#29: What is New Electronica Songwriting and Music Production? | Lockdown FM

New Irish producer based in London, Lockdown FM is a brand new electronica project that celebrates the fundamentals of Synthwave and applies a collective series of other influences from a vast range of other genres.

With a name inspired by the world's climate during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lockdown FM released its debut single "The Big Think" on June 12th as an independent release. Mastered by Italian artist/producer Vincenzo Salvia, "The Big Think" is the first instalment to the Lockdown FM repertoire.

Lockdown FM returned in the spring of 2022 with a string of new singles two years in the making!

To follow Lockdown FM on Instagram, visit: https://www.instagram.com/lockdown_fmofficial/
To follow Lockdown FM on Facebook, visit: https://www.facebook.com/lockdownfmmusic
To follow Lockdown FM on Spotify, visit: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1O2iz6tDFAdhydm3IbJYJp

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Transcript

Marc Matthews: 0:21

Hello, welcome to the inside the mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician and producer, and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place. If you want to know more about your favorite scent, music, artists, music engineering, and production songwriting, and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing, and mastering music for over 50 years. And I want to share what I've learned with you. Hey folks, welcome back to the inside the mix podcast and we have another live episode. But before we start today's episode, I want to let you know about a synth wave radio show every week on Wednesdays.

So that's 11: 0:55

30 AM Pacific standard time.

I believe it is 8: 0:58

30 PM GMT. And it's called the radio dark tunnel synth wave show with Kumo wheat. So an hour 20 show, which features synth wave synth, pop, dark wave, chiptune, drum, and bass, and many forms of electronic music and prefers a mix of instrumental and vocal synth wave. So I thought I'd just drop that in there before we start today's episode. So welcome back. And in this episode, I'm excited to welcome our guest today. Brian Moriarty, AKA lockdown FM. Now Brian is a new Irish producer based in London with a passion for new electronica. And he's going to share with us his musical background and the birth of lockdown FM. So, Brian, thanks for joining me today. Yeah,

Brian Moriarty: 1:37

pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah. And I bought it all for a nice kind of sunny Sunday even here in east London. Yeah. So, yeah, it's just great. It's great to be here. Great to be doing this, you know, so as probably first interview I've ever done on the, the, the, that this project that locked down FM projects. So we are really excited to just finally talk about it, you know,

Marc Matthews: 1:58

ACE man. Yeah. It's great. Thanks for dropping by. And it has nice weather, isn't it? It's, it's nice. And I'm in the Southwest and it's it's definitely picking up in terms of whether I'd have barbecue yesterday was absolutely lovely. So I'm a bit tired after a few beers last night, but we'll, we'll, we'll power through. So I've got your bio here. I'm just going to read it out for the, for the audience. So I mentioned it just now you're a new Irish producer based in London. Locked down. FM is a brand new synth wave or electronic project that celebrates the basics of fundamentals of simp wave and applies a collective series of other influences from a vast range of other genres. With the name inspired by the world's climate during the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought it might be, would lock down FM, you released your debut single the big thing on June the 12th. I'm assuming that was last year during the 12th.

Brian Moriarty: 2:43

I think it was, it was the year before it was 20. That was a 20. Yeah, that was literally just in the first pandemic. So yeah, that was actually, I think it was the year before. So when I remember,

Marc Matthews: 2:56

yeah, so mastered by Italian artist producer in chenzhou salvia it's the first installment to the lockdown FM repertoire, but you've recently released another single I haven't you called glow. And I believe that was released. We're going to touch on this a bit later on in the podcast episode, but that was released earlier this I say this week, it will be this week. Wasn't it? Yep.

Brian Moriarty: 3:17

This is last Monday. So Monday that was the 4th of April and yeah, finally got it out. Literally long, long, long awaited, I think. But yeah, it was, it was kind of like back and forth in regards to getting production right. And getting vocals. Right. And obviously with the vocalist, the track James at Berkeley being in Dublin it was just like a crop over the, over back for the RSA, just literally you to get ag, get things laid down and trying to cope with something that we're really, really happy with. So yeah, it's still a loaded to finally have it, how it out there, you know,

Marc Matthews: 3:48

that sounds nice, mate. What we'll do is a bit further into the episode. We'll go into like the intricacies of how you put the track together and, and all that sort of stuff. But no, no, it's, it's, it's a great feeling. Isn't it? When you finally release that, that music and that song, and what I'll do is I'll put that. Note I'll put a link rather to that song in the episode show notes. So the audience can go away and listen to that. Once they finished listening to this episode, my ad I'm going to do now is cause this is a live podcast episode. I'm going to quickly flick over to Facebook and see if there's anything going on there. And is we've got two viewers which is once again, I said this last time, it is quality over quantity. So thank you for those who are watching. Hopefully we'll get a few more on board. So what I want to start with Brian is just like your musical background. So can you tell our audience a bit about you as a musician and where it all began and how it will start?

