Name: Xhato 
Occupation: Producer, performer
Current release: Xhato is one of the artists contributing to the new Monday Off compilation VA vol.8, also featuring Feph, Rasser, and Mathys Lenne. Order on bandcamp or from Triple Vision.

[Read our Mathys Lenne interview]
[Read our Feph interview]

If you enjoyed this Xhato interview and would like to stay up to date with his music and live dates, visit him on Instagram, and Soundcloud.

For a deeper dive, read our conversation on the same topic with the Monday Off founder in our Mary Yuzovskaya interview. 

Are there examples of minimalism in music – and outside of music - that impressed you early on?

I always enjoyed the concept of simple ideas executed well, be it in architecture, paintings, industrial design or food.

Looking for the same approaches in music followed naturally from that.

Do you tend to find that, as many claim, “less is more?” Are the notes you don't play really as important as the ones you do play?

In my opinion this is definitely true for club music.

When you’re on the dance floor in the midst of people and flashing lights, a track that might seem plain at home really shines on the big sound system.

Too much going on in a song can easily be overwhelming or distracting from its essence.

Do you feel as that making music is a process of adding elements until it is done – or one where you chisel away pieces from something that is already there?

After the initial idea has formed, I start recording many variations and add elements that complement it. I deliberately add “too much” during this writing/recording phase.

During a later arrangement session, a lot of these elements get thrown out again. It’s much easier to remove things than having to come up with more at this stage.

Many artists are becoming more minimalist in their music as the years go on, focusing on the “essence.” How is that for yourself and how would you describe your development in this regard?

When listening to my very early sketches, there is a clear pattern of too many things going on. It’s always easier to add “just one more thing” to keep the attention of the listener.

Over time I changed my approach to achieve the same focus by using fewer elements and refining them by adding modulation and other forms of variation.

What were some of the starting points for your most recent release?

There are no ideas in my head before I enter the studio. Every piece I wrote came through experimentation.

Sometimes it takes many hours for an initial idea to form. Once I like something, adding the remaining parts is often easy because there is a clear theme that guides me towards a complete track.

Do you like to set yourself limitations? If so, which were some of those limitations for the new pieces?

A track should have a single core theme. This can be expressed through many voices/layers of course, but it should always feel like one cohesive thought.

My track “Orange Family” is the essence of that: Ignoring the drums, there is just a single long recording of one synth in the entire piece. The pad coming in later is just a different part of that long recording with some reverb on top.

All the movement comes through modulation and layering, not by adding more elements.

Thanks to sampling and digital synthesis, there are endless possibilities for sculpting the sounds and overall sound design of a piece or album. What are your considerations in this regard?

I combine analog synthesis and digital approaches in my music: A single modulated and filtered saw-tooth-wave can be just as exciting as a complicated additive-synthesis algorithm. However every sound I use is synthesized from scratch. I don’t use presets, samples or wave-tables.

This certainly slows down the writing process, but it allows me to fully understand how a sound came to be and how to tweak it to perfection. I get a lot of joy from playing with sounds, which is something I never achieved by just browsing through existing presets/samples.

In my latest productions I even stopped using any drum samples and instead use a custom-built software that can create realistic hi-hat and cymbal sounds by layering dozens of individually frequency-modulated oscillators.

Would you say that you approach your creative tools with a minimalist mindset? Or do you need a wide choice of instruments and tools to make music?

I intentionally limit the amount of instruments I use at a single point in time to help me focus.

I have a few different hardware synths and plenty of Eurorack modular gear in my studio but not all of it is plugged in at the same time. Things often get swapped around and put back into storage to avoid clutter in my working area.

What were some of the most important pieces of gear or instruments for this release?

My track “Lemon Swirl” heavily features the Xaoc Odessa, one of my all-time favorite Eurorack modules.

Reducing one's options and techniques often implies a different way of working with the materials. Tell me about yours, please.

Not using any samples requires me to make every sound from scratch, which takes time.

So I’m often reducing the amount of “ear candy” in a track and rather focus on making the existing elements shine brightest.

French producer Guillaume Duchastel told me: “Minimalism is about more than owning fewer things. It’s about focusing on what truly matters.“ What are some of your strategies for separating what matters from that which doesn't?

Once I have an idea recorded, I spend a lot of time in arrangement, moving parts around and most importantly: removing all clutter.

I often try to remove each element in a track and see if the composition still holds up. If I don’t miss it, I mute the part and see what else I can remove.

With so much incredible music instantly available, are you finding that you want to take it all in – or that you need to be more selective? How do you pick the music you really want to invest in?

These days I am fully focused on producing music and presenting it to the world as a live act.

I don’t DJ anymore, which removes the pressure of having to keep up with the constant flow of new music that hits the shops every week. I spend a lot of time listening to mixes from friends and DJs I admire to keep connected to current music.

Would you say that minimalism extends into other parts of your life as well?

The concept of a restaurant with just two dishes on the menu (which are executed to perfection) excites me immensely.

Do you have things that you are super into but rarely get to talk about? Like, you're wondering why no one is interested in this, while you'd be able to give an enthusiastic interview on the topic? I'd love to hear about them.

Around a year ago I was frustrated with the choice of existing drum synthesizers. I either didn’t like their sound or they would just use pre-recorded samples, which is a technique I tend to avoid.

So I spent a significant amount of time digging into synthesis algorithms, which I have since distilled into a custom-built iPad app. Having a background in software engineering allowed me to create a very personalized instrument that now powers all my drum needs, as well as sequencing all of my hardware synths.