#35: How to use Ultra Learning to be More Creative as a Musician | 1=2

1=2 combines the melodies of synth-pop, the dissonance of noise rock, and the energy of dance-punk to create the indie rock/electropop of the future.

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Transcript

Marc Matthews: 0:21

You're listening to the inside the mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews. Hello, and welcome to the inside the mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician producer, and mix and mastering engineer you've come to the right place. If you want to know more about your favorite sense, 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 wanna share what I've learned with you. Uh, Hey folks, and welcome back to the inside the mix podcast. And in this episode, I'm very excited to welcome our guest today, which is Brandon G AKA one equals two. Now one equal two combines the melodies of Sy pop, the dissonance of noise rock, and the energy of dance punk to create the indie rock electro pop of the future. And he's gonna share with us his, uh, his musical journey. The story behind one equals two, and the creative process is behind the debut album. Dead pixel, which was released January 22nd, 2021, Brandon, thanks for joining me today. And how are you? Yeah,

Brandon Ganch: 1:24

I'm doing well. Thanks a lot, mark. Really, uh, excited to be here. So I appreciate you having me now.

Marc Matthews: 1:29

Anytime I I'm excited to get into this one, it's gonna be, uh, a great, great chat here. Uh, just for our audience listening, where are you joining us

Brandon Ganch: 1:35

from? I'm actually up in Scotland. So I'm, uh, closer to you than you probably assumed based on my accent, but yeah, I'm just, uh, just up in, uh, calendar in Scotland, which is right on the edge of the Highland. So, uh, we just, we actually just moved here two weeks ago, so just got the studio set back up again and uh, just get and settled in here in our new town.

Marc Matthews: 1:53

Amazing. Yeah, I, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have pigeonholed. Scotland's obviously with the accent, but living in the UK, myself, uh, it's a tragedy that I've never actually visited Scotland and it's something on my hit list of things to do, cuz the just, oh

Brandon Ganch: 2:06

wow. Not even during the pandemic when you couldn't, uh, fly anywhere. That's I figured a lot of people from down south came up during that time.

Marc Matthews: 2:13

No, no. What you find is I live in the Southwest of England and um, we have a lot of people that headed our way, um, during the pandemic cuz of the scenery much like I guess with Scotland, you know, so we saw an influx of people come in. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. So what I'd like to start off with, uh, is a bit about sort of your musical life prior to one equals two. So having gone and done my sort of due diligence I see on, on, in your bio, there was sort of a grunge period and uh, sort of a rock period as it were. So if you could just give our audience a bit of information on your musical background and how it all started.

Brandon Ganch: 2:48

Yeah, sure. I, um, you know, I started violin in elementary school, primary school, I guess you would call it here. And, um, you know, I think that was more forced than, uh, a choice, but I, I learned how to read music, which then served me well later in life, which I, I was thankful for. Um, so yeah, I wasn't until I was about 10 that, uh, I got super into Nirvana, cuz that was, that was, you know, I'm in, I was born in the eighties, so nineties was, uh, all Nirvana and uh, yeah, just, I, I remember the day so vividly I was at my buddy Andy's house and there was like, uh, a guitar magazine and uh, just the tablet chair was in there for, I think it was heart shape box. So this was in utero period. And um, I just played those first three notes of heart shape box on the guitar. Cause I figured out the tabs pretty easily. And then that just changed everything. I was like, whoa, I, I could play Nirvana songs. This is amazing. Um, so it all started with guitar and then, then, yeah, you're right. It's a big gr period. You know, playing in garage bands with, uh, my brother who is actually an excellent drummer and, uh, lots of friends and yeah, mostly just rock to be honest. Um, it wasn't until college that I started teaching myself how to play piano. So like I said, I could read music from my violin days and, uh, I loved classical piano and there was a piano in my dorm room at uni and it was, yeah, I just started teaching myself all these like classical pieces, which I loved and still play to this day. Um, but it was then that I started getting into really getting into like more electronic music cuz I went, um, and saw a band called the faint and uh, just, just randomly, I had a buddy that was really into music at, at university and he, uh, he said, Hey, come see this band they're really good. And it was just like the best night of my, you know, university career really, because it was just like, It was seeing like a rock band that I loved, you know, watching live rock music, but there's so much danceable energy that the whole crowd was just going crazy, the entire show. Um, so much energy, the synthesizer sounded incredible and that really sort of set the path to becoming obsessed with synthesizers and, you know, the electronic music that I make now.

Marc Matthews: 5:04

Amazing. Um, so touching on the synthesizers there, do you actually own any synthesizers out of interest?

Brandon Ganch: 5:09

Yes. Yes. I'm actually surrounded by them now. So I'm looking at, uh, OB six, sequential, OB six, there a, uh, Mo grandmother, uh, Arteria drum root impact. Uh, the Baringer TD three. A MOG defam, and then a MOG spectra box, which is something that hasn't been released. But I built at MOG Fest 2019 and was in there soldering all for like two days with MOG engineers. And it's a, it's like a 10 band VO coder, and it's, it's pretty awesome. It's amazing. There's more boxes of synths, uh, in the, in the hallway, but those are the only ones I could fit on my desk at the moment. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 5:50

Uh, for audience listening, I can imagine there's people probably salivate. I would've thought of being in a room surrounded way they synths. I know. I certainly am. Um, unfortunately I'm not privy to that sort of arsenal of weaponry. It were when it comes to music. That sounds amazing. But no, going back to your sort of you, you're building up to where you are now in, in terms of like the grunge period, Nirvana and the rock, and then moving to classical, it's very much a, a similar pathway to a lot of interview is an artist I've interviewed, particularly with the rock element. There seems to be a nice correlation between rock and then moving into sort of that synth synth music in particular. So you mentioned there Nirvana. So my end, and then the band, was it called the faint? Was that right? Did I get that right? Yeah. The faint, yeah, that's correct. The faint. So my next question was, was there a particular sort of song or album that sort of left an indelible? Mark knew