Brian Moriarty: 4:37

Yeah. With me, music started when nice young age, I think it was about 11. I picked up the guitar. And so from there on, got massively into rock music, all the diff like all the different genres, like sub genres of rock at an end, music started as I went into my teenage years at like rock music really grew on me cause I was playing in bands in school. And when I was at school, there was obviously the bar, the bar. We used to do the battle of the bands every year. So that was like, I was like every year on that same day, I was just a different kid, you know, because that was like, it was. You know, our Woodstock, you know what I mean? It was, it was, it was always the big, yeah. The big event every single year. So that, that got, that got a lot of myself, my parents, I can skill, they were playing like together. Yeah, from there on, you know, I think it was playing in bands since I was about 15, 16 and gigging gigging as well. So obviously a group I grew up in Dublin and so there's, you know, there's a nice, vibrant music scene in Dublin. And I basically went on to, I, my passion for music grew from playing in rock bands and playing guitar and like trying to, trying to sing mostly just shouting and ki they kind of, it kind of tries. I went on after school when I finished school at age 80 and I went, I got a degree. I went on to university to study at music as part of a BA. So from there am I use of that's where music radio kind of kicked off for me to the point of, I think from my sorority, like late teens, early twenties, like music seemed like the only thing I was doing. And literally every gig I was offering, I was taking it, you know the session gigs session, session, work, playing with different, explaining different bonds. Ah, Obviously still heavily rock orientated. So obviously very obviously live gigs and so forth and yeah, just at Regis, pump it out, trying to obviously put as much music as I could and play as much gigs as I could. And yeah, just a lot like, yeah, but it seemed like music was the, be all end all at the end. The only thing I've seen 3d mater for LA for quite a few years. So and then yeah, things, things obviously, and that's obviously where it all began. And obviously lockdown FM, as we mentioned earlier on kind of became came when, you know we couldn't play live gigs. And I think a lot of musicians turn to add. To this, this way of trying to be a self sufficient as possible in their own space. And this is what I did. I've obviously invested in some, like some gear that I'd never would have bought, like when I was playing in bands and so forth and literally. I started producing electronic music, which is something that I've been trying to look into for a long period of time. And I've always had a real passion for electronic music, but it really just started from at not point where obviously I started making synth wave as well. So that's, that's, that's kind of how this kind of project grew, you know, to that. So Stephanie, I think like many musicians are like many people in the synth wave kind of scene at mano. It started out in from rock biker and very different types of background and kind of came in synth white. But I liked, I liked the way I was able to take a lot of what I kind of learned and what I've kind of taken from playing rock music. Brought that into the kind of music I'm making now today.

Marc Matthews: 8:18

Yeah. That's a great answer mate. And I think it's I think I probably say this on every episode. I do know, but it is a case of, there are so many artists that come from the rock and metal bucket. Transition and then go in and move into synth wave synth music, whatever form of symphony it might be. And there are, there are correlations there between the two different types of music and why it's so alluring and it draws people in. But it's interesting what I wanted to touch on that, which you mentioned you got a BA in it was it, is it in songwriter and is it music production or is it both?

Brian Moriarty: 8:47

That was, it was a bachelor of arts basically. AF what I remember, I took you take a strand, so you, you choose music with another strand as well. So I took geography, which is and so basically I have, my degree is in both music on geography. So from my, okay, well, I remember now in regards to the BA it was a three-year BA, but like there would have been a lot, a lot of emphasis on many different aspects of music. I even did I remember even studying a module of how to actually write about music. So like essentially music, journalism. So yeah. A little bit, it was a mixed, very thing. Theory, knowledge musicology as well. And so the philosophy of music, like literally all these different strands or different ways of looking at music. So, eh, it certainly like what I take from it is that it's basically taught me to kind of approach music in a different way, especially how we, how we listen to music, but also how we speak about and talk about music and really kind of get answered a lot of questions that are they hard in the wrong too, like in terms of you know, how people react to music in different ways and like certainly like. You know, on going back to, I, I certainly find myself at the moment, like looking back to those days and kind of thinking about the information that I took on board, you know, in regards to everyone's different kind of approach to music and how they received music in different ways. Certainly. Cause you know, I think especially after trying to, you know, make my mark, I trying to get my foot in the door with some of the larger musical institutions, you know, like rejections, obviously part of being a musician and like trying to get your music out there. So yeah. It's yeah. Sometimes it just, you do need to kind of remind yourself that like music is quite selective amongst like different peoples perceive music in different ways. And then that's obviously cool, but like that, I think that was one of the biggest things that I took from my kind of musical education as such,

Marc Matthews: 11:15

you know? Yeah. It's interesting. I find my musical education. I'm a massive fan of academia and. And studying and whatnot, and I love to do it. I consider myself a lifelong learner and I got, I went and got a master's degree in music, engineering and production. So I went and did all that business, but I, I often ask people, so with the gods to music and the music industry and being a musician and, and cracking the industry. Cause as you said that the music industry is fundamentally built on not by, cause you just, you have to have broad shoulders and be well adapt to criticism of being knocked back. But what do you think it's, this is a quite, probably contentious question, but do you think that it's important for musicians to have an academic background in some sort of music discipline to be successful? What are your thoughts on that?

