AAA - Ask Autechre Anything - Sean and Rob on WATMM!

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:24 PM, wabby said:

I'll bump a couple of mine that may have been missed.

 

  On 11/3/2013 at 12:52 AM, wabby said:

Interesting thoughts earlier on graff, angularity and architecture and how these influence musical aethetics! Do you like to think about these visual aesthetics when manipulating sound on a wave-form level? i.e. a saw wave can be said to look and sound saw-like, etc..?

  On 11/4/2013 at 11:07 AM, wabby said:

Could you please name my Yamaha RS7000?

 

re graff, its less so much the shapes compared to sound in wave forms, more for me how graff shapes move at angles across spaces as do sounds over time.

cortina

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:44 PM, wabby said:

How does scratching/turntablism and influence your approach to producing sounds? The way you manipulate bass sometimes sounds like you're pushing and pulling at gravity and also reminds me of Terminator-X ripping up a kick drum. Is he an influence?

tons i would say

loads of my beat programming has a similar push/pull thing going on even tho i might be doing it with kicks and snares or whatever

that and tape editing - i.e. often not having 2 sounds on the same hit (apart from light/hat sounds), a bit like the beat is like a ball bouncing off different surfaces

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:27 PM, joshuatx said:

No question, just remembered I made this stupid .gif a year ago and I feel it's the ideal time to post it.

 

such young smooth fella's. bit sleepy though

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:28 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:01 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:19 PM, sergeantk said:

When doing a remix, do you prefer to work purely with the source material, or do you prefer to take a snippet and build up around it?

 

What is your favorite remix you have done? (mine is HIA - Conoid Tone)

that was our first ever proper remix job.

 

 

the first would have been one of the d'breez ones i think

but the conoid tone was the first to be released

 

yeah i saw dbreez as a favour to a mate, but HIA were proper band asking a proper band to do a mix. on a level

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:45 PM, jules said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:32 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:00 PM, jules said:

What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

horizontally or vertically?

 

 

could be african or european. diagonally.

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:33 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:00 PM, jules said:

What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

 

what do you mean, african or european swallow?

 

 

 

well played

 

there are so many ace things they did, it scares me a bit how imaginative they were

one of my faves is that one with the lifeboat men who keep arriving in that woman's kitchen, and the thing with the door

Garbagemx36 runs the gambit for me, sinister in the beginning, hectic and chaotic throughout, a breath of fresh air at one point, and then beautiful calm at the end, any memories or stories about this track pls?

1 - Which records stand as references to you guys in terms of mixing ?

2 - Do you make your own compressors in MAX ?

3 - Do you leave the necessary 80 db of headroom for the mastering engineer ?

4 - Are you still working in 44.1 khz ?

5 - Will you buy the new mac pro ?

6 - Do you wish like me Clavia would release their Nord Modular G2 Demo as open source ? This software is amazing and could really be pushed further

Almost everything I wanted to ask has been asked by others, but a few things:

- In the past few years, I've come across quite a few artists who've said they're going to give up 'albums' and just focus on songs or EPs (then two years later they announce a new album and it all gets forgotten), and there are a lot of artists, particularly in the tape scene, who seem to put out a tape with a couple of long jams on every couple of months rather than compiling for a new album. Obviously there will be certain contractual and budgetry limits working with a label like Warp, but does the idea of moving away from albums into something less rigid/structured appeal to you? Like the way earlier in the thread you described Exai as effectively being four EPs in a box as much as an actual album (this also means I am now going to have to follow Exai with L-Event every time).
(For the record, I've tried it and went back to albums again myself. There's definitely a conservative side to my musical mind)

- Ever hear a track for the first time and it seems instantly familiar? For me, the second half of Piezo seems to have been in my head since I was a kid, despite only first hearing it about ten years ago. Makes me think of being on a motorway in the middle of the night, distant city lights on the horizon - vaguely in the future.

- You asked for classical recommendations, I'm going to put this one forward:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USYvaseTOXo

- Sean, you said you keep up with FSOL's latest releases. Do you get news from my (badly designed) website? :D http://secondthought.co.uk/fsol

- Be sad to see this thread end, any chance of giving up the music and doing this as a living instead?

- As everyone's doing it, can you name my Stylophone?

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:55 PM, salvaKPO said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:48 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:12 PM, salvaKPO said:

How tall are you both?

like combined?

 

If I had a picture of you like one next to the other standing very straight, I could calculate the height of both of you based on that info., but I haven´t.

