Jump to content
Formatting Your Listings
IGNORED

Amon Tobin - ISAM

crono3

By crono3
in New & Upcoming Releases

Recommended Posts

crono3 Proficient

crono3

Posted
Posted

From his email newsletter...

 

Album Update

 

It's been almost two years in the making and now it's finally done.

Currently being lovingly mastered and sequenced. What can you say.. these

things take time.

 

Thats all there is... no estimated date or title or anything, but it's still excellent news!

Also from his site...

 

Happy 2011 everyone! Hope you love great music and great art, because this year is proving to be chock-full with excellent projects Amon will release and / or be featured in. Stay tuned for details as these develop...
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 465
  • Created
  • Last Reply
crono3 Proficient

crono3

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Apparently he is also putting out a Chaos Theory Remix album this year, too... as well as another Two Fingers album (though that project isn't my thing). Dude has been busy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest Greg Reason

Guest Greg Reason

Posted
Posted

Excellent news! Dude has razor sharp production, always so sorted. Nicest dude in history too.

 

Here's an interview I did with him just before Foley Room came out:

 

 

 

G: Your last record was the Splinter Cell soundtrack, it must be exciting to release a new album that you had free reign over.

 

A: Oh yeah, definitely, Splinter Cell was a really technical exercise for me, there were technical restrictions which were very challenging but it’s nice to do your own record definitely.

 

G: Did you enjoy composing the soundtrack or was it an experience that you aren’t too interested in doing again?

 

A: I think you take what you can from things like that, it was a really good opportunity to do music that I was feeling and still reach a lot of people and also to do something sort of constricted, it made you very resourceful so I think I really learnt a lot doing that soundtrack. It’s not always the easiest things that you take a lot away from, you know?

 

G: How did the idea come about for you to work on the soundtrack, did they approach you or did you put your hand up for that?

 

A: They approached me and I was pretty suspicious at first because I was like “oh, here we go, you know, it’s going to be one of those soundtrack offers where the director comes to you and goes ‘I love what you do, now can you do something that has nothing to do with what you do for what we’re doing’ and you kind of go ‘oh, fuck it’ you know but this was a different case and they genuinely liked what I do and they wanted me to apply it to their game.

 

G: Are you much of a gamer yourself?

 

A: Not in a massive way but I got quite into Halo because that was a great game to have on tour. I think that’s what most of my gaming experience is - on the road in the back of a bus.

 

G: How did the Australian tour with Kid Koala go? You didn’t make it to Brisbane so I didn’t get to check the show out.

 

A: It was wicked, it was certainly nice to be out in the warm after the Montreal Winter. It was really good fun and I’m always blown away by the Australian crowd. I can’t believe how enthusiastic people are and how much energy there was in general. Yeah, I think we all came away form it feeling really good and I always like to tour with Kid Koala, he’s such a little genius and it’s always a great honour.

 

G: Did you test out some of the new material in your sets?

 

A: Yeah, I dropped a few things in there. It’s tricky because this new record’s got nothing to do with a club environment so it’s not the easiest thing to figure out how to play in a DJ set so I have to balance that out because there are a lot of people coming to see me who hope I will play something of my own so I try to do that as creatively as I can.

 

G: Do you prefer doing DJ sets or doing your own shows?

 

A: Well, the thing is the way I go out on tour is as a DJ because I don’t have a band so I can’t really do a live set and I don’t really dig the laptop thing at all so instead I DJ and I try to showcase my own material alongside things that have really influenced me and things that I really like so it tends to be a mixture of all of those things.

 

G: Do you ever find yourself going back and changing songs if you aren’t satisfied with the way people respond to them?

 

A: I dunno, I think that would be a very dangerous road to go down because I’ll play the same track to a handful of different audiences and get a different response every time so I don’t know if that’s any way to gauge whether a track is working and the tracks aren’t really meant to work in a club environment so I think I’d be crazy to go and play a track from an album in a club and if people weren’t freaking out to it go home and change it because I don’t really make them to work in a club.

 

G: I always did appreciate the level of detail in your music and I feel like it suits sitting down listening as much as if not more than perhaps even moving your body.

 

A: Well yeah, I really try not to think about where it’s going to be heard or what people are going to be doing while they’re listening to it, I really try and stay true to what interests me in the track itself and if it’s a very melodic, slow moving thing then I want it to be a good slow moving sort of thing and if it’s a rampant sort of pumping track then I want it to really be that so I just sort of follow where the track leads me a lot of the time.

 

G: So how did your collaboration with Mike Patton come about?

 

A: Well Mike had sent me I don’t know how many tracks for this Peeping Tom thing and I don’t know if you’re very familiar with him but he’s extremely prolific to say the least so there was so many tracks and I really liked a lot of them. I wanted to do the whole album but in the end it was fucking impossible. The amount of layers he has in one track, the amount of changes, I would have had to have spent ten years doing that thing and he wanted a lot of different production on there. Ever since doing that we’ve talked about doing a whole EP or a whole album together which I think would be wicked but it’s more a matter of when I’m not on tour or he’s not on tour so unfortunately it comes down to that.

 

G: So how do you see your work as having progressed since you started?

