"We’re too inundated by sound made by humans or created by human endeavor. And it’s bad for us."
"It often feels like a song has been entrusted for you to write from the ether."
"This studio was an investment. But no customer will think I'm taking money for something that won't sound any better than it was before."
"Each clothing style can carry its own narrative about who we are or who we aspire to be."
"I prefer to dig, dig and dig in the same spot for a while and see what happens."
"Choosing constraints is a very important part of the creative process."
"Traffic is a block of sound, a block of noise. I feel drawen to that."
"Hearing requires more patience, and curiosity. It might help us discover information that is more precise "
"Recording has created ghosts who live among us."
"Sound is a beautiful, complex system of vibration patterns."
"Songs are an artistic expression. Not everything can be taken literally."
"I got to combine my love of basketball and music and play in a big dark empty basketball hall in Stockholm."
"Almost anything can fit in electronic music. But not everything makes sense."
"I've always felt that playing music comes second to exploring life. I consider it more as my job, not my 'life's work'."
"Records made in the 50s sound the best. Suddenly, punk came along and blew all that out of the water."
"Some of the time I may have a slightly unorthodox way of working."
"We are continually vibrating, resonating with the atoms that shape us. An eternal oscillation that courses through our essence."
"A few years ago the thought of never playing the violin again would have thrown me into a deep depression."
"Collaborations are almost never fun. They require concentration."
"Everytime I hear the old macbook air keyboard sound, I want to smash it to pieces."
"Sometimes I'll sustain really long notes and get a bit light headed. That's always a huge release."
"Having your studio work as ONE cohesive mind is something that I really encourage to those who want to level up their work flow."
"Silence helps us refresh ideas and generate new ones. It’s an important part of the journey of life."
"I'm still fascinated by electronic music. I still love the fact that it isn't real at all."
"If the reason for performing a task is heartfelt and honest, I can’t imagine how it couldn’t be art."
"The human voice is able to connect with us in ways that are beyond comprehension."
"This project needed a very precise plan. This actually set us free creatively as a group."
"In Iceland, the act of singing is always connected to memorable moments in our lives."
"Some people may think that this music could easily be performed by human performers with traditional instruments. This is not the case."
"You can learn anything from tutorials. This can also be overbearing and stand in the way of your own distinction."
"Sadly it has now become an AI arms race instead of designing ethically from the core."
"Music speaks directly to the soul and the heart. From there, it can also impact other areas of the body."
"I’m really attracted to intimate music. As if it’s a love letter."
"Making art is a way of saying: This is how I see the world."
"Banging doors and people shouting – those things can completely throw me and send my heart racing."
"A lot of us would be more creative if we had a different work life culture."
"People are afraid of really showing who they are. This is even worse on the dance floor."
Luke Gomm about a workstation with the power of a DAW in a portable drum machine
"I love a free vocalist who sings because they love to sing. I also love a horrible singer who sings because they love to sing!"
"I never think ‘this isn’t going the way I thought it would.’ I don’t have that thought in mind to begin with."
"I was so angry at a random man for shouting at me once. I just had to go home and write about him."
"I feel comfortable when I hear inorganic sounds like construction noises or MRI scans."
David Baron about an analog modular synth that encourages chambermusical layering.
"If I tidy the house and everything is neat, I can play and write music better."
"The promenade on South Street when the train passes overhead is the most all-embracing sound I can think of - a thrilling full-body experience."
"The great drummers you can hear a mile off. It’s like a signature – you just know it’s them."
"I don’t think you can ever really get to grips with improvising unless you accept yourself for who you are."
"Collaboration feels like a massage. It stimulates areas you couldn’t reach on your own."
"How precisely we communicate as humans is the very core of what makes our species stand out."
"I find being a sideman really liberating."
"I was invited by Bill Wyman to play table tennis, Andy Warhol invited us to his Factory ... We got drunk with Duran Duran. But we ended up nearly bankrupt."
"A song is a roller coaster. By the end of it, you should have enjoyed the ride."
"I don‘t like silence. It amplifies thoughts I‘m trying not to have."
"I start with what I hear in my head - never with a template."
"An orchestra is an instrument. In fact, it's the most wonderful instrument there is."
"Electronic music has its limitations."
"Making music isn’t a metaphor for relationships. It actually is relationships in action."
"I think my focus on lyrics is unusual. Sound and musical ideas are a distant second to me."
"Improvisation is the easiest route into letting the real you out."
"We’re just all chaos machines. I seem wired by it."
"My singing voice helps me speak about topics I wouldn't necessarily talk about in a normal conversation."
