There's a big gaping hole in the EDM space for songwriting. It's one thing to learn how to be a great sound designer and become big just on sound design. Especially if you're in the dubstep category, it's like, how much fatter and more interesting can you make those drops.
The first mp3 I downloaded, which I guess was illegal, was a symphonic rendering of the Super Mario Brothers 1-1 theme song. It was great. I was like, 'This is blowing MIDI files out of the water. This is the future, right here.'
The ephemeral part of this work is that in music production, the sounds evolve so much faster than it used to, which means that you really have to put in a lot of work and effort in constantly designing the next sound that will move the culture forward.
I invent by analogy. I thought, 'It's commonplace that you can mix colors, smear them together to get new emerging colors. Likewise, you can mix radio waves to get new frequencies.' So, I wondered, 'Why can't you mix sound to get new sounds?'
Great songwriting will never die - it's in the DNA of music - but what's new and exciting is pairing that with new sounds that technology is enabling us to make.
The good thing is that there is a constant need for innovation, which is important in the evolution of music and sound.
I would argue that among musicians who work in technology today, the level of technological sophistication probably exceeds that of military programs, to be blunt. They are just really smart people attracted to making strange new sounds.
You gotta understand, when moving images first started, people wanted sound, color, big screen and depth.
My great-grandfather played organ for silent movies. Talkies in, Gramps out.
Most music that you hear is in synch with itself. We were experimenting with the music falling out of synch with itself and even though it is out of synch you mind can still understand what it is meant to be doing.
All music is based in one way or the other, or influenced through the ages, on technology.
The advent of electronically synthesized sound after World War II has unquestionably had enormous influence on music in general.
Once you have an established song, you can really come out of your shell and experiment with the sound you want to make.
It's a 360-degree sound experience. Like you're in the middle of the band. A lot of people have the technology to play the format, so why not put it out there. It sounds great.
Electronic music lends itself to an abstract way of storytelling, so it keeps evolving. Theres a whole movement truly driving music further and there is no other music innovating as much as film music
I think that the sound that the world knows as trap music is the sound that Gucci and I created.
I wanted to create a bridge between experimental music and pop.
I'm trying to bring a little bit of every type of sauce into one type of sound. Something that's really fresh.
Hip-hop took some lessons from rock 'n' roll, and rock 'n' roll took some lessons from hip-hop.
I'm a traditional country singer and we're always trying to make that a fresh and modern sound. That's always going to be the challenge with me.
The thing I find frustrating about rock music is, how different can you make an acoustic drum kit sound, an electric guitar and vocals? It's very stuck, whereas with electronic music, new sounds are being created.
Obviously, you want to honour the sound of your music, but I'm definitely open to trying new things and making myself use a different palette of sounds.
Most of those melodies are me trying to find out what notes fit, and then hitting ones that don't fit in a very interesting way.
You got to expand the sound to expand your horizon and your fanbase.
And I'm always interested when other musicians are trying to discover new worlds of sound.
