FRIEDMYLITTLEBRAIN

DB: Your tracks are great, are they part of a larger batch?

WH: Thanks Damian! These tunes aren’t exactly part of a larger batch, but rather a concise collection of songs that we wanted to share with the world. At this moment, we really like putting out singles and eps. That’s of course not to say that there will never be a larger album, but all in due time.

DB: I feel that there is a large mindset behind this, like a large group of people, even if it’s just one person. It’s not anonymous or disposable producer music in other words.

WH: That’s a sharp observation. We both come indeed from live music backgrounds, and we often tend to think of The Walton Hoax more as a band than a collab. Plus we’ve both always been keen on working with other artists because it fuels the creativity enormously. Nymos for
example, the Dutch producer that we teamed up with on the track ‘Icarious’.’

I love that you used the words ‘not anonymous or disposable’, because it’s exactly our aim when making music. We’ll never consider a track finished unless it has an identity of it’s own.

DB: What’s your approach to writing, how does it progress?

WH: Most our songs are based around a conventional chorus – verse – chorus structure, instead of being drop-oriented, as is more common in electronic music. We’ll usually start off writing acoustically, from piano or guitar. Within the production stage, we start ‘remixing’ that song, building in dynamics with rises and mini-drops, and very often finishing by re-recording most of the vocals.

DB: What music background do you have? Care to name some influences?

WH: From the production side, I really like Mike Shinoda, and electronic music producers like Liam Howlett, DJ Shadow, Skream and Burial. Also Steve Albini who formed my philosophy about producing. And Squarepusher and Aphex Twin. Also Deftones, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Silver Mt Zion. Ryan Adams and Nick Drake, and acts where that singer-songwriter sound intertwines with electronics like Lamb, Jamie Woon or James Blake.

DB: What visual arts do you like? Painters, movements, installations, I don’t mind, literally anything. Or nothing. Could just be adverts & billboards.

WH: We have a common ground in movies. We’re fond of the 80s and 90s. Peter especially loves John Hughes’ work, and my all-time favorite is The Big Lebowski.

DB: If someone took all your instruments and left you with just a tape recorder, a sampler and a microphone, could you make a good record?

WH: There’s a strong musicality in most things; even an air conditioning hums in a musical chord. Also sounds like the buzzing hum of large public places have amazing melodies and beats mixed into them.

It’s an interesting thought. I think that just from the restrictive nature of the situation you set up, there could be unique potential. I find that having too much possibilities can sometimes be a little stifling in the creative process. All the digital and analog tools are so advanced that every operation is becoming too easy. It can have a reverse effect, and become paralysing.

I worked for many years with a crappy free trial version of a no-name program that couldn’t do much else than just record and mix. So I literally spent hours on end, using ridiulously elaborate tricks to get the sounds I wanted from that computer.

DB: Do you have plans to play this stuff live?

WH: We have both played live quite often and we really enjoy it. So it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for us to consider taking our sound on the road.

beatport ep

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