Music Production Podcast for DIY Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
If you're searching for answers on topics such as: what is mixing in music, how I can learn to mix music, how to start music production, how can I get better at music production, what is music production, or maybe how to get into the music industry or even just how to release music. Either way, you’re my kind of person and there's something in this podcast for you!
I'm Marc Matthews and I host the Inside The Mix Podcast. It's the ultimate serial podcast for music production and mixing enthusiasts. Say goodbye to generic interviews and tutorials, because I'm taking things to the next level. Join me as I feature listeners in round table music critiques and offer exclusive one-to-one coaching sessions to kickstart your music production and mixing journey. Get ready for cutting-edge music production tutorials and insightful interviews with Grammy Award-winning audio professionals like Dom Morley (Adele) and Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath). If you're passionate about music production and mixing like me, Inside The Mix is the podcast you can't afford to miss!
Start with this audience-favourite episode: #175: What's the Secret to Mixing Without Muddiness? Achieving Clarity and Dynamics in a Mix
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Music Production Podcast for DIY Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
#103: Exploring the Creative Process: Conversations with Top Music Producers | THE PRODUCER'S PUB
Have you ever wondered what goes on in the minds of some of the most talented music producers when they create? We've got an episode brimming with insights as we sit down with four gifted producers who unravel their creative process before us. Our episode kicks off with a deep dive into the creative genius of Russell Nash as he shares the secrets behind his new track. His unique bass sounds, self-programmed drums, and compelling chords take center stage as we delve into the intricacies of his production process.
We're diving deep into the vibey universe of Aisle9 and jamming out to his latest masterpiece, 'Crystals.' Spoiler alert: This ain't your grandma's playlist. We're talking chill beats with a sprinkle of nostalgia, ya know? It's like a lo-fi love letter to the old school, but with a twist that's so Aisle9. So grab your headphones, maybe a snack, and get ready to explore a whole new direction
We don't stop there. The spotlight then moves to Wall Mind and his amazing blend of organic instruments with electronic samples. We unveil the intriguing elements of his track, influenced by the likes of Jean-Michel Jarre and others, for a truly immersive experience. Furthermore, we explore the influx of Latin American culture in global music, with a special focus on the Brazilian metal band, Sepultura, and the fascinating nuances of their drummer's Latin heritage.
Closing out the episode, we catch up with Jake Major, and our other guests as they offer a glimpse into their upcoming projects. Jake shares the story behind his latest single "Ventures Through Space and Time", and how a college audio-visual project paved the way for his musical journey.
With an exploration of the rising popularity of synthwave in Latin America and a discussion on the unique Latin American flavors added to synthwave by bands like Sepultura and Argentine synth promoters, this episode will leave you with plenty to mull over. So, buckle up and join us on this musical journey as we uncover the essence of music production.
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Hello folks and welcome back to the inside the mix podcast. If you are a new listener, please do hit that subscribe button and if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the notification bell as well, so you get notified when there's a new episode and also when we go live, which we are now, because it's an episode of the producers pub. If you are a returning listener, a big welcome back. So, as I mentioned then, this is an episode of the producers pub. It's a very popular platform. So if you're a new audience or a new listener, basically what happens is I've got four producers artists with me today and we're gonna play 30 seconds worth of music from each of them, listen to it and then discuss it thereafter. So if you're watching this on YouTube live, please do put something in the comments. You can get involved of there. There's no one there at the moment and there might not be throughout, who knows? So, with that in mind, let's start with our first track, and this is from Russell Nash. Russell, what have we got coming up?
Speaker 2:This is just a track that I just kind of threw together last night. It's for another project that, like I can't really talk about, but like I'm gonna. I was thinking about using. This is actually to add it to something I've actually already released, because I was considering remastering my EP called Cyber Odyssey, and then I'd always intended to write a fourth track for it, and then I reckon that this will be it, because it's got the same kind of vibe as the other tracks, so it's kind of like a kind of sci-fi kind of vibe to it, fantastic, okay, so let's give this a go.
Speaker 1:Here we go. This is 30 seconds of Russell Nash Music. It's cool, mate. What are you using for your bass? I don't know how to describe it. It's like that wow sound. What are you using? What's the plugin or synth are you using for that?
Speaker 2:All of this demo is done on the Arterias like CS80 plugin.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I remember using that. What about? Do you have the Arteria plugin suite where you got like the DX7, the Moog Prophet, all that sort of stuff?
Speaker 2:Yes, Short answer.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Well, there we go, he does. We'll put an affiliate link in for that. No, I like that. Let's just say I acquired it. Oh, I see, I see it. Just hit my microphone stand. I see Reading between the lines I get you, I get you, man. No, I really like that. I think it sounds good Nice, I like the bass. Now, I'm always a big fan of the raw sort of bass sounds. Yeah, that's my best way I can put it together.
