AAA - Ask Autechre Anything - Sean and Rob on WATMM!

[Sean Ae]

 

 

k I wanna be in on that gear naming thing,

 

I would be honored if you guys would give a name to

 

--- my E.Machinedrum

---- my (modded) E. Analog Four

 

(I can baptise them myself then)

 

your machinedrum is now called keith

your analog 4 is now called pierre

 

 

Any chance on collaborating with a Japanese singer again? The track with Mari Hamada is beautiful.

 

Have you used Renoise beyond the experiments with Venetian Snares?

 

maybe, it was a laugh, altho they remixed the hell out of it. the original mix we did was better imo (unreleased)

 

yeah we used renoise a fair bit, haven't personally for a few years tho

 

How such artist as Mari Hamada comes to an idea to have her tracks remixed by you? I mean, I would expect Tortoise to be really into experimental music or Radiohead, given to Thom Yorke's admiration of your work, but Hamada? It is quite surprising for me.

 

 

labels

 

 

Oh I see.

 

By the way, what was the reason for not going on tour with Radiohead? I mean, was it a collision of two different music approaches (in case they wanted you to colab with them on stage) or was it because you were offered being just an opening act for their show (in that case I would fully understand - to play for people that are not really interested...).

 

Don't you regret the decision a little? I mean, money offered surely must had been good! :-)))

 

And what do you think about Radiohead's takes on making electronic tracks like Everything In Its Right Place and Kid A? I personally think they are very well produced, the vibe is strong.

 

Feel free not to answer of course if the questions are too much. I appreciate your time :-)

 

 

 

we didn't want to play in stadiums to radiohead fans really. just seemed a bit superfluous

 

i dunno i mean they were good at writing songs and then they got into our stuff and their stuff didn't seem to improve much, i thought they would take it off in some mad direction but the critics bit hard, everyone around them got upset and they retreated. whatever

 

 

omg this wasn't a draem! sup autechre!!!!

 

what do you think about flying lotus his music? imo i think he's great and has a lot of talent he uses well

why didn't he ask you for a track for gtaV that would have been awesome

 

i really like the track he did with earl

hoping he does more straight up hip hop stuff tbh, he's good at it

 

is it this earl?

 

 

 

nah i don't know if it came out actually

it was ages ago, i saw a youtube i think

[Rob Ae]

which artists / abstract paint do u enjoy?

 

quick, name 3 films u've enjoyed in the theater within the past 10 years

 

for driving, which musics pop to mind as being ideal when operating the motor vehicles?

 

what do u think of this trac?

 

[youtubehd]WJfau0Z2ZhM[/youtubehd]

 

 

what about this trac?

 

[youtubehd]Ygc4RAtByYU[/youtubehd]

Piezo is excellent for being a driver to IMO, keep to long drives/freeway/autobahns, ideally those that have lighting and arent too straight.

 

Edit: Deploy a favourite Erik Satie on arrival at new destinations.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Rob Ae

[Guest lumakey]

An old interview mentioned you had some ideas for instruments or hardware that hadn't been invented yet, but hoped might come along someday. Have your feelings changed on that?

Has there ever been one new piece of equipment that really expanded or changed how you work?

Still using Nord's?

 

Your music has brought me great happiness and inspired me to do interesting things. Thank you for doing all of this. And for the great show in Phoenix several years ago!

[Sean Ae]

Sorry for all my questions, I'm writing them as I come up with them...

 

What's with myslb? Would you divulge what it stands for at least?

 

Do you keep detailed files of tracks, or is it more of a 'well that's track's done, who cares how we got there' sort of a thing?

 

nah we don't keep files other than things like undo history

with programming i make backups really regularly tho, nightly builds usually, so i can get back to any date if i need to. the files are tiny.

[o00o]

are you a fan of outdoor actives like trekking? (considering you preference for northface clothing)

[Sean Ae]

Would you do something like this topic inside the EKT Subforum? Giving tips to producers about their tracks or lecturing them based on a track you did?

 

What is the best record label besides warp?

 

i always liked mego so they get this shout

[Redruth]

if a man came to u and asked u to fix him 2 sandwiches made of rotted mushrooms, soggy newspapers and peely caulk, would u attempt to suggest an alternative or would u fulfill the request?

 

if plants could communicate with human language, what plant would u prefer to talk to first?

 

how many fingers am i holding up?

 

name something u consider strange about yourself

 

hypothetically, if u were to choose an alternate record label to release musics, which would u choose? it can be past, present or future

 

if u take a moment to think, what would u consider to be yr most precious belonging (gollum)

[Sean Ae]

You didn't come to the U.S. for your Oversteps tour. Was there a reason, and will you likely be coming back to D.C? Please do...

 

no reason just thought we'd leave it out for once

we'll be back

[o00o]

we don't use midi we made a better protocol. midi is stone age really

could you elaborate on that? what did you improve exactly?