Brian Moriarty: 12:05

That's a pretty good question. Well I think it's, it's like, it's understanding that, you know, if, depending on what music you play. What instrument you play and what music you want to try and create, you know, if something sounds wrong or if something's like out of tune, if you make a track and there's there's one of the inserts, one of the tracks is like out of tune. How's it that's no right. Or you have to recognize that. And if things aren't like like they don't, there's a, obviously there's a, there's a real reason as to why things don't sound good together. I think in terms of music and books, I think there are many, many successful artists and bonds and musicians out there, like who have never received any form of news, musical education, you know, that you know like even the ability to read like notation is something that, you know, it always surprised me how many Even some of the best musicians I've ever played with or ever got to know they can't read notation or they've just never stood up to them because they've never needed this. And I think, you know, we we've, I think the music music, especially rock let's take, for example, rock music has seen so many acts come through. So many successes. If you think about some of the biggest bands that have, you know, gain commercial success maybe have done. So and I've really, you know, not hot to have incredible musicianship or it was because they lacked. That education, that knowledge around music did or didn't apply to them. And if you think that's what made them who they were, because they provided something that was, you know, different. And it was like, again, somewhat like that somewhat anti-establishment, you know, going against the whole realms of, you know, the formalities of music or how you ha you have to be educated or, or so forth, because that's the way it was for so long in regards to music. Yeah. You know, you go date back to the classical liberal rock areas. Like there's like obviously no question, no one could just pick up an instrument and just play it in a sound good. There has to be there always had to be that kind of formal training and so forth. So I look to answer your question, mark. I think do, do, do musicians. This is, do they need it? No, I don't think they do. I think we all people can create music in many different ways. And as a result of. At the end of the day it's it's it's again, it goes back to what I said earlier on about how we all approach music in different ways. So so no, I think people can re can get away with like not having and musical education and it's really down to what they create. They create something that is, that people do find interest in or those kind of appeal to people then. And so it, you know, so it's yeah, that's, that's, that's what I'd say, you know, if you're 150, 200 years ago, it'd be a different, obviously it'd be a different story, but like yeah. At different times and so forth, but then yeah, that's, that's, that's just the world

Marc Matthews: 15:12

we live in now, you know? Yeah. I, I would, I would I would agree. I think it particularly now with the accessibility of things like YouTube and being able to if you want to learn something you can quickly just hop on and there's, there's guaranteed to be a video out there or B there's a lot of videos where you've got to sift through the noise to find the one you want, which could be. But, but I like what you said previously about the fact that not having that formal education and background can breed creativity and take you in directions that you wouldn't necessarily go in because you're not stifled or you're not restricted by what you've been told is correct. For example, with distorted guitar turning, cranking the gain on a guitar to the point where it's a stores. I don't know. I can't say for certain, whether it was an accident, I imagine it was an accident, but then someone says actually, you know what, we've gone past what was supposed to be the max and now we've created something new. So I think there's arguments, isn't there for both sides. I know, for example, myself, when I was playing guitar and I was self-taught, I bought total guitar. I was a ball that monthly, and that basically taught me how to play guitar. That sounds, I went into a studio tried to record and realized my technique was shit. And I, then I had to have lessons to improve my technique. So I think there's, there's a time and a place for you to go and get that. That extra schooling, but I, I'm not going to lie. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on my master's degree and then learning about music. And it was quite a similar to what you did as well, where you learn about how you can study music as well. And you also learn that element too, which I think helps for the, in, in instances like this, where you're running a music podcast, you can start to actually those tools and techniques I learned from that. So I suppose it's applicable, everything's applicable further down the line, but one question I've got for you now, Brian, is, is there a particular song or artist that really inspired you to be a musician to be a creative?

Brian Moriarty: 17:06

Yeah. God, I'm kind of thinking, eh, do you mean in the term in terms of what started from me for me at an early age? Yeah. God, there's quite a few. I think. I'd like to say, I'd like to say Jimmy Hendrix and the reason because is that nice. When I first picked up the guitar and started playing Jimmy Hendrix songs and just know the way I was taught Jimmy Hendrix songs, just the way this guy just knew his, his way around the guitar, I was, it was able to create, create some of these amazing kind of melodic lines and riffs and also his, his just persona on stage and the way he, he played and so forth. I would say either Jimmy Hendrix as a kind of like the guitar hero, not, not just guitar playing, like I think is his music songwriting. And, you know, he's, he's his, the way he was like one of these, one of the first kind of artists out there that just, you know, dress in a certain way. He didn't care as such, you know, 1960s, late sixties and the seventies, like very progressive time, you know? And I think, cause I think I remember learning about a lot of what was going on in the world around that time. I'll see across in the states and the UK and how, how young culture was changing as well. But like also Jimi Hendrix, the way he was like one of the people that come to the forefront of that, you know, as well, I think. Yeah. Really going to connect with me. So yeah. I choose Jimmy Hendrix out of all that. So definitely Jimmy had an, it started for me. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 18:55

Fantastic. Did you ever master any of his Jimmy Hendrix songs on guitar?

Brian Moriarty: 19:00

I'd say. I think purple haze is one of the first songs that I learned to play the whole way through guitar solo as well. Even that, that, that park come to the end where it's just the one note. And I think he plays, it sometimes plays with his teeth or so forth, but like, it's just that one note really high pitched like th that was like, that was probably the one. And I Def, certainly tried a few others and just, yeah, it's, it's, it's challenging, you know, certainly, certainly Ray good for any kind of the younger kind of guitar players out there, they're looking to kind of push their guitar, playing to that. Definitely check out some Jimmy Hendricks tracks, you know? Yeah, I

Marc Matthews: 19:36

totally agree. I remember going back to what I said earlier about buying total guitar, and I think it was all along the watch. And purple haze. I never mastered either of them. I was always the the guitars. He would start to learn a song to learn the riff. I wanted them move on to the next one, much to my detriment. To be honest, let's take a quick break from this episode so that I can tell you about free resource that I made for you. It's a PDF checklist that describes what you need to do properly prepare and mix, but mastering. So you've done the hard work and you love your mix. It's suitably preparing a mix for mastering is often overlooked by musicians resulting in delayed sessions, excessive back and forth conversation and frustration on both parts. I want to help fix that. So if you want this free resource, just go to www dot scent music, mastering.com. As this checklist will help and guide you to make the mastering process as smooth, transparent, and exciting as possible. So again, the URL is www dot synth music, mastering.com to this free appearing, a mix for mastering checklist. Let's get back to the episode. So what I'm going to call it do now, bro. I just got to quickly nip over to Facebook and so, oh, here we go. Henrietta. Yeah. Thanks for dropping by and viewing the podcast. Henrietta sending her appreciation from Sweden. We'll go around the world here. This is amazing stuff. Excellent. So my next sort of topic of, or line of questioning is the birth of lockdown FM. So previously I mentioned in the bio and you will mentioned it as well that it was it came to the forefront really during the pandemic. Hence the name locked down FM and your sort of going down the synth wave electronic route. Can you tell us a bit more about how that all started and when

