For our second installment of 10 Questions we're featuring Sotones recording artist rude_NHS:
Where are you based and what's the scene like there?
based in winchester, which is near southampton if you live outside the uk. the music is pretty average. some good bands and a few people putting on nights. sometimes we have the odd rave in the woods :) most of the stuff i'm into is my mates stuff, i dont care much for other bands.
What's your background in music?
i've been playing guitar since i was 14, which makes it, woa, 14 years, thats weird. have always flirted with the drums. i got a bit sick of guitar music towards the end of the 90s and was vearing away and into what was left of big beat and drum and bass. always been into jazz and funk. started producing around 2000 on a digital 8 track and a pc.
Tell me about your home studio?
bits and bobs. most of the stuff i make starts in reason or ableton, sounds and arrangement. i've recently gotten into finishing tracks in logic. i like to prat about with reaktor too, havent built much. its kind of a mistress for me. i got renoise too. great program. done some drum tracks for tunes in that. i got some hardware too, a few synths, an old akai sampler, a load of guitar fx pedals, loads of guitars, old tape decks, a stylophone, a few casios (they're broken), some midi controllers, interfaces etc. i can be quite fickle about gear, i'll get something and sell it off in a few months. used to have a 707! my new fav is my kaossilator. summer evenings in fields have been battery powered ambient techno affairs.
What are your favorite synths to play and program?
subtractor in reason and analog in ableton. i've never been into really complex synths, not that i havent got the sense to program them, just that i like synth sounds to be really quick and dirty, and sound a bit shit. if i want to get into really intense sound design i'll use samples and sampler in ableton. great sampler, one of the best i think. i'm down with how powerful thor is, but it just takes to long to program. i like stuff to happen quickly. when you got a good idea or hook for a track, you dont want it to slip away because your too busy routing such and such to such and such with this much amount and this envelope blah. i just like to get on with it.
How'd you get hooked up with Sotones?
cant really remember. i've known some of those guys for a while before they set it up, used to do gigs with them and stuff. then when they told me they were gonna do it i think i was on there by default i guess. which is cool. its nice to have a record out on a label that has records out by folk bands and rock bands, shows they are keen to try it all. which is very nice indeed.
Really digging the ep, it has just the right amount of glitch to keep me interested, but not so much that it seems gimmicky, any cool tips for my readers on your glitch techniques?
glitch eh? dunno, glitch these days seems more like a stamp of intellect rather than a mark of experimentalism like it was when it first emerged. if your music has gltichy bits it kind of implies maybe that your quite clever, maybe i'm wrong, thats just what i think, plus theres so much stuff out there for free that does it for you then one doesnt really need any cool tips. i guess just dont over do it, dunno, i'm not really one to talk. when i made those tracks off the ep i was well into fucking stuff up, still am really, mostly at gigs, but in the studio i've been making more glitch free and immediate stuff recently. maybe i'll go back to glitching later. i guess dont be scared to try stuff yourself and try to shy away from all the free plugins that do it for you. dunno really. its nice to think you've got your own way of doing it. i like to think i'm doing stuff with reason and ableton that no one else has thought of, but that's a bit immodest ;0
I see from your myspace page that you play out fairly often (and have even opened for Radioactive Man!) When performing live are your sets DJ based or reinterpretations of your own music?
i've also opened for luke vibert, tim exile and ceephax. get me :)
it differs, depending on the evening, the venue, the crowd, my mood. sometimes i just wanna roll up, press space bar and get pissed. sometimes i wanna bring all the gear and do a full on live thing. sometimes i turn up start playing and think, shit, this was a really bad idea, i should have just done a dj set. i change the live setup all the time, but most of the live shows are 'live' off the cuff etc, the problem is tho when you get booked to play 'live' and your billed as a 'live' act, people just stand there watching, they dont dance, which is shame because i'm try really hard to make them dance, ha. when you do dj sets, people tend to ignore what your doing and get into the music. funny that. if i dj i like to dj old acid and old jungle. and funk. love the funk.
I love the opening for "hambook" and have to ask if this was done live or intricately programmed?
bit of both, it was a jam that i edited down into bits i liked. quite a few tracks happen that way. i dont really do full on programming or arranging, i like to jam around and make it a tactile thing. when a song comes out of it then maybe i'll sit down with the mouse and tidy it up a bit.
When writing tracks do you have a usual method?
breaks and loops always get the thing rolling. sometimes i fiddle around on the guitar and come up with something that i'll translate into midi etc.
Are we going to see a rude_NHS full length lp this year?
maybe not this year, but i am gonna put some more tracks out with sotones hopefully in the next few months. i've also been offered a release with a bristol label called one man army. which is nice because they are quite hardcore so i might get to put something quite savage out :)
For more information on rude_NHS check out these links:
soundcloud
myspace
youtube
And you can purchase his record, Tango6 from amazon, spotify, napster and itunes.
Stay tuned for the next episode of "10 Questions" which is going to feature one of my favorite sound designers!
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