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

[olo]

Sean & Rob,

 

Have you guys browsed the General Banter page on watmm?

 

if not, what is your take on the documentary below? Scary or dudes being dudes?

 

[youtubehd]ohnuyqJyEW0[/youtubehd]

Edited November 4, 2013 by olo

[Sean Ae]

any of you ever get tinnitus? (esp.after too much fm)

how do you get around it, when it stays for a while?(days, weeks)

 

yeah i have pretty constant hf tinnitus and occasionally i will get either a kind of rippling bass sound or like a 70% reduction, both of which can last for anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and then seem to clear up by themselves. i found that listening to computerworld by kraftwerk seems to make them go away faster.

not joking there, it works for some reason. prob cos it's a neural feedback thing, i think i'm shoving something in the feedback path and kind of washing it out.

[Guest]

What is the first track you play for people that have never heard you before?

i had a guy round fixing my boiler a couple of years ago when i was doing tac lacora so i played him that cos he was asking

he just said 'who listens to this then? loads of guys sitting in their houses smoking weed?'

and i went 'yeah, pretty much'

 

Awesome. Your market is so obvious even the boiler guy knew.

 

Well, that's funny because I have never ever used any drug and I have never been drunk and I don't drink coffee and am no smoker. Yet I absolutely adore some of the weirdest music the guys have done. And I believe I am not alone in this market :-))

I don't do drugs either, I was kidding. :)

[Schlitze]

Don't you guys still get hassled by neighbours telling you to keep the sound down? All my flats I've lived in I've had knocks at the door, and it has always been as the Autechre as the antagonist.

[wavefold]

 

 

 

 

 

"in a world ruled by immediacy and ease , contemporary artists try to deconstruct reality, and reconstruct it in a much complex way, which offers all kinds of prospective and aspects" : do you relate to this statement?

another two smaller questions:

have you ever used modular synthesizers? what do you think of this kind of instruments?

is there any chance to see you live in Italy?

not really too attached to statements about contemporary artists, i mean not to miss the point of the q much, but if people have more options, i expect more outcomes, dunno.

 

yeah we have a handful of modulars, real and unreal, bought and made.

 

yeah we visit Italy almost every time. we've had lots of support from italian people thanks!

 

thank you for replying.

 

concerning modulars, how much do you use them in the studio? because it happens to hear some sounds in your record that make me think: "that awesome sound... must be a modular!"

 

good, that suggests its deep - which is nice because i have a tendency to feel that modulars give deeper results - and the studio right now is all maxmsp.

 

for other older tracks - that depends on which tracks your thinking of

 

 

like tapr in Draft 7.30, the texture in the background sounds a lot like a modular patch. could it be?

 

to me most of the texture here appears in the foreground.

 

oh yes. I mean, the clicking/percussive sounds.

anyway, thanks again and see you soon here in Italy

[Sean Ae]

Rob another taste-checking question. What about Laughing Stock by Talk Talk or Mark Hollis' solo album? I find it really fascinating how they developed from a new wave/synth-pop band to an experimental post-rock legend.

 

i always liked them tho even when they were doing more normal stuff, there was always a kind of sophistication to it, or elegance or something

[soma333]

What music from the 60s do you like?

 

From the 70's?

[Ivan Ooze]

have you ever seen the videoclip boysboysboys by sabrina and if yes would you ever get lost in her mountains of might?

[Guest northernplastic]

Sean & Rob,

 

Have you guys browsed the General Banter page on watmm?

 

if not, what is your take on the documentary below? Scary or dudes being dudes?

 

[youtubehd]ohnuyqJyEW0[/youtubehd]

 

Fucking Bronies man.

Lonely virgins on the search for identity.

[Guest WNS000]

 

Rob another taste-checking question. What about Laughing Stock by Talk Talk or Mark Hollis' solo album? I find it really fascinating how they developed from a new wave/synth-pop band to an experimental post-rock legend.

 

i always liked them tho even when they were doing more normal stuff, there was always a kind of sophistication to it, or elegance or something

 

 

Definitely. Significant part of it has to be in Mark's voice. You can't really play absolutely generic music when you have a singer like that, can you?

[Redruth]

i've always been following dm since i was quite young. that clark remix of freestate is very high quality, have u listened? i'm curious, if u were to remix, what trac might u choose?

 

edit: oh' and the bitstream, pain that i'm used to

Edited November 4, 2013 by Redruth

[Rob Ae]

Okay guys, few more questions, you don't have to answer them if they feel to personal, especially number one and two.

 

1. Does your family like your music? By family I don't necessarily mean your wife/gf or possible offspring. Maybe your parents? Or your aunts or something like that.

 

2. Did your family play a role in the making of Autechre back in the beginning? Like, supporting you and stuff like that.

 

3. At what point (release) were you both able to make a living off your music?

 

Oh, and Sean, you kind of skipped a question, would love an answer to that.

Also, thanks for doing this, it's great to get an authentic picture of the minds behind Autechre. Thank you, you guys are great.

 

some of the music they had on around us had some bearing on things.

 

after touring the US in the first tour, pretty much lost my job on returning cos i used up all my allowed holidays, then got offered a week in moscow, so from that point on i had little choice but to try to keep it up.

[Panoptic Sweep]

The first half of d-sho qub is one of the most floor-friendly moments of your later years, with a sublime melodic hook. Are there more 'accessible' versions of this track? You could have made a few bob off that! Have either of you found yourselves treading a particularly commercial-sounding path and felt the need to dial it back? Or do you just release what ever, paying no mind to something sounding commercial or not?