Brian Moriarty: 21:16

yeah, yeah, I certainly try and get it. I'll get more in-depth with it and have site here. I was trying to totally didn't answer the question earlier on, but now I have definitely has a lot more to it than what I mentioned already around, but like yeah. So look essentially. Awesome. Like the name obviously locked down FM comms for a time where we were actually in lockdown. And I was back in, I was back in Dublin during that period. And that literally, I kind of sat down. I was kind of thinking to myself, what am I going to do? Like in terms of, in terms of music now, you know, no gigs, you know, it seems as though massive investments have to be made in order to create content for, cause I was in a band, I was still, I was I'm in a band called saints Boulevard and we were like, teams ourselves, how are we going to create content now? During this period without massive massive investments. So well I kinda thought to myself, well, you know what, don't I start creating my own content. It could have even started at the first week of lockdown. I remember just picking up a guitar and just put Alec, putting that little bit of content and me just playing some of, some of the bass guitar. Well, so the bass guitar, I could try and play it out to myself, or like I myself could play, you have a good here, could enjoy. And that was like, why I enjoy doing that? And then, you know, I was taught to myself, okay. Let's, let's, let's make an investment here. So I Avastin in a bit more equipment, you know, the mini keyboards, the, the so forth. And I kind of thought to myself, you know, there's no reason why I can't continue like, or make great music during this period. So having listened to a lot of sessions where I've got reinstate the way the few years prior to that really fascinated with, you know, the whole synth way of seeing the music that was coming out of it. You know what I mean? All the different forms of this whole wave thing, you know, synth wave and so forth. And so essentially started playing around with some sense samples. And before I knew it, I was, you know, I was, I was making some, making some still thought I was like really hopping. And I thought to myself, this is up to the, I believe it was up to a standard that like literally a release. And so basically, yeah, just started, eh, basic continued work. And the big thing was like my first big it was, it's an instrumental track for those, the first track I released on their lockdown FM and that obviously the whole that's how that started out. It was literally, I got, I started with playing with a few things in garage band on my iPhone. And then it just grew from there and on and on and on and started loading layers. And, you know, at started producing it with investing a little bit more gear. And before I knew it, like how literally, how to project that was solely may. And this was literally just over the first few weeks of lockdown where it seemed like the world that literally our life had been put on the pause switch. You know what I mean? And now I, I obviously I don't, for me personally that was certainly a time where I could, you could focus that little bit more on creativity because it seems as though that a lot of, a lot of other things in life were kind of pushed to the side and so forth. And I've know that it was very, very difficult and hard time for people. And as such as well, You know, so, it's I kind of go out and say, it was, it was a good time for me or anything like that, but it was, it was certainly a time where it was, it was, it was like, you know, time for, well, I'd say for a lot of people, cause that's where a lot of people chose to do. They just chose to be creative and different ways during that period. Because again, Pope's nightclubs, restaurants, nightlife, sports, sporting events, even sport sport itself. It was all just literally gone. It was it was lit. That was all put on hold. You know what I mean? And, and people had, people had to find other ways to, you know, either like some ways express themselves, but also keep themselves occupied. So I chose creativity and that's that creativity was through lockdown FM. So hell of a journey, hell of a journey because you know, it's, it's, it's. The music I make and to be even the doll scene. And the music is so inspired by a lot of like movies and film and TV that, you know, I've actually just re just grabbed me over the past. Well, since, since I was a kid, you know what I mean? So it's mentally, it's, it's Don Don me and by I have no doubt. It does a lot of other people, these, these massive, these massive favors, it gives them such a lovely outlet to express themselves, but also really just ingrained themselves in the music and the music that people are creating and so forth. So that's how I locked down a family kind of came about. And yeah, it's, you know, it's, it's been a really exciting journey since then, you know?

Marc Matthews: 26:32

Yeah. I think go back to what you said earlier, when you were mentioned about in lockdown and how you use the time to be creative. Music and creativity as a form of, it was almost like a form of therapy. There is a, there is a profession which is music therapy and it's there and it helps you through those times, those difficult times and these difficult periods. And I think maybe what you were alluding to back then was making, you're kind of making the best of a bad situation. There's a lot of negativity. There is obviously is a really, really bad situation. There's no getting away from it, but you got to try and be as positive as you can. And if your, your creativity can be your outlet. I mean, there's a lot of artists I've interviewed on this podcast who have done the exact same thing as yourself. And I did it to an extent too, when I started releasing music again I was once again, in that position whereby there was not a great deal else for me to do. So I'll start releasing again, but it's interesting. You mentioned there about how you, when you joined the scene and there's a lot of artists releasing music. And there, there are new artists all the time who are releasing symptom-based music and it is amazing the amount of music that gets released and the amount of artists that just spring up from, from nowhere per se, is amazing. How have you found like the sort of online community involved in synth wave? How have you sort of found yourself welcomed into our community and what is your experience and what's your feedback on it?

