The featured artist in this episode of the Freio Music Podcast is a noisy cricket in a noisy field…aka Adam Orfale, the man behind the music of Feverkin. You don’t want to miss this episode diving into the music of this producer and composer.
~ Stay Tuned! ~
Transcription Coming Soon…
Will:
My name is Will Glazier and I play trumpet and do a lot of the production for our group.
Dan:
My name is Dan de Lisle I do trombone, flute, I play a little bit of keyboards and I am learning a lot about production.
Will:
Ya we go by Willdabeast. We are also in a few other bands as well. We are traveling and touring mostly with Michal Menert, Michal Menert Big Band, Michal Menert and the Pretty Fantastics and we have a few other local bands as well, in Bellingham, a reggae band called Yogoman and a funk band called Snug Harbor. Snug Harbor is a band that has been around the longest for us. It was a band that I started when I first moved here in 2007 and Daniel joined quickly after. He is in Yogoman too. We are actually in every band together. So it has been kind of a harmonious relationship ever since.
Where did you meet and how did you come together musically?
Dan:
It was the WCC, the Wacom community college jazz band, up in the county that we live in. Will was playing first trumpet and I was going there to mess around a little bit. He [Will] was looking for a trombone player to join his funk band. So he invited me out and I bombed the practice. I did terribly! And for some reason he has been playing music with me ever since.
Will:
[laughter]
Ya I remember I moved here in 2006 or 2007 from Buffalo New York, where I am from. I started here to go to school. So I had to go to Wacom first for Community College to get my AA to transfer over and blah blah blah. I was playing in their big band, the Jazz band. I remember staring at daniel’s head a lot and he was one of the only competent people in the band. They are a great band now but at that time they were kinda a struggling program. So I gravitated towards him and invited him towards Snug Harbor, which is just a funk homage to New Orleans. I traveled there when I was 15 and got to see a bunch of really good Jazz and Funk which inspired me for the rest of my life really. Brass and horn music and stuff like that. And ya he’s[Daniel] been by my side ever since. I don’t know why he has stuck around this far. I have probably cost him lots of opportunities, and money, and jobs, and women, and relationships. But ya, he’s here. We’re here and we are doing it still.
Can you discuss yourself as a kid and how you were introduced to music and what inspired you to play?
Dan:
I got kind of an easy start really. My dad was a flute player growing up. Not a professional one or anything. But he had a nice flute and a couple of beaters lying around. So I got my hands on a flute pretty early. I started messing around on that. I joined band and went through the process that a lot of kids growing up in America do growing up and learning music. And just kinda kept loving it. I guess I always wanted to play music professionally if the opportunity came up and now I am just busting my ass for it.
Will:
I was first introduced to music similarly. Through the school systems and such and my parents were both big advocates. My dad met Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix in college when he was at UC Berkeley. Just listening to really good Vinyl growing up. I don’t know, it just always caught my ear. I’m kinda good at a lot of things but the one thing I know I am good at is Music. And it has been a struggle to balance everything. I have a family now and all that. Ya for me Music is all I do. We get paid here and there for recordings or parties or different events and recording sessions and stuff. So we do as much traveling and performance and trying to generate income as possible. Daniel has another job as well. But it is what we are trying to pursue. So we are trying to chase it while we still can.
Definitely. I think that is the right approach. You have got to get out there and get discovered
Will:
Ya exactly.
I just wrote an article and it kinda ties into this… touring gives you the opportunity to then sell all of your products that you have already created. Like your stickers or albums. I know you give out some of your music for free but perhaps apparel or things along those lines will boost your revenue while you are touring.
Will:
Ya Exactly. We have got a website and lots of merch and stuff. You know artists rely on different ways to generate income. Especially on our level. Unless you are the boss man. Unless you are really big time and playing 300 shows a year at sold out venues, it is going to be hard to survive on free music. It is really nice to be able to connect with fans in different markets and regions. And once you get to know people and they get to know you and your music they get to become part of the whole experience and process. Ya, we have 3 or 4 different kind of hat pins and kids don’t mind paying $15-$20 bucks for a hat pin. It goes a long way trying to support what we are trying to do as well. People come up to me all the time trying to get stickers or shirts or CDs. That means something. That means that you did something right.
Dan:
We have had a couple of shows that were completely saved by the merch sales.
Again with the merch sales, they are walking advertisements. And they are telling their friends about you. And friends are the best source, because you trust your friend’s music taste. I think it is a key strategy and I am glad you guys are doing it.
I would love to hear about how you first met Michal Menert and ended up joining Super Best Records and how that collaboration took place.
Will:
Sure. I met Michal a few years ago. I have been a big fan of Michal Menert’s music for a good portion of a decade. I wasn’t even huge into electronic music until later in my college years. He was part of the reason why I got into electronic music. That really consistent grove and how he works in live instruments with samples and now with actual people. Any ways I just really gravitated towards his music. I remember downloading every song I possibly could by him. Eventually forming a relationship with him in my head. And you know he is a big personality. He has a Twitter account as I am sure most of his mafiosos know. He has got a lot of followers. So I just hit him up on twitter one day. I was just blasting him. Like semi-stalking him. And he responded. More or less, I am paraphrasing him. But he was like “Do you want to join my band?” I still have screenshots of this by the way if anyone wants proof. So I sent him a link to Snug Harbor. Apparently he checked it out and liked what he heard because a few days later I had a contract in the mail from his management. My whole band was hired for Sonic Bloom 2014. We practiced our butts off and became his ‘Big Band’ so we played all of those shows with him too at Red Rocks. Michal is such a generous person and an amazing friend and mentor. It was easy for us to align once we met. Ya, It has been great. He has extended his hand towards me several times towards me including the record label deal offer. It has just been a huge help. We have a ton of stuff we are working on right now and we have learned a lot from him and everyone on that label. We hold them in high regards so it is just a complete honor to be involved with them and to be considered part of that team and family.
Besides Michal, do any other artists stick out in your mind as influencing you, your career or your sound?
Dan:
Haha thats a big question.
Maybe growing up you listened to a particular artist and you started to gravitate towards that style of horn playing… Or electronic music influences outside of the big band.
Will:
The Pretty Fantastics I think of more like an indie band or something. Like somewhere between Radiohead and Bjork. Its all these crazy influences. It has got these acoustic instruments but this electronic vibe. It’s all this kind of blurred lines thing. In general, I grew up listening to Jazz and Funk. Really inspired by Soul Live and Lettuce and those guys. Derek has been working with them. All of these people have been kind of infiltrating. Griz worked with Lettuce. We have done tracks with Griz and he has been pretty influential. I would say that most of the collabs that we have done have provided us with an opportunity to advance ourselves both musically and technically. Especially as of late I feel that every song we touch only gets better. I am not trying to blow myself up and sound too cocky. We become better players by doing this more frequently and we also learn more about our software and programs. We are able to enhance our own music. And finally for me personally, I listen to a whole bunch of music and I still do and nothing really changes. I listen to 90’s hip-hop and 80’s disco or 70’s funk. That music will always be in me and I will always enjoy that. My tastes change constantly. But right now I am into some crazy festival music like Tipper, Killsmith, and CloZee and all these people who have these sonic 3D soundscapes as it relates to music. You think about music in a different way as opposed to a regular 2D Axis. I don’t know just trying to find different ways to enhance music. I get inspirations from everywhere. I listen to Ambient music. I listen to Jazz. I listen to Opera. I listen to electronic music. I think there is something to say about all of it.