Speaker 1:I'll open it up to the floor. What do you think? What do you think, folks?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I really like the drums on it, actually the drums sounding nice as well, so good sound on them. Yeah, I like that. I like the track. It's good Sort of feels like it needs a little bit of padding out, maybe just a little bit more sort of fullness in it. But, like you know, that's only judging on what sound we're getting here. But, like you know, but it depends where it is in the track as well. You know, sort of. I mean, we've only heard 30 seconds so I don't know where it's going next, but it sounds good. I like the melody sort of sense as well.
Speaker 2:That's like the intro, like the intro up to, like you know what would be like I don't know like the first first start and something like that. So I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll can add to this track yeah, yeah, we'll add more to kind of flesh out a bit.
Speaker 1:With regards to your drums, mate, do you, are you programming drums, or do you have like a drum, uh, drummer, I don't know how to describe it. You know you can get some soft synth drummers whereby they'll create a pattern for you, or do you? Do you program them yourself on like a MIDI keyboard, or trigger them?
Speaker 2:Like I, I programmed like all all my drums and like I've I've I've kind of explained this one before. But, like, like some of some of yous already know that, like you know, I used to play guitar and bands and stuff like that before I get into this, this whole synthy thing, and I used to, I used to write demos for, like, my bands when I was like 20 and the drummer always used to complain that the drummers you know the program drums that I made for the demos were always shit. So he was always on my ass to like to write more interesting drum parts. So, like, I just started like really really listening to. You know, whenever, whenever I was like my MP3 player on or whatever, I would listen really carefully to what the drums were doing and then I would go home and I would try replicate them and then, yeah, I don't know, I guess I just kind of get fly for it. Um, so, yeah, you can thank my old drummer, Ian, Nice, Nice.
Speaker 1:It's I. I programmed them by hand, as you do as well, yeah, but it's not one of my strongest suits. I find a bit of a ballache sometime, but no, it sounds good, mate. Always like your drums, always nice little fills and stuff going on in there. These fast sort of fills you got going. Man Really like them. Um, I'll spread it around. Uh, jake, what are your thoughts, mate?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was really cool, mate. I love the. The part sound that you used and the chords that you've chosen are sort of unpredictable. They're not what you'd expect. I think it's it's really cool. You've definitely got your own sound going on there, mate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cheers man Nice, nice. Thank you, jake. Uh uh Warmind. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 5:Man. I really like this music. I really like the bass. As a bass player, I think that this music remind me Tom Sawyer of Rush. I really like the bass.
Speaker 1:Okay, nice, nice. Tom Sawyer Okay, yeah, I'll take that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great song, man, that makes me want to go and have a Rush binge now.
Speaker 3:That's the moment on my soundtrack to the week, geddy Lee, who was voted Karang's most ugly man of rock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how was he really?
Speaker 3:Well, he was a well, he was a very talented dog with man. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to look good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, this is it. Yeah, yeah, paul, geddy Lee, I'm shocked. There's got to be worse people looking than Geddy Lee. Fantastic stuff, excellent. Thank you, russell. Next one is from Isle nine. What have we got coming up?
Speaker 3:Well, this is a bit left field because, like normally, as you know, I do synth waves as well, I think everyone else here. But like, this is a sort of side project called Mirror Dome which we're releasing on this track on the 11th. And yeah, russell likes the Mirror Dome concept. It wasn't actually about baldness, but you know, it just came out that way. But like, yeah, but my friend and I, he's actually bald as well. So there we go. There was a connection but yeah, the two of us he's a bass player, well, sort of multi instrumentalist, but both are sort of thing, and it's an actual sort of physical project. We get together sort of, you know, during the week, that sort of. We have one session a week and been doing so for a while, and we sort of written a whole load of tracks gradually and I guess it's sort of a bit of a mixture of some of my synth influences and other influences. And he's quite into trip hop as well, because I mean, bristol's not far from here, there's a big Bristol trip hop thing.
Speaker 3:So the West country has been big with trip hop in the past, so I think some of that's coming through, but it's so. It's a bit of a mixture of like more, more sort of slightly live music kind of things, like some guitars, but again, we tend to sample things bass, and we've recorded, we've done some live recordings of the drums as well, and then turn them into loops. This one, actually, I think was the first one we did, and so it hasn't got that kind of treatment. It's. It's more of a sort of sequence. You know, again, I program the drums, but yeah, so it's. Yeah, you have to see what you think. I mean, it's got a slight lo-fi lean as well, I guess, so, but yeah, it's going to be out on the 11th at Miradome Music Nice.
Speaker 1:Miradome, you know what, and so you mentioned it then. I hadn't put the link between Miradome and your, your aesthetic, together.
Speaker 3:No, I hadn't either, really, but like Russell laughed a lot.
Speaker 1:Russell laughed a lot, so I think we must have picked up on some Anyway.
