aaron funk - venetian snares interview with resident advisor

Also if he truly hated releasing music he should just stop talking to Mike P. Mike P is an enabler!

I think Snares has been on fire lately. I haven’t heard the new one yet, but Poemss is genius. And the last Last Step was pretty low-key, but also QG.

I think people get bent out of shape because if you don’t listen to much Snares, you might be under the impression that his music is one-dimensional. Like purely sample jerking or purely aggro or purely pointless “breakcore” or whatever.

But I think the truth is the exact opposite of that. Like even if Snares’ music isn’t your thing (totally understandable), I think it is pretty much factually undeniable that his music encompasses a whole bunch of different ideas, techniques, and is very information-rich.

Obviously there’s a lot going on from second-to-second with the quick tempos and whatnot, but even on an overall level: tracks develop in a lot of different ways, the “purpose” of tracks can vary (for example, some are “fun”, some are “serious”, some sort of straddle that line but have elements of camp or references to pop culture or other genres or music), tracks can be built on a ton of different ‘skeletons’ (samples, synths, breaks, etc.), the ‘imagery’ changes from album to album, etc.

There are “groovy” tracks, aggro tracks, dubby tracks, clubby tracks, very abstract tracks, etc. So like I’m saying, to me it’s pretty undeniable that he’s an INTERESTING artist worthy of discussion. I don’t see how one can argue about that.

Everything else is just opinions about your personal tastes, which—and here’s the thing—AREN’T ACTUALLY THAT INTERESTING to discuss! It’s much more interesting to discuss the other stuff I’m talking about—the qualities the music ACTUALLY HAS—as opposed to whether you have an axe to grind about X or Y or whatever.

Just my opinion. Feelin’ another Snares Phase coming on over here. Off to the stacks to find my old CDs…

  On 6/19/2014 at 8:10 PM, Ascdi said:

Everything else is just opinions about your personal tastes, which—and here’s the thing—AREN’T ACTUALLY THAT INTERESTING to discuss! It’s much more interesting to discuss the other stuff I’m talking about—the qualities the music ACTUALLY HAS—as opposed to whether you have an axe to grind about X or Y or whatever.

I agree! Aaron is unique in his approach and he's spanned a very wide variety of themes while still being integral to what makes his music his. I'm always a little surprised when people just dismiss him completely as an artist, consistently shitting on whatever he's done. But I think that's what makes him a great artist - adoration and total hate shows more integrity to his art than blank shades of indifference.

  On 6/19/2014 at 7:35 PM, Bechuga said:

My theory is that you smell.

 

On the topic of the sine void, he mentioned it previously in another interview somewhere, one more specifically about gear so it may not be as silly as it sounds, even though it sounds fairly silly. This is it: http://trashaudio.com/2013/06/workspace-environment-venetian-snares/

Re: sine void. My guess it's just a creative way for him to say he had writer's block. And moving your workspace can help with that.

If he doesn't enjoy the whole music-releasing thing I wonder why he's running his own Bandcamp page where he even uploaded an exclusive 4-track EP on his birthday. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

  On 6/19/2014 at 9:09 PM, Friendly Foil said:

If he doesn't enjoy the whole music-releasing thing I wonder why he's running his own Bandcamp page where he even uploaded an exclusive 4-track EP on his birthday. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

because money.

lol

  On 6/19/2014 at 1:44 PM, Sepix said:

 

  On 6/19/2014 at 3:32 AM, Nebraska said:

 

he did the same smoke and mirror act @ vsnares.com until he realized he couldn't control what people were interested in or how some seemed to have their own opinions about which of his albums were better and which weren't as good so he threw a fit and requested for the entire thing to be shut down.

 

 

no he did not. i shut the site down because i lost interest in running it.

 

thanks for clearing that up. And welcome to posting on watmm. [-;

  On 6/19/2014 at 1:50 PM, StephenG said:

 

  On 6/19/2014 at 1:44 PM, Sepix said:

 

  On 6/19/2014 at 3:32 AM, Nebraska said:

 

he did the same smoke and mirror act @ vsnares.com until he realized he couldn't control what people were interested in or how some seemed to have their own opinions about which of his albums were better and which weren't as good so he threw a fit and requested for the entire thing to be shut down.

 

 

no he did not. i shut the site down because i lost interest in running it.

 

 

Well there goes that theory Nebraska.

 

Any others?

 

LOL

  On 6/19/2014 at 12:59 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 6/19/2014 at 12:36 AM, StephenG said:

He's just dicking around man, you can't take those things he says seriously? =/

 

i don't think he's dicking around. remember how super touchy he is about people judging his music (refused a WATMM subforum + requested for the venetiansnares.com forum to be closed down)- and how he constantly has to refresh himself that he doesn't care what "people fucking think" about his music

 

if he truely didn't give a shit (or was saying this tongue in cheek) then i don't think he'd be going around forums requesting that people "kindly" not talk about his music

 

The thing is though, that whole email exchange with Joyrex was like what, four years ago? People can change in four years. Maybe he was more sensitive to online criticism then than he is now. I don't find that hard to believe.