Great. What about you Dan… Any influences in your career?
Dan:
Ah, well like will I grew up listening to a lot of Jazz. I would be a liar if I didn’t talk about Fred Wesley who is a trombone player. He is fantastic. Pretty much everything I do solo wise, is based off of what he did, to make Trombone one of the funkiest instruments out there. Ah flute wise, I am trying to remember his name… A lot of Jazz flute growing up. And now Will kinda introduced me to electronic music. I wasn’t sure I was ever going to be able to get into it. He showed me guys like Michal Menert and Pretty Lights. The whole Pretty Lights Music Team. Gosh everyone on Super Best right now. Artifacts is just killing it. I am really loving what Daily Bread are doing. Ya, all those guys out there are just really killing the game right now. So ya I am listening to them a lot and doing my best to learn.
Great. Clearly you are learning fast because you guys have captured the blend of live instrumentation and electronic production, so props.
Will:
Ya, I went to school for audio engineering and video stuff. It wasn’t a major back then, it is now, but I had to make my own called “New Media Studies”. Basically I ended up studying audio production a lot. Through various school projects I was able to learn my way and start to introduce myself into different sampling techniques and beat building. It has been a long time coming and a big process. I have hopefully been able to pass everything I know to Daniel and we continue to inspire and push each other to learn more. When we have a question or if something comes up that is not ideal, we learn to make it work. We learn to find ways to think on our feet. And more often than not, it works and it’s like wow, this is actually happening. We are making progress and its great.
That’s great. So what instruments do you all play. Obviously the laptop is engrained. Maybe a midi controller, a keyboard, a trombone, flute. What other instruments am I missing here?
Will:
Are you talking about live or when we produce?
Both
Will:
Live I am essentially DJing stripped down versions of the tracks. And throwing effects on the tracks. I have got my trumpet and I play with a loop station and an effects pedal board. That is pretty much it for now. Sometimes we play with a synthesizer we bring out and play live but the last tour we were not able to bring it due to space concerns. Daniel plays flute and trombone and helps me play, sometimes percussion or throw effects or DJ a little bit.
In the studio I play a lot of Keys and synthesizers. We have a couple of analog synths we play, the Roland Gaia, and the Moog Sub Phatty. I play the flugelhorn and trumpet and I sing. And Daniel…
Dan:
I usually playing the flute or trombone. That tends to be a lot of what I am recording. I do lot of synth work. I love making bass noises. I think programing the bass is one of my favorite parts of being a producer. I don’t always get to choose which bass makes it but just making the sounds is really fun for me. Ya. Just playing keys. One time I got to play a little guitar. We didn’t end up releasing that song but that was pretty fun.
Nice. You guys are pushing it. I mean you are combining a lot of different elements.
Will:
Ya we use my record player a lot too because we did some samples in the past but we are trying to move away from that. We also work with a lot of people from the community. I can’t forget about our home team here in Bellingham. It is a little outside of Seattle. In Between Seattle and Vancouver. Its where I went to school and we have tons of people in town that lend a helping hand. We have a few female vocalists that come over and help us record. Some guitar players. A bass player. A drummer and just different people that we have played with in Bellingham. Or in different bands. Or just friends or friends of friends that have shown inclinations or interest in our music. We tend to gravitate towards that as well. Some rappers and a couple of different MCs. It has been really cool. For me that has been a really fun part. To collaborate on a more indepth level with those kind of people.
Can you tell me about each of your first live performance? The first time you got paid for a gig. Talk about your live performance and any nervousness you had and how you overcame that.
Dan:
The first time I ever got paid to play music I was still a high school Jazz trombone player. It was just me and a bass player. We got paid to play a company’s Christmas party. They basically wanted us to play Christmas tunes and Jazz standards. I wasn’t really a great Trombone player. I didn’t really know the songs. I was sight reading most of what I was doing. And Me and this bass player ended up flubbing through all this work and they still paid us each $200 at the end of the day. I am really thankful. I feel like a lot of people just appreciated the effort and ever since then I have been able to just keep my hat on and try as hard as I can.
Will:
For me, I remember a couple of instances… I think this is why I am nervous in front of little crowds. It sounds terrible. Like for me the bigger the crowd the better. When I was super young my parents used to force me to play in front of all the Christmas family get togethers. It was like a half an hour all 30 distant relatives that I see once a year staring into my soul. For me it was very uncomfortable. Those kind of intimate performances erk me out. I would literally rather play in front of 10,000 people than in front of 10 it is crazy. The first time I got paid for a gig. I have been playing music professionally since I was 12 I guess. I met Mike Angelakos from Passion Pit on Napster in 1998 and we became friends and became in a band. We used to play all the time, professionally starting around [age] 12 [or] 13. Around those mid teenage years and played often. So that was really fun for me. I just remember how to become a good performer and a good bandmate during those times and it was crucial to my development.
It is great to hear and I appreciate you sharing because there are so many musicians out there who just need to get past that first hurdle before they can take the next steps in their career. I appreciate you sharing.
Will:
Ya no problem man. At this point you almost have to just embrace it. You have got to have fun. Regardless of my nerves, whether I am playing in front of whatever quantity of people, you have just got to go out there and have fun. If I look over at Daniel mid-set and he is having a blast and I’m not, I feel stupid. You always have to bring your A game. If you can’t have fun by yourself or in front of a friend or a group of people than you are not going to have fun in front of a big crowd. To me it is all about honing the craft and being able to embrace that.
My next question dives into the production end of the way you construct your songs. First of all what software are you using or are you using multiple different D.A.W.s? Can you tell me the relative order of operations.. Do you start out with the melody or the lyric sample that you want to add in or do you build the drum beat first? Go ahead and walk me through that briefly.
Will:
Ya we normally use logic. We use some native instruments too but mostly logic is our production platform. We use Native Instruments and different plugins to use different ways of manipulating sound. Also live we use some native instruments. But ya, our main DAW is Logic. I have been using it forever. We have experimented with Bitwig. I own Bitwig and stuff and Ableton and Pro Tools but I am just a little bit more efficient with Logic. I like what we are able to do [with logic]. Typically I will come up with a drum beat that sounds good. To me it is an indication that if you can make a drum beat sound good than you have a good foundation, a good groove. So we have been trying to go off that. Then Dan will start helping me make layers if mixing live drum samples from my friend Todd Templeton who played on our last album. I’ll take an analog kick of his and layer it in with a digital kick of mine and we will have a sub hit in the background and all the sudden we have something our heads can shake to. Then I’ll ask Daniel some questions about the direction of the tune and at that point we will start helping me start layering different basses usually. At that point we create a foundation for the melody and usually begin to enhance that with synths and horns and stuff. Usually the song at that point you can tell if it is going to be good or not and continue to make it or move on.