Speaker 3:okay, here we go.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're good, excellent stuff. I can definitely hear the lo-fi in it and it once again, I know the platform that we're using sort of it does rinse through all the equality that you're presenting. But rest assured, when this goes live it will be the proper one. But I can definitely you can hear how you've got those sort of organic sounding instruments as well and how it's different to the usual stuff. It's really cool, mate. I can imagine that I listened to like they're sort of studying and focus playlists on Spotify and I can imagine it's sitting in there really really nicely. It's really cool, man. I can hear the lo-fi element.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I think I'll. I mean, you know some vinyl bits there's all kinds of bits going on but at the same time I think it's like it's almost like sort of intelligent lo-fi and musical lo-fi. It's got like it does have quite a lot of changes and playing and stuff, rather than it just being like, oh, we've taken something and we've sort of slowed it down, we've put it through a that, a reverb, or you know what I mean, or with it it's very crunchy, or all those sort of lo-fi type things. It's got all of those elements.
Speaker 3:But I think at the same time we're trying to sort of yeah, I mean, we're two people who've played a lot and done a lot of music, live and play a lot, so I guess it's got that musicality hopefully to it. But it's always hard to not overdo that to the point where you actually make something that no one you know you turn into Geddy Lee, no. But like we're trying, we're trying to sort of not overdo the kind of musicness you know, not go up our own bums being musicians and play jazz solos, but at the same time it's kind of trying to sort of put a bit of musical influence into that sort of slightly lo-fi sort of spot I suppose. But you know, we'll see how we go.
Speaker 1:You didn't want any Django Reinhardt going on there.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I love a bit of Django yeah yeah, bit of Django. I had a guitar tutor with me.
Speaker 1:And he was teaching me how to play. He was a guitar tutor teaching me to play guitar, but he basically is one of those ones we just, I know, pointed out the obvious. I just said go to his house and he would just jam in front of me and play like gypsy jazz and I'd be like, well, I'm not really learning anything, you're just playing like Django Reinhardt to me for an hour. I didn't really get anywhere. So that's my redeeming memory of Django Reinhardt. Yeah, but yeah, yeah. No, I think it's cool, man. I like the idea of intelligent. I'm not this, I'm not saying that like low fight isn't intelligent.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no no no, low fight, low fight.
Speaker 1:Intelligent, which is really cool, because I think we had this discussion on Friday, didn't we, where we said that you could just like stick a fuck tonne of reverb on it and slow it down and then you can have some low five. You know, but I'm sure the low five purists, or yeah, no.
Speaker 5:I know there's some brilliant low fire stuff.
Speaker 3:There's some amazing stuff out there, but you know it's like any genre, isn't it? It's lots of different things in it. What does anyone else think?
Speaker 2:I think I'll probably be, I'll probably be alone here, but I don't know, man, I could just picture like fucking Adam being printed over that and Adam, like I was, just I was totally hearing, like you know, you know, the saying from Maroon Five yeah, like he's got that. I could just totally hear him like yeah.
Speaker 3:Maroon Five thing. Wow, yeah, I know, maybe it's got that funky sort of rock. You know that pop, funk, rock, funk. You know that kind of element to it as well, perhaps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's not, it's not, it's not exactly, it's not exactly like that, but like I was just getting like a little bit of that vibe and like I could just I could picture him singing over it, and it also reminded me a little bit of are you familiar with Bonnable?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:Bonobo or oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, bonobo yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like, yeah, I was getting a tiny tiny bit of that vibe from it as well, but no, I liked him and like his. Yeah, because I think we like things like sort of Sneaker Pimp.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we like sort of some of the sort of that kind of down tempo stuff like yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Massive attack, sneaker pimps, all those kind of sort of things, that that kind of stuff from back there. I guess they're sort of late 90s, 2000s, sort of like sort of stuff, Porta's Head, all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:I was just going to say Porta's Head. Could you mention Bristol, didn't you? Yeah, and Porta's Head and whatnot, and you've got that sound. Yeah, bristol's definitely got a sound, hasn't it? It has when I was there living there. It's got the help of.
Speaker 3:I think it's just trying to sort of think of that now because of course that was then and it's not a very now thing but like, like everything else, it's got retro, sort of. Yeah, I don't think I'd do anything that hasn't got a bit of retro. Really, it's probably because I don't know what now is.
Speaker 1:Cool Open. Up to the floor again. Any thoughts? Warmind. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 5:Man, I really like this music. I really like the groove and as a bass player, I always play a T-shirt in the bass. The sound, the bass I think it's just bass or a precision bass, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's actually a. Really it's a 1970s, I think, like a, a precision, yeah, on that one with flat wounds on that. Yeah, it's a really gorgeous bass my friend's bass he doesn't let anyone else play it really it's really nice. It's actually quite hard to play, but it sounds nice. Yeah, yeah, it's really nice bass.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I have a music man here. I stringerate, but the sound is is much punch, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, much more punch.
