24 Feb Interview: Machinefabriek
Q:Your music sounds as if you are making the sounds on the fly as you are recording, is this a too romantic assumption?
That’s not a romantic assumption. As for live performing, that’s exactly what I do. Practically everything you hear is done in real time. For my records it’s a different story. They might have pieces of live recording in them, but it’s more about cutting and pasting.
Q:When you are working on a record, on a track, do you have a clear image of what is to come, or are you lead by experimenting with sounds and sources?
No clear image, just a vague idea. The rest comes as the track takes shape. I react to what’s happening at that particular moment.
Q: Your toothbrush is making quite a fuzz on the internet. Enlighten us please:
I may have used it a couple of times for a performance, to vibrate the strings of the guitar. It makes a nice sound. But I don’t want to be know as ‘the guy with the toothbrush’…. It just happened to work, that’s all.
Q:Is looking at objects as sound sources a daily routine for you?
It sort of is. I think I’m listening with the ears of a musician a lot of the time. Or as a researcher. I’m very conscious about the sounds around me and every little sound can be interesting in or out of its context. Also I like to keep trying different instruments for that same reason.
Q:Due to the expressive and abstract nature of your music, do you pay more attention to the quality of the sounds, or are you more concerned with the expressionistic value of the sound?
Difficult one. It’s both things at the same time. I’m not interested in sound quality in the old fashioned sense. A sound has a quality if it expresses emotion of some kind.
Q:Do you feel technology is close too dictating what electronic music sounds like today?
It does a lot of the time I think. That’s why I like people who have a personal sound, and use technology as a handy tool. There’s loads of music programs and even more people that use those for average (electronic) music, but those who somehow manage to form this software to a autonomic tool succeed to do something special.