Out of curiosity, what percentage of your efforts result in a song that sticks? How many songs do you throw out on average for every one that you keep?
Will:
I have got hundreds. Maybe a hundred songs that I am still working on. I say everything is a work in progress even beats that don’t become anything. But you know we are pretty stubborn. I’d say we produce maybe 20 or 18 tracks and out of those 12 made it for our last [album]. A handful got cut. But in general I think we have good starts. I have tons of drum songs that just suck. So we dont really work on those. I will play them for Daniel and he will roll his eyes, and I will roll my eyes, and then we will open a new session file.
At the point where we are really starting to work on something. It’s like ok let’s take the time. It’s all about micro to me. Little micro editing and micro listening. If you can make a little change at end of every 4 or 8 bars. Even if is some stupid automation that you would never think of like increasing the reverb time or delay you are able to create this sonic landscape. You are able to like… I don’t know man… To me music is all about semantics and changing physical property and energy with those wave forms. So the more you can enhance someone’s life by making a creation, the better. That’s what it is about man. Ya I think logic… I think whatever platform you are using, you should just go for it! To me I find it silly when people are just Ableton snobs. My whole crew uses Ableton. I am not trying to dog them. I am not even talking about them. I have just met some people who say “oh, you use Logic?” You could use Fruity Loops or Garageband, I don’t care. If you are making music you are doing yourself and probably other people better for it.
Truth. Thanks for walking me through that. Now my next question is about your album entitled ‘Stay the Course’. You guys collaborated with a huge array of musicians to create this piece. Can you talk about the strategy behind it and why you wanted this album to be so collaborative.
Dan:
Ya. A lot of that was just we have a lot of people we have played with, as Will spoke about. People in the community that we have been in bands with or we have sat in with or they have come sit in with Snug Harbor or something. Really I think we just wanted to include all of our friends. Get together all the best musicians in town together and make as good of a product as we possibly could of. I know a big inspiration for me was getting as many natural sounds. As many acoustic and instruments that were really played by someone and figure out how to make that into a really great electronic song. A lot of those instruments are things that I can’t play that well. Like guitar or drums. We got Todd Templeton or Mathew van den Heuvel, who is now on Super Best Records now. I know Todd is on three or four of those songs and Matt was on almost every single one of them. It was really great to have those musical influences around. I think it really did change a lot of what we did on the album for the better.
Will:
Ya if you look at people like Michal Menert, he got us involved with Space Jazz. I think that was one of our first real sessions with him. Daniel and I were almost shocked when it came out because every song on Sace Jazz has like eight people on it. Including us. We were on like four or five songs. Its like wow, here is a guy, Michal Menert, who is pretty well known / semi famous. He has been making beats forever with PLM and Super Best Records. This guy who everyone, in my opinion, looks up to. This guy is taking the time to credit these amazing musicians. Like we were not well known at the time. They are making big waves now and I think it is because of that. His generosity is really influential and inspirational. So it is partly to do with that. You know we see him working with all these people. We almost wanted to bring in other people as well and pass it along.
If you look at artists like Griz he is working with Daptone Records, Dap Kings, all these people like Lettuce and phenomenal players. To me its cool. If you can make a beat, awesome. If you can make a cool song, great. If you can make it better by adding someone else, you should. Why not? And if you can give them credit by all means, absolutely.
Credit is so important and it is so nice to have those artists who have already made it or have a large audience or following to lend a hand and bring younger artists along for the journey.
Will:
Ya exactly. Pass it along and spread the wealth. It’s a big pie and there are only so many slices. If I can cut mine for a little bit and help someone else. That’s the only way people make it. It is not by stepping on each other it is by helping each other. So we are really just trying to our part really.
Rock on. I really like that. You say it well.
Will:
Thank you.
I am interested in any future works that you guys have.
Will:
Ya, we have three collaborative albums coming out. We just finished most of the tracks on the pretty fantastics album. We are doing a song with Funk Static, it is really good. It is going to be on his new album. We have a song with Captain out right now called “Never Will”. We have a new song coming out with him that is some of our best work, as horn players. We are also working on a different style. A sample free album by ourselves, an EP for WilldaBeast, that we are trying to get out soon on Super Best Records. It is a different vibe than most of our stuff, it is more uptempo and future sounding. And now that I think about it we have another EP coming out with Sway from Felos Records (Spelling?). And now that I think about it we also have a remix album coming out for ‘Stay The Course’. Lots of friends and label mates, past collaboratives are going to be included in that as well. So there will be 5 or 6 new things to get your ears on us within the next 6 months.
Wow, that’s exciting! Now where can our audience find your tracks?
Will:
If you want to get real simple. SoundCloud.com/Willdabeastofficial Ya it is also on our facebook. If you search Willdabeast with two L’s you will find us. It is kinda hard to spell but once you got it you will get it. Facebook.com/Willdabeastofficial and our website Willdabeastmusic.com/ also you can find us on SuperBestRecords.BandCamp.com
Perfect. What is it like working with a record label?
Will:
We pitched to a few different record labels and even some talent agencies and we were never really picked up. I think Michal just found us on youtube after I sent him some links. It’s interesting and its a challenge because sometimes you are on their schedule. Especially for releases. They can’t over do it either. So you have to be mindful of other artists and things. But in general it is a dream control. I remember when Michal said he was going to sign us I just started floating, I was on cloud nine. Other than my son being born, it was one of the best days of my life. I don’t know it is just cool to have representation. I feel like it is all worth it at the end of the day. It feels like what you are doing matters and is important. To have that backing and support system is huge for me. They are just a startup company at this point. That is also one of the benefits too because when I have a release I talk to Michal or his manager.
That is great there are not a lot of departments and management structures.
Will:
Ya there are like two or three people. It’s like alright I have this release and they will be like ok we have a slot open or we need to wait a few months. And they will help promote our shows. For our remix album that is going to come out we got a bunch of people from Super Best to be on it. It was just special to have that support system. You know we have recorded horns for some artists and they have sent us tracks for our new songs. It is cool to have that, almost kinship, with someone else. It feels like it matters. Being signed isn’t everything but to me it was something that really helped validate what I was doing. And to show other people too that this is not a just hobby or passion, although it is, it is something more. It’s something that I am really trying to pursue. It is worthwhile when you have that support system. I love Super Best. Super Best for life baby!
Good to hear. Do you have any interesting or weird or odd pre-performance rituals?
Dan:
Well I believe, as a trombone player, if you don’t know how to keep your slide properly greased up before a show, than you have a long ways to go. I remember I had a professional lesson with this old navy guy Jim McFalls. I payed for an hour lesson with this guy. He was a killer beep-bop player. And he spent the entire lesson talking with me about slide care. Just making sure I am treating my trombone ritual. So if I had any pre-game ritual it would probably be getting my slide ready for the show and then drinking a beer.