 

A: Oh man, I dunno, I hope it has progressed... I think on a purely production level I think I’ve definitely learnt a lot, as far as the music itself, I have had different interests over different periods of time. I think I’ve been doing this for ten or twelve years so obviously my interests have shifted throughout that time. I dunno, I don’t know if you could call it a progression or not but there are a lot of areas I’ve tried to get deep into in that period.

 

G: Has the music scene around you had much of an influence on your work or do you just sort of tunnel ahead on your own?

 

A: Well again, that’s another thing that I can’t really… At first when I tried to make music I was really conscious that I wasn’t really fitting in and it really pissed me off because I wanted to make music that would be accepted in one area or another but it didn’t really turn out that way *laughs* I just couldn’t quite fit in there so after a while I learnt to sort of accept that and it ended up being a double edged sword because I ended up able to focus on things that particularly interested me and it meant I got to form sort of my own style music which has served me pretty well looking back.

 

G: What inspires you to create these days? Are you into movies or do you hear a really good song from someone else and go “Damn, I want to make some music now!”

 

A: It’s a bit of those things, you know, it’s the same as everyone, I’m usually trying to impress a girl who is probably nonplussed with the results but the effort was there anyway, *laughs* I dunno man, who knows really what motivates people and certainly I wouldn’t hazard a guess. I’m just trying to learn, man, I see myself as a student, you now, and I’m just trying to learn more and more because I find it interesting.

 

G: Do you find yourself listening to as much music now as you used to?

 

A: No, I spend ninety percent of time listening to music and about ten percent making it. It’s definitely what drives you and what’s going on around you. I find it very kind of dangerous to vanish up your own ass.

 

G: It seems that technology becoming cheaper and more readily available is having a vast influence on the electronic music scene. What’s your take on this situation?

 

A: Well, I think for sure technology and all of that is important but I think it tends to eclipse the real issue a lot of times because people like to think that they can buy their way to success like “if I own this piece of kit then my music will be that much better!” and the companies try to capitalize on that as well like “buy our PC” or “buy our Macintosh and you can do anything - you can make a movie, you can make music” you know and that’s how people sell things but the truth remains that all of this technology is just another tool and music or anything creative has to come from people and people have to have ideas and passions that drive them and the technology is just way a to realize those creative ambitions, they’re not really the driving force in music, at least not in my experience.

 

G: So you try not to think about what items come and go in the studio and just think of it from an ideas perspective instead?

 

A: Well, I look at it the other way around like instead of getting the piece of kit and then going “what can I do with this?” it’s more a case of like I’ve got an idea and what do I need to do that, you now? So I’ll have an idea for a song and maybe I need to take out a frequency that I can’t take out with what I’ve got so I find a piece of gear to do that.

 

G: Do you believe that musicians should keep their opinions to themselves and stay strictly entertainers or do you think people should say what they want to?

 

A: Oh man, you know what, I don’t think there’s any general rule that you can apply to people but I think it’s pretty evident though... I think the most sinister aspect of it is people seeing a market in actually being right on and political and trying to capitalize on that and make their tunes political because they know people will follow it but I think that’s probably the most sinister end of it. I think there are probably a lot of people who genuinely do have a lot of strong political views and find it a good medium to get those across. Personally I have no desire to thrust my views upon anyone. I find music is about emotions really and less to do with anything specific. There are some artists, particularly lyrical artists who’ve said a lot, people like Bob Dylan and Chuck D and I think those things are really valid but I think there’s a misconception as well that musicians have any more authority than anyone else just because they made a record. I often get asked in interviews what my political views are and jus feel like “Well, what makes you think I’m even politically informed, you know, just because I made an album that I would know what I was talking about when it comes to politics?”

 

G: So what are you working on at the moment? Are you relaxing now that you’ve got a new album on the way?

 

A: Ah, you’ve got to be kidding! No, the album was the easy part now I have to go out and tour this thing and I’m doing a lot of press right now and a lot of gigs are coming in April so yeah, this year’s going to be a lot of me DJing and traveling, I’m looking forward to it.

 

G: Do you prefer life on the road or the studio environment?

 

A: It depends whether or not I have a girlfriend, it might be easier to go out on the road when you’re single and not have to worry… It’s true that it’s very time consuming and your friendships suffer and your relationships suffer and it’s a lot more fun when you’re by yourself and you don’t feel the pressure to be at home.

 

G: So if you were to take one record to a desert island, which would you choose?

 

A: Oh man, that’s impossible! I’d hate to have to make that choice…. maybe Astral Weeks by Van Morrison. It’s an amazing record.

 

G: Do you have any aspirations for the future or have you achieved pretty much everything that you wanted to?

 

A: Oh, that would be an awful place to be I think. As I say, I’m still studying and learning and I really find that that’s what drives me so I hope I’ll never get to the stage where I feel that I’m complicit and I feel like I’ve learnt everything. I mean even this record I’ve just finished now, I already see so many flaws in it and I could carry on tweaking and improving and doing many more things in the future.

 

G: Well thanks very much for your time, it’s been a pleasure doing the interview and I wish you all the best in the future.

 

A: Cheers matey, likewise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.