How long is the Kylie Minogue tour?
It's about eight months total. We've done five shows now, so I guess it's been going nearly two weeks. We came to Melbourne three weeks prior to that to get into the rehearsal process.
"Can't Get You Out of My Head" is such a jam.
One of my teenhood jams, that one. Iconic video.
Can you tell me about your rig for this tour?
On the bottom is a Native Instruments S88 – a full-sized, 88-key MIDI controller – which is going into [Apple] MainStage. That's doing an array of sounds, from piano and Rhodes, to strings and samples. On top, I've got a UDO Super 6 polyphonic analog hybrid synthesizer, which is going through an Eventide H90 and a [Boss] Space Echo, the RE202.
I'm glad the Super 6 came up. I first heard your name because I own a Super 6 and I use your patches all the time. Can you tell me about getting involved in patch design?
It happened organically. UDO's workshop was very close to where I lived in Bristol. I don't remember who approached who, but it's likely that Adrian Utley from Portishead introduced us. Constructing a sound from nothing is something I've been drawn to for a long time. It's ingrained in both my studio and live work. But word's gotten around since my work with UDO, and I've had the pleasure of working with companies like Soniccouture as well.
What's your design process when a synth builder requests patches?
I can't deny the satisfaction of creating prescribed sounds – [Roland] Juno pads, Theremins, Moog bass – which often occurs in my live touring work. But I'm lucky enough with the builders to also be given free rein to follow a creative thread. Someone might come to me for patches that represent a performer's visceral exploration of the instrument. My approach varies vastly depending on whether I'm aiming for lead or percussive sounds, ever-shifting pad sounds, or sounds with rhythmic patterns. But I always try to create personality in a sound, no matter how complex or simple. I still want an almost human feel. So, I use modulation – LFOs, envelopes, etc. – but also articulation aspects like aftertouch, mod wheels, and expression pedals. Some combinations can create unpredictable movement or responses, like filter or waveform modulation with LFOs, or looped envelopes of varying times and shapes. Some synths want simplicity and absolutely sing with just a single sawtooth and very subtle modulation. It's a conversation with the instrument, so listening before responding is a big part of it. Also, it's knowing when to capture something before you've moved on and lost a sound forever.
Your patches sound like they were made by a composer with a particular need. Maybe I'm projecting, but each patch feels designed to be a single element in an arrangement, rather than an arrangement in and of itself.
One of the things people say they appreciate about what I do is that when I build sounds, I'm not necessarily thinking like a true techie. I'm thinking as a creative artist, and I’m considering how I want to express a feeling. Even when I'm exploring something like the Super 6, where it can go very deep, I don't want to overcrowd. The same applies for found sound. Before I was interested in synthesizers, I was, and still am, hugely into musique concrète – lots of samples and manipulation. Synthesizers became incorporated within that framework.
That approach is audible on your EP [The Embrace]. There are tons of sounds – "whirling water, clinking metal, knocking wood, and characterful analog synths," by your own description – but every one of them is a singular voice.
Arranging those songs was about having everything be there for a purpose and trying not to overcomplicate. Simplicity can be refreshing. It might be a kind of rebellion against my original background, which is classical. At one point I didn't like the idea that somebody might see me play the piano and it wouldn't come across as virtuosic. I had to really give myself a talking to. "It's not about virtuosity. It's about the music."
How do you break that habit?
The producer I was working with, TJ Allen, gave me a bit of an assignment: "Write a pop song where you are only playing two notes at a time." You just get your two index fingers to play the whole song.
That's a great assignment.
It did the trick!
Can we talk about the last song on the EP, "Fragile Creature"? It's sonically unique in the collection, and the backing vocals are astonishing.
I wrote "Fragile Creature" at a different time to the other songs, which makes sense as to why it stands out. It started with a sample of a dial-up modem, which I pitched down, looped, and then let it roll. I wrote the song over top of that. The demo consisted of piano and vocals. The synths replaced this Mellotron-y string part. And pretty much all the backing vocal parts that you hear in the finished version are as they were in the demo.
The backing vocals transform this intimate ballad into something theatrical, almost liturgical.