Will:
It is always fun listening to Dan greece his slide. It was hard on the Pretty Fantastics tour to get some space sometimes. Because you are traveling with so many people and they usually supply you with one green room so most seats are occupied. So I like to sit down and warm up my lips and drink a lot of water. Because I know I am about to bring my “A” game and sweat most everything that I have inside outside of me. If possible I try to eat an hour before I play because man it sucks. Sometimes you get off stage at 3am and everything is closed. So honestly, at this point it is all about sustenance and sustainability. Trying to stay nourished and thrive. If I decide to party or drink beers it is usually afterwords. Like Dan said I try to take care of my horn too. I have a really expensive trumpet. Ya just introducing different toxins inside the trumpet or my body will have an effect on my playing. Especially as of late, I have been having little health problems, like with my back. Ya just trying to get loose, man and get ready for a killer show.
Will, you mentioned the birth of your son. How old is he?
Will:
He just turned one. He is 14 months now.
Has he seen you perform yet?
Will:
Ya he saw me perform when he was like two or three months old. It was right before Dan joined the band. I had a solo show. It was really cool. He wore headphones and he watched me behind the speakers so I didn’t hurt his ears. Ya he hears us practice. Daniel comes over two or three days a week. So he hears us playing. Yogoman, our other band has a small infant around his age so they come to practice together with ear protection and they get to hear us play often. Ya he loves music and bangs on the office door when I am recording and I am unable to open it and other things. He is really drawn to music. He is only one and he is already starting to sing and imitate those things. He has a plastic blow horn that he pretends to play with. Ya he is the light of my life. With Snug Harbor we played ‘bite at seattle’, this big outdoor festival, and I got to lift him up like lion king. He is super sweet. He is amazing. I was never really a kid person and then he came into my life. He is great.
That’s great to hear. What advice would you give a musician starting out today or what would you tell yourself if you were starting out today.
Dan:
Spend more time on your instrument. Practice!
Will:
Spend more time on your instrument. The only reason I say that is that I wish I had more time now to practice. Back in the day when I was lounging or watching TV or playing video games. I did invest a majority of my time in my instrument, but If I invested more I could be one step ahead of the game. I have to prepare a lot, especially with a kid, with day care and child care. So time is of the essence. You are only young once. Use your time wisely. You are only young once. It sounds silly and I am not that old I am only 29. Use that time, man. Cherish that time. If you want the time to hone in and craft in on something, now is your chance. To me you only get one or two chances to make music. This was probably one of my last chances to make music so I just went for it. So I would give myself that advice. Take those few netflix shows off of your list and go practice for a couple of hours. You are going to [improve] yourself and you are only going to feel more proud of what you are able to do.
Ok final question, is there anything you would like to share with our listeners?
Will:
Ya. You can find us at WilldabeastMusic.com or at SoundCloud.com/Willdabeastofficial or Facebook.com/Willdabeastofficial and we are always posting there all the time new music and new shows. We have a couple of shows up here in Bellingham if anyone is up in the North West area. Hopefully trying to see a lot of your familiar faces. We just landed a booking agent too so we are hoping to land some more festival slots and bring some more live horn infuzed electric soul to your heads and hearts.
Well Will and Dan, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your time and knowledge with our listeners. We wish you all the best on all of your future creations and four upcoming albums. So thank you again and thanks for coming on the show.
Dan:
Thank you so much.
Will:
Ya man, I appreciate it. Thanks for having us. We really appreciate it and good luck to you as well.
My name is Haana Thiem, I go by HÄANA on stage. I am very particular about my brand because it is recognizable, and what people read, see and hear. I live in L.A. now. I used to live in New York and the east coast for about 10 years, before New York was Boston. I am kind of a nomadic individual. I love the question “where have you been?” rather than “where do you live?” or “where were you born?” because that doesn’t say a lot about a person, I think.
In that light then, where are some of the highlights of where you have been?
(HÄANA Laughter)
Well some of the most special places, I lived in Germany for a year. I lived in Spain for almost a year. I lived in Granada . I lived on an island in the Mediterranean called Formentera, which is just south of Ibiza. Then I traveled through Greece. I was studying Greek and I was going to move to Crete, but instead I moved to Boston somehow. They are kinda parallel, kinda not. I studied German, studied Spanish. I have had opportunities to play in a whole bunch of different places but, for a moment I realized that, all the traveling was kind of confusing me. But what I wanted to do instead, was hone my art, and my craft, and my offering and then travel. Which is how it has turned out.
Great, so where were you honing your craft? Was it in the Mediterranean?
It kinda started there. The really interesting turn of events. Should we get into it?
Sure. Ya, lets get into it. That’s why we are here.
Well, lately i have been posting old photos of me from when I was 21 living in Formentera and living in Spain. It is a really Inspiring story. I think it is important to share the back story. I feel like people want to know about that. I tend to shroud myself in a bit of mystery. I want to let more people in, so thank you for the opportunity. I was living in Granada, Spain and at that point I wasn’t performing on violin that much. I started playing Violin when I was three but I was studying languages in college. So, I bought a violin while in Spain and started playing casually on the street. It wasn’t until, this was the turning point of my whole career, somebody stole my wallet. I had no money. So, I decided that I would go put on a costume with a beautiful shirt and shall or something. I don’t know, It wasn’t really a costume, but something to make me feel different and embolden me. Then I went to this restaurant, near where I lived in the old Arab district, and performed outside for all the people dining. Then I went around and asked for a tip. People gave me, at that point it was the one and two Euro coins, so you could make a decent amount. It wasn’t really the money but the validation that people really enjoyed it. So was making up beautiful songs and performing very firey, and they loved it. So I was like wow, I can do this. So I would start to make my rounds in the evenings and would make about 80 Euros in about 15 minutes. Then my new debit card finally came so I could have access to my money but I had started a whole new career path.
Wow that is amazing. A lot of people would be very upset and let the it ruin their day or week for vacation or moment but you were able to seize opportunity in the difficulty. Now tell me about that costume, I am just interested. You said “embolden you”, was it like armor against negative thoughts, or a hater out there would ‘boo’ at the first show?
Kinda of. Hahah. Well, just to give you a little more backstory, I started classically. Sometimes it is really hard to get out of that classical mode and to make up your own music. To improvise. To be free. To not read music off of a sheet. At that point, I was really feeling not very inspired by playing dead people’s music. You know? And how to put the emotion into it? When i started to improvise, I was sort of tapping into this feeling. I am naturally an introvert. A lot of people don’t know that about me either because I am up on these big stages all the time. I have diagnosed myself recently as being an extroverted-introvert.
Ok? If you don’t mind, go on about that (being an extroverted-introvert) how does that happen?
Ok, but I would like to explain one more piece to the Spain story. The costume itself helped pull me out of my shell. Helped me feel like a different person. Like oh, if this fails or doesn’t work out, than nobody knew it was me. So, I was a different person.
Did it help break you free of the classical mindset, being dressed up in a costume?
Ya, I ended up meeting a dancer from Barcelona, her name was Sophia. She would do this flamingo-mime ballet movements. My music would inspire her movements and the reverse. We ended up traveling to Barcelona. She lived on an organic compound just outside of Barcelona. So we ended up traveling to Formentera and living on an island in the mediterranean and performing every day. It was amazing. To this day, I still perform with dancers, especially with ballerinas. You never know where life will take you.