Speaker 5:Yeah, jazz bass is really smooth. I really love the sound of the jazz bass and its precision.
Speaker 3:I recorded it through a UAD 610 sort of plug-in which is kind of their, their kind of recreation of like the famous Motown channel on those desks that you people used to sort of the. The classic Motown sound was to go straight into the desk DI with your bass, through the channel and using the kind of the saturation that that channel kind of produced on the bass and it does give you that kind of that real sort of woody kind of sound on the, on the, on the bass, which is nice If well, it wouldn't be any good if you were doing a sort of full-on fungal metal thing, but it's, it's good for that kind of, you know, that kind of vibe, that sort of mellow vibe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic Jake. Any thoughts buddy?
Speaker 4:Yeah. So I I got like a Jean-Michel Jorzou look sort of feel from the chopped vocal sample, and not only in the sense of the sound. You've also got like the approach that you had with that album, I reckon, of combining organic instruments with electronics, like the sampling and stuff. I think it's really cool, it's really different, it stands out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, I do. I will not deny liking Jean-Michel Jorzou and that's definitely been an influence on me at points. So, yeah, although he's some you know I don't think I'm about to stand in Docklands doing lasers, but you know he's he was amazing Cause I remember it was like it was kind of like one of those things that I saw quite a bit.
Speaker 3:I think I was still, you know, I don't know what age I was, but relatively young when I. He was busy doing some of his performing sort of things like you know, on the telly and sort of stuff. It was kind of like he was sort of turning up all the time. So I definitely listened to oxygen and all that sort of stuff quite a lot. Yeah, it's just pretty classic really. You don't realise sometimes when someone's breaking sort of you know groundbreaking stuff really at the time I think it's only years later you go like who else was making music that sounded like that at the time? You know it's quite sort of fresh and now loads of dance music and loads of other stuff has taken it all on. So yeah, it's good. Cool, I'll take a bit of genre any day.
Speaker 1:So I mean, you're not going to have lasers at the gig in October, Tim?
Speaker 3:No, there'll be lasers, yeah, coming out my eyes. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know if there'll be lasers at the strong rooms. But yeah, yeah, probably won't be any late.
Speaker 1:Fine Opportunity to plug the gig there. Just for that. We might as well plug it now. What is the gig, tim?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a Dusk Waves gig. That's kind of a. People are putting it on, it's at the strong rooms and you're going to ask me the date and I can't remember it. Now. It's October, isn't it? October the something? Yeah, yeah, I want to say 22nd, but I could be wrong. Yeah, 27, 22nd, something like that. Yeah, around that, and yeah, basically it's up in London in the strong rooms and there's going to be a sort of whole load of retro artists, so sort of four of us, I think. Go on Like, yeah, and I'll nine, I will be doing that with my drummer, stu, and playing live. Yeah, I'm just checking up on my thing when it actually is live in October, the 14th, I think. Yeah, sunday, it's a Sunday afternoon gig, I think, or something. It's an afternoon gig. That's what Dusk Waves tend to do. So you know, should be good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm hoping to. I'm planning on poppiling along to that. If you are in the London area on the 14th, do attend.
Speaker 3:Yeah, do attend. It's all going to be free. Say hello.
Speaker 2:How do you stop a check to it? By the way, it's definitely the 14th.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks man, there we go.
Speaker 1:Excellent. Thank you, I'll nine. If we go on to the third track of today, the third artist at Wall Mind, what have we got coming up? Tell us a bit about the song.
Speaker 5:Man. Walls of Time is a song released in 2020, from the album Walls of Time. I want to make a music that was a mystery but at the same time striking. For this, I chose simple elements like drone, a pad, an arp to set the mood of the song. I don't use a thousand channels on Nableton Live. I believe in the minimalism of the music. With simple elements you can convey what music needs. The way is key to rev. I use it as inspiration by Constance, the same base. Like our friend in Russia, I love the Tonsaure bass and I use the silent, the synth silent, to do this base.
Speaker 5:You will realize that the song tells a story. It starts slow and builds up Afterwards. Their page starts giving greatness to the music. So then, as their page ends, the drone stops and the only sound of the pad remains. Make the music brief. So what I did was reduce elements at the end of the music. It's important to say that there is no right or wrong, but I prefer to tell a progressive story that starts with a few elements and then I add new elements to create dynamics.
Speaker 5:Trades are about feeling and emotional energy that help listeners connect and vibe with our music. You have to try to imagine your entire track like a movie script. We can add instruments and expression to increase the energy of the music, or even remove the instruments to reduce the energy. It also makes music more satisfying to the human. Here and in walls of time in music I do my all-favorite transitions, which is going from high energy to nothing.
