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AV: Tell me about the beginnings of music in your life and
who were some of your early influences when it came to motivating you to
pursue music with an eye on making it a career.
EB: I’ve always been fascinated by music, and completely
captivated by music. I knew at a very
early age that music was my path. I
started as a young child with Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, etc. and have always
been attracted to instrumental music. As
far as making it a career, it’s really the only thing that I’m good at. I couldn’t imagine finding another way
to spend my time that would be this satisfying, so I had to figure out a way to
make it work for me.
AV: Do you see your classical training as being a large
factor in the music that you create now?
EB: Absolutely. One of the
beauties of classical music is that it’s so intensely visionary. It’s easy to get caught up in the music and
allow worlds to unfold inside your mind as you listen. This aspect of music is what drew me in so
early, so I’ve always tried to make music that captures people, bypasses their
logic circuits, and creates a waking dream for them.
AV: You mention on your website about the software technology
that has afforded you a "voice" that you would not
otherwise have for expressing your internal experiences in your music. Tell me about the
hardware and software that makes it possible for you to create the music that you
do and how much of it is custom built.
EB: I’m all software these days, partly out of necessity, and
partly out of excitement for the sound design capabilities provided by
software, specifically Native Instruments Reaktor.
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AV: Tell me about Native Instruments Reaktor. What does it do for you in allowing you to realize the music that is in your head?
EB: Reaktor is a fully modular software environment. It allows me to build instruments, modify instruments, and thing up new creations using samplers, effects, DSP processings, synthesis, etc. It's really open ended and there is no limit to the way your creativity can be expressed with this software. If you need a device that hasn't been built, you can build it in Reaktor and find the exact sound you are looking for.
AV: Your new project coming up in December 2005 is called
Sines and Singularities. An interesting title. Is there a particular
meaning to the title as it relates to the body of music on this release?
EB: A Sine wave is the purest sound oscillation, and something
that I use often in my music. A lot of
my sounds start as a sine wave, and are achieved by following a fractal path of
manipulation until I achieve the sounds I am looking for. I’ve found that you can create an entire
spectrum of sounds from a single 440 Hz sine wave as long as you take the time
to mold it into what you are looking for.
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I’ve created multiple pieces from a single sine wave that included all
the “parts” you would expect to hear in a piece of music: kick drum, snare, high hats, bassline,
chords, textures, melodies, etc. This is
something I’m exploring more, the ability to create a whole piece of music out
of a single source: a singularity. I love the concept of a singularity. Much
of my worldview is formed by the concept of a singularity at the core of it
all.
A friend of mine painted a really
nice piece with this concept called “Singularity” which you can see at his
website at www.galactivation.com What an amazing piece!
AV: When did you start seriously working on the music that
would eventually end up on this new release and did you have a theme in mind
when you started composing the music that would end up on S & S?
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EB: I started in the fall of 2004 working on this music. I did not have a theme in mind when I started
writing, I just started writing. I’ve
never really planned it out too much, though I think that is changing for the
future.
I’m realizing that with 3 albums
out now (if you count Elementary Particles as an album), a lot of the pressure
of making records has lifted. I feel a
freedom to branch out and explore new things:
deep ambient music, dance music, etc.
I think that new releases will have more continuity and coherent themes.
AV: The new CD is coming out on Aleph Zero records. Tell me
about your relationship with Aleph Zero and how you decided that S
& S would be released on that label.
EB: Aleph Zero has been the most incredible support for me. It’s always an honor to do business with
them, and I consider them friends. They
did a great job with my last album, so they were a natural choice for this
release.
AV: What new musical ground did you break on S & S when
you compare it to, say, Prima Materia?
EB: I think it’s less that I broke new musical ground, and more
that I’ve refined what it is that Bluetech does. The music on this record is pretty
unmistakable as belonging to any other artist, where as Prima Materia wore it’s
influences a little more obviously.
AV: When you are working on a project such as S & S do
you purposely push yourself in different directions as a composer so that your
music doesn't start to sound just like your last release?