Brian Moriarty: 27:54

Well, repositive for me it's been really positive. You know, I have, I works, I push my Instagram. Instagram would be the, the, the social media platform that I tend to re push. Obviously I use quite a few of the others, but I've literally found I've made kind of. Communication with people. I've made links with people all over the world, which is like, which off the bottom feels really cool. You know what I mean? If I look at the source of my Spotify streams also from all over the world if so, like I can DMS, I can receive and PayPal other synth wave producers, people who produce similar or similar sounding music even people that are people who are heavily into creating Spotify playlist, the, the CS been it's, it's been really, really supportive. And I think it really shows me that a lot, a lot of people are really are in it for the love of the music as well, you know? And It's it's I think it's, it's, it's, it's really cool. It's really, really cool. That it's the way that it's going to be able, you know, and, and it's, it's booming. It really is booming. And like, like I completely blown away every time I, I kind of look to see who's been, who has been listened to my musical or who has been you know, following or sending me DMS or comments on Instagram. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's really, really cool to, to be doing part of that. And, you know, it's, it's a lot of, a lot of the links that are contacts that I've made have been online not not on the scene and meeting people. So, but I, I have, I have, I do make an effort to, I got obviously go see since we have acts out at the scene, especially if living in London and. And so forth. So the obviously went, see, I saw a Wolf club play in Camden at just before Christmas level of club. Yeah. So there's Wolf glove. And I think at Roxy drive was the, she opened the show. And that was the first time I actually found myself, you know, amongst physically, amongst people who were also synth waivers or, or so forth. And it was yeah, that was also like really, really killed because just to see it firsthand, you know, it's, I thought, yeah, it was, it was pretty cool. So yeah, like overall it's been, it's been really positive start, you know what I mean? And like, there's been there hasn't been any real negativity that I've experienced, you know, and, and it's reopened up some, some nice opportunities for me and like, I love, I love. I mean, I, I never like set goals for myself in terms of how many people I want to reach with the music. I think the music will speak for itself. But it's, it's, it's been ready, Mr. and exciting. You know, I obviously don't want Donald don't want it to stop anytime soon, but like yeah, it's been, yeah, really positive and fun for me.

Marc Matthews: 31:01

Brilliant. It's amazing is, is a very supportive online community. I find with, with Cynthia artists there's loads of them and the, just the sharing and the comments and the feedback on work. Like if you've got song you're working on, you can near, you can send it out to various artists and they'll give you like really candid, useful feedback. And also when you have a release as well, and they got behind it and push it for you, it's amazing. And coming from the metal scene, which is an another amazing music scene, it's something. Incredible. It's very different to what I've experienced and different in a, in a positive way. And I think it's brilliant. It really, really is. And it's like you say, you can get to chat to people from all over the world, which is amazing just in hearing their experiences, which is absolutely incredible.

Brian Moriarty: 31:48

Yeah. It's, it's, it's great. Th I think the modern day, the modern day music scenes as they are, you know what I mean? The scene kind of extends far beyond, like usually you'd just be city by city, you know? And, and obviously if you were your local, whether you're local, ours, or an international like an internationally commercially successful artists, you know, it's usually you would be scene by scene by scene. You know, like if you think about Seattle, you think about, you know, what went on at the sunset strip LA or like it's, it's, it's, it's, it's new, all changed, you know what I mean? It seems like we've, there has been this creation of an online community and the synth wave online community. And I think that's, it's really, really cool to network with different people. Like people who've got similar interests and. Into making similar music to you. It's, it's, it's really cool to network in that way, you know?

Marc Matthews: 32:45

Yeah, I totally agree. And it, well, it's kind of a nice segue really, from what you just mentioned just now about having, not having a particular goal for your music in terms of streams, et cetera. But you mentioned then that the initial goal was you needed to create content and that's why it sort of locked down FM materialize and happen. Yeah. Do you do, has that goal now changed over time? Is that a case of now that's your sort of prior musical priority or what do you have a goal or an aim for one of a better way of putting it for lock down FM? Or is it kind of, I'm going to write some music, release it and sort of like, what will be, will

Brian Moriarty: 33:18

be, yeah, I've got like, there's still this material that I kind of, that's unreleased, I've a lot of on release material that I obviously want people to hear. And literally. In terms of numbers. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Like I said already wrong. I don't really want to set myself a goal in terms of numbers of, at who I want to hit. Because obviously that just leads to like social media addiction, like in terms of picking a phones and so forth. Like in terms of me getting squared always, you know, I'm not far off like, eh, yeah. Like in terms of where I want to go with locked down FM now. Yeah. Just really keep creating music that I think I'm happy with. And, you know, obviously with the new single clothes I raised this week is, is attracts that I'm like incredibly proud of. And a lot I felt that, you know, that was certainly attract that was actually made during a lockdown, which, eh, Which meant I was solely focused on it. Now I want to, if I was to make a track again, I want to be making a track on the, on the them circumstances and so forth. So but yeah, like more music keep making, continue, continuously making music. I think, you know, I'm certainly on the I'm certainly driven to, to release singles consistently over the next few months. I'd like a question mark over an EAP, Bob, no plans for an album. I literally, I want to keep, keep pushing out singles and, and in that sense, you know, I think that's, that's where I was. That's what I'd like to be doing, you know, and keep every song, you know unique in its own given way. And yeah, so basically means there's, there's less, you know, I don't really sell them. So another single would be add in the next few months is probably what I'm looking at now. And we've just literally, I've just done a, a lyric video for glow which was it a little bit delay getting up, allowed us to attack tech difficulties, but that's, that's, that's where I, I see the whole project now. So I mean, I, I know that on the standard, our core set goals, big goals for myself, where that would give me such a sense of fulfillment if I was to achieve those. But it's also not achieving them as well that I think would draw a lot of setbacks in and kind of develop maybe an unhealthy relationship with music. So yeah, just literally new music. Can you continue to consistently making music and so forth? So, but also enjoying it.