Thank you! I described to Tim [TJ Allen] how I wanted it to feel sonically, in relation to the meaning of song. I don't know if there was a great deal of discussion, it was really just more of an understanding. We did decide beforehand to go into the studio and not tinker with the demo at all. It was what it was, and it had been sitting for a couple of years. Aside from a few overdubs, we pretty much did it in one day.
Where did you record?
This was at J&J Studio Bristol. Tim has a room attached to that studio, so it was mostly in his space. The process was very organic. We put the piano and the guide vocal down first, then we started exploring the concrète side of it, the textural feel. We replaced that sampled modem with some vocal samples that we manipulated with the Make Noise Morphagene. You can fragment and reverse bits – there was an element of jamming and then finding little snippets and placing them where we felt they sat, which is generally how I work at home with things like that. I capture a load of sound, whether it's messing around with samples or synths. If there's a bit where I think, "Oh, that's doing something," then I'll zoom in on that.
Did you make the rest of The Embrace at J&J?
Bits of it. Mostly at home.
Can you describe your basic chain for recording synths?
If I'm not going through any pedals or effects, the synth goes line-in straight into my Universal Audio Apollo rack. I like to keep it set up simply at home so that I can focus on the creative side and just capture it. In the studio with TJ Allen, the synths were occasionally recorded through either the Heritage Audio 73 JR 500 Series [Neve] 1073 clones or a Focusrite ISA pre.
Could you feel more muscle on the synth through the preamps?
It's hard to tell because the space was different, so it sounded different anyway. Some synths do benefit from being run through preamps, particularly some digital synths. But it was mostly analogs on the EP.
Pedals?
I often have either a synth set up going through some pedals, or some pedals set up as an aux. Recently I was playing around with the Vongon polyphrase, which is a delay, but it can kind of be a looper as well. There's a reverb by the same company, the ultrasheer. That pairing is beautiful. They're both stereo, and part of the magic of the polyphrase is the stereo movement.
Do you ever feel hemmed in by having to find stereo effects for synthesizers?
No, I like being hemmed in. I don't want too much in the way of options. If there were too many options, I think I would get overwhelmed.
Which brings us to your DAW situation.
Three different DAWS serve different parts of the process for me. I tend to start in Ableton Live, because if I'm in the creative, early stages where I'm generating ideas, I don't want to be restricted to a linear thing. That's one of the areas where Ableton really shines. To go from one scene to another mid-scene can change a chord progression and harmonic rhythm completely. I never would've made certain decisions otherwise. I love it for that reason.
What about mixing?
I always end up in Pro Tools. That's where I finish to get songs mix ready. I have also recently gone back into [Apple] Logic for its step sequencer, which is a bit of a game changer for me when it comes to beat writing, in particular. I've ended up coming up with rhythms and feels that I wouldn't have done otherwise.
Are you sending MIDI sequences out to hardware in the room, or are you using soft synths?
I hook up an external synth. Recently I did it with the [Sequential] Prophet-6. I hooked it up with MIDI and just randomly added steps into the Logic step sequencer: I changed notes, changed the octaves randomly, and got probability involved. It's amazing. What came out was, again, something I never would've played.
Maybe impossible to play?
Exactly. But even if it's a really simple bassline, I play it in so I can capture it with MIDI. Then I send that out to the instrument. That way I can manipulate the sound with two hands when I record the audio, and I can make it a performance. Like swelling up the filter into a chorus or changing the decay time of the envelope, responding in the moment to make it a bit more musical and have it flow as the structure of the song unfolds. That's something I do a lot.
You mentioned beats.
I've got a sizable library of the samples I've collected over the years. Some are sampled from analog synths, like the [Korg] MS-20 or [Roland] SH-101. There are also synth modules like the Make Noise DPO, or Mutable Instruments' Elements and other stuff in the digital realm. Plus there’re found sounds turned into hits, pitched or textural sounds such as oven shelves, wooden objects, drawer slams, taps, and scrapes. Sometimes, I randomly pull a load of those into Logic's Drum Machine Designer. I just chuck in the samples. I can do it with regular MIDI view, but if I use step sequence mode it gets really interesting.