EB: Like I said before, I just write. Bluetech has always been about just writing
what I feel, and allowing those feelings to find their own expression.
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AV: On the Aleph Zero website it says that you are flirting
with the danceable side of downtempo music. Tell me about the overall
feel of S & S and why you decided to push the downtempo envelope a little
with this release.
EB: The reason for this was that a lot of the music was written
while on the road this year. I’ve found
that there is a really magical space ½ way between downtempo music and dance
music, where people can chill out and listen, or they can get up and dance and
feel the experience with their bodies.
I’ve intentionally written music for that space this last year as it
really helps the live show to gain momentum.
AV: When you laid out the sequence of tracks on this CD did
you have a progression in mind as far as what the tracks represented?
If so is this something that artists do when they are thinking about how
they want the finished product to play out?
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EB: I let Aleph Zero do the layout, as I think it helps to have
another mind lay out the progression.
It’s almost as if someone else creates a DJ mix of my tracks, and hears
them in a different way. Sometimes I am
too close to the compositions to be objective about how they flow together.
AV: A couple of my favorite songs come at the very end of
the CD and represent two very different flavors from this CD.
Wilderness and AGarland of Stars are track 10 and 11 on this CD. Tell me about these
two tracks and what it was that was going through your mind when you
composed them.
EB: “A Garland of Stars” was written as a goodbye to my dog
Leilani who passed away this year. She
was my constant companion for 7+ years, and this was very rough for me to lose
a being who was like my child. In fact a
lot of the music on this album has a slightly melancholic or bittersweet voice,
as this is what was going on for me.
This track was an exploration of the feeling I had the moment she died
and I felt her spirit pass through me.
It was sad, but also one of the most exhilarating feelings of my life to
have a spirit pass through me and be completely connected and one for a moment
in time.
“Wilderness” was a track that just kind of happened. Not sure how it ended up with the funky
swagger, it just kind of popped out one day.
AV: How did your extensive touring contribute to the music
that became S & S and is this typical of how your mind works when it comes to
composing your music?
EB: Writing for an audience definitely pushed me
toward making music with a definite beat structure and dance friendliness.
AV: So as a performer you don't necessarily feel any pressure to create a certain style of music because you have done well with that style in the past and your fans are looking for more?
EB: I don't feel any stylistic pressure at all. I think my fans appreciate that I am pursuing my own vision musically, and as long as they are willing to keep an open mind, then my music will still make sense for them. The second the music becomes boring for me, it will become boring for everyone else. I've always just written what I feel at the moment. People can define it, or find stylistic tags to hang on it, but
it's always just my expression of what is going on for me.
AV: Are you planning on taking the music from S & S on
the road in the near future and does performing the music live present you with
any challenges?
EB: It seems I’m always on the road. I’m currently performing music from all of
the previous album, S & S, and a bunch of newer material that has not been
released yet!
AV: Tell me about your live performances and what kind of energy you get back from the audience and how you take that and blend it with your own vision of the nights performance and then send it back out in the music you are creating. What does that do for you as the performer?
EB: Live performance is one of the best parts of what I do. I sometimes feel as if the songs are not fully realized until they are played live, as I get to see how people respond, watch them dance, and feel the energetic effects of what I have created in real time. It really is a feedback loop, where I take the feeling that is created at an event, and carry that with me into the studio as I'm working on new sounds. The music
is great when it's in my head, then it's in the studio, then its on a record, but it really comes to its full power when it's played out and is big enough for everyone in the room to experience it at once.
AV: How much do get involved in the marketing and the
business aspect of a project like S & S and do you enjoy that as much as
creating the music that goes on the CD?
EB: I get involved as much as I can, although being on the road
limits how much I can do, which is why its so essential to have a good label
like Aleph Zero involved in this process.
AV: Finally, do you take time off when you finish a project
like S & S or do you plow ahead into the next project?
EB: Time off? Whats that?
AV: Thanks Evan for taking the time, even on the road, to answer these questions and share some information with us about your new CD.I wish you great success with this release and I hope you get to take some time off one of these days.
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