Speaker 5:In the lead of the song I used a light sound to contrast with the initial bass of the song. There is all kind of options out there. There are many timbres, options that you can use in a song, but the most important thing is to choose sounds that go well with each other, and for that the producer must do a job of meeting the intended timbre. New leads, new pads, new sounds, new bass. It adds little elements of surprise to our ears like oh, what is that? It's really open other possibilities in your mind. After all, we are binding a track. This is how it works. It's such a great tool to use when you want something that's really kind of unexpected, fantastic.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the comprehensive description as well. It's brilliant. I'm looking forward to this as soon as you mentioned then about minimalistic approach. I'm with you on that because I'm a huge, huge advocate of minimalism and a minimalistic approach, and also what you said about removing aspects rather than adding. So, yeah, big on that one. So I'm hoping it's going to play from the beginning, because I know I demoed it earlier. If it doesn't, I'll quickly revert it back to the beginning.
Speaker 1:Excellent. I really do want to play the whole song but in the interest of fairness I'm going to stop at 34 seconds. But I love that. I really like the way you have those plugs come in and then they sort of transition nicely into the next part, and I really like that in songwriting, where you introduce an element in the part before and then it's the main focal point of the next part and I can hear it once again. I can see why you like Russell's track, because you've got that growling, that girthy growl bass sound in there as well. I really like the plugs that you've got going on there. And you've mentioned you use silent. Is that right? You use silent.
Speaker 5:Yeah, silent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, did you use that. What did you use for the plug sounds?
Speaker 5:For the plugs, I use the G-van.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice. I really like those. I really like that. That's a really really nice chilled synth song. Man, I've got to listen to that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 3:Arturia. What's that, Arturia synth.
Speaker 5:Arturia synth. Yeah, let me remember. In the pad I use G-van too, and in our page I use the Nexus 64. Yeah, remember the synth, this plugin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, nice.
Speaker 2:It's nice. I like the.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Nexus is really good. It's just too expensive. I can't afford it. Keep looking by Nexus and then go like oh, it's just too much money. I used to have the previous version of Nexus and then they went from 32-bit to 64-bit and that's magically stopped working.
Speaker 5:So I didn't bother you the best, I use the silence and it's an important thing to say that in a music. I always look at how songs are structured, what make a chorus stand out and how you create an intro that moves people. In general, there's no right or wrong when it comes to songwriting. However, if you pay close attention, you see that the most of the tracks you love have a similar structure. A great example of changing the structure of the song was made by the producer of the band right against the machine in the song Killing the Nami. Initially the band arrived with a structure totally different from the music we know today. The beginning of it was boring. Things took time to wrap.
Speaker 5:So with the producer's important work, they changed the song and messed up the role structure of the song become a rich. The change was important because the original version was not interesting. So I think the work of the producer is important. It's like a painter who paints a picture and one step aside to observe the work, watch his painting and give suggestions that will make a difference in the music. So I sometimes have the impression that some producers or even bands forget to analyze the music as a role and think about the structure of the motion that the music should generate, and in the 80s we had the great arctis of music like Church for Fears in the song Shal. That has six minutes and the record comes when they want to drop the song but Roland didn't allow and the song becomes a hit Even so. The label insisted on a smaller version and they made a radio version of the song with Shal and has four minutes, at the end with the guitar solo. This is how to show how important the structure of a song is.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. What's the good, my friend? I applaud your prep and your answers. They're fantastic. Thank you very much, and I appreciate as well not being your first language, so it's fantastic, thank you very much. Thank you, yeah, folks. I wish I knew. Are you joining us from Brazil, is that right?
Speaker 5:Yeah, Brazil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my girlfriend's got Portuguese heritage, so you'd like to think I know some Portuguese, but I don't. I try to think of any. All I can think of is Bacalao, and I think that means salted cod.
Speaker 3:But that's about as far as.
Speaker 5:That's about as far as fighting.
Speaker 1:You know that I went to, I had a trip to Spain and then I briefly jumped over the border to Portugal and there was this huge stand selling salted cod and it just stuck in my head ever since. I don't know if it's the same in Brazil.
Speaker 3:You're a West Country lad with simple things like fish on your mind.
Speaker 1:I want to say bondia, is that Portuguese? Yeah, it's Portuguese, it is. Yeah, there we go.
Speaker 3:I played in a band for a while and a really good friend of mine was in another band and he's a drummer and he debt for us a couple of times. We were a function band and he's an extraordinary drummer, really really good. But he was half Portuguese, half American. I think he's like absolutely stunning metal drummer with his main thing but he mixed it up with this kind of Latin sensibility which I guess he got from Portugal. But he just like I've never really heard a metal drummer who had that and the mixture of the two of those was like. I used him on quite a few recordings I did for other friends and people when I was running my studio. I used to get him in as a session drummer.