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:04 AM, Phonejack said:

The thing is though, that whole email exchange with Joyrex was like what, four years ago? People can change in four years. Maybe he was more sensitive to online criticism then than he is now. I don't find that hard to believe.

didn't you read his interview?

"I think what bothers me the most is that when you do release music, people's reaction to it is that your intention was to make a product for them. Which is not my intention whatsoever, with anything. I think just dealing with that is what bothers me. People's ideas of "Oh, I want this to be this for me," instead of "Maybe I'm going to listen to this and see how this makes me feel, or how this presents a new idea to me."

i'd call this super sensitive.

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:12 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:04 AM, Phonejack said:

The thing is though, that whole email exchange with Joyrex was like what, four years ago? People can change in four years. Maybe he was more sensitive to online criticism then than he is now. I don't find that hard to believe.

 

didn't you read his interview?

 

"I think what bothers me the most is that when you do release music, people's reaction to it is that your intention was to make a product for them. Which is not my intention whatsoever, with anything. I think just dealing with that is what bothers me. People's ideas of "Oh, I want this to be this for me," instead of "Maybe I'm going to listen to this and see how this makes me feel, or how this presents a new idea to me."

 

i'd call this super sensitive.

 

I disagree.... I think his message there is that people feel entitled to get a certain sound/album from him, whereas he releases his music because HE likes it. People are hypercritical and if his music doesn't have enough strings, or snare drums, etc per second they immediately feel let down.

What he's saying by "what bothers me the most" is actually him tactfully saying you're fucking retarded if you think I'm releasing music for you.

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:12 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:04 AM, Phonejack said:

The thing is though, that whole email exchange with Joyrex was like what, four years ago? People can change in four years. Maybe he was more sensitive to online criticism then than he is now. I don't find that hard to believe.

 

didn't you read his interview?

 

"I think what bothers me the most is that when you do release music, people's reaction to it is that your intention was to make a product for them. Which is not my intention whatsoever, with anything. I think just dealing with that is what bothers me. People's ideas of "Oh, I want this to be this for me," instead of "Maybe I'm going to listen to this and see how this makes me feel, or how this presents a new idea to me."

 

i'd call this super sensitive.

 

Yes, because it's misrepresenting the consumer with a straw man argument to justify his misalignment with reality, hrm i mean position. heeheh

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:35 AM, delet... said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:12 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:04 AM, Phonejack said:

The thing is though, that whole email exchange with Joyrex was like what, four years ago? People can change in four years. Maybe he was more sensitive to online criticism then than he is now. I don't find that hard to believe.

 

didn't you read his interview?

 

"I think what bothers me the most is that when you do release music, people's reaction to it is that your intention was to make a product for them. Which is not my intention whatsoever, with anything. I think just dealing with that is what bothers me. People's ideas of "Oh, I want this to be this for me," instead of "Maybe I'm going to listen to this and see how this makes me feel, or how this presents a new idea to me."

 

i'd call this super sensitive.

 

 

 

Yes, because it's misrepresenting the consumer with a straw man argument to justify his misalignment with reality, hrm i mean position. heeheh

 

?

I don't quite understand sorry. =(

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:33 AM, StephenG said:

I disagree.... I think his message there is that people feel entitled to get a certain sound/album from him, whereas he releases his music because HE likes it. People are hypercritical and if his music doesn't have enough strings, or snare drums, etc per second they immediately feel let down.

 

What he's saying by "what bothers me the most" is actually him tactfully saying you're fucking retarded if you think I'm releasing music for you.

and i think my point is that you can't control what people think of your music. snares once said his music was like a child. i agree. but just like children, you can't go around protecting them from criticism. if he's not releasing music for audiences to hear, maybe he should just keep it to himself.

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:36 AM, StephenG said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:35 AM, delet... said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:12 AM, Nebraska said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:04 AM, Phonejack said:

The thing is though, that whole email exchange with Joyrex was like what, four years ago? People can change in four years. Maybe he was more sensitive to online criticism then than he is now. I don't find that hard to believe.

 

didn't you read his interview?

 

"I think what bothers me the most is that when you do release music, people's reaction to it is that your intention was to make a product for them. Which is not my intention whatsoever, with anything. I think just dealing with that is what bothers me. People's ideas of "Oh, I want this to be this for me," instead of "Maybe I'm going to listen to this and see how this makes me feel, or how this presents a new idea to me."

 

i'd call this super sensitive.

 

 

 

Yes, because it's misrepresenting the consumer with a straw man argument to justify his misalignment with reality, hrm i mean position. heeheh

 

?