Marc Matthews: 35:58

I like what you said there about unhealthy relationship with music. I say I like it in a weird kind of way in that when you set yourself these goals and these metrics, and almost like KPIs your key performance indicators, and when you start abiding and living by those, then it kind of sucks. The fun out of the creativity in music. I find I've been in that situation with bands in the past, whereby it turns into a numbers game. You need to approach this many promoters. You need to get the the album hurt by this many people. And then you kind of like, oh man, it's turning into like a date, a part-time job. And it kind of takes the fun out of it. Whereas I think if you're just doing it, you know, not I'm going to create some music and just continue being creative. And I think that's that for me is a much better approach. Obviously. I think when you get further up the food chain and you've got artists and management and ANR, and you've got all these other responsibilities, then there's a bit more pressure. But I think when you're at a stage now, like we are where you're just. Great music releasing it. It's a, it's a fun place to be once again, a very nice segue here. We're gonna move on to talk about glow now. Now I had the pleasure of mastering glow which is a fantastic track. My ad. What I wanna do now is just like dive into a bit more there. So previously you mentioned about how it was ruined during lockdown. But can you sort of tell our audience about how you approach songwriting? So how does a song start? What is like the nucleus of a song for you? How does it all begin?

Brian Moriarty: 37:19

In terms of in terms of the musicality? It could be a Hawk, so literally it could be a sample. It could be a riff, it could be a a melodic line that I think just sounds nice. I think sounds nice. De-stress that usually the foundation of it. And then I work from there. So Like regionally, I'd write a riff and then that's how this ad, that's how the song begins to additionally, just the foundation. And then you just brick by brick, you build your house. So in terms of in terms of glow have I, how I approached that track is very different because glow is a very political song. You know, that that's, that's where kind of, that's the kind of theme behind glow. And it's, it's, it's not, it's not promoting a certain idea, but it is it's, it's certainly like it's trying to shine a light on everything that's gone on in the world today. And is. Well, how, what actually has been J you know, and so forth. So that's, that's, it's dance with theme as well. If I have a theme about what I want to portray in a song and that's that's a sense, that's another real, that's another place inspiration kind of comes from in terms of writing songs and so forth. So, and really that's it, it's like a, just literally, it's like a house, like your foundation bricks go on top, you know, and then you get all the details of the rooms, paint and rooms adding in furniture or decorations. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's, for me, that's how it works. So I, I make a lot of work that don't use or make like a lot of con, like I've a lot of material that I do scrap. I do find myself scrapping. It doesn't feel good to do that, but yeah, I do. I do. And it's kind of one of those processes of, of, of stuff that, you know, I, I just feel it doesn't fit the bill or it's not good enough for them. Yeah. It's, it's, it's just all try and there, you know, in terms of K music and so forth.

Marc Matthews: 39:29

Yeah. I'm, I'm very much the same. I have a whole folder. So sort of echoing what you said there about how you create songs and you sort of throw them away. And I have very over folder full of just ideas. Some of them might just be one like piano refrain that I started and then never come back to, do you, when, when you say you throw them away, do you, do you keep them, or do you, do you actually delete them from, from your computer? Cause what I like to do is, I dunno if you do the same as I like to look back at ideas that from like two or three years ago and I it's nice cause I looked back at it. I think actually I can see the journey and how I've progressed as a producer, as an artist. I don't know if you do that of a similar sort of.

Brian Moriarty: 40:10

Yeah, I would, I tend to hold on to like certain things, certain small, smaller projects that I kind of record or kind of put together. Yeah. I tend to keep them obviously the, you know, the tech from the tech technological side of it in terms of the actual. Okay. Computers themselves, obviously memory and spaces is another kind of incentive as to why work would have to get to get the, get the chop for, yeah, I would like yourself. Yeah. I would tend to hold on to older material just to, yeah, just looking back and kind of saying, was it good or was it not, or, you know, like I even found, I even found. On on a platform called reverb nation at my bond when I was 16. Yes ReverbNation. And I doubt probably I dunno whether if anyone's listening to this, probably can, can remember that or, or so forth, but ReverbNation was a platform. It was cool. It was cool. But then, you know, you realize you're, you've been asked to do music festivals across Texas and Austin, Texas that don't even exist. So yeah. Get, get, get the possibles, realize, you know, we're just, we're supposed to be playing the music festival the next week. And that's what we found with every rev nation book that I found. I came across my own band. My old, old bands, I think it was about 15 or 16 at the time. And I listened back to the, the track itself. And, you know, if you think about everything that I could probably go wrong with a recording, you know, that was it. Like, obviously we it's good to, you know, just look at, look at things from a certain perspective and kind of say, well, It's all a learning process, but you know, you know, talking about out of tune guitars, flat vocals, and the drummers at a time, not playing to a click, but like, it's literally like what we did back then. And, you know, it was, it was fun, absolutely fun and exciting times, but like, yeah, it's, it's, it's you look back then and you kind of realize how much you've, you've come and how, where the, where you've been and what you've done and now where you are right now. Because like, it's like, it's, it's like. Learning to drive. You never make the same mistake twice. You know, I was trying to pass it over and does he never pack and make the same mistake twice in the run up to it? You know what I mean? So like an out of tune guitar, boy, junior, you fix, you fix it for the next time. You know what I mean? So but a lot of that I had to be told at that time and the aftermath was with what, which was not pleasant as a young musician. You know, people telling you you'd probably want to work on. You know, you probably want to tell your drummer to play to a click track or, you know, you probably want to rerecord that song again. It's kind of like, I'm kinda thinking, thinking myself, but that was great. What's wrong with it? You know what I mean? But like, it's the heart of it. Hard way to think sometimes the, sometimes the truth, those hurting not aspect, but yeah, that's it, Sam, it is what it is, you know? I, yeah. But like, you know, it's good to, I think it is good to look at all the work and look at all ideas and so forth and just see where you've come