Brandon Ganch: 6:39

musically. Oh, big time. So, yeah, so like I said, really Nirvana was the first after, you know, Michael Jackson in the eighties, like Billy Jean was, was my jam when I was a little kid. But, uh, yeah, once I entered my teenage years and like Nirvana got to be a big influence that led to Sonic. Which was then obviously like a bit more experimental rock, um, a bit noisier, a bit more like, Hey, I didn't know, you could sound outta tune and still release music sort of idea. Um, and that eventually led to like, even more out tune, sounding bands, like, uh, PVO, which is like, uh, math rock. Um, I went to, I went to university at the university of North Carolina and these, you know, polos from chapel hill. So that was a big band back then. And then the band that really changed everything prior to seeing the faint live was a band called BRAC. So in high school I got really into brainiac, um, which is they're like synth punk, I guess you would call it, maybe mm-hmm . Um, but it's, it's like definitely along the lines of like the noise rock sort of thing, but the stuff that he did with electronics just blew my mind. And I di I didn't even, I still don't, I'm still trying to figure out how he did a lot of it. Like he would send his voice through some sense and just totally. Uh, just totally messed with everything. And it was just like the most amazing sounding things that I've ever heard. So if I had to pick one thing, uh, one album, it would probably be, be hissing, PRS and static couture. Um, and that was yeah, one of brainiacs best. Um, but just absolutely incredible. And that was just like, I'm still on a mission to try to recreate a lot of those sounds that I heard on those albums. And like, if, if you watch a lot of videos of them, they're just, there's so much energy. They're they're first and foremost, like a rock band, but, you know, he plays the synthesizer. Like nobody I've ever seen, just, uh, and just, yeah, lots of screaming, lots of weird glitchy effects on the vocals and things like that. So that was big. And then obviously a few years later, once I got to university, then I, the faint became a huge influence. And then after that since then, like, um, I guess the biggest influence in my, like I would say my adult life would be. Stumbling across the knife and fever Ray and things like that. So, um, you know, I, that, wasn't something I'd listened to prior to, you know, being in my thirties really. So, um, it was something that I've stumbled upon more recently, but again, like what Karen does with her voice, like just like making her sound like a man and things like that. Like a lot of that's been really influential and like, um, just trying to figure out how to destroy my voice in the most interesting ways possible because, uh, I, I, I think. I think, yeah. The, when you combine the synthesizers with the, the voice is, uh, is really exciting to me.

Marc Matthews: 9:57

Yeah, it's cool. Isn't it? I think I, I totally echo that in terms of, um, when it comes to manipulating and sound designs with a voice, it's something that I've started to do myself with my own productions of late a, a recent song that I've been working on in particular and sort of like seen where I can take a voice, rather than just having a sort of flats, the wrong term, just a standard sort of vocal line and actually processing it through the synths and, and, and, and various manipulation to see what I can come out with. Um, and I think it just makes it more interesting as a whole. It's interesting. You mentioned the knife there. Now. This is my I'm stretching my musical knowledge here. Well, are they, is that a band formed by another band? I'm thinking pendulum, or if I got the totally

Brandon Ganch: 10:35

wrong band, uh, I think you got the wrong band on this one. It's, it's a brother and sister duo out of Sweden. Um, and they. They had a big hit called heartbreaks and it was only really a big hit because, uh, Jose Gonzalez, uh, did it for that advert with the bouncy balls down the San Francisco street yeah. Was big in America. I don't know if it was big here, but anyway, that took that song and made it huge, but his was more like an acoustic version and theirs is obviously more electronic synth based. Mm. Um, so yeah, so no, they're, uh, yeah, they're a synth. I, they're not really doing much these days. Uh, fever Ray was what Karen, the, the girl in the band, she started a, a new band and, uh, even, even she's not doing too much these days, so, um, but yeah, they're a brother, sister duo from Sweden. Oh, similar. There you go.

Marc Matthews: 11:31

um, so that means the song quite nicely then to sort of like the birth of, of one equals two. Um, so you've mentioned there about the influencers now you wanted to recreate those sounds and those, and those sort of Sonic manipulations as it were. The name one equals two. Can you just give us a bit of background of where, where that one came from in particular? Sure.

Brandon Ganch: 11:49

Yeah, no, it was, uh, that goes back to high school. Um, I was always really good at math. I was the top of the class in math and always loved math and everything like that. And then, uh, one day in one of my math classes, I forget what, what year it was at particular. But, um, someone shared with me a, a proof that proving that one equals two. And when you read it, every step makes sense mathematically. Like it all, it all makes sense. And there's, there's a flaw in the proof that obviously is why one doesn't equal two, obviously, because if it did, then all of mathematics would be pretty screwed, but, um, it's hard to pick out unless you're, unless you're really looking for it. So it was just like these, like, I don't know, 10 minutes of like. Thinking everything I knew was wrong. And that feeling of like, how could this be? This doesn't make sense. Um, and I always loved the look of just one equals two just next, you know, just the actual aesthetic of those characters next to each other. Um, so I always expected when I finally got around to doing my own musical project, that would be the first, uh, the first band name to use because yeah, I love that feeling. Um, But then again, I, I love the

Marc Matthews: 12:59

aesthetic of it. Yeah. I think it's a cool name. And I like the, the way it looks on paper as well. I think it's really, really good. Initially. I, I, I went with the binary thought of, um, the binary vibe, but then I realized it, it didn't make sense in, in, in binary terms. Um yeah. So I quickly moved on from that. So really regards to the inspiration behind one equals to, so you mentioned there about brands like brainiac as an influence and, um, and the knife. So once you get through through research, I've seen that you've went down the you've gone down, what is called an ultra learning path. So would it be fair to say that one equal two was like a, an experiment in terms of ultra learning? Can you, uh, I know that it is quite a, a long concept and it's probably a whole podcast episode dedicated to it, but can you just give our audience an idea or a brief overview of what ultra learning

Brandon Ganch: 13:40

is? Yeah. Big time. So the, so this is a lifelong goal of mine. So, so just to give you a bit of a background of like my aims for this project, um, my only goal was to have something that I was. Comfortable. I, I was proud enough and not embarrassed to release, to be honest. So it was like if I released something, it didn't matter if nobody listened to it, because if I got to the point of being confident enough to release it, then I, that, that was me meeting my goal. So this has been a life to a lifelong goal of mine, cuz music has played probably the biggest, you know, it it's influenced my life more than pretty much anything else besides family and friends, to be honest. So, um, so music has always been like my thing and I was like, I need to actually produce some, I can't just consume it because I love consuming it so much, but I need to actually produce it because, you know, that's where it really gets interesting. So, um, so this was a lifelong dream of mine, but it was one of those things where, um, which we may talk about at some point, but I, this may be a good time to talk about it. Mm-hmm um, I was reading a book by Carol Dweck called mindset and. it just recounted the story of someone who wanted to, I think she wanted to be an author or something. And she, she, this one paragraph just smacked me in the face because it said it was like, I don't even try to get better at writing. I don't write. I cuz anytime I write, I worry that like my dream's gonna die cuz I'm gonna realize that I'm not good at writing. And then I won't have the dream anymore. So to protect that dream that I've had for so long, I just don't pursue it because then I know the dream will always exist. Um, but you know, obviously you're not going to, you're not gonna fulfill your dream if you're not working towards it. Mm-hmm and that's exactly what I was doing for my entire like twenties. And most of my thirties, I was, I always had that dream and I'm like, oh yeah, I'm gonna write that album someday. I'm definitely gonna write that album. Um, but I was doing absolutely nothing to actually make it happen. And it was that paragraph in that book mindset that just smacked me in the face and was like, you're, you're guaranteeing failure and you're never gonna hit your, hit this goal of releasing an album because you're not even doing anything. So once I realized that I was like, okay, I have to get serious about this. And, um, I, uh, I, I stumbled on a book called ultra learning and it was about, it was by this guy who, uh, he, he like, uh, went through the computer science curriculum at MIT in like a year and did it all self self-taught learning and stuff, and ended up, you know, doing all the assignments and passing all the tests and everything. And, and he was just writing about like how he tackles big projects. And I was like, okay, this is what I need to, to really focus my efforts, because what I've been doing, hasn't been working cuz I haven't been doing anything. Um, so I sat down and planned out this, you know, this whole, this whole or uh, you know, program of what I was gonna tackle and you know, like, um, in ultra learning he talks about like more active rather than passive. So rather than watching a YouTube video about. Compressor, just open Ableton and , you know, start putting some sound through it and learn how to use the compressor. Um, and same for writing rather than, you know, writing, watching another music theory video, maybe just sit down and start playing some chords and see what happens. Um, so I had all these different tasks that I could complete and they're all ordered and, you know, active versus passive and things like that. And, uh, yeah, so I, I had this whole structure in place and then the pandemic happened so all of my excuses were gone because I was locked in a flat in Edinburgh with my wife and we could go outside once a day to exercise and all the other time we had to be inside and it, it, it, it provided the structure that I needed, but really, to be honest, the thing that made the most difference was just forcing myself to sit in the chair for five hours a day. um, well, not technically five hours a day, 25 hours a week. So I, I spread it out over all seven days, but, but yeah, just sitting in the chair and forcing myself to be uncomfortable and to hate what I was producing and to feel like the dream was gonna die because I sucked at it and all of that stuff. That's the only reason I made any progress. And, um, yeah, the, the ultra learning structure definitely helped focus my efforts, but really it was just forcing myself to be uncomfortable and to sit in that chair. And thankfully the pandemic helped because there was really no other good options to procrastinate with.