Thats awesome. If you could go back to the ‘Extroverted Introvert’. What does that mean to you?
So I used to be extremely shy. To the point of not really even knowing how to talk to people. Not that extreme but as a kid I was a thinker. I loved to read and hang out by myself. I was always an artist drawing and photographing. My dad gave me a camera when I was four or five, which its also my parallel career as a photographer. My older sister was always very extroverted. I feel that in birth order the kids want to be different than their siblings. I was more the quiet thinker. The pensive one. Then what actually happened is that I started working in a restaurant. When you have a role, there are things you need to say to have people order food. I would just make jokes. I started my standup comedian career at that moment. To get people to laugh to interact to get to meet them. You don’t have to go very deep. You just have conversations. Through that i learned how to be a bit more extroverted. To this day when I meet people, I really try to get to the root of who they are. Rather than “how are you?” “where are you from?” “what do you do?”. Those questions are so boring. Ask interesting questions. Sometimes making a silly joke or asking something interesting, where it feels natural but getting to the heart of the person. That’s how i like to interact with people. I still remain a very one-on-one person. I don’t really like big groups. But there is something about being on a stage where I just embody this energy. Where I am pulling everyone into my world. Kind of captivating. I am definitely an extrovert but in an introverted role. But I don’t know, I’m sure there are other people like me out there. [laughter / chuckles]
I’m sure there are. When you are on stage does it feel like the crowd is giving you energy?
Yes
It does. So you kinda take in that group collective energy. That is great. Well now that you have made it difficult for me to ask good questions because you have ruled out all the shitty questions.
Haha. No you can ask me those boring questions. I don’t care.
I have one that is super general and kind of a curveball but I am curious where everyone takes it. What is music to you?
Music is a universal language. You can talk to everyone about it. Even people who are deaf. They can still feel vibrations.
I have seen at some shows there is a deaf area where there are balloons for people to hold and feel the vibrations.
Or I think the sub-pack as well. My friend David Starfire and Zach are working with Sub-Pack and I am pretty sure they do these workshops with Deaf children and everyone wears this sub-pack that you can feel the vibrations, especially the bass frequencies.
I couldn’t agree more that it [Music] is a universal language. Being yourself, well traveled, how do you associate the different cultures that you have been with and how do they meld or culminate in your sound.
I have spent a good amount of time in Iceland. That was such a beautiful and inspiring time there. My solo-project started just after my first time in Iceland. I didn’t realize…. now reflecting upon it I see the inspiration that that gave me and where I started to take the music. Before that, I had a band called ‘Copal’ and I also had an electronic project called ‘Nixis’. Then I studied at ‘Dub Spot’ and got into my own music production. As in producing all of the music. Not just writing the melodies & harmonies and having other people to the other content, the rhythms and bass lines. The very first song that I produced for my solo project, HÄANA, was called “Brym Al Mar” . I have a music video for that out. It was the biggest project manifestation of my artistic vision to that point. So that in itself was incredible. Brym, the word, means the salt spray hitting the rocks or surf. But surf sounds funny. Salt spray sounds more romantic. Al Mar, is in Spanish, of the sea. The melody itself was inspired by a Norwegian folk song. The video goes into life and death and multiple iterations. Also this folktale about the ‘Norns’. In Nordic mythology these three sisters who weave the threads of past, present, and future. So you will see this in the video. It is kind of abstract but I love things to be mysterious. You will see the Norns weaving the threads of life and you will see me going through this iteration. Being in a white dress on top of a cliff and then fall into the water and emerge as this badass with a mohawk wearing all black with a black hardanger fiddle by the fire. So it is incorporating a lot of the elements.
There are a lot of people out there who don’t have a music video and who do have music. In that light, did you dream up this vision of yourself in the music video? How did it come to be? Were you working with a producer?
Well, I met this dear friend, a very creative individual, “Armin Matine” (sp?) in New York. I knew that this song really needed a music video. I knew that that’s what I wanted before I released it. So I told him about my idea. I am a photographer, I don’t think in moving pictures. I think in fames, snapshots and composition. I told him what my idea was. Then he really dove deep into it. He is this incredible creative individual. He works on big commercial projects in New York but this he took on as a personal project. So he did a lot of research. He discovered the Norns. I didn’t even know they existed. He wove all these different story threads. I was like wow, how are we ever going to be able to do this? I don’t have that much money to pull this off.
Ya, and the song is only so long.
Ya. He does CGI [computer generated images] and After-Affects.
So you didn’t actually take a cliff dive?
Well I will get into that, if we want to. Depends on how long you want to make this interview. So then he presented it to Alice. Alice Miller, who is an incredible cinematographer in New York. She apparently has been obsessed with the Norns since she was a little girl. so she was like “yes! I want to do this”. So she took it on as a personal project as well. The three of us were very interested in creating a piece of art. Sometimes when people really take on an idea and take ownership of it, a lot more beauty can come out of it. Because it is not just the dollar sign. It’s not the commercial product. Its the art mission. The passion. So then everyone that we hired for the team…. You know, we had a budget. Everyone wasn’t getting their commercial rate but everyone was pulling 200% of their energy. We had this incredible assistant photographer and an incredible lighting designer. Part of the shoot was done underwater. We used the black-light cannons. They basically spent the whole day setting up this part of the shoot, that you can see in the video, that is under water. It was incredible. The piece that they didn’t do. They didn’t heat the pool, and it was May. I was supposed to fall into the pool backwards from a diving board into the water. I was like “ok, calm face. Calm face. It’s going to be great. It is going to be wonderful”. But, you know there is fear involved. Wearing this long dress. We added more fabric to the dress because we went shopping for fabrics that would glow with the blacklight cannon. I was envisioning how it would be in the water. I bought a cheap throwaway violin on Ebay for like $30. So the violin was going to go into the water. I was envisioning me twirling in the water look in the water, playing violin in this whole romantic beautiful scene. The reality is…. I fall into the water backwards. I’m sure my face had some sort of grimace on it. I fall in and then I am trying to swim up but my dress wrapped around my legs. I could not swim. I couldn’t move. So we have slow motion footage of the lighting designer diving in to rescue me and pull me to the surface. All this water came out of my nose and ears. It was like I was waterboarded. Oh, also I had this makeup artist Jess Toth (sp?), who did this waterproof makeup look on me. My makeup did not budge one bit, thanks to her. So she was like “you can’t do that again”. She was like “if you don’t feel good we can stop this right now”. I was like “no, no we can do it”. So we did that sequence a couple more times. One of the best shots we did was, I holding on to the edge of the pool because I didn’t want to fall in again. With my dress and with the violin in the water, waving it back and forth, creating this abstract texture, which you can see in the physical CD. I did a beautiful print of that particular shot, inside [the CD]. That was a pretty incredible experience. It was a three day shoot and the end result was something that looked like we spent twenty grand on it. We just pulled our resources. It was just something that I was feeling so passionate about it and I just knew I needed to invest what ever I could in it. I really truly believe that if you think big, and if you act big, than even if you are not quite there yet, you will get there. Also thinking of it like a legacy. This is a forever project. So I didn’t want to put anything out there that wasn’t top top top quality. Top caliber. I also didn’t want to do a Kickstarter campaign for it because I would prefer that it was something that I am funding, I am not asking people for money. I think that sometimes those things [Kickstarter Campaign] can be successful, but sometimes it is sort of a more begging thing.