"Time signatures are like a fixed canvas. But the most powerful rhythmic musics are not structured under those same parameters."
"Being a producer can only come out of true passion. It isn’t something your learn."
"Words matter. Human communication and language possess incredible power."
Jake Mason of Cookin' On 3 Burners about an electric organ that brings a bit of butter and blues to rock and jazz.
"Analog instruments are a risky game. But that's what we like."
"Practical application with your own experiences is what makes the difference."
"Allow yourself to go to the uncomfortable place - that's where you could find gold."
"Songwriting is like fishing - you kinda go where the fish are."
"For us, progress is being in the studio every day, working on music and learning new things."
"I have a habit of making a big deal out something small. It doesn’t take much to inspire me!"
"Let’s experiment, fuck shit up + blow some minds."
"The delete button has become my best friend."
Balearic Vibes from the Bavarian Sausage Border
"I even think of my solo playing as being part of a big togetherness."
"Sound in movies is still underrated. Sometimes the sound takes precedence over the image."
"Songs have a sender and a receiver. They rely on shared experience. What happens when that fundamentally changes?"
"Once the music starts telling a story, I move onto puppetry."
"The body must move. It must avoid the churches of so-called intelligent music."
"I choose to study the mysteries, to go to see the other side."
"Sound is not bound to any timeframe, progression, or innovation."
"It is important to say something plainly if that’s the way it needs to be said."
"New ideas, leaving the safe zone. This is what we want. No?"
“The nucleus of our work ethic: The ability to tell the other what they created is absolutely terrible.”
"Detaching from the concept of “having a style” or “being from a school” has been quite a thing."
"To outsource human creativity to technology marks an end to the world."
"If only people knew how little we actually plan ahead."
A View to Unseen Landscapes
"I was scared of Max for Live. It felt like opening pandora’s box."
"My happiness and well-being are strongly correlated with my ability to create."
“My family was the first to hear the early sketches. Their reactions were profound and deeply emotional.“
"Music made of pre-cooked, store bought sauces is not going to be authentic. Or original."
"Every sound resembles bringing something to life and letting it die again."
"Ideas unexpectedly pop up. Sometimes I wish I could turn it off."
"It's a complex, powerful, beautiful relationship that a drummer has in a band. One that's all too often underappreciated."
"I’ve been using cheap, $100 passive speakers for my height channels. They work just fine."
“Maybe we need to make art as artefacts so the experience of it can be completely immaterial.“
“DJing, songwriting, and playing live music all use very similar decision-making processes.”
"Music vibrates through your ears and leads directly into your body and soul."
"I don’t find it exciting when a machine does it all for you - you may as well listen to YouTube tutorial music."
For Mitsune, striking this Japanese string instrument is like an arrow to the heart.
“Detroit has never left Vienna. But it's been very small-scaled. Time to change that.”
Ben Carey about a modular synthesiser with a unique sound and a heavy punch
"The very best songs come in the same time or less that it would take to sing them."
“Respect has to be paid where it is due.”
“Stop trying to make everything perfect. Nothing has more soul than an imperfection."
"If I could put on a helmet and translate my ideas directly into music ... I’d love to see where that takes me!"
Disfreq about an analog synthesizer with a sonically expansive dual filter
A plan for change from Eno's keynote at IMS Ibiza
"Editing is a drama. All your neuroses come into it."
“I’m often not taking field recordings. I'm documenting myself in the field."
"Our friendship is the most important thing. Music comes second."
“I was always more of a Blade Runner boy than a Star Trek fan.”
"The impulse to create something comes from all sorts of places and emotions … sometimes if I’m just bored."
“Every time you tell a story that's personal to you, people will find their own stories in it.”
For Reginald Chapman, the trombone is a rhythmic reinforcer – and an instrument of freedom.
“People tend to play their best when they're comfortable.”
"It was my dream to become a professional musician - but not at any cost."
"I could not find a satisfying way forward with just tonal harmonies. I needed something more."
"Music always has to do with emotions. If it doesn't, it doesn't interest me."
Golden Gratitude
"Songwriting is like working out. But instead of muscles, I’ll have a greater sense of awareness about unknown things."
"How are you going to practice the unknown? You can't do that."
"This is what we identify with: Having a revolutionary practice in art.“
“The melodies evolve slowly. Until, at some mysterious point, they are ready to be recorded.”
“With funk, great lyrics aren’t a must. It is acceptable to have lots of lyrics about “the Funk.”
“A computer, Ableton and a keyboard - and the world is yours!”
“I’ve been songwriting over 20 years. So no embarrassment left!”