Marc Matthews: 18:23

No, thanks for that explanation. It's um, I really like what you said there about the, um, the, the passive versus active in terms of learning and actually making progress because I, I second, what you said there, in terms of you can watch, for example, a video on a compressor and you could SCO YouTube for hours by hours watching all these videos and then. Make no progress whatsoever. Um, and I I've, I've, I've done that myself where I've wanted to learn something new and I've just spent so much time just watching and consuming content and thinking actually, I should probably just open up a DW or pick up my guitar and then just try playing something and actually doing something. And then the key, I think is there is like FA failure's a good thing. Maybe failure's the wrong word, but in, but you learn from it, mistakes, experimentation, and you learn from it and without doing it, you never make progress. Um, and I love the, the idea of the growth, growth mindset as well. And moving from a fixed mindset of, I can't do it to a growth mindset of, I can't do it yet. And then just, just keep going and going and going. Um, and it, I think it's something that would probably preach a lot on the podcast in terms of music and songwriting. It is just stop creating something. And then the more you do it, the better you're gonna get, rather than think. Actually, I, it's kind of like, you're scared in a way, I guess thinking about like what you said earlier about like, I don't wanna do, I don't wanna do it in case it doesn't work that way. The dream's always there, which is quite an interesting way of putting it. Yeah,

Brandon Ganch: 19:46

exactly. And, and, and it's what I didn't realize was how much comes from just doing it. So you, you're not Paul McCartney, you're not gonna wake up with Blackbird fully formed in your head. Um, at least I'm not. So, so many of my great ideas have come from little accidents, like actually like starting recording on the wrong beats, and then it, it it's this whole different rhythm and, or like leaning on the, on the synthesizer and it's starting some arpeggio that, you know, I didn't intend. And that's the stuff that I ended up really enjoying. And none of that's gonna come from watching a YouTube video or just sitting around, waiting for that inspiration to strike. It's like, yeah, so much of the music has come from just happy accidents that came from me. Playing stuff that really sounded terrible, but then something happened and then it's like, oh, that actually sounds cool. And then building on that.

Marc Matthews: 20:37

Yeah, I agree. And I I've done the same whereby I might have moved like, uh, an audio file or, or chopped something up and ACC and accidentally moved it and then re repeated it accidentally. And I'm actually, you know, what actually sounds quite good. Um, so I've totally been there. One question I have is you mentioned there about sitting in a chair for, um, five hours, 25 hours a week, and being uncomfortable, which, um, I think is important that as artists, you do, that you put yourself in uncomfortable situations to get to move yourself from outside of the comfort zone. Cause I think that's sometimes where you can be your most creative. Was there a turning point whereby you started to feel more comfortable in your production and producing?

Brandon Ganch: 21:14

Yeah. So the way, the way I tackled it, like I was so scared to even try at the beginning that I was like, okay, I'm sitting in this chair, I need to be doing something productive. What could I do that sort of. Sets me on the path of, uh, you know, what I wanna do. And knowing that I was too scared to actually like really commit to trying to write my own stuff. So I was like, all right, well, what, what kind of music do I want to create? And I thought about it. And I was like, well, you know, like Sonic youth, like I said, was a huge influence. And I was like, you know, that what their, the feel that their music gives me, I love, but they're all guitar based and I love synthesizer. So I'm like, I want it to be a slightly more aggressive Sonic youth, but all really cool synthesizer sounds rather than, you know, distorted feedbacking electric guitars. And I was like, okay, well, I'm, I'm sitting in this chair trying not to just watch YouTube videos, trying to do something more active. So the first thing I'll try to do is I'll, I, I figured, well, I'll just pick a Sonic youth song that I really like cover it in the style of music that I want one equals two to be and see what happens and. It actually went really well. Like, I, it, it went so well that I put that song on the album. So Tokyo eye is actually just like, it's like a, maybe like number 14 or number 12 or 14 on one of, uh, Sonic youths, not even most popular albums. It's, uh, you know, it's like, uh, it's way down the track listing on experimental jet set trash and no star. And it's just a really simple, uh, guitar based song. And I was like, well, I wanna just try to make it feel dancey a bit more aggressive, amazing sounds throughout it. And, um, actually I had just bought a, uh, cog monologue synth, just a monophonic really cheap, well, not really cheap, but compared to like a MOG or something like 200, I think it was like 200 bucks or something mono synth. And I was like, well, I wanna learn how to really use this synth, but I also wanna, you know, start making more progress on writing. So I'll just cover this Sonic youth song. In the style that I want one equals two to be using just the synth and see what happens. And like I said, uh, I really liked how it turned out. I put it on the album and every sound on that, besides my vocals and the, uh, you know, just the program drums, uh, is a chord monologue. And that's, you know, all the glitchy chip Tuy sounds everything about that song is just one single $200 synth.

