Part 2

Tell me a bit about the sounds & creative directions, artists & communities, as well as the colleagues & creative hotspots of your current hometown, please. How do they influence your music?

Mathilde: A year ago, I moved from Breda to Rotterdam and in the last two months, I finally started to find people and the community that I am drawn to. Since I was booked for this event called Dohm, my life here kind of started to make sense and I feel a huge connection towards the people building that platform and other events and listening sessions.

I think that these things really inspire me to be a better producer and dive deeper into electronic music and the scene around it. As said earlier, community is everything and by going to these places I can feel magic and fall in love with music again and again.

Liza: I’ve also moved quite a bit in the last years and met many inspiring people along the way– Mathilde was one of the people connected to i.e. Intercept Records that I thought had a really interesting sound world. Very personal through her use of classical vocals in a digital soundscape.

It feels like every city has its own sonic universe, which mostly has to do with friends I make there. I recently moved to Copenhagen and met so many inspiring artists and musicians (i.e. 100%WET, Jonathan Ludvig III, Emil F. Emborg, Tettix Hexer & Lio Vino, Trillingesol, Xenia Xamanek– +++more.).



[Read our Xenia Xamanek interview]

My miaw-band buddy Frederik started a label, called Mila Miau, that had their first release only on Soundcloud, Bandcamp and physically with CDs.

Being locally connected and taking music out of the digital landscape and into the world, that feels like a nice energy to me atm.



Today, electronic music has an interesting relationship between honouring its roots and exploring the unknown. What does the balance between these two poles look like in your music?

Mathilde: If I honestly reflect on my musical practice the past years, I don’t really know what I was or am doing. The truth is, I just make music as a diary on my PC and people happen to like it. And after 5 years of performing and being professionally active, I feel as if I am finally ready to dive deeper into the roots of electronic music and classical music.

I have been active in the Willem Twee Studios in Den Bosch, where I learned a lot about the source of modular synths, and this did influence my production. But I still feel that I am lacking some sort of background in historical knowledge and I would love to honour this side as well.

So if we’re talking about balance, my naivety and intuition are and have always been the force of my musical career and now that I am getting older, I want to understand their source, like I am also diving deeper into classical music to understand the use of the voice and then, go back to intuition and see what happens.

Liza: I’m feeling similar to Mathilde, I’m recently diving more and more into musical context and reading into music history of all sorts. When it comes to making music, I’d still often work intuitively.

How do you see the role of sampling in electronic music today?

Liza: I love sampling – capturing sounds around in videos. I think it brings electronic music more into a physical space.

I recently found a video from LA where in the background there’s a remix playing of “A love from Outerspace” by A.R. Kane and have used that audio in a new song, as well as rinsed that record– I love using audio fragments that carry a precious memory or feeling, adding context like a secret.

Mathilde: I see sampling as the translation of electronics, which makes it possible to make sounds that are unknown and weird.

For me this is the magic of production with the PC. I am in love with the endless possibilities of the computer.

What are some of the most recent innovations in sound design for you - and what are currently personal limits to realising the sounds you have in your mind?  

Liza: More on a personal scale, putting autotune on recorded instruments, i.e. my flute.

It usually sounds a little bad, and tweaking the settings such that the melody changes (i.e. not allowing the tune to hit certain notes). It creates some really fun changes.

In as far as it is applicable to your work, how would you describe the interaction between your music and DJing/DJ culture and clubs?

Mathilde: I find it funny that somehow the people that are around me are mostly active in the club scene, yet I find my own music not really suitable for the dancefloor.

Recently I have been DJing a bit more, something that is very unusual for me since I only play livesets really. But I started to  love it, and see it as an extension of my artistic practice.

For some sets, I write a script that I have in mind, a story that I want to tell. Then I start collecting records based on these atmospheres. So what song do I hear when the story starts in a swampy forest?

How, would you say are your live performances and your recording projects connected at the moment? How do they mutually influence and feed off each other?  

Liza: I’m currently really enjoying making songs, drawing, finding old imagery in books or videos, combining those and bringing them alive. I'm working on various creative projects – in a live context I’ve taken a break from playing solo and working on creating a new way of performing live.

I’m mostly playing live with my band miaw at the moment.



Mathilde: Whenever I take care of production at home, I sometimes have the feeling that I see myself performing the piece in a videoclip or movie, so it was always meant to be seen, by myself or others.  

I feel as if the music comes alive when I play it in front of people. For me this is where the real ‘release’ of the music happens. To shoot it in the air and receive something back that is like a totally different version of what you made in the first place.

Even if AI will not entirely replace human composition, it looks set to have a significant impact on it. What does the terms composing/producing mean in the era of AI, do you feel?

Liza: To me, it feels like human connection in music becomes more important. :)

Mathilde: I agree with Liza, it's something I do not have concerns about at all.