Hey thanks for doing this man, and great work on the release. Did you have a particular theme in mind with this release?

Thanks, Dan, For this release I pulled inspiration from a lot of different sources. Action, Adventure, Hip Hop and even a hint of the Wild West in “Stand Off” on the mid-range synths. My direction for it all wasn’t something I wanted to keep too restricted, in fact, none of these tracks was even initially for a set EP. They seamlessly just flowed together.

Awesome, that's fair enough really! Most EPs probably play out like this, and often you can pair tracks very nicely together through your own unique style, and it's certainly worked a treat here! So tell us a bit about yourself, how long have you been in the game?

Thanks again, man. It’s been a wild ride I must say. Piano/Drum lessons from age 7-12 were my first introduction to creating music. When I was 13-14 I had bought a launchpad that included Ableton lite and from there I made extremely unprocessed lofi and house beats. By age 17 I was fully committed to learning more after attending my first few electronic music festivals.

I’m now 23 and fully addicted to making music. Putting my focus toward a more analog left-field sound these days with little restriction on bpm and sub-genres of bass tunes. I’ve had great opportunities’s to show my work off at festivals these past few years and have a good feeling about future shows. Shoutout to Home Bass & Fractal Code Music for getting me booked from the get-go.

That's a journey, man! You must be proud to have stuck to it all the way through. Childhood hobbies can fade away so easily, so props to you.

Proud and thankful for the outlet music is to me. Mentally making music has done a lot for me.

That's great to hear. Music gets people through hard times, all the way from the creator, to the listener–it feels very full circle. Something about creating for the future, long term relationship building, being creative, it's all good stuff. How often are you making music in your life?

Truth man. There are a lot of life factors that tie in. Making the music I would say I do at least a good 2-3 full 5-6hr sessions a week and Besides that, I make 20-30 min sketches all the time - sometimes every day of the week as a mental exercise. Wish I could squeeze more in but having breaks is the healthier route anyway, I’ll always make better beats when I allow myself to recharge.

That's dope. It's nice to experiment with your schedule, keeping on top of time management is something I'm deeply interested in! But yeah, it's important to keep your relationship with the music healthy, so balancing the time you spend on there is good.

Bigtime man. Balance is key In this for sure / not always easy.

Loving the intro track, what kinds of tools are you using to make these pads?

The intro formula would look something like this: Modular + Granulator + Plasma Pedal + Valhalla Delay. I am stoked with how this Drone turned out. I’ll surely be opening many sets with that one in an attempt to blast off some heads.

Nice, Valhalla Delay is especially good. As an obscure sci-fi fan, drone work is always something that fascinates me–something so simple, yet enduring.

Yes, man! Drone tunes always hit and make great bpm transition or intro tunes for sets. Besides that they send my brain into space, I find it to be a lot of fun and meditative.

Haha exactly, gotta throw a few ambient drones into the set. Are there any tools you've got your eye on right now? I see a lot of people are talking about Bitwig, what're your thoughts on that?

Right now I’m holding off on anything for quite a while as I just picked up elektrons analog heat mk2. However, I do have about 75-80hp of room in my modular case that I’m sure I’ll be slowly adding to. Looking at bitwig right now. As a Ableton user, I feel like I’ll never actually be able to detach from it and work with another DAW, however, the options in Bitwig do look really cool from what I’m seeing here.

Nice, how are you finding the modular bits? What's your approach to bringing those sounds into your music/composition? And yeah about Bitwig–it looks great, and it's cool to see these newer companies pushing the technology, it keeps things interesting. I'm the same though, Ableton does everything I need to right now, and why change something that isn't broken?

My modular bits I often find from an artist mention. Eprom, Amon Tobin have inspired my choices from the get-go. There is such a wide range of tools in the modular world that I’m always finding but really it all comes down to how much $ I have to play with. My approach when using sounds from the modular is really just to chop the sounds out that are unique and full and will help define my sound or a particular project.

Exactly RE: Bitwig - Ableton has been home since the beginning and I feel like my workflow is too adjusted to ever want to change. Like you said why to change something that isn’t broken.

Mega. Again it's cool to see how people are working with these setups. One thing I remember Thys saying is to hit record from the moment you set it up, because you never know what's going to happen in the session. I'd love to get a better idea of what's taking place in your sessions, maybe we can follow up on that for another project!

Absolutely. Hit record always. I’d love to follow up on what takes place in my sessions - for the most part, I just make big disgusting mud pies and then find the parts I like the most.

So wrapping up on this, what's next for you? Have you any short/long term plans for the alias, or just seeing how it goes? And any artists in particular that you're feeling right now?

Currently, I’ve been working on an LP that is by far my favourite work I’ve ever done. My plans for the alias is really just to see how far I can go with it, I look at it as a long term project that I can enjoy throughout my life.  I got to say I really listen to everything and have favourites in each genre I listen to but here is a rough idea:

Damn. Honestly writing this list I realize how long it could actually go so I will cut it off there. I most definitely draw a lot of inspiration from these artists but I got to say visual art does it for me too even when writing music. Again thank you so much for having me.

You can buy/stream the release here.

Cover photo by Sarah Hellingwerf.