Marc Matthews: 23:47

Wow. That's so cool. I love that. And I think it's great, uh, in terms of you've got a $200 synth and you can create something that's sounds really, really good. And it just goes to show that you don't need to spend extortion amounts of money to create good music and are through experimentation with these. Cheaper cheaper synths and these, these cheaper, uh, weaponry that you have, you can create these amazing sounds, which is brilliant. So it kind of moves on nicely to the next part of the, of the, of the interview, which is dead pixel the album. So you sort of mentioned there about how the, you had that transition, that turning point with, um, your songwriting in terms of Sonic youth. Can you tell our audience a bit about dead pixel itself? So we've sort of mentioned a bit of the concept and the idea behind it, of, um, the, the ultra learning and the growth mindset, but as like a, an overall summary, what can the audience expect if they haven't heard it already? Yeah,

Brandon Ganch: 24:44

so, so dead pixel is, again, it's a, it's a combination of all of my influences. Like, I don't know if a lot of people out there are similar to me, but I always felt like you needed to like, hide your influences. And I came across this. Great. Um, I think it was a podcast episode, um, uh, which I can, I, I actually wrote down before, cause I wanted to tell you about it. Uh, creative, pep talk episode two 50. And it was just a random thing. I was listening to one day. Um, and it, it was about how to find your style. And he said something in there that really like was a light bulb made, you know, made a light bulb go off in my head because he was like, don't, you know, don't, don't be sh don't be scared of your influences because your style is just a unique sum of all of your influences. So yeah, you, you may think like, oh, I don't, you obviously don't wanna rip anybody else off, but. No one else out there is taking influences from, you know, Sonic youth and brainiac and PVO and the faint and all my other musical influences. Like I'm a unique sum of my influences. So rather than try to, like, I don't know, disowned that in some way you should instead embrace it and be like, yes, I need to, I need to encapsulate that essence because that's me, that's, that's who I am as a creative person, that I am a sum of my influences and my sum is unique in the world because no one else has the exact influences I have. So, so that was, that was huge. Um, and that allow, allowed me to like embrace it. And I was like, okay, well, yeah, this is great. I want, I wanna sort, I want to have like that sort of a tonal nature of like these noise rock bands that I grew up loving and like some of the math rock stuff. I wanna have some of the aggression of like, you know, um, Nirvana and Sonic youth and nine inch nails and some of the harder stuff I like, um, I wanna have, you know, the dance rhythms and like the danceable nature of like the faint and the knife and the weird vocal production of brainiac and all these, all these sums of influences. And that's sort of what I really tried to just capture with dead pixel. And so dead pixel is, um, we haven't talked about like my actual background, but I'm, I'm a software developer. So I'm, you know, like I said before, I loved math growing up and then I went to school for computer science and then became a software developer. Um, so dead pixel is sort of looking at technology through two lenses. Uh, obviously. I love it. And it's, you know, I, I built a career off of it and that career allows me to play with MOG synthesizers all day and things like that. And , it's enriched my life so much. But then obviously when we were, when I was writing the album, all of the things going on in the states and, you know, the political and the, the fighting and all the constant stress and everything of COVID and, uh, the flip side of technology is also very bad. So this is just a focus on that really is, it just is me again. It was me looking at myself. I'm like, okay, well, I'm a com, I'm a software developer. So I have a unique perspective as, as well. So I rather than try to talk about something, I don't know anything about, like, try to talk about something that, uh, is really interesting to me. And I actually have, uh, you know, I'm able to talk about it more intelligently. So that was the focus of dead pixel was like, If you've ever had a dead pixel on your computer screen, you know, that it's like, you know, life sort of seems normal and you, you know, everything, you're looking, pictures, look normal and videos look normal, but there's something in the back of your mind. That's like, something's not right here. And that, that sort of idea is what the whole album's about really is like, Oh the, yeah, the, we all love this technology and we use it all the time, but it's, uh, it's probably killing us inside and our

Marc Matthews: 28:46

societies yeah. That's such a cool way of putting it. I like the idea of the, what you said there about the dead on how you sort of live there. It's there and it's like, it's with you when you have it on your screen and it's not quite right, but you persevere with it anyway. And it's very much like technology in many, many strands it's there and it's probably doing something that's not quite right, but we, we go along with it anyway. Yeah. Yeah. All too much. Let's take a quick break from this episode so that I can tell you about a free resource that I made for you. It's a PDF checklist that describes what you need to do properly prepare a mix for mastering. So you've done the hard work and you love your mix yet. 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 synth 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 for this free preparing a mix for mastering checklist. Let's get back to the episode. Circling back to right at the beginning there, you mentioned about the creative pet talk. Is that with Andy J pizza? Yeah, it is actually, yeah, it is. I list, I have listened to a few, um, a number of those after it's really good,

Brandon Ganch: 30:08

isn't it? It is really good. I, and, and you know what, I've only listened to. Uh, I only found him right before the pandemic and I usually just listened to podcasts in the gym. And once I wasn't able to go to the gym anymore, I stopped listening as many podcasts. Um, so I only, I only listened quite to maybe a handful of them, but that one was like I said, it changed everything because it, it, like, before that, I was probably trying to like come up with my own scales and stuff like, oh, I can't use the normal, the normal scales that everyone else is using. I need to be completely unique. And then it's like, no, that's stupid. It's gonna sound stupid. Just use the tools that everyone else use. And then you're just gonna cha channel, like the unique sum of your influences and it's gonna come out unique because only you have those influences. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 30:49

What was the episode number again? Was it 250? You say? Yes. Two 50. Yeah. Two 50. Cool. I'm gonna go go. I haven't list admittedly. I haven't listened to the podcast in a while, but I'm gonna go back. It is, it's really good. Uh, for the audience listing, if you ever in need of a creative, pep talk, um, definitely go and check out that podcast. It's it's it's uh, very good. And it's also, um, you mentioned there about being the sum of your parts in terms of your influences I've. Um, I do do echo that in second I've I've been in a similar situation whereby being in, uh, in a metal band and in the metal scene. You sort of perceived to be just a heavy, uh, a heavy metal band and you're supposed to just be just heavy music. And it wasn't until actually I started releasing music myself as an individual and much like yourself in terms of, I got all these different influences coming from everywhere and then actually started to put them down onto, onto proverbial paper as it were and creating something. And I think, like you said, you it's quite easy to hide your influences specifically in metal as well. I mean, being in a heavy metal band, I'm, I'm a big Duran Duran fan and it wouldn't, it wasn't something I would shout about gig, you know, and it wasn't until I started doing my own music that I started to thinking, you know what? I like that band, I gotta throw it in, in the mix, you know, and bring all these other influences in. So it's quite liberating to have that. I dunno what you think.