"The main challenge for me is to not play the things that I know will work.”
“The creative state? It is when I feel in touch with what it is to be alive.”
“These songs are the first songs I ever heard. They are the reason I am a musician.”
"We are all made of music. When we make music, we are trying to find the way to our origin.”
"Failure is deeply integrated into my practice. I even named a track after it."
Open Line to the Other Side
“Using technology for the benefit of people is wonderful and nothing reprehensible.”
"My Spirit and my acknowledgement of the universe and all that surrounds me is key."
“We have to embrace new tech to stay competitive.”
“Most music that is considered forward-thinking is nothing but vain drywank.“
"Technology is a manifesting energy. You have to dance with it."
“Playing in a string quartet takes immense trust in your colleagues.“
"If there is a way to keep strict control of the process, we haven’t found it!”
“The song doesn't write itself. But it does sometimes express a preference!“
“There can be a tendency to always want to make something ‘better.’ But often that can go the other way.“
“I don't think God should take the blame if what I came up with sucks!“
“Music is totally not self-expression.“
"AI is pulling every single human element out of the process. It's re-harvesting everything that’s already out there."
"On the modular, there has to be a thought before any action. You can look for inspiration in a preset.”
"Just like we have no control over life, we have no control over music."
“To me, the visual rhythm of Metropolis is similar to the way music is thought about by a DJ.“
"We try not to get too caught up in the destination. We are thinking more about the mode of travel.”
“There's a perfect combination of boredom and pressure.”
"Ultimately you’re likely to never be truly satisfied - no matter what you do."
“I recorded at Jean-Michel Jarre’s studio - I felt like a kid in front of all those legendary synths!”
"If you have a clear idea of how the finished song should sound, you end up being disappointed."
“These songs felt like they were pushing through my veins.”
“For artists, or journalists, music is an endless stream of energy. We're constantly borrowing creativity from it.”
“The best music usually isn’t the most original, never-before-heard thing.”
“I’d take a laptop and headphones over a fancy, multi-room recording studio any day.”
“Lofi Symphony is my masterclass of interpretation.“
“I love the moment when entire musical landscapes are born out of nothingness.“
"The impulse to create is dialled into all of us within the band."
"It's best to get out of my own way, and let the song grow as it pleases."
"The best thing is when I hear someone play a record I made in '94, and they make it fit into a set today."
"Control is the last thing I need."
"Dance allows me to connect to music through another medium. It gives me a new perspective on composing."
Sophisticated and Sensitive, Shallow, and Self indulgent
“Lorde asked me to make some guttural sounds. She demonstrated this by basically turning into an amazing rabid animal.“
"Something sparks a memory - and everything about the song changes!"
"The widened spectrum of vibration, including sound, is the key element of material and immaterial existence."
“A studio should offer to you everything you need. Not everything you want.”
"My music works vertically, like playing Tetris, or Lego. It's about making something out of simple shapes and materials.”
“I feel the fear of releasing this album. But the need to share these experiences is stronger.”
“There is a wonderful world of unique and weird music that is being suppressed. We all have to do our part to free it.“
“Forcing myself will never help me find the right ideas!“
“Creativity is more of a state of being instead of simply producing a bunch of artworks.”
“Music is about emotions. It's crucial to prioritize them over structure.“
“If you take away all the tools, and leave only “creativity” you just have ideas - and no actual music.”
“Music expands a poem’s emotional reach. It is the place of wordless secrets, codes, maps and math.“
"There’s a misunderstanding when it comes to jazz improvisation: That you’re making it all up as you’re going along out of thin air.”
“Rhythm is the most fundamental aspect. Traditional classical conservatory training does little to equip you for that reality.“
“It's always comfortable working with musicians you know. It feels like an old couple.“
"I like having more colors in the crayon box.”
“Okay ... What malfunctioning old instrument can we work with today?”
"Being able to travel the world as a DJ seemed utterly ridiculous when I started.“
“The pleasure I get from creating a song is beyond every pleasure in life.”
“What tool can have a deeper impact on creativity? Learning. Learning will help improve the creative output for any artist.”
"I insist on creating new art when I improvise. I hate when people pretend to have a language and stick to that.”
"Creating feels less like something I do and more like someone I am."
“It's fundamental to play each piece as if it were the very first time.“
“If trying to get an idea is difficult, I’ll walk away from it.”
“Tracks in a DJ set can nudge and catch each other. They transition seamlessly into an eternal track.“
"I would like to create a piece that lasts several days but does not cause ear fatigue."
“I’m a total romantic. I find the idea of being surrounded by an unhealthy amount of cables appealing.”