Marc Matthews: 43:18

from, you know? Yeah. I agree. And I think it's quite nice to have then the style of the trip. So you mentioned reverb nation. Then I had this conversation, I think it was a podcast, a few episodes ago with her, for the next bar mate of mine, Chris. And we were on revert nation and it was the be all and end all the time. And I was just Googling it now to see if it still exists and it does. And I was looking through it and the banner was in at the time we've got, I think we've got like 23,000 followers on ReverbNation, which was amazing. Once again, that's quite nice. We're like what? You mentioned that about going back on a nostalgic trip and sort of looking at your preview and what you've done in the past. And like, if you hadn't mentioned it, then I wouldn't have gone and had a look, but no, I think it's good to go back and listen to your previous material. And then, like I said, you can see that, that the journey that you've gone on to delve into a bit more now is, is the sort of the, the production side of things as well. So you mentioned there earlier that you're using garage band. Yeah. And that's how you came up with the original track and put that together. How has that progressed now? Have you found, since you started creating electronic music, how has your sort of arsenal of instruments and technology increased? Or are you still using garage band? I mean, how has that progressed over time? What is it you're using at the moment? What is your, like your, your go-to piece of technical.

Brian Moriarty: 44:40

Yeah, this is, this is where like a lot of people are gonna see this as a bit sacrilegious now, because obviously I've, so yeah, off GarageBand being the stock kind of software that you get on a, on a Mac book it just, it just applied to me and, you know, there's, I do understand those limitations, but then as I learn more about the software and I learned about other artists, other acts that have made a very good quality music through garage band, you know, I, I stuck with it, but then I started bringing in at June's and samples from the outside of the software itself. So the limitations aren't quite, as, I'm not so heavily limited in terms of what I can create and so forth. So yeah, I did. I've the last two tracks. I've literally created three garage band and. The terms I haven't experienced, haven't experienced at, I haven't come to a point where I talked to myself, I need to progress now. I literally I mean, I do sometimes there's one or two times in the, in the past, I kind of talk to myself, you know, if I'm sending an answer, say, get master or so forth, I want to be telling people I a logic pro that's what I'm using right now, using logic. And, and, and that's that, that's what I'm using, but like, no, it's like you like have used I've I'm using everything and recorded everything through garage band and it it's it's, it's still me. It's still me. Great. It taught me anything I needed to do. So it's, it's, it's, it's wondering now, like with the upgrades logic should be Dawn or should I be using that money to maybe buy some, buy more sample kits and so forth is it's really that, that, that, those big questions and so forth. So Yeah. It's but like, no, I am, I'm an advocate for garage bands and I'm not, I'm like, yeah, I, I do use garage band and I don't know what it meant now. I have no shame and an has to get, like, I used to have a lot of shame. Just kind of think that always, and he's not there to kind of the basic kind of model shouldn't you be upgrading and so forth. But no, I'm obviously happy enough kind of made a lot of music, three guards bond, and you know, whether I continue to do so, or whether upgrade, it's reading the question now, but like it's, it's, it's I'm not, I'm not I'm not good with technology at all. I'm not going over there and you know, where, where a lot of what I create comes through my musicality, but my creativity is to through that. So yeah. Yeah, the hospital a few times where I thought to myself, oh, like, what's this supposed to be called? W w where am I supposed to go with this? Now I've literally studied hard to get my hand around at software and, you know music, technology, software, and so forth. But like, I'm, I'm by no means always gay. Like, I, I couldn't, I couldn't do this for anyone else. I'd love to, but I couldn't because I wouldn't have that. I wouldn't have that turnover of creating, attract, or basically this. I wouldn't be able to provide a service because I would probably take, like, I wouldn't be able to work as fast as probably the average kind of producer right there. But, you know, I think music is where the music is, is where it comes. My musicality and creativity. That's where it all comes to develop for me. Yeah, that's, that's that's me and that's relationship regardless, man. So yeah, that's at least that's the part that part's off my chest now.

Marc Matthews: 48:20

Yeah, no, I think, I think it's right in what you said. It's like, if you've got, if you've got a workflow and you've got a, an outlet and you've got a medium that you can use to create the music that you want, then why change if it works for you? It goes back to what we were discussing earlier. I think about in terms of that formal education whereby the purists will say, if you're recording, you need to use pro tools. If you're doing this, you need to use you need to, if you're performing, you use Ableton. It's just like somebody said that it doesn't mean you have to do it that way. You know, you do whatever works for you. And if you're getting the results, which you, you are getting, then stick with garage band, you know, it's it, it does the job. And I think it's important. And I think it's one things you could say to the listeners. Like, if it works for you, then, then stick with it. I think it's, it comes back to music as well. I like the phrase, if it sounds good, it is, you know, there's no point in following set what set rules are good in a way there's a time and a place, but sometimes there's a time and a place to think actually, you know what it works, then why, why fix what isn't broken? And I'm a big advocate for garage band as well. I've worked with a number of artists who used garage band and the stuff the music they've produced is fantastic. Yeah. And using garage bands, they're comfortable with it. Like it's like, why, why change? You know? Yeah. So kind of once again, like moving onto the next question, Brian would be sort of like, what plans have you got in the pipeline you mentioned then that you've got songs that you want to release. Are there like plans for collaborations? Are there plans. I dunno, maybe releasing by a label. Have you been approached by labels? What have you got any key dates coming up that you can share with us?