Brandon Ganch: 32:09

Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. And I would love to hear Meder Duran. I think that would be fantastic. So

Marc Matthews: 32:15

yeah. You know, what, on the way back from gigs, we'd always, uh, having spent the whole day listening to metal and playing it on the way back, it would generally be something along those lines or classic FM, um, which I'm sure you've got something when you are in the state, something equivalent. Um, but certainly it was case I cannot listen to it anymore. I need to move away from it and move on something totally different, you know? Um, but no, thanks for that explanation. It's really, really, really good. So you mentioned it earlier about the chip tune effects. Um, so you utilize a lot of computer and chip tune effects in, in the music itself throughout the album. And so those are all created. Were those created using the, the cork, all of them created using the cog

Brandon Ganch: 32:55

only, only for, uh, Tokyo eye. So everything in Tokyo eye is, is the cog, um, everything else. Yeah. Is one of the other sys mostly the Moe grandmother. Uh, that was my go-to for pretty much all the sound design on the album. Um, the DFA actually. I don't know if you're aware of this, uh, the drummer from another mother, um, which is just a small SIM. Actually I can just unplug it. Um, small semi modular, uh, yeah, little thing from MOG. Um, this thing is just incredible. Um, it just comes out with some, some of the most amazing everything sounds great out of it. And it's it. I would say that that inspired, uh, inter punked and NAAG just, just, uh, I just kept recording track after track. I would just be tweaking knobs and just be recording, recording, and, um, yeah, the D a was, was big, big, and, um, inspiring a lot of those sounds. Um, but yeah, no, all the, all this, all the sounds on the album are analog synthesizers. Um, I don't, I don't think I used any, I didn't use any VSTS. I had, I had a pad VST. Before I got the OB six, but then I felt like I needed to, I needed to get a polyphonic synth so I could put actual analog pads on there, um, which were totally not needed cuz they were way down in the mix anyway, but that was my excuse to get an OB six. So that's that's uh, that's how that happened.

Marc Matthews: 34:24

no, I don't think as, as the musicians, I don't think we ever need an excuse to go out and buy a new gear. Um, yeah, exactly. Certainly. yeah. And I think the audience listening would second. That that's amazing. So you actually create the whole album using analog sense. I think you are the first interviewee. Now somebody in the previous episodes may correct me on this, but I think you're the first interviewer. Who's actually all their music is pure sort of analog symp. That's amazing. So not one VST. What D a w do you use out of interest?

Brandon Ganch: 34:51

I use Ableton. Um, so a lot of the drums were just Ableton, you know, drum rack stuff that I was putting together. So the drums, um, like the actual, like, you know, the things that sound like a kick in a snare and a high hat and the crash symbol and things like. Those were all, um, those were all Ableton stuff. Um, besides, besides the live acoustic drums, but, um, all the synth sounds and weird effects and builds and, um, just the general weirdness of it, uh, was all analog sys. Um, I did use Ableton's vocoder. So all the, all the, uh, singing on the album is me, even if it sounds, you know, pitch shifted. Um, so I used the Ableton VO coder for that because my, my specter V is only 10 bands. So it wasn't very int intelligible. Um, so I would run it through Ableton's VO coder, and I think the grandmother was the thing that was behind it, creating the sounds. Um, it's possible. I used analog or something for that. So there may be a little bit of Ableton analog on their operator, but, uh, for the most part it's yeah, it's just all of the analog stuff, uh, around

Marc Matthews: 35:58

me. That's brilliant. Would you say then, um, It's in terms of the writing and creative process. I, I dunno how much you've done in the past with regards to using VAs, but would you, would you say that it's, you, you are more creative using analog sense cause you've got that, those, those tangible sys there in front of you, you're able to physically move dials and knobs and, and, and plug and play as it were and patch things in and out. Would you say that it adds to your

Brandon Ganch: 36:24

creativity? Oh, a hundred percent. Like I said, um, I, I should probably give the defam credit for an Nu tag and inter punk because it that's just pretty much wrote those songs for me. Um, obviously through some vocal melodies over top of, uh, N tag and things, but, uh, yeah, absolutely. Cuz like a lot of, especially with these semi modular ones, like the, the grandmother and then the specter Vox and then the D a, they all have patch points. So I'm linking them all together. Never knowing exactly what's gonna happen. And. Anytime the synth creates something. That sounds cool. I instantly love it cuz it wasn't me that did it. Anything I create, I'm like, that's stupid. Why did I, why did I create that? Just like, you know, that internal artist's voice that I'm sure everyone out there has. That's like, wow, everyone else is a genius, but I'm an idiot. Um, so this solves that for me, because it's like these machines will do something that I didn't expect with just a turn of the knob. Um, and then some really interesting thing comes out of, so like I was actually writing yesterday and I just put a little beat on the DFA, just a nice little rhythm that had just had a nice, like groove to it. And then I turned up the FM knob and it started producing an actual, you know, a tone on some of the hits. And I was like, Ooh, that sounds really nice. And then that sort of then started leading to. The harmonic content that I started writing today. And, you know, it just came from that one tone on tweaking the FM knob on this little, this little beat that was going on. And that happens all the time. And again, I think it's because anything that happens by accident, I love and anything I, I intentionally do. I don't like, so that's why it just sort of keep, uh, yeah. Keep, keep those happy accidents moving me forward.

Marc Matthews: 38:14

Yeah. I like that happy accidents. I think that's a great way of, of, of explaining it. Um, and certainly I think it sort of goes back to the growth mindset idea of just, just doing something, doing something, moving something, playing something. And then out of that, the happy AC accidents occur. There's interesting there that you mentioned about, um, How you are, we're almost, we are as creatives, our harshest critics. And, um, without wanting to you do compare yourself to other people, did you, when you started the project, this is a slight tangent now. Um, did you ever experience like imposter syndrome? So when it came to songwriting and then before you released

Brandon Ganch: 38:51

it? Oh yeah, definitely. Um, yeah, absolutely. I like, I still remember asking my brother, it was, I think I'd already submitted it, you know, uploaded everything to distro kid by that point. And I remember asking him, um, cuz my bro, I would send my brother stuff cuz he is a musician and you know, he into the same music I'm into. And I don't care if I look like an idiot in front of him and things like that. So he is good to send stuff to. But I remember asking him, even after I uploaded it, I was like, are these actually are these songs? Are these, is this actually are they, are they actually songs? Like, cause I'd, I'd been focusing on them for so long, so intensely, uh, for like, you know, I don't know the whole, all of 2020. And by then, like, it was, it was just like, when you say a word five times, and by the fifth time it's like meaningless. It it's like, am I saying that word? Right. So yeah, by the time I got to the end of it, I was like, are these even songs, like, am I gonna put this out? And people are gonna be like, oh no, that's not just those aren't songs on the album. What do you do? And, um, so yeah, I felt imposter syndrome the whole, the whole way through. Luckily I had, um, luckily I, I have another project where I sort of had to work through that over the last 10 years. It's, uh, a completely different project. Um, but it, I got some, you know, good success and, um, and again, it was, it was in, it was in writing and podcasting like yourself and it's like, Who, who am I? I'm not a journalist. I can't write. And, and you know, I, I had to work through that for that project. So I know those feelings. So when it came to this project, I was like, okay, this is just like natural. You're gonna feel like an imposter. Everyone does. And some people hide it better than others, but I think even the, the greatest of the grades do, I was just watching it. Actually, I was just watching a interview with Brian May from queen. Yeah. And, uh, he was talking about something and then he had just mentioned like a university. And then he said he went back to school and he just, he had to throw in the fact that he got a PhD, like, and it was like such a, like a, um, self-conscious like thing to do. And I'm like, you're Brian, may you don't have to prove yourself to anybody. Like, you're a God. And here you are in this other area feeling like an imposter. Like, I can't really talk about universities until I dropped my, uh, PhD on them or whatever yet, yet, or masters or something. And I was like, that's so interesting. You are a God to so many people and the best of the best. And here you are still feeling like an imposter in, in, in one aspect of your life. Yeah.