Speaker 3:The only thing is he could never play the same thing twice. Literally you never, ever get the same take. So you'd play a song and think, oh, that's great, we'll do it like that next week, and never, no, it never repeated. But it was just like very random he's playing, but like brilliance as well. So, yeah, that Latin vibe. He's still doing it, I think, in this metal band, but quite an interesting one. They were called Alternative Car Park. There you go.
Speaker 1:The metal band from Brazil, sepultura yeah, being a metalhead myself and there's a great live video there from the 90s where they get all these sort of vintage and cultural Brazilian instrumentation. It's absolutely amazing. They build up this whole pastiche of this track using all these vintage instruments and it's absolutely incredible. I think there's might be some Kappa Werner in there somewhere which is a Brazilian martial art. I did that for a while. I wasn't very good.
Speaker 3:Just kept throwing salty cordy people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a running joke now that that's the only Brazilian, the only Portuguese that I know with my girlfriend. It's back a l'au and I don't even eat fish.
Speaker 5:Brazil has a lot of great musicians, like the drummer of Sepultura.
Speaker 3:Eloica's a great drummer.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Fantastic In the 90s. They were awesome. They're still good now, but yeah, in England you're a good drummer.
Speaker 3:if you can count to four, that's it really.
Speaker 1:I mean, you don't have to be able to do much else and not fall off your stool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, look at the bloody Beatles man.
Speaker 5:Have you ever been to Mars? In the British Hall.
Speaker 3:Everyone goes on about Ringo being great at playing for Fuck's sake, I've never been.
Speaker 1:I've tried to think of I have. I might have seen them at a festival, but I might have been half-cut, slash, pissed, so I don't remember. I want to say yes, but it wouldn't have been the 90s Sepultura, it would have been like the later incarnation, with when the who are the guys, it's Igor. The Cavalera brothers were no longer in the band, which is a shame.
Speaker 5:I think that the new drummer of Sepultura has a great punch in his drum kit and man, it's a great drummer. You have to see them in a show. It's different.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll look it up. I'll look it up. My week is now going to be Sepultura, slash, rush, yeah.
Speaker 3:Neil Perz not like bad at playing, is he Exactly?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not bad drummers there. Any other thoughts on walls of time?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really liked it. I liked how the mood of the song was almost uplifting and melancholy at the same time. It's that strange vibe where it makes you feel a little bit sad but a little bit uplifting at the same time. I really like that. I really like when songs do that. I thought the arrangement was really good. All the different parts work really well together. I mean, I'm struggling to think of anything to criticise. To be honest, I thought it all sounded really good. I would kind of need to hear the rest of it, to kind of hear, like the you know, all the parts like in the context of the full song. But no, I thought it was great. I really liked it.
Speaker 1:Thank you, ace Jake. Any thoughts buddy?
Speaker 4:I thought it had like in terms of the sound. It had like a beautiful roundness to it when you had like the soft part in the background and then those plucky synths juxtapose and then like pulling through. I just thought it sounded really nice to me. It was really good production.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it does sound good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, the production. I thought the production.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah 100%.
Speaker 3:Can I ask a quick question of all mine? I've heard through somebody I think it was through to do with their label actually but like we're saying that it's there's a real growth in like Synthwave in Latin America in general, like in that there's a real in that part of the world the synthwave is getting quite big. Is that true? Is that something you think would be true, that synthwave is popular or becoming popular?
Speaker 5:Yeah, in Brazil Synthwave has become popular. We have a great community from producers of Synthwave and it's much becoming popular in the last year. We meet each other and we make a WhatsApp group to discuss about production, about timbres, about synths, and Brazil has a lot of Synthwave producers.
Speaker 3:Hmm, interesting, because I started to hear about it but, you know, didn't know. So that's really cool. Great, I'm going to sell all my stuff to Brazil.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've noticed that recently, like a lot of the people that have been adding me on SoundCloud, to sell with South America like it's just great to hear a growth in anything.
Speaker 3:It's great.
Speaker 1:That's really cool. You'll have to, as part of this group all mine. You'll have to post the link to this episode, but this is shameless self-promotion for the podcast. But post a link to this episode in your WhatsApp group when it goes live. Yeah, of course We'll expand the Latin American audience, which would be amazing. I remember having a conversation there's an Argentinian synth promoter, which I cannot remember if they're live for me, but they were really really good and this was a couple of years ago, but I know there's. I've spoken to a number of Argentinian bands from who are synth-orientated. But this is cool because I like that, because you still got that sort of Latin American tinge to it as well, which is really really nice and a nice different flavor to the, because there's a lot of synthwave artists and a lot of it can sound similar. So having those different aspects come in is really really nice.
Speaker 3:It's good having different flavors into it as well, different injections of things into synthwave. So it grows and becomes a more interesting genre.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%, 100%, yeah, definitely. Thank you very much, warmind. Last, but by no means least, jake, what have we got coming up?
Speaker 4:So this is my latest single, called Ventures Through Space and Time, and the way it came about it's a bit of a weird one actually. We were given the task of doing an audio-visual project at college, so I was in this sort of film score sort of mindset and this track ended up turning into like a pseudo orchestral track with like a Van Gellis and Jean-Michel Jor sort of feel, and it's out now on all streaming platforms. So if you like the little snippet here, please do check it out. I'd love to get the streams up on it.
Speaker 3:Is it under your name, jake Major? Yeah, yeah, is that is it under or?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it's just my name here.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. The links will be in the show notes for this. But before we move on to this, there has been a comment on YouTube which is amazing. Let's there, we go, just put that in there. There's been a comment on YouTube and it says it's from Cyberdolls. So shout out to Cyberdoll.
Speaker 1:I love synthetic dimension band. Fantastic band from Brazil. I've never heard of them. Does that sound familiar to you? On its synthetic dimension Is that a band you know of? Warmind from Brazil, possibly. No, stone Silence, cool, let's play Jake Major's track. Let's give that a go Once again, in the interest of fairness, I'll stop it there. But that, that bass line. And then, when those chords sort of come in, there's a song and it reminds me of a song and I cannot think of what it is. And this happened to me last time on the producers' bar when I remembered it afterwards, because I put it in the chat and I cannot for the life of me think of what that bass line, the song, is that it reminds me of. But it's really cool. What are you using for that bass line? It's that weird sort of effect you've got going on there.
Speaker 4:So the thing is I don't actually have my own home studio yet. That's something I'm saving up for and it's obviously quite a hefty price you've got to pay. So I'm just using the facilities at college and they're all stock logic sounds that I've used there. And for the bass I just took a stock logic sound and I got the low pass and the high pass and I stuck some chorus on the high pass and then just compressed both of them, glued them together.
Speaker 1:Right, is that alchemy? Are you using alchemy, the logic plug-in? Yeah, yeah, that will be. Yeah, yeah, that's a great, great free synth plug-in. Like as far as I stock native plug-ins go, alchemy is fantastic. I love the fact you've got that little box. I'm doing this, if you're watching this on YouTube, because I'm making the box sign, but you can move between different timbres of the sound, can't you? You can drag it around, which is really cool.
Speaker 4:It's really cool plug-in 100%.
Speaker 1:Open up to the floor, folks. What are our thoughts?
Speaker 2:I liked it. Yeah, I agree with the bass. That was the first thing that stood out to me. I thought it was like yeah, it's like a really really nice, nice sound that you can have it together for the bass. Yeah, I mean, like I was kind of sad when I had to click stop. So, like you know, that that's a good sign because I kind of wanted to hear where it was gonna go. And the yeah, yeah, no, it's I like this. You know, I'm probably gonna go and listen to, like go and listen to afterwards because I want to hear what happens. I think one thing I'd thought Jay was.
Speaker 3:I like, I like the sounds and I like that. I felt like, you know, I had a good vibe. But I think Sometimes it's like looking at the inversions of the chords or looking at like maybe you know, or sort of extending the chords or something, so that Because it felt like after the couple of repeats, when the chords came in with the, the bass and whatever, like you kind of could hear where they were going next, but you kind of wanted them to sort of extend or go a bit further maybe, and just like sometimes it could just like, you know, you just add another dimension by like sort of just sort of rising it. You know I could hear the chord kind of going a bit further up the octave or something or or a melody or something.
Speaker 3:But you know, the same time I really felt they were really gelled together. I like the way you created that bass and stuff that worked really well and that rhythm is like you know, really pulls you through. So you know, and it is difficult when you're using stock plugins you haven't got as much sort of sonic options, so you're being inventive with what you've got, which can actually be fantastic, I think you know, rather than going like, oh well, I've got all these amazing plugins and all I do is select a preset and there we go is you're going like, oh well, this is sort of what I've got and I can't quite make what I want, so I'm going to be creative to try and get it sounding like what's in my head. And often you invent and and discover new techniques and things through doing that which are really invaluable and make you much better produce a long term. I think so.
Speaker 3:I think it's a really good, good thing sometimes to have a limited sort of you know thing to work with, and again it might be that like, sometimes it's like you can have a limited sonic palette but then you can go, like you can think musically, like, what do I do? Rhythms or melodies or extensions or chords or things, you know, because it's like A lot of people, like you know, can be very inventive with those things and actually use kind of quite simple sounds and make it really really work, because the way they use them you know. So it's the combination of production and musicality, isn't it mixing the two together?
Speaker 4:Thank you very much bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of agree. But the chord thing, like I don't know, like maybe maybe something that can drive, maybe like some substitutions or like some, something like that I do occasionally is even just like swap, see even like the progression plays for the second time, even maybe just pick one or two of the chords and then maybe even you swap out for the like the relative major or the relative minor, and then Just when it plays the second time, it just it gives it like a slightly different kind of flavor and it can just kind of take the listener off guard a little bit and Add a sixth or a seventh or something like that, you know, above the chord or like a sort of Suspended fourth or something.
Speaker 3:You know what.
Speaker 3:I mean there's kind of things are just changing, because I think a lot of people end up with that kind of I mean, this is not of your team, but I think it's true in general, the genre that you hear a lot of things that you go like right, we've got the triads here, anything else we can do, you know kind of thing, and it's like when, and yet some people have massively inventive for that and you get some incredible chord voicings, like Because I mean some people in the genre are really good at keys and I'm not particularly a keyboard player myself, but like, you know my but like, but it is of course with the sequencer.
Speaker 3:You can do that. You can just go like you get your basic triad and then you kind of rearrange it and then you stick a note above or you add another, you know extension in, and sometimes it could just create magic, you know. So it's what? And again, maybe it's only one in the four chords that has that in it, just, and it only has it on the second repeat or something just to give it flavor, you know. So that can be interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, excellent, thanks, gents, um warm, warm mind. Uh, any thoughts?
Speaker 5:Man, I agree with your eyes, like I think that I like the drums, I like the bass and I think it's a great music. If I and I could, I would like to to hear the entire track. You know, in other time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, yeah, um, great, I like the exactly what, what you've all said there and what Russell said in particular about, like, when you Substitute or you use the relative minor or major. I love doing that, um, I use it a lot towards the end of Progressions as well. If I'm going into, like post bridge, um, something like that, I think it's really good. And also what Tim said about there, about Adding seventh and sixth or even taking away as well. Taking away notes, um, it's fantastic. Gents, we've come to the end. But before we do that, pashang has joined us in the chat. Uh, who has been on a couple times. It's 3 38 am when he is and he says um Doesn't sleep for the synthwave source. No, he doesn't honestly?
Speaker 3:he slept about two hours and all the time I've known him, it's nuts. Uh, cyber doll says.
Speaker 1:If one day you're going to look at the songs of the band synthetic dimension, I'm sure you'll like it. They have a official channel on youtube, so underrated band, cool. So a big shout out to cyber don for shang for jumping in the youtube chat there. Amazing stuff, um, folks, what we do is now with, as usual, if you've got any key dates coming up or anything like that, um where the audience can find you as well, and I'll put that link in the In the episode notes, um, so if we I'll go around to Jake, um, where can our audience find you and do you have any key dates coming up? Um, so over the summer I'm taking a little break from gigs and stuff like that.
Speaker 4:But, um, if you just would like to hear about the next Uh gig announcement, you can follow us on instagram at jpemajor1 or you can get us on facebook. That's just under my name and, um, as I said, I do have that new single out then just through space and time. So if you want to check that out on spotify or any other platforms, it's just under my name as well. I'll put that link in the description down below, just under my name as well.
Speaker 1:Fantastic thanks, jake. Thank you very much, uh wallmind, where can our audience find you online?
Speaker 5:Man. You can find me in instagram Only circuit wallmind music Spotify, dsr, ah, bandcamp, bandcamp. It's important that the people can support us YouTube and youtube too Fantastic.
Speaker 1:I'll put those links in R9.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can find me at R9 music just about everywhere apart from twitter, where I'm also at R9 synthwave, um. But tiktok, you know, youtube facebook under a rock somewhere, um, eating bad food with mark in extra. Yeah, I'm always there, oh and um uh, uh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can also hear and find miradome, which was a track I played for my side project at miradome music on all platforms and all social media things and that's coming out on the 11th of august, that track. So it will be fantastic if you can follow us on instagram, fantastic if you can go and listen to the track, because we are totally new. That is debut single single forest called crystals and um. Also, you can hear me, I will be playing live at dusk waves event, um, on On the 14th of october and that's a saturday in the afternoon at the strong rooms. But, like, I'm sure to have some releases before then and you just find me online and say hello.
Speaker 1:Lovely and finally russle nash.
Speaker 2:Hey, yeah, I'm on all the platforms that everyone's mentioned, but like I just keep it nice and neat, just uh, you can get them on my, my link tree. So just link tr forward slash russle nash music, and it's russle with two ls.
Speaker 1:Lovely. Um, once again, audience listening. All those links will be in the show notes as well. So please do go and support the artists to follow them On their relative platforms and whatnot, because it's amazing stuff and, um, do go check that out, gents. It's been a pleasure, as always, this for the audience listening as well. This is going to be the last one until I think the next one's going to be coming out in october because, although there will be weekly episodes of the podcast, um, I've taken a bit of a break over the august. I'm going off on some jollies, so, uh, they'll be a bit of a break with the producers part, but it will be coming back with the vengeance in october because I think it's already fully booked. I think november might be as well. So once again, gents, big thanks and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you.