It is kind of like losing control because you don’t have control over the budget and can’t plan accordingly.
I think it is important to put out the best quality work you can, because it will be for forever. Well, we don’t know really what the future holds but I’m thinking it will live for forever.
Forever, as long as foreseeable. Working with that production team but also musically… building your albums and recording it… Collaborating with other musicians and sound engineers… How do you build and cultivate a team that helps you succeed? Can you speak to the building of teams?
Sure. Well, “Brym Al Mar” was the first song I did for my solo project, I actually went through a few iterations with a few different producers. My friend Benny Cante (sp?) did some of the dubstep growls and textures. Empsh Subatomic worked with me. [He said] “before we actually mix this, I think we need to go into the sounds, themselves. Let's get the best kick drum sound we can. Let's get the best textures. Because if you have the best quality audio, than everything else will follow”. He also had there idea to merge, you know when you are doing electronic music with violin and vocals. Kinda merging those elements so that it is not this cold, stark electronic content. When I went into the studio I recorded peppercorns rice shakers, these organic shaker textures and then also this Icelandic jaw harp I had. Just in the act of having a few organic percussive elements helped fuze those two worlds together. The digital and analogue. From there I had it mixed by Ming, who is another producer in New York, who Empsh introduced me to. It is kind of like you connect with one person and another person and another person. But really I wanted to find the person who really fit, and really understood what I was doing and really got me. Working with Ming, super fast and efficient. There are some moments in the song where there are transitions, I didn’t really know how that would work. But it [the song] still wasn’t there. Even after all those people. Then I finally brought it to Dave Sharma. He mixed that whole EP that I released. I basically sat with him for a bunch of the sessions. The processes with that is finding where the song wants to live, which is interesting. Each song actually has a place where it wants to live. I have approached a lot of my music as an artistic expression, that's really important. I am not producing something that anyone else has any quality control over. It's not a commercial label that has this specific thing that they want me to fit into. Its my expression. I am ultimately giving the “yes” or “no” to the final product. I really felt that Dave got my vision. [He] was pulling out elements of each song. When we were working on [the song] ‘Phavet’, which is inspired by a Finnish a capella women’s chorus, as represented by violins. I had a particular way that I thought the track should go, but he was like “no, let's try it this way”. I was like “ok, well I’m open to it”. I am very happy with that direction we took. Then finding a mastering engineer, that's another critical piece. I have been working with AudibleOddities. He [Shawn Hatfield] has worked with some of the top electronic artists like Amon Tobin. I am an audiophile. Finding people who really care about audio and sound quality. The first track I sent him to master came back perfect. No need to revise things.
For this release that I did with Desert Dwellers they put Leya, I think I release it in 2015. It was Laya and then four remixes by a few different artists; Haj I Ji, An-Ten-Nae, Kaminanda, and Twin Shape. They used a different mastering engineer. I think we went through four or five different revisions with that one.
So it pays to get the right person.
Again investing just a little more, because it is a legacy that will live forever.
Thanks for sharing. Tell me about Paper Gold Records.
Well… Paper Gold Records is actually my label. At the moment I am the only artist on it, but my vision with it, which could tie into what you are doing, is to inspire young girls and women to pursue a career in music, and the whole world of electronic music. There could be definitely be a lot more women that could take on that challenge. So with Paper Gold, it is currently a vanity label but my vision is to take that to the next level and have it be a platform for other artists to release their music on.
How do you make a record label? Not all artists are willing to put in the work. Tell me how that is for you and how you balance dealing with the record label and all of the political/ legal hoops that you need to jump through.
It is getting easier and easier to release your own music and to be an independent artist. Sometimes it is good to have an additional avenue to release your music. First of all, its quality control. Also if I own all the pieces of my music, than getting it placed for television, for a commercial, for films… If I own of my publishing and all of my mastering… The down side to it though is that when you are part of a bigger label you are part of a bigger network. If you want to do it on your own, you build your own team. Everyone starts somewhere. Everyone starts small and grows. If it is the right thing the path might be easy and if it is not the right thing, than the path might be a little more difficult. It depends also on how much you really want it. The important key element that I found was distribution. I work with Symphonic Distribution and they’re amazing. That is how I get my music up on Spotify and iTunes. Soundcloud is different but all the digital distribution happens through my distributor. Ya, it’s not too difficult to start your own business in that way.
Well, you have to be bold and take that first step.
Yes. Ya, and come up with a good name. Really the biggest thing was Paper Gold Label or Paper Gold Records. Ah, they are so similar…
Was that a week, or a month or how long was that debate?
I don’t know, maybe a month or maybe two. I have been spending a lot of… the beginning of this year and last year working on my new EP called Salt. I actually played one of the songs last night at my show on the Green Tree Stage [at Arise Music Festival]. I invited up a guest guitarist for that. Salt is the single I released in June. Then I was touring the east and west coast with it. The lyrics are in Icelandic. I worked with my friend Outsa (sp?) in Reykjavik (Iceland) and she helped me with the diction. I have been studying some icelandic and I am a linguist but I don’t speak Icelandic. Part of my interest in working with different languages… I even have some songs in a made up language. The thing about that is to pull people into your universe, it doesn’t really matter what the words mean. But anyway the lyrics are basically “Tears of the ocean, salt of the sea. Find yourself at the bottom of the sea, white doves over head and drift away”. Then there is this badass Icelandic medal section that drops in. The guy who plays on the track Stephen, in Austin… You know I never ever wanted electric guitar in any of my music but that just worked, really worked. But back to your question earlier about collaborations… I do write a lot for Cello. My new EP will have a few different guitarists on it. A string trio. I recorded a violist Nils Bultmann who works with Blue Tech. Then Jill Berta (sp?) and Adam Maloof (sp?) they are cellists who live in New York. I have a lot of piano on there. I play piano too. You know collaborating with people in the sense that… If you are just one person you have just one expression. But if you pull other people in and their talents in… Wow, it’s so beautiful. Tear drop, the cover I did of Massive Attack, I worked with a Cellist named Raymond who tours with Celine Dion or he did in the past. His expression on the Cello is just this gorgeous… like your heart just goes Oh… and melts. You feel things. I want people to feel things. So that's what I keep in mind with every piece of music that I write.
———-Part two——-
Tell me about your first performance and if you had any anxieties and how you overcame that.