Marc Matthews: 41:25

It, it's amazing, isn't it? And it's great to that. You can see artists at the level of Brian May and they're still thinking, you know what, I still need, I still need, I've still got something to prove. Um, yeah. And imposter syndrome is, is massive. I think like going back to the creative pep talk, another podcast like that. And I think the underlying theme that I hear a lot is imposter syndrome. And I get it like with, with the podcasting. I, I started doing this February of last year and it's quite, it was quite a daunting thing to do because I listen to podcasts and I'm thinking, wow, I mean, am I gonna get anywhere near that sort of level of quality, but that's where the growth mindset came in. Again, like the running theme of, you know, what, unless I give it a go, I'll never know. I could always think, oh, I'll do it sometime in the future. And that when is the best time to do it and it may never come. Um, but our imposter syndrome is, is massive, I think. Um, and yeah, think music

Brandon Ganch: 42:15

I'm thinking about, again, going back to what I said about the, like your unique sum of influences, your unique, your unique sum of ideas, your unique sum of all these things. So yeah, you're the only one that can beat you. And I think that really helped along the way as well. It's like, wow, I'm gonna be the best of being me that I, that anyone in the world's gonna be. So I'm just gonna go with that. And yeah, some people aren't gonna like it, which, you know, obviously isn't nice to be not liked or not respected, but as an artist, you just have to get past that because there's, there's nobody out there that has a hundred percent of everyone who's listened to their music. Love it. So you just gotta get used to that, but yeah, you just keep saying to yourself, like I am the best at being me, and this is my unique, uh, contribution to the world. And, uh, just focus on that, I guess.

Marc Matthews: 43:03

Yeah, I, I like that. I think that's a great way of putting it a unique contribution to the world. Um, and I think that's a fantastic way of putting it and I think it's a good way and a good way for audience to listening, to, to think when it comes to music creation. Cause I know that there's a number of, uh, of listeners who are at that bit sort of like foundational stage of songwriting and it's and going through that daunting process, like you mentioned, there actually I'll put this music together. Is it worthy of releasing? Um, and my, my, my sort of argument from one of bear way PNY is just get out there and see what people think. But I have had conversations in the past where others have said, no, keep it, keep it under, uh, under, under your hat till it's ready to release, but I don't know. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think if you've got something you should release it to the world and get feedback or do you, or do you think you should keep it under your lock and key until you're a hundred percent happy with it? What, what are your thoughts on that? So, yeah,

Brandon Ganch: 43:54

like going back to what I said at the beginning, my only bar for success was that I was happy. And excited about it to release it myself. So I took myself to the absolute max of my abilities to get it sounding as great as I could possibly do. But I knew that if I tried for perfection, it would just never come out. And that was exactly the opposite of my goal. So, so yeah, my thought is do it as well as you can do it. Like I would, I listened to songs a million times and I, I feel bad for my wife. She was stuck in the same house as me. So she had to listen to songs a million times as well during the pandemic, but I would listen to sing so many times and so many different speakers and anytime I heard any little thing that was annoying to me, or I could tell wasn't great, I would fix it. And then I got to the point where there was none of that left and I'm sure even now, uh, being a, a year and, uh, year and a half on, like, I know that I'm better at producing than I was then. But that's just a snapshot of me at that time. And I'm comfortable with that because I'm hopefully gonna get better, cuz if I'm not getting better than what's the point of keeping doing it. So I did it the best I could. I got it to where I could at the max of my abilities at that time. And then I put it out and then now I'm working on something else and yeah, hopefully that's gonna be even better and it's gonna sound even crisper and clear and everything's gonna be amazing, even more amazing than what I was able to do last time. But, um, and, and, and again, I think that goes back to some of the bands that I grew up listening to, like the indie rock college rock, uh, stuff that I loved growing up were like, it sounds like they just put one microphone into a terrible room and pressed record. And like some of those albums are my favorite albums of all time. And yeah, some of their albums, when they got more money, they sounded a lot more polished and got better studios and better producers. But I still love those early albums and. Even if they say, you know, I have to turn them up when they come on in Spotify, cuz it's, you know, not as mastered as nicely and things like that. So I think that helped too. It was like, okay. Some of the stuff I loved growing up is way far from perfect. And the tools I have now in my little computer are far exceeding anything that they had in whatever studio they were paying like 20 bucks an hour to get into. Um, so that helped. But yeah, I think just being, like being okay with where you are. Yeah. Maxing out your abilities at that time. And then just being like, okay, this is, this is the best I could do at this stage. And then yeah, the next one, hopefully be better cuz I'll be learning and growing. Yeah. I

Marc Matthews: 46:35

echo that and it's, it's something that I did when I started, um, and releasing music and if I go back and listen to those songs, Um, even songs I've released recently, I always listen to it and think I can pick something out that I'm not particularly happy with, but I know in my mind I had to just stop there and , and put it to bed. Otherwise I'd still be tweaking it now. And that's the sort of way, the way I do things, I do very much what you said there I'll listen to it in my car. I'll listen to it on a mono speaker for a laptop for my phone in my rubbish, Bluetooth head. Um, in-ear headphones that I've got, um, which extenuate the high end and it's horrific, but , um, that's so bad. That's so, so bad. I thought my mix was bad, but it just turns out was a headphones, but one, one barometer, much like you've done there. I like to use is, um, so you mentioned there about your, your partner listening to your music and getting sick of it. But I use that as a barometer, so I'll play the music. And then if I hear my partner, my girlfriend go around our, our house like humming the main melody from the song I'll know that I'm onto a winner. Um, and I've used that quite a lot in the fact, I think that's quite a nice way of doing it. Um, and it seems to. Saying that though, she's not a massive fan of the music itself, but there you go. It's one of those things um,

Brandon Ganch: 47:45

it, it, yeah. Yeah. But I would caution people on that though, because like there was, there was one, the last song on the album, please rewind the demos that I was putting together at first. Like, I, I knew what that was gonna be. I could, I knew how the parts were gonna connect, but I, uh, my wife was in the, in the room during one of my, uh, writing sessions. And, uh,

Marc Matthews: 48:06

she thank you so much for listening to the inside my podcast, make sure to rate us everywhere you listen podcast