No, not combined. Ha, I mean, I didn't want to know this, but is Sean short or are you tall?

 

i'm like 1.5 inches shorter than him

about 5'7"

What do you think about the rise of electronic music in the popular realm, both in Top40 pop songs and with electronic-exclusive artists like Skrillex or Avicii? Do you like any of this music? edit: especially knowing that Skrillex and I assume some of these other artists consider you to be one of their major influences.

How does it feel to have your thread now be longer than the Skrillex thread?

Oh I have one more track specific question. I forgot to ask about Outh9x. It's my favourite autechre track, and I could ask leading questions based on my interpretation of it as a polytonal masterpiece. But maybe I should ask about it in a more general way.

What was it like writing Outh9x? How did you come up with matching that bass melody with those pads? What gear is playing what part?

  On 11/3/2013 at 8:36 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/3/2013 at 8:14 PM, triachus said:

I love the "EPs, 1991-2002" box, but the collector in me is a bit disappointed that the Basscad EP isn't complete (it's missing the beaumont hannant and seefeel mixes). And I'm also a bit miffed by the fact that EP7 was spread over two discs, instead of keeping it on one disc as I assume it was intended.Why were some Basscadet mixes left out? Why was EP7 split like that? Were those your decisions, or was is Warp's decision and you had no say in the matter?Also, the OCD filetagger in me is confused about the Garbage EP. Originally the tracks were named with numbers (Garbagemx36, PIOBmx19, etc...) But on the EP compilation box those numbers are left out of the tracknames. Was this a mistake, or a conscious decision?

The remixes by other ppl weren't to be inluded on this collection, and the split ep7 i think was a good way to reflect the way it was split onto two vinyl.

 

The garbage titles weren't left incomplete as such, more like they weren't relevent that way anymore in this collection.

 

Ah, something I forgot to respond to.

What do you mean, not relevant in that way anymore? What did the numbers refer to?

Also, did you edit your post to make that typo on purpose? ;p

wow, 101 pages... this is must be like the longest fan interview ever by now - thx!

a few more:

1) how do you like cyclobe? (had this one earlier but it slipped... would be interested though; i think their stuff is genius)

2) did either of you guys ever grow a full beard / moustache / any other kind of serious facial hair (PICS PLS!)

3) would you do a collab with scott walker?

4) do your wifes/gfs ever get jealous of your tight bromance?

5) what do you think of oval's new style?

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:29 PM, rd1994 said:

Reposted: because I thought you missed em

 

hey there sorry multiple questions again

1. are you planning to release quaristice.quadrange and We R Are Why as CDs anytime time soon?

2.any memories of making gantz graf? anything you can tell us about making that track?

3.whats the deal with the near silence on most of your albums intro? something like a climax build up in a weird way?

4.are the hidden tracks on EP7 and LP5 titled? mind sharing the titles? if they don't have any care to make up someß

5.is oval moon (IBC mix) titlewise related to your pirate radio days? would you say it is from that era? sounds like it?

6.are you planning to do some more double albums in the near future? I really would like it

7.the scratching in Goz Quarter "live" recording or software emulation?

8. also I noticed that the main beat of Cipater reminds me of "godfather runnin the joint" by the good ol' james brown...coincidence?

1 hasn't really really come up.

2 yeah loads. not much. one of those favourite comfy thoughts just for ourselves. no offence :)

3 just to make sure everyones in, and ready on time.

4 i don't have any titles to hand.

5 yeah

6 ok

7 real

8 hah ace

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:51 PM, purlieu said:

Almost everything I wanted to ask has been asked by others, but a few things:

 

- In the past few years, I've come across quite a few artists who've said they're going to give up 'albums' and just focus on songs or EPs (then two years later they announce a new album and it all gets forgotten), and there are a lot of artists, particularly in the tape scene, who seem to put out a tape with a couple of long jams on every couple of months rather than compiling for a new album. Obviously there will be certain contractual and budgetry limits working with a label like Warp, but does the idea of moving away from albums into something less rigid/structured appeal to you? Like the way earlier in the thread you described Exai as effectively being four EPs in a box as much as an actual album (this also means I am now going to have to follow Exai with L-Event every time).

(For the record, I've tried it and went back to albums again myself. There's definitely a conservative side to my musical mind)

 

- Ever hear a track for the first time and it seems instantly familiar? For me, the second half of Piezo seems to have been in my head since I was a kid, despite only first hearing it about ten years ago. Makes me think of being on a motorway in the middle of the night, distant city lights on the horizon - vaguely in the future.

