The Austin Chronicle interviews Sean Booth

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2015-10-08/autechre-melts-idm/

Nice one. Can read them talking about music for hours.

  On 10/9/2015 at 5:34 PM, conch said:

Nice one. Can read them talking about music for hours.

Same

This was already posted in the US dates thread just an FYI

I like when he talked about releasing music today

  Quote

 

 

I really would not like to be coming up right now. If we just arrived and we were doing music at 19 again, honestly, no one would notice what we were doing.

This is the sad truth, there are so many great artists today that either aren't getting noticed or aren't able to refine their craft because their not getting paid

  On 10/9/2015 at 6:52 PM, Danny O Flannagin said:

I like when he talked about releasing music today

 

  Quote

 

 

I really would not like to be coming up right now. If we just arrived and we were doing music at 19 again, honestly, no one would notice what we were doing.

 

This is the sad truth, there are so many great artists today that either aren't getting noticed or aren't able to refine their craft because their not getting paid

Bullshit. If you have a normal 40 hours/week job you have time and money to make good music if you are talented and devoted. It will just take longer time. If you have worse conditions than that, then I understand it might be difficult to really develop yourself. But most of the talented people are still able to refine their craft in their free time with the money