<;> On the Making Of ‘Humdingled Yumdinger’
Can you share any interesting or unique musical elements or production techniques used in 'Humdingled Yumdinger?'
I'm pretty much bed-ridden most days at the moment, so the whole album was created in bed on my phone using GarageBand. Mostly mixed through the phone speaker, with a couple of checks on headphones. I used the DolbyOn app for the mastering.
How does this album reflect your growth as an artist?
I think it's a more coherent album than some of the previous <;> releases. It was all created over a focused period of three weeks where I tried not to work on any other musical projects. So for me, it's a good snapshot, a reminder of that particular (very turbulent) time in my life. And I used the same equipment & techniques for all the tracks, which isn't always the case.
Which song(s) from the album do you think best represents your artistic vision?
"Don Or Doff" is probably a good representation, it was the first track I recorded for this bunch. A bit of a blueprint for how the rest of the album would work.
Can you tell us more about you as an artist?
I have a lot of other projects in different styles, mostly instrumental pieces. The <;> albums are a place for the spacey electronic drone pieces to go. I find them quite therapeutic to make, they're mostly sedate, usually quite tranquil, so I tend to make them when I'm having a tough time and need to calm my nerves.
When composing, do you typically start with a melody, a rhythm, a chord progression, or another musical element? What guides your initial choices?
Most of them start with either a low drone or some swirly swishy noises. I'll find a sound that I like and do some alterations, tweaking the settings to make it more personal to me, then record the basic outline of the piece and build it up from there with whatever I feel is needed. I try to stay under 4 parts for each, plus some of them are doubled with complimentary sounds.
A couple of the pieces on ‘Humdingled Yumdinger’ did start with melodies rather than drones, but that's not normally how it goes for the <;> stuff.