Wow, rolling back the time. I started playing violin when I was three but then we took a bit of a break with that. I kept envisioning me in a pink dress in front of an orchestra soloing. Then my very first recital for my Suzuki concert, my mother and I sowed a pink dress. I thought about that later and was like “wow, I really actually manifested that”. Haha. I was extremely nervous, I was so young. For my class in school, when I was just learning, I would bring my violin and my Suzuki book to school and I would have them pick out a song and then play for them. I was kind of bold then. When I auditioned at New England conservatory for the master’s program in Boston. That was a deathly horrifying nerve racking experience. Somebody later told me about taking beta-blockers. It was so bad. When you are so nervous that your hands are shaking. Then my knee started to shake. So I did a graceful move to [try] to stop shaking. Like my knee was about to fall of or something. haha. I was like I hope they don’t see this. So I got through that interview or that audition process. At that moment I didn’t make it in, which was disappointing. I feel like performing on stage is a very different thing than auditioning. Auditioning is nerve racking
Well they are judges not fans.
Ya, they are all just sitting there staring at you. Its intimidating.
How did you overcome your fear? Did you get yourself into a mental mindset? Do you use meditation to clarify your vision before you step out and the curtains open? How do you get yourself ready mentally?
I do try to do that. If at all possible I try to have the green room cleared right before my set. Spend a few moments centering and grounding. Two years ago I played Lighting in the Bottle at the Thunder stage, and I tried something new there. I arrived in the evening. My set was maybe two days later. I arrived to the space and it was at night and everything’s closed. I just did a visualization there. I closed my eyes and envisioned the whole space filled with light and setting intention to really inspire people. Envisioning the whole space, this enormous ball of energy. That was really powerful. Arriving to a space, setting an intention. Really doing some visualizations. It doesn’t happen every time, especially at festivals. Sometimes those change overs are so rapid and there are just a million things and chaos. and the rain… why does it have to rain…. And there is also all that adrenaline. So sometimes it is a little bit rushed. And maybe not that grand. You know it is not always the ____ Stage, and then Grand Reveal, and then I enter. You kinda have to roll with whatever is given to you and make the most of it. One important practice I do too… of course it is ideal if ever performance you have you have the best lighting, the best sound, the best ambiance, the best audience. But if you don’t have all those elements you just ‘fake it’. What I am saying by that is that let’s say I can’t hear myself very well on stage or if something shifted with the audio. You roll with it. You don’t make a big deal about it. Unless it is something that will really affect your performance. The most important thing is that people… Their watching, they are listening, they are there for an experience, they showed up. They want whatever it is you are going to give them. To break the flow, I don’t like to do that. I like to proceed. If it is not ideal, its ok. It’s improvising in the moment as well.
Ya, I remember watching a set… it was actually here at Arise… it was Linx, is who it was. Her computer restarted on her mid-song and she didn’t lose a beat. She was beatboxing over the track and then suddenly everything cut out, and she kept beatboxing without losing the rhythm. Then later on revealed “so I hope you liked that last one, that was just me beatboxing as my computer restarted but here we go”. I didn’t even catch that there was a crisis on stage. It was just serene, she just rolled with it.
(Tangent): I think that’s something very important and some younger musicians don’t do. I have taught Guitar and learned the Guitar myself. And one thing that people do when you are just learning is you hit the wrong cord [or note] and then you stop. You freeze. You’re like oh, that was wrong. And then go back to the beginning. That was the wrong chord but the next chord should be right. So just keep going. Pretend like it [the error] didn’t happen. So I think keeping that flow is important.
So getting into that mental mindset tell me about your meditation music.
So I have this side project called ‘Deep Sonos’ and it is a full-spectrum sound meditation experience. Part of that was I wanted a channel for this more meditative, pretty, contemplative music that I write. I actually did a workshop here on Saturday morning. It was in the dome, the Sunrise Dome and it was basically 2/3rds full. So many people showed up at 9am for this experience. It was basically this full spectrum sound experience, where all my textures, sounds, electronics, bass frequencies, violin, and vocals are pulling people into this really deep effortless space for meditation. I actually have four episodes of these 10 minute meditations out that people can get online at: SoundCloud.com/deepsonos/
I have been doing a lot of those workshops around. I really believe that music can create a very deep mental… ah… almost like a bed. Like you can just fall into it. Like you fall onto this feathered mattress and… there is a cushion… and you just melt. No drugs involved. Haha. So Deep Sonos started, I have a background with Yoga. I have been touring with Wanderlust for about four years. I did all of the U.S. and Canadian festivals. I would take people on these hikes with just my violin in its case. We would go to a beautiful vista. I would sit everyone down and center and ground everyone in nature. Its beautiful. It's on a mountain somewhere. There’s.. Oh, gorgeousness everywhere. Everyone gets really comfortable. They are dropping in, they’re present. They are in nature. Then I start playing violin. About 30-45 minutes I would improvise. Emulating the sounds of the birds, the bugs, the textures, ancient melodies that are coming to me. I am kind of channeling music that comes to me, but I don’t normally say that. But then I also walk around. So as people are in this meditative state, they are hearing now the violin is her… now it's there, now it’s here. It's like this out of body experience.
Just imagine… your eyes are closed. you are in the grass. you are lying down. You hear this beautiful violin. Its to the right of you now it’s left now it’s far away. I’m not moving around that much but it’s this kinda tippy experience because when you are falling into this deep sedated state you are not totally aware of the specifics of what is happening but you are just kinda drifting off in this mellow space. So, I love doing those hikes so much. Some of them were at sunset or early morning. So I did a lot of music accompaniment for Yoga which is how I actually got into my solo electronic project because when people are doing Yoga they are not really paying attention to if you’re turning the right knob or if you played that melody correctly. it is just more about this immersive experience. What can happen with a yoga class [is that] as I am interpreting and feeling the environment, and the class [students], and the teacher, I am providing something for something that is being facilitated by someone else. A couple of years ago I was in Portland for a Yoga event with this teacher Jill Knouse and we added on a meditation experience at this space, that was specifically dedicated to meditation call, Hush. I had a full sound system, a full PA, because the bass frequencies are what are really important for this experience. So I created a whole Deep Sonos sound meditation, an hour long. It was basically like having a pallet, a painters palette. A little green, a little red, a little splash here. I didn’t have anyone to tiptoe around. I was just intuiting, and feeling what these people who were meditating wanted. I was creating this immersive experience for people to drop deep into meditation. That really resonated with me. It really felt like something that I wanted to do more of and curate more. So from there, I produced these ten-minute meditation sequences. This was after a trip to Costa Rica and I recorded textures. Like jungle textures. Like sea pods, and crinkling up leaves, and rubbing two sticks together. haha. I recorded all these things with a Tascam Audio Recorder. Then wove those into this 10-min meditation track. I produced it in Logic and wrote it all in Logic.
In Logic are you working with midi and digital instruments as well as these organic sounds that you are pulling from around the world?
Yes. I use Native Instruments a lot. I use Machine for a lot of my drum sounds. I use a lot of different plugins. So I am doing a lot of studio recorded violin and vocals and sometimes guest cellists and guitarists. Then I use a lot of Sine waves for base. Sometimes I’ll layer that with…
Just straight clean sine-wave for bass?