Brian Moriarty: 50:03

So I'm going to be, obviously this week was the lyric video for glow has just come out and obviously you're going to be spent a bit of time trying to plug that get that from other people. I want to work with James Berkley again. He was the, you obviously did. He was the vocalist on CLO. I've been working with James. I used to be in a band Virginia's back in Dublin, a band called steel room. And I think his I've just always blown away by the blow, the vocals that he puts down like that real retro kind of sound like you can, he can give his, give the track. So I want to work with James again on, I think on the next, at the next. I want James, I want to, one-off see James back. I had to do to the vocal as well. I love to collaborations that always love to work with other artists and so forth. And, you know, and especially with her focus or other music, like I want to start working, like when musicians as well, like, you know like a saxophone players and, and, you know, people who might have like really good technique in terms of synthesize the keyboards. Like I did, it's all endless, you know what I mean, in terms of what we can do. So so yeah, it's, it's what I got caught. Like nothing, there's nothing major planned in the pipeline. I just like, I just basically, I'm going to try, keep getting. Hello in front of as many people as possible. And obviously I want to, you know, without, like, as I said already wrong saying, seeing a particular goal for it, I'll do, I just, I just really want to see that song being heard by as many people as possible and for it to appeal to as many people as possible that people obviously would see something in that song that, you know, or see what I've put into that song, you know, see my kind of vision and so forth. So yeah, a lot of promo and a lot of stuff obviously will be taking place and that's, what's been happening over the past week. We're working hard on the, the, the promo for that single. So so a little bit more promo and maybe potentially a music video for Glo and. And then hopefully soon before the summer the British summertime I'll harvest I another single out. And so we got 25 seconds. The landing is probably going to be our next is our next single that's currently in the works on. I'd like to lay down another exclusive title there. Yeah. And I'd like to lay down probably another instrumental and so forth. So like literally that's where my kind of V at where my head's at with the whole thing now at the moment. So but yeah, it's, it's still very exciting and, you know, it's, it's, I've radio. I've really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed this kind of journey, you know, the whole symphony of journey of coming down on Saturday, taking me in a new kind of direction of music and provided me like with. Made me really excited to do all the things and so forth. Like, you know, it's, it's maybe in the past, like there's been a couple of things. I kind of thought to myself, although we have to do this or, you know, do we have like direct and it's going to work out, or this is this asking if it's more of me than what, you know, I'm comfortable to give and so forth. So yeah, it's not, has not been like that since I first started this project. So it was just literally just keep going, keep creating and keep having fun, having as much fun as possible. Yeah. It's linked with more and more like one the people.

Marc Matthews: 53:33

No, that's the way to do it. Right. That sounds exciting. It sounds really good. I'm looking forward to the another single as well. I think a single for some, it will be amazing. And it's great to hear the working with that singer as well as his, his voice is fantastic. So for the audience listening once again, I'm going to echo what I said at the beginning. I'll put the link to the, to the track glow in the, in the episode notes. So please do go and support locked down, FMLA. On band camp Spotify and go and support those releases and listen. So Brian sort of moving on from what I said there, where can our audience find you online sort of social media and where can they stream your music?

Brian Moriarty: 54:05

May 1st probably the most prominent music platform we use the Spotify and social media have a locked down NFM on Facebook, locked down a fam official on Instagram. I've got a Ted talk page as well, which I've, which I've been blogging a little bit now. It's good for the kind of promo and release and so forth. So Tik TOK, Instagram, Facebook at my, obviously my YouTube channel as well as obviously locked down a femme of fear. I had one word. And yeah, all the basic, all the biggest social media platforms you'll find me on those. So yeah, co drop in, drop me a DM wherever you're from. And yeah, I love that. I love you're getting messages from people to say, Hey, great track. I'm from so-and-so I'm from, I am from us, I'm from Brazil or so forth. It's it's, it's that international community and the way we've that interconnection of, of, of people at, through what I believe to be is this online musical scene now is it's just incredible. So yeah. That's that's, that's where you find me.

Marc Matthews: 55:18

Fantastic. I'll once again, I mentioned it just now I'll make sure those links are put in the episode notes as well. The audience can go in and then find you there and follow you. And please do get in contact with Brian as well. And just if you've listened to gloat feedback as well, because as artists, it's always great to hear you probably echo this. It's great to hear feedback on your music and what people think and where they, I find it quite interesting as well. Like you said earlier about whereby you look at your streams and whereby people are listening to your music and finding out the reach and how, how you are, where you are. You're in London, I'm in the Southwest of the UK, but yet your music has been heard worldwide, which is, which is amazing. So Brian, thank you so much for spending the time with me this afternoon. It's great to chat about lockdown FM and yeah, no, my pleasure man, and chat about your music and, and, and see where you are and see how things are going to progress. And obviously we'll be in contact and I keep a look out for that next release and help push that for you as well. But I'm sure the audience to get a lot listening to this episode as, as I've learned a lot as well. And it's been fantastic and yeah. Once again, a big thank you for dropping by and I'll speak to you soon, bro. Thanks for having me. Thank

Brian Moriarty: 56:24

you very much. Yeah. Cheers. Thank you. Cheers buddy. Bye. See you later.

Marc Matthews: 56:30

Thank you so much for listening to the inside the mix podcast. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify.