The Era Of The Dark Mother is my first project release since May/June. I emphasized paintings, drawings, and preparing for vending opportunities instead of remaining glued and hunched-backed, staring at my computer all summer. I did, however, open Ableton in order to compose music and sound effects for my latest short film, ALTAR. But overall I took a break from music and technology in general. However, as the mountain weather returns to brisk winds and icy roads, it’s only fitting I return to the studio.
Instead of the typical Space Bass and Psychedelic Bass, I ventured into heavier and more experimental percussion, along with a focus on IDM.
While other projects featured experimental sound design and unnatural rhythms, The Era Of The Dark Mother takes the cake for introducing a more chaotic and intense headspace, inspired by the recent return of Autechre and the boundary pushing producers from Glitch.cool.
I hope you enjoy the 8-track project, which still features more digestible neurobass beats, but overall is a complicated and daring listen.
January marks four years of seriously committing myself to making music. While my Soundcloud has tracks dated eight years ago, I was not active creating music or making beats and spent the majority of my time fighting a criminal case and other intrusions into my life. I produced on Maschine for roughly a year before switching to Ableton and investing every lost dollar into hardware synthesizers, eventually accumulating a steep learning curve of instrument after instrument after MIDI, after Ableton, blah, blah, blah.
Instead of recording beats, I tinkered with hardware synthesizers off and on for a few years, but really gave up recording or using Ableton all together. Learning to sync the instruments via Ableton would often take an entire day of production, hours. Days. Weeks. And worst of all, I couldn’t even write a beat in Ableton if you asked me. I was too focused on drum machines and semi-modular synthesizers that made all the noises for me.
If you dive into my production folders from the past few years, you’ll notice I wrote and finished roughly ten tracks, the POPE era, and Ableton folders 2019, 2020, and 2021 are almost completely empty minus synthesizer sound design files.
Folder 2022 doesn’t exist, probably never did.
2023, everything changed.
After a breakthrough in psychoanalysis, I sold my synthesizers and hardware gear in order to embrace Woulg’s philosophy of “less is more” and “limitations are your friend” aka use the gear and material you have at your disposal. If that means only a laptop or computer, use the laptop or computer, because that’s all you need. Really.
After selling all of my synthesizers, I dove into Ableton and haven’t turned back, releasing over 126 songs. While the synthesizers made baselines and leads easier, the commitment to software improved my speed and overall effectiveness as a producer. Growing up, I played the drums, not pianos, guitars, or instruments that warranted hardcore music theory.
Once I abandoned my limited knowledge of gear, and embraced Ableton, the software began to feel synonymous with the decade or more spent learning video editing software, in fact the two are incredibly similar. Timeline style editing that allows a personal, hands on experience. I was no longer out of my element.
Why did I choose to waste my time with synthesizers?
They’re cool, first of all. But after spending a year or so following G Jones and Bleep Bloop, I wanted to learn how to create similar music, and after discovering a Reddit AMA with the two producers, Bleep Bloop and G Jones explained how the massive improvement in their music was related to the purchasing of hardware synthesizers.
Maybe I would’ve been better off with just one synthesizer, instead of the six or seven I accumulated. Also, G Jones and Bleep Bloop both started with software synths and VSTs, so the hardware didn’t need to be learned on top of the software. Both producers were all ready well acquainted with Ableton.
I still have the 0-Coast, the only synth I kept, but I haven’t written a song with the synthesizer since 2018. And honestly, I love the progress I’ve made without synthesizers. I enjoy getting lost in the computer, and the second I need to breakaway and twiddle with the hardware, I’ve taken myself out of the flow state. So Facebook Marketplace, here we come, unless somebody can convince me to keep the damn thing.
After living on the road for six months, I learned I never want to be unable to express myself.
I can’t make music because I’m not in my studio? Stupid.
All I need is the laptop, headphones, and a backpack
Much more punk rock than requiring thousands of dollars of studio equipment.
THE BADBOOB 