Brandon Ganch: 48:12

going with it. Cuz I knew I knew what I was going for and now it's her favorite song on the album. So I think there is risk in showing people too early. Um, because you don't want somebody to talk you out of something that could be really good. Um, but also it's good to get people to, to listen to stuff too. And yeah, like you said, if the opposite end of that, then you know, you're on for a winner cuz if she's like yeah. Singing along to it. And uh, there was a couple on the album. The big crush was one that she. Found herself singing to all the time. And I was like, oh, good though. That's that's perfect. That's uh, you know, that's gonna be a winner, but, but yeah, I almost, uh, scrapped one of my favorite songs on the album. Um, well, no, I didn't almost scrap it, but it had had, she had her way. It would've been scrapped or, uh, early on the cutting room floor. It's

Marc Matthews: 48:57

interesting. You mentioned that because there was one song where I had that exact situation and I played it to her and she listened to it and she was just like, oh, I'm not keen on the vocal on that one. And then cuz I've been sort of on the fence and I was like, mm, yeah, I think you're right. And then we came up with the idea of putting it as a plan B, but you know what, off the back of this, I'm gonna go back and revisit it cuz I'm sure. I'm sure when I was putting it together, I was like, nah, no, this is sounded good. This is gonna go somewhere. But I never got to the mixing process. So there you go. Finish it. I say it's still on the cut room floor. Yeah. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna go back. So audience listening, if you've ever been put off, um, by someone with one of your songs, I. Do this off the back of this podcast, go back and revisit it and let me know if you end up releasing it. Cause I'd love to know cuz um, I'm gonna do exactly that. Nice. I've realized the time is, uh, we, we, we we're coming towards the end now, but what I wanted to ask about, so you mentioned bit crush there. So there, there was a number of songs I wanted to pick your brains on, but we we'll, we'll sort of end it on bit crush. Can you tell us, uh, the audience a bit around the sound, sound writing, uh, sound writing, songwriting process and the sort of inspiration behind that and the vocal effects as well on that particular song? Yeah, sure.

Brandon Ganch: 50:03

So that was, uh, my wife and I were, uh, we did, when we moved from the states to Scotland, uh, we were in between jobs and things. So we took a, uh, some time to travel around the world and we were on this like beautiful beach in Thailand, uh, on the island of Kotel, just the most pictures scenery you could imagine. and we watched this poor teenage girl spend an hour trying to get the perfect selfie of herself. And every time she would take the picture, she would just look at her phone and disgust. And it was the, it was the wildest thing that we saw on our trip. Probably it was like, it was so sad in, in so many ways. And, and it was like, she didn't enjoy the beach. She didn't enjoy the weather. She didn't enjoy the scenery. And she may have got the perfect picture that made it look like she did. Uh, but it looked to us like the most miserable time at the beach I've ever seen. And it was probably like one of the prettiest speeches I've ever seen too. So, um, so, so bit crush was about that song, cuz like I said, I was going back like most of the songs and the album are about that sort of intersection with technology and bit crush. Obviously as a producer, you know, big crushing is sort of like reducing a very rich audio signal into something that's, you know, very, um, you know, not a lot of information and that's sort of what, you know, technology is doing to us where a lot of people maybe don't even see people in real life anymore. It's just, you are this representation of you on the, on the Twitter or Facebook or TikTok or whatever. And that is a very bit crushed version of you as a person. Um, so the song is all about that. And I was writing in the, in the, from the perspective of her. Um, and, and yeah, just, just the idea of like, okay, I don't really like this love. isn't really real. I'm just trying to be who you want me to be and show the world that we're this beautiful couple on things. And, uh, and that, that was the inspiration for a bit crush. And then obviously the lyrics then. Influenced the production of it. Um, because there's a few, um, very bit crushed , um, sections of the song. Uh, the, the outro was always bit crushed. Um, and that was a big, you know, just a descending into like less and less information until it was just like really harsh and awful, um, outro. But I, um, when I was mixing it, I was working with, I don't know if you've ever talked to Dom, who is a Grammy award winning, um, Dom Morley he's he runs the mix consultancy.com. Let me, let me see if it's dot com or do code UK. Um, but he is, he lets you just send him tracks, um, mix consultancy.com he's he worked on back back to black with wine Amy Winehouse he's he's uh, Grammy award winning engineer. And it was amazing. Like, I, I would send him a track. He would just reply with, um, a PDF, like usually one to two page PDF of everything that he would change. He'd be like, okay, I would on this synth, I would duck, you know, 2000 Herz because that'll let the base shine through a little bit more where, where the bases really sounding great. He's like, I'd bring, you know, the high end from maybe 4k up and bring the vocals op just to let him cut through the mix of it, better everything. He would send me this PDF, which was like worth its weight and gold as far as like, it was like a mixing university degree. And, and it was perfectly tailored to what I was all the problems I was banging my head against myself. So it was like the most effective learning I've ever had. And. I would say I sent him, I did it for every song on the album. I learned so much about production, um, in the best way possible, because like I said, I was, these are the songs I was working on. And then he told me how to make them better. And I didn't even know why they were bad in the first place until he told me. So anyway, so the, I was a long way to say that, um, on one of his suggestions, he's like you have this really good, powerful introduction to the second verse. It's really impactful, but he's like, I would, I would bit crush that down so that it just like, sounds like it's sucking in and then explodes into the second verse. And, uh, that's one of my favorite parts of the song. So, um, so yeah, so the, the actual lyrics ended up playing a huge part in the production of the final, the final song.

Marc Matthews: 54:52

That's amazing. Don Morley. I've admittedly not, not heard of that service, but it's one I'm certainly gonna go look at cuz. Much like yourself whenever it comes to actual mixdown I always bounce my, uh, mixes to other producers and artists and get their feedback. Like, like you say there, and some of the best stuff I've come up with is a result of someone saying, you know what, maybe you should put a high synth in here, or maybe there's too much going on, reduce it, remove some of that, some instruments there. So you' got a bit of night and day, but Don moley.

Brandon Ganch: 55:20

Yeah, that that's it exactly like some of the, some of the, he was like, Hey, put some guitar down, leading up to leading up to the big outro, even though, and you put it low in the mix, you can't really hear it, but you could feel it. And you could feel that it's building and like, stuff like that. Like how, how am I supposed to learn that without talking to somebody? So it was like, it was invaluable. And, uh, so much of that stuff made it onto the album, cuz it was just like, yeah. Okay. I'll I'll just lay down some guitar here and it, it just elevated the, the, the final chorus and it's just like, wow, I can't even hear it when I'm, unless I really pay attention. But. I could definitely feel it and the energies there and, and yeah. Stuff like that. It was just incredible. And he's such a nice guy and he was each PDF. Like, I, I saved every PDF, cuz like I said, it's like a free college education and mixing. Yeah. And um, but he's such, just a really nice guy. It was always really responsive and that's the only way I hit my deadline because I had, um, I don't know if you're aware of sound better. I think it's like now maybe Spotify bought. But I had, I'd paid somebody a lot of money to mix one of the songs and cuz I was like, I don't feel like I know what I'm doing. So I wanna see what a professional would do. And it came back and was awful, not awful because it was a bad mix. It was a great mix. Fantastic mix. But it wasn't what I was going for. He, you know, he focused on the wrong instruments and the vibe wasn't there that I wanted. Um, so I was, I was just despondent because I was like, I'm not gonna hit, there's no way I can get all this stuff mixed. And then when I found the mixed consultancy, I was just like, this is fantastic. He's responsive. He's getting back to me quickly. I'm learning so much. I'm applying everything I learned. To every other song that I'm not even asking about. And it was the only reason I got, I hit my deadline that I was trying to hit for the album.