I’ll synthesize sounds or do a little oscillation or wobble in there to give it a little texture. The challenge for Deep Sonos to do these segments at 432 Hz. I wanted to try it and see if that indeed felt more meditative. They do say…
Tell me about 432
There are lots of theories about… I am not an expert but from what I have gathered… 440 Hz is what most music is produced at. The frequency… I don’t know if we should even get into this.
Well if you don’t want to, we don’t have to.
Well, I am not the most scientific about it. 440, 432… Apparently, Tibetan singing bowls, if you put a tuner to it, the frequency that it emits is 432, not 440. 440 is a bit of a contrived frequency.
It’s Round
Well, there are theories about controlling people and I don’t know. I don’t even want to get into that. But, I wanted to try it because people do say that 432 is the sound of the universe, of nature, of the sphere and some people claim that it is more meditative. It is challenging.
What about in your experience?
I honestly don’t feel a difference. That’s my take on it. But what’s interesting the challenge to produce at 432hz. My ear is so trained to play my violin at 440 that to down tune it just 8 herz. It’s like oh am I playing out of tune or is this not right? And then all of the plugins like Native Instruments, Konnect Medal (sp?), and I love Alicia's Keys, it’s a plugin for Contact for piano. And a lot of these instruments you can change the tuning. You can change it to 432 and some others you really have to dive in. It was a good challenge.
Now these, ten minute… You called it a sequence of meditations… Are they meant to be listed to in order?
No. They live on their own. The first one called Vernal the next one is called Ephemére and then Autumné and then Viintara. They’re kinda seasonally based. But yea they are intended… Take ten. In the morning. In the night. You know when the song is up it has been ten minutes. I live in L.A. I go to the Beach. I listen without any music just the sound of the waves. I put my timer on. Inevitably at one moment, I will look. “Oh, it must have been 10 minutes already. Did I miss it? Oh, no there’s two minutes left”. I find that when I am meditating to one of those episodes, I really like Ephemére, I’ll actually drift off into this out of body experience and maybe I’ll be asleep for 30 minutes. Then I wake up and like ‘wo, where did I go?” And I feel refreshed like I took a 5 hour nap but it was only 30 minutes. And the fact that it can do that to me, and I created it, I mean… I channeled it, is pretty amazing.
Absolutely.
What Meditation does is gives your brain a chance to calm down. We have so much stimulus. So many things going on. So much distraction. I think a lot of us feel like we are running around like a chicken, with our heads cut off. Giving your brain and your body a moment to just calm down. To center and ground and to focus. Also to not have to worry about anything. I have found that with music it allows you to be effortless with this space of just calming your mind. So you are not worrying. The brain likes to run around. “Did I plan my dinner” or “my plans for the week”. If you can just calm it all down. So at one of my Deep Sonos workshops. I do these one hour sound meditation workshops and this one guy said “wow, I was actually scared to come to this workshop. How am I going to meditate for an hour?” And he said [after] the first five minutes of music his mind was a complete blank slate. It was completely blank. He said “I have never ever experienced that” to just have a completely calm mind. I think he has a little A.D.D. I think it is super healthy. You can read all the benefits of it Meditation. I know for myself, when I have a regular practice of it [meditation] I can approach my day with a lot more clarity.
My assumption is, that you want to share that clarity with your listeners and that is why you have created Deep Sonos.
Yes.
Is Deep Sonos also intended to expand to other artists or is this a solo-project?
At the moment it is a solo-project but I do have bigger visions for it.
Well we are going to have to stay tuned.
All of my music can be found here: ThisIsHÄANA.com
What do you call the A with a double dot [Ä]?
Umlaut. Yes it is German.
And where is the best place to listen to Deep Songs
Well thank you for taking the time to talk with us and I really appreciate all of the wisdom you have shared. I wish you safe travels throughout the U.S. and to Australia and beyond.
Thank you so much.
Welcome to the Freio Music Podcast. I am your host Michael Morahan. This is episode number zero. THis episode is going to be about the podcast itself. So we are going to get super meta and talk about what we are going to talk about. So, who am I? I am a music student. A Musician. A music Lover. I go to different shows all over the place. I love, love music for sure. I also love to produce. What that [producing music] means to me is using the computer to harness bits and bytes and make some bad ass beats. Beyond that I also love sound engineering. The back end of how everything works. Thinking about the signal flow… Basically, what interests me is how I am reaching your ears right now. That is interesting. I would say that I am a mad-scientist and a musician at the same time. But beyond that the podcast is not about me. The podcast is about artists, other artists. I am going to be interviewing artists from around the world. I am not going to limit myself to genre. It’s going to be far and wide so I hope you enjoy. Hopefully you will find some new music that you have never heard of. Some new artists that you appreciate, that you have never heard of and maybe you will see some that you are familiar with. They are going to be sharing nuggets of wisdom. Young artists, listen up because these individuals and bands they know what they are doing. They have been through it so you can learn something from them. Let them help you along your way to becoming a musician because I know it is not an easy path. It is not; pick up the guitar, plug it into Garageband and you are going to have a new hit single. That is not going to work. You need some guidance.
But if you are not a musician, the podcast will hopefully still be interesting. It is not merely talking about types of instruments and cables and stuff like that. We are going to be talking about stories. How they got to be where the are. You are going to get a behind the scenes… like you are opening up the curtain and shedding some light on who these artists are. It is going to be an interesting podcast
Moving forward, this podcast is likely to evolve. And I want it to evolve because music changes. Life changes, everything on this earth changes. So if you think the podcast would be better with X or Y, I would love to hear it. That could be an artist [that you would like to be featured] or music news, or anything that I cannot even think of, that would be awesome. So please give your input and let me know what you would like to hear on the podcast moving forward. I will do my best to cater to it. Of course can’t make a promise that I will incorporate everything that everyone wants, that seems unreasonable. But your input will be listened to and will likely have an impact on the podcast moving forward.
Feedback is very much appreciated. Leave your reviews on iTunes and comments on FreioMusic.com/Podcast. You can get all the episodes and show-notes there. Parents, forewarning, there might be some explicit content. It is unforeseen when it will come up. So just know that if it is something that is unacceptable, maybe this isn’t the podcast for you. If you are open to it, we will see where it goes. Basically, I just don’t want to filter these artists. I don’t want to mute their worlds. Let them come out and say what they need to say and how they need to say it. So that is my stance on explicit content. Not every episode will have any swear words but just know my stance on it. So that is your warning.
In case you were wondering who that cute, partially coherent, voice was at the beginning of the podcast, that is my nephew Declan who is obviously one of a kind. And, in my opinion, has the cutest voice in the entire world. You have got to agree, he has the cutest voice in the world. And if you don’t, whatever. I think it is awesome. He went off script, delivering the priceless line “Pottycast”. Which, I could never have foreseen. He looked at me, out of the corner of his eye, started smiling even before he said the word because he knew what he was going to say. And he knew it was naughty but he delivered it excellently. So thank you Declan for being to voice of the podcast and being the intro. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Moving forward, I hope you enjoy the podcast. And please share it with your friends, leave some comments, give some feedback and enjoy the next episode.