[Ivan Ooze]

do you like ween? it's 2 crazy musicians making a bunch of awesome tracks

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtovTIii2GU&feature=player_detailpage

[Sean Ae]

following up on Sean's comment about the ISAM visual show here

 

 

 

 

oh not to mention the cheesiness of using projection mapping, it's like a corporate presentation or something

is it strange to either of you guys to see the corporate world appropriating the style of imagery presented in Gantz Graf?

I'd imagine it would be somewhat off-putting to create something as amazing as the Gantz Graf audio/visual presentation and have hundreds of knockoffs being used in anything from a car commercial to a scene in a bad hollywood film. this takes me to another question though, what does it feel like to have a ton of people imitating your styles? Was there a conscious decision to just go so ahead of the curve that no one could possibly predict or emulate the future of AE? Or did this just happen on its own (because that's where you are now).

 

nah not strange at all in fact i think alex's graphics work suits that environment, in a good way cos that he's pushed it so far it makes it something else

if alex was actually designing corporate presentations they would be fucking excellently done

 

but yeah i mean sometimes people think they hired someone to appropriate something and they get the result and they can't tell it's like a totally shit version of the thing they asked for

like the robots in I, Robot, imo they are like a really shit ripoff of the bjork robot, but the director/producers prob couldn't see how badly done it was so it got used

 

i don't mind if people want to adapt what we've done (in principle) at all. whether i like the music is a different question tho

we never thought we were being ahead of other people, we've always felt like we are making music for here and now

[Guest 21B]

did either of you ever use an octatrack and if so what did you think of it?

[triachus]

Do you guys do a lot of field recordings? Like, recording street sounds, or clicks, water, metal, voices, wood, etc...

 

Do you do that often? Or only once in a while/when you have a specific idea?

 

 

And Sean: I have send you a PM with a link to the 2007 Dour Festival concert recording, it says here you still haven't read it. (just a heads up)

 

Also, can you name my acoustic guitar? I haven't played it in years, needs a new life.

[Rob Ae]

The first half of d-sho qub is one of the most floor-friendly moments of your later years, with a sublime melodic hook. Are there more 'accessible' versions of this track? You could have made a few bob off that! Have either of you found yourselves treading a particularly commercial-sounding path and felt the need to dial it back? Or do you just release what ever, paying no mind to something sounding commercial or not?

it doesn't seem particularly weird because they're more normal = commercial, making stuff purely for commercial supremacy would be a rod to beat ourselves with, so not something to dabble with lightly. i think the first parts of D-sho qub aren't a million miles from say bike or tracks on our first releases. so its been a thread we can't help its something we do naturally, commercial or not.

[Sean Ae]

how does one mix such complex tracks, so that various sounds don't nullify each other? simple eq?

 

i don't have a snappy sounding answer to this

i know a lot of producers would say something lame like 'turn everything down' or 'mix with your ears' but i can't go there

i read so many stupid posts on gear forums like that, it never actually works like that. every case is different

[Guest lumakey]

 

any of you ever get tinnitus? (esp.after too much fm)

how do you get around it, when it stays for a while?(days, weeks)

 

yeah i have pretty constant hf tinnitus and occasionally i will get either a kind of rippling bass sound or like a 70% reduction, both of which can last for anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and then seem to clear up by themselves. i found that listening to computerworld by kraftwerk seems to make them go away faster.

not joking there, it works for some reason. prob cos it's a neural feedback thing, i think i'm shoving something in the feedback path and kind of washing it out.

I have the same condition but I think it's chemically induced(Paxil or Zoloft), as I'm not a musician and have always tried to be good to my ears. I've tried everything including trying to reproduce/compete with that constant hf(right ear only too). going to try Computerworld next.

 

thanks for the replies!

[Rob Ae]

Do you guys do a lot of field recordings? Like, recording street sounds, or clicks, water, metal, voices, wood, etc...

 

Do you do that often? Or only once in a while/when you have a specific idea?

 

 

And Sean: I have send you a PM with a link to the 2007 Dour Festival concert recording, it says here you still haven't read it. (just a heads up)

 

Also, can you name my acoustic guitar? I haven't played it in years, needs a new life.

recent field recordings have often come about by chance - and the opportunity to capture something good we've noticed, not say as a result of a pursuit for something.

[Sean Ae]

im not sure 3 more days of this will be enough. I mean, i have a hundred questions about what foods you guys like that still need to be answered.

 

marmite?

 

yeah

[Guest jasondonervan]

If you were given the option to select one of your tracks to go on a golden record* to be beamed into space, which would you choose?

 

 

*Incomplete without surface noise

[Rob Ae]

Do you guys do a lot of field recordings? Like, recording street sounds, or clicks, water, metal, voices, wood, etc...

 

Do you do that often? Or only once in a while/when you have a specific idea?

 

 

And Sean: I have send you a PM with a link to the 2007 Dour Festival concert recording, it says here you still haven't read it. (just a heads up)

 

Also, can you name my acoustic guitar? I haven't played it in years, needs a new life.

 

Rifdent Stroakes

[Blir]

On the field recordings note, I was listening to Quaristice today and it seems to have a tonne of outdoor field recordings. The swinging gate and train in rale for example. Did you do a load of water recordings for this? There are some gungy sounds in Simmm (which I love) and fol3/fol4 especially sound like water recorded under a bridge. To me anyway!