastering engineer, but these days I’ve gone right back to simple guitar and tape combos, and yes, a JP8000.

Where do you find the sounds you're working with? How do you collect and organise them?  

I’ve got a lot of musician friends with loads of instruments. I record all of them straight up as sketches on my Nagra Seven recorder and DPA mics. They’re little cavalier mics but great. I basically record all the time in all sorts of environments.

I’m hyper-organised and have to be with this way of working, so store TB of sounds with careful titles, all dated so I know where I am at always.

From the point of view of your creative process, how do you work with sounds? Can you take me through your process on the basis of a project or album that's particularly dear to you?

Well the Monogoto work is really interesting.

I have such a huge body of instrument recordings and I simply shared these with Porya and David knowing their collaboration would be very special. They structured these and added layers of instrumentation, with each of us mixing elements and sections so there is a lot going on in each piece. We then took a second layer of mixing in the same order again. On my side, I added guitar tape loops or synth loops mulched up connecting sections and creating a drone / tone layer underneath.

Obviously there is a lot more to it than that but that’s the approach at its most simple. I sketch, record everything and edit nothing - allowing others to do the hard work of actually mixing these initial sounds together. :)

The possibilities of modern production tools have allowed artists to realise ever more refined or extreme sounds. Is there a sound you would personally like to create but haven't been able to yet?

I want to record a large church organ using hydrophones and low frequency mics - I’ve recorded smaller organs but have never had a chance to really work on a large pipe organ, nor have access to. That is a priority for me really.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and composition?

As quietude and listening.

The idea of acoustic ecology has drawn a lot of attention to the question of how much we are affected by the sound surrounding us. What's your take on this and on acoustic ecology as a movement in general?  

Well I was recording in snowy Gloucestershire last week, and we couldn’t escape car sounds no matter how far we went, and despite roads being closed due to the weather. It was striking and I did indeed consider how nature had become rather degraded due to these unnatural sounds.

Acoustic ecology runs both ways but my focus is on how to protect natural environments and their soundscapes from human impact.

We can listen to a pop song or open our window and simply take in the noises of the environment. Without going into the semantics of 'music vs field recordings', in which way are these experiences different and / or connected, do you feel?

They are different in the focus and control of making music, especially pop music for example. Field recording is about truly listening and being deeply open to what is around you.

Where they crossover is in the state of mind in recording outside or creating music - it is one of spirit and quietude, understanding what is outside and inside and that connection between the two. I know this sounds a little New Age, but I’ve always found that there is a unique level in either.

From the concept of Nada Brahma to "In the Beginning was the Word", many spiritual traditions have regarded sound as the basis of the world. Regardless of whether you're taking a scientific or spiritual angle, what is your own take on the idea of a harmony of the spheres and sound as the foundational element of existence?

I think I have touched on this in other questions really. The very nature of mindfulness is at its truest when you close your eyes, in any environment I have found, and focus simply on the sounds around you. It is the very essence of life.