 

I don't quite understand sorry. =(

 

He is stating that the consumer's understanding of his motivation behind creating the release was to make a product for them, which obviously implies that the consumer has a strict criteria which they are expecting the poor put upon composer to adhere to, down in his cellar of nulls and void space sine waves. When the consumer isn't so hardline, they like something, they don't like it and everything in between. He is implying that the consumer has this entitled air, and is using that as the basis for his reasoning behind not wanting to release anything to the public. He is misreading legitimate comment and discussion about art, which has gone on as long as there has been art, as something that it isn't. So if someone doesn't like something of his, to him it's because of what he said, not because what i said. It's an unfair and somewhat unkind summation of the sentiments and behaviour of his fans. blar dee blar.

But whatever, don't make me deconstruct this any more, i already feel kind of rude going on about it given how uncomfortable that we know he is with any needling of his emotional pressure points. I just wanna go to the other thread and hear those cool tracks put together.

That makes a ton of sense, and pretty much 100% what I meant by: I think his message there is that people feel entitled to get a certain sound/album from him, whereas he releases his music because HE likes it.

sounds like we are on the same page boss

  On 6/20/2014 at 3:14 AM, StephenG said:

That makes a ton of sense, and pretty much 100% what I meant by: I think his message there is that people feel entitled to get a certain sound/album from him, whereas he releases his music because HE likes it.

 

sounds like we are on the same page boss

This could all be moot though you know, this whole silly discussion, because despite saying that in the interview, he still is releasing music, and at a somewhat prodigious rate. So you could be right with your main original point which is, this is all just him mucking around. To me i think it's a bit of both, he both gives a fuck and doesn't. It all depends on mood and whatever. He is both the one and the zero.This is what happens when you hang around inside the warped quantum sinewave wormhole or whatever it was, for too long. Foks with your miiind. Makes you want to fok with other people's miiinds. (channelling vsnares) pheheheh.

Nice interview. Thanks.

I dunno delet, I think I disagree with you there. When Aaaaron says, maybe just listen to this and see what it does for me, that makes me think immediately of the high-minded art-related discussion you are claiming he's against.

Me, I agree completely with that Aaron quote, and to me it has more to do with the productization of music, which is not really about discussion or deconstruction but more about judgment.

The point I think is, if you respect an artist, to sit back and, even if the music is uncomfortable at first or not what you were expecting, try and see what you can get from it. Maybe it twists your head around or makes you think about things in a new way and you grow to love it. This happens to me all the time.

Consumery productization of music is against this idea, because it's all about judging music on a simple 1-dimensional scale of is this BAD or GOOD. Judging albums or tunes quickly is a huge problem and very widespread, in my opinion. And, in my opinion, the source of this societal bad habit is the pressure that music as a product (as in, a financial expenditure) places on the listener.

Everyone hates to buy (or even waste time illegally downloading) a "bad" album, so that creates an incentive to rush to judgment and not let things sit or to listen with an open mind.

Anyway, my opinion. I enjoyed the interview and in between the funny stories, thought it was fairly insightful. Snares' attitudes didn't bother me as much as they did you guys, I guess.

Actually I believe his comment is more along the lines of people assuming he makes tracks to fit a certain album or release, whereas he states he just makes tunes and then they get compiled afterwards, reluctantly or not. The assumption that he writes albums with ten or so tracks in mind rather than just making tracks that get compiled afterwards might be what gets his goat(ee) too.

It's also amusing to keep this in mind when you read a review of his releases, for example Filth (awesome record) that might say 'this is clearly filler material until the next proper album', because he doesn't make albums to be albums. His tracks just end up on them.

Btw, I love the Sleep album. Definitely a great album to unwind with as I get sleepy myself.

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:33 AM, StephenG said:

I disagree.... I think his message there is that people feel entitled to get a certain sound/album from him, whereas he releases his music because HE likes it. People are hypercritical and if his music doesn't have enough strings, or snare drums, etc per second they immediately feel let down.

 

What he's saying by "what bothers me the most" is actually him tactfully saying you're fucking retarded if you think I'm releasing music for you.

 

Delving deep into the vaults there spiral, lets not get the arguments going again.

:D

  On 6/22/2014 at 2:16 PM, hello spiral said:

 

  On 6/20/2014 at 2:33 AM, StephenG said:

I disagree.... I think his message there is that people feel entitled to get a certain sound/album from him, whereas he releases his music because HE likes it. People are hypercritical and if his music doesn't have enough strings, or snare drums, etc per second they immediately feel let down.

 

What he's saying by "what bothers me the most" is actually him tactfully saying you're fucking retarded if you think I'm releasing music for you.

 

 

  On 10/17/2013 at 2:34 AM, StephenG said:

It's the worst by a HUGE margin. I actually find it a terrible track overall. Not "terrible by Autechre standards", just plain terrible. It sounds like when I have to scrape the windows of my car when they frost up in the winter time.

 

Variations in the percussion and other elements were very predictable and it seemed like a lot of novice techniques and effects were used. Just seems like it was completely unfinished and missing layers or something.