 

- You asked for classical recommendations, I'm going to put this one forward:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USYvaseTOXo

 

- Sean, you said you keep up with FSOL's latest releases. Do you get news from my (badly designed) website? :D http://secondthought.co.uk/fsol

 

- Be sad to see this thread end, any chance of giving up the music and doing this as a living instead?

 

- As everyone's doing it, can you name my Stylophone?

i think warp would let us do anything tbh, if we wanted to just release individual tracks they'd go along with that

we do albums cos we like making albums, it's prob cos we spent so much time as kids compiling things into long mixes and so on, still do

yeah happens a fair bit, esp with DM for some reason (like if i find an old track by them that i missed, it still reminds me of the time it came out, like i'm time travelling or something). another band that really did this to me is dif juz

not seen your site but i will be check it now, cheers

nah i like doing tracks too much

your stylopone is now called dondi

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:48 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:45 PM, jules said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:32 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:00 PM, jules said:

What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

horizontally or vertically?

 

 

could be african or european. diagonally.

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:33 PM, Sean Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:00 PM, jules said:

What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

 

what do you mean, african or european swallow?

 

 

 

well played

 

 

 

there are so many ace things they did, it scares me a bit how imaginative they were

one of my faves is that one with the lifeboat men who keep arriving in that woman's kitchen, and the thing with the door

 

indeed. brilliant stuff. the only broadway show i ever saw was holy grail. it was hilarious.

Do you often set out with a specific brief before making music? (Such as 'make a beat which inverts the position of the up and down beat over time' or something like that)

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:32 PM, Jev said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:28 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:59 PM, Jev said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 2:14 PM, Rob Ae said:

 

  On 11/6/2013 at 1:21 PM, Jev said:

Hey Rob,

 

I forgot to ask this essential question:

 

Do you already have a plan which countries to visit with the Exai tour (if there is the Exai tour)?

 

More specifically, anywhere in central Europe? Even more specifically the Czech Republic?

 

I know you were in Brno during the Oversteps tour but I don't know how successful it was for you and so if there's a possibility you would visit us again. I missed the show so I would love to have at least one more chance to experience your sonic-battering.

 

Thanks.

Brno was very successful imo. the place almost got trashed because we'd finished, wasn't acceptable.

 

 

So you are basically saying "yeah, we will definitely come this tour again, we will maybe even tour three to four Czech cities". Cool!

 

Seriously, how satisfied with the Czech Republic you were here? No problems with people and services compared to UK?

 

srsly. the ppl were great, welcome was warm, taxi prompt, laundry fine, but yeah they got really really pissed at us for stopping after 1.5 hrs.

 

 

You mean like really pissed? Wow, I thought you mean it like "very sad it's over, want more" but in a good way. I hope there was no booing.

 

So 1.5 hour just Ae or the whole show?

 

no actually annoyed, they'd been getting pissed all day i expect,

the set we played was about that , 50% longer than usual. the night was early evening to early morning

I'll assume by not answering, I was on to something.

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:56 PM, Sean Ae said:

i think warp would let us do anything tbh, if we wanted to just release individual tracks they'd go along with that

we do albums cos we like making albums, it's prob cos we spent so much time as kids compiling things into long mixes and so on, still do

Cool, I respect that. I think this approach probably ensures quality control a lot better, as it allows a certain amount of time to go back over stuff months after it was made.

Cheers for the answers!

What do you think of banksy?

Could you please name my waldorf blofeld?

do you like poop jokes?

autechre, I loved the formatting destroyer thing that came with the l event announcement. Also I loved the bizarre and wonderful fucked up myspace of yesteryear. Are you fans of browser art / net art ? Do you dabble yourselves in a little of it? Might we see more fascinating autechrian remixes of the internet?

Do you have track titles for the live tracks you do?

  On 11/6/2013 at 3:32 PM, SUPiERo said:

Hi, Sean and Rob. Please answer the following questions:

1. What hath made you most proud of? (track, album, or something other than music). And they would like to forget?

2. What is your favorite place on the planet?

3. Please give a name for my new home audio system

Thank you very much

heya, liked your wedding photo btw, wasn't ignoring yr post. but i can't scribble on it.

1 dunno what makes me proud really. probably just actually getting a record out, and being out and watching people i didn't know hear it . that was a significant point i think.

2 deep water below clear skies sunshine/moonlight/stars

3 vanishing point

.