[cygnus]

i just noticed that the skull snap logo does not say "gescom"

 

that label seems pretty cognizant altho it doesnt seem like they released that much. how much of cake mic did u do live or is that all edits its so good

[Sean Ae]

Do you guys use kyma at all anymore? Also what are/were some of your favorite things to use it for? I saw you mention earlier about the reverbs and totally agree. For me the samplecloud + reverbs are worth the price of admission alone.

 

nah we gave it to daz fitton

i wasn't using it and i don't like having stuff just siting there

 

it's ace for reverbs tho, mainly just cos the outputs on the capybara are so silky

also amazing for fake analogue stuff with a high degree of control, and realtime fft stuff

[futureimage]

Sean - what were/are your favourite machines on the Elektron Machinedrum and MonoMachine?

And with all the gear naming going on, could you please name my MD and MnM?

[Guest WNS000]

 

Oh I see.

 

By the way, what was the reason for not going on tour with Radiohead? I mean, was it a collision of two different music approaches (in case they wanted you to colab with them on stage) or was it because you were offered being just an opening act for their show (in that case I would fully understand - to play for people that are not really interested...).

 

Don't you regret the decision a little? I mean, money offered surely must had been good! :-)))

 

And what do you think about Radiohead's takes on making electronic tracks like Everything In Its Right Place and Kid A? I personally think they are very well produced, the vibe is strong.

 

Feel free not to answer of course if the questions are too much. I appreciate your time :-)

 

 

 

we didn't want to play in stadiums to radiohead fans really. just seemed a bit superfluous

 

i dunno i mean they were good at writing songs and then they got into our stuff and their stuff didn't seem to improve much, i thought they would take it off in some mad direction but the critics bit hard, everyone around them got upset and they retreated. whatever

 

Wow, and I thought Kid A is their masterpiece accepted by everyone. Did not know of any pressure on them because of that album. Thanks.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Jev

[cygnus]

also did u guys make any more stuff with fitton when you were bringing the legofeet stuff back >?

[Sean Ae]

 

You mentioned synaesthesia on page 22. What kind of synesthesia do you have? Is it sound-to-color synesthesia?

(Hello WATMM, I'm a new user and signed up to make use of the chance of asking questions here).

 

 

auditory/tactile and spatial/sequence

[Guest lumakey]

Have to disagree re radiohead. They wouldn't have made that last record or let Johnny re-string pianos to quarter tone scales if anyone were telling them what to do. They haven't been on a mainstream label in years, fwiw.

[Herr Jan]

Was AE ever requested for a Red Bull Music Academy lecture? If not, would you consider it?

[Sean Ae]

Does 11 is have any relation to Snorkel by Gescom?,

Later on in the track it sounds like Parhelic Triangle, were these deliberate things?

 

not deliberate

[cygnus]

what are your graff tags back in the day mine was VEXER do u reckon that sounded/looked threatening ?

[coconuthead]

My band has been having trouble finding a name to go by. Would you like to name it, or do you think it would be best to leave it up to us?

Also just wanna say the beginning of "1 1 is" feels like the sound is traveling in a circle through my brain. Really cool feeling.

[Guest]

you mentioned earlier that you use markov chains as a method for generating things...

while one could apply these to sequence basically any data, i guess they can be especially useful for melodic/modal and rhythm transforms...

 

that jazz-solo-like (for lack of a better word) melodic interplay in irlite (get 0) around 3:00 - 3:50ish, is this an example where you used the chains to generate the notes, prominently?

 

dunno, the way the melody moves in irlite somehow strongly reminds me of this lush piece by Miroslav Vitous:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgQR3HM3EOA

 

you dig? hear/feel any relation?

i recommend to check out this record if you don't already know it....

Edited November 3, 2013 by Guest

[campaign]

do you prefer having lossless audio files ? are you using iTunes ?

[Guest WNS000]

Are you in contact with Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree or Robert Fripp from King Crimson? Steven somewhere said that he would be interested in collaborating with you but I always thought his music (even the electronic one - Bass Communion) would not be interesting enough for you.

 

Also, were you influenced by Einstürzende Neubauten's early albums?

Edited November 3, 2013 by Jev

[Suffocate Peon]

I remember in an interview you said that Confield 'is like pop music compared to some of the stuff we had considered putting out', do you condense whole new sounds and whole ideas into single tracks and try to make that track as distinguished and individual as it can be, before moving on to the next track? Like try to maximise its quality? Bine for example is pretty unique on the album and in your output as a whole, and the darkest track on there imo, is there more like that? Like the other music of that period when making that album (or any album really), are there fully completed tracks that have not been released or are they covering the same ideas as the ones on the album? Is there a distinction between music and a track for you, like a point where it starts to take shape from the discovery and experimentation?

 

Just wondering about the creation process because the strong contrast from one track to the next is one of the aspects I like most about your music, and your albums. Few do it as well, or as [seemingly] intended.

[Rob Ae]

Does 11 is have any relation to Snorkel by Gescom?,

Later on in the track it sounds like Parhelic Triangle, were these deliberate things?

They do share a kind of toughnut bboy style, i think its more like we sometimes arrive at certain tendencies, we dont realy make a track to actually sound like another.