Marc Matthews: 57:06

That's amazing. I'm I'm gonna, uh, get in touch with, with Don ick, cuz I think he'd be a fantastic podcast. Um, interviewee. Um, so certainly somewhere I'll

Brandon Ganch: 57:15

tell him I sent him and, and uh, tell him thanks again, cuz he he's definitely saved my album. Uh, yeah, cuz yeah. I, what, what would've happened? I would've hit the deadline and then I would've obsessed about it for the next five years of my life trying to make it even more perfect. And then yeah, so deadlines are important too. I think that that's the only reason I got it out because like we were talking about earlier, the perfection thing is just, um, is very hard to, to control. So having a, just a date and being like, okay, make it as good as I can possibly do by this date and then put it in the world. Yeah,

Marc Matthews: 57:46

totally. I, I totally second that and it's something that I've mentioned a few times on various other podcast episodes. Um, with other writers. Cause I usually ask the case of like, do you set deadlines or do you just visit just a linear, ongoing process? And I personally, I like to work to deadlines cuz without a deadline, it would just go on and on and on and on. Um, so definitely deadlines and it's great to hear that you're doing the similar thing and getting that feedback as well, which is amazing. And it's also interesting that you mentioned there about how you went on sound better and you got, uh, uh, a mix engineer to mix your music. And I've heard this before, uh, where someone approached me about mixing, uh, one of their tracks and it was a case of they had somebody mix it and it sounded amazing, but because they weren't necessarily experienced as the wrong word, but maybe they didn't focus down, particularly on that style of music, they just didn't capture the vibe of what the artist was going for. And um, so I think that's quite a pivotal thing to do. I think if you're gonna outsource your mixing. Or your project is to find someone, if you're gonna go down that route, find someone who fully understands don't just necessarily go for the guy who's got the, or the girl. Um, who's got the best sort of back catalog or portfolio. You need to find someone who actually fully understands what he's your you're trying to do. I dunno if

Brandon Ganch: 58:57

you agree. Oh, absolutely completely agree. And I was really lucky in the fact that the song I sent to him was, um, the one with the most acoustic live drums that my brother had recorded, which so it, it was actually super helpful because he mixed them. Great. And I ended up using that, that drum mix in the final song and, uh, that would've been really a difficult to do on my own, even with Dom's help, I think, from afar. Um, but yeah, no, I, I completely agree cuz it was a great mix. He's a super talented engineer and a mixing engineer and um, it was great. It just wasn't. My style of music and it wasn't the song. Like I wanted some of that harshness because of my background in like the noise rock and the more experimental stuff. Like I like the dissonance and I like a little bit of the harshness and things, and yeah, it was just a completely different style of music that came back, uh, with all the wrong things. Highlighted in some of my favorite parts were just like way down in the mix that you couldn't even hear or feel. So, yeah, I think that's hugely important. Yeah. You could have somebody that's an amazing mixing engineer, but they're gonna mix it in a completely different style that

Marc Matthews: 1:00:02

you don't mind. Yeah. Due diligence. I think that's where it comes into due diligence right there. Um, I, I realize now we're coming towards the hour mark. So, um, I don't, I don't wanna keep too much of your time today as amazing as it is been with this, with this interviewing conversation, but where, uh, do you see one equals two going, you mentioned earlier about you were tinkering around with some sounds, creating some, coming up some new ideas. Is there gonna be a follow up album or EP.

Brandon Ganch: 1:00:25

Big time. Yeah. So I'm, I'm really trying to get an EP out by December of this year. And like I said before, we just moved into a, a new house. So I finally got the full studio back up and running. So this really has been my first week back in the driver's seat again. Um, and again, all the same, all the same stuff, self doubts. And there's no way I can do this. And all that stuff is Cret back in which I thought, I thought I had killed that with the first album, but no, it's all still there. So I've had to revert back to just sitting in the chair. And again, like I said, uh, that, that twisting that, uh, FM knob had inspired something and I was like, okay, yeah, this is how it, this is how it went. Last time I at no point felt super confident. Like I was writing a hit at any stage. It was just like, all right, just try stuff and then follow the inspiration. And that's exactly where I'm back to. Um, So I, I wanna try to at least get maybe a four song EP out, but I'm running out of time. So it's already June and I'm trying to get something out by December. Um, but, uh, yeah, I guess worst case scenario, maybe a couple singles, but yeah, I'm gonna try to at least get an EP out by December.

Marc Matthews: 1:01:33

Fantastic. I'll keep an eye out and, um, and, and promote it well not, and, and share it with the, with the audience. Um, so I'm looking forward to that one. Where, where can our audience find you online? Where can they find your

Brandon Ganch: 1:01:44

music? So I scored a great domain name. uh, many years ago, like I said, this has been a project that I knew was a long time coming. So it's a four character domain. So it's the number one EQ and the number two.com. So one EQ, two.com. Um, so four characters, which look sweet every time I type it in But, um, but yeah, that that'll link to like the Spotify and band camp and Twitter, which I haven't posted on Twitter in over a year and a half. So I'll need to maybe start looking into social media, but it just doesn't, uh, It doesn't really interest me too much, but, um, but yeah, and for, uh, one EQ, one, EQ, two.com and everything links to from there. So you can find everything

Marc Matthews: 1:02:24

fantastic. And, uh, I'll put all that in the show notes, so the audience can go away and if they haven't done so already just, and listen to that and, um, follow on Twitter. Um, I find social media is a necessary evil. I strongly, strongly emphasize the word evil on that one. Um, but no, Brandon, thank you. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. It's been great chatting about music growth mindset, the ultra learning, and like the, the stories, uh, behind your music as well. And, and all that, that it encompasses. It's been fantastic. So I kind of thank you enough for, for spending the time with me today. No, it's

Brandon Ganch: 1:02:55

been so much fun. Thanks for having me mark. I really appreciate it. No,

Marc Matthews: 1:02:58

anytime my friend. So I'll let you go and enjoy the rest of your Sunday up in, up in Scotland. And, um, I'll speak to you soon. Nice.

Brandon Ganch: 1:03:05

All right. Thanks again. Bye cheer.

Marc Matthews: 1:03:06

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