Q&A SESSIONS JAN 2012...TECHDIFF!!!!

[Draegg Profile]

So after a long hiatus the awesome q&a sessions are back! And in light of the thread about techdiff...here is....TECHDIFF!

So just ask away and get crunked!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuULngchIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upSgZ2K8 ... re=related


So i´ll go first: How long have you been making music and what genre did you first do?

[Draegg Profile]

oh and mods, feel free to merge this thread with the existing!




Will I love you and you have nice balls.

[S2K08 Profile]

oh and mods, feel free to merge this thread with the existing!

Yeah sure I'll use my magic beam rifle pfffff... merge.... ha, I can edit your post so you say you love me, but that's about it

[Draegg Profile]

haha...why havent you done it yet?....Lover....

[TechDiff Profile]

So i´ll go first: How long have you been making music and what genre did you first do?

Tbh I'm not entirely sure when I started, with production at least. I guess sometime around 12 - 15 years ago.

I'd been making music in one way or another for a long time previous to that though. I was learning instruments from about 5 years old. Learnt brass, clarinet, saxophone and piano. I was also in a choir for several year when I was a nipper. and although very lame and laughable, as a result I was lucky enough to get a very good classical training from an early age.

I got into guitar when I was about 12 or 13, started teaching myself by listening to iron maiden, Metallica and so forth, I also got really into Satriani and Vai. It was around that age I started writing and recording my own compositions using a 4 track tape machine.

by the time I was old enough to go to collage, my eye site had got so bad that it meant I would have to delay starting collage for a few years in order to have some major eye surgery. sucked because all my friends where off doing cool things, I was stuck at home. still, loads of free time meant I could get better at guitar, and experiment with 4 tracks more. Once I'd had my operations and started collage, my eye site was good enough that I could just about use computers. I stared to use those instead of the 4 track. sound forge, acid pro, Fruity Loops etc. I'd also started getting into more electronic music, bits of drum n bass, jungle and so on. But the stuff that really got me was Squarepusher, Aphex, Plaid.

it heavily influenced my musical output, the guitar played a lesser role, and the sequencing became far more dominant untill eventually the guitar got more or less dropped. I still play a lot, just very rarely in the music I record.

The first completely sequenced stuff I was making was really all over the place, no specific genre. Because my background wasn't that of dance music I didn't really understand the fundamentals. my music ended up with a bunch of changes in time signatures, unusual keys and modes.

It's something I've kinda had to learn to change, or temper at least. I still write stuff that's essentially un-danceable, but the stuff I try to release and play out is usually more dance floor orientated.

[AfA62 Profile Website]

Nice one, impressive musical background! I used to play guitar too and digged some satriani, bumblefoot and other shredder a lot !

My question would be more on the melodic side this time ; how do you compose your melodies/atmos like in blister? awesome chord progression in this one !

I really like your simple but great flow with synths and leads, between beauty and surrealism and I like to (try) produce this kind of "mood"

btw thanks for taking some of your time to give us some answers !

[PEPCORE]

Holy shit, i dont think i can even merge topics.

Let me check into that.

[TechDiff Profile]

My question would be more on the melodic side this time ; how do you compose your melodies/atmos like in blister? awesome chord progression in this one !

Umm, this is a kinda tricky one tbh. It's pretty hard to try to breakdown those aspects of production.

I'm certainly never conscious about trying to apply strict music theory to whatever I am working on, but often I'll look back at something and realise that I have. I guess it's maybe that I have grown familiar with scales and so on, and apply them subconsciously. They got drilled into me for years so I suppose that just surfaces when I'm making something with chords or whatever.

[S2K08 Profile]

Tell us a story of you destroying hotel rooms, dance floors, public transportation with your tunes (I want celeb goss x)

In the form of an actual question, what have been some of your favourite live/touring experiences so far?

[TechDiff Profile]

Tell us a story of you destroying hotel rooms, dance floors, public transportation with your tunes (I want celeb goss x)

Haha, well nothing immediately springs to mind. Save for a couple instances of smashing tables and inciting fights in Moscow. Actually, most of the madness happened in Russia.. I was locked in an apartment for 2 days by a crazy russian promoter once. Oh and I accidentally trashed a hotel room in China, but really didn't mean to!!

To be fair though, I don't really get crazy like that, haven't drunk or done any drugs for years. Pretty boring in that regard tbh.

In the form of an actual question, what have been some of your favourite live/touring experiences so far?

Tricky one, there's so many to choose from. I love playing out, and love travelling to do so, so more or less every show and tour had some memorable moments.

One that made me really happy, I was playing a gig in Leeds, I think it was last year. I was on right before Hellfish which was amazing in itself. There was some problems in getting his CD decks setup, only one of them was working so I had to play for about 10 mins extra. But he joined in, doing some scratching over my tracks, massive smile on my face!

Another awesome one was a show here in Brighton, someone was putting a night on and one of their acts couldn't make it, so they asked me an Shitmat to fill the slot. Just by chance Ed Duran X 3 was in Brighton, and I had Hoonboy visiting for the weekend, so between us we decided to do a 4 man live improv thing under the name "Fagnetic man" It was total chaos to be honest, really OTT jungle mashup stuff, but really awesome fun and really great response from the crowd. Busiest the dance floor got that night.

Going to the States and Canada last year was really awesome too. Got to go to loads of places I'd always wanted to visit, met loads of really cool people too. All the shows were so different, some big and some very small. Detroit there was only like 15 people but felt more like a house party, really nice folk. Portland show got shutdown midway through but the whole party shifted to a different venue and carried on. Vancouver was just amazing. Small table set up on the dance floor, right in the think of it! Great fun.

It's strange just how disconnected the US core scene is, although not really surprising considering how big the place is, but it's really cool to see just how different the vibe gets from one place to the next. (UK parties can be great, but they all kinda feel the same, like there is a formula almost.) I was absolutely exhausted by the time I got home, but had such an awesome time, really hope to do it again maybe later this year.

[S2K08 Profile]

That was a good read cheers;

can't really think of another question to ask, funny how I'm the only one asking...

Have you ever done any actual music production courses or anything like that apart fromthe theory ones when you was a baba, or you all self learned?

[Fez Profile Website]

i vaguely remember that leeds gig, i was there!

but anyway, who is your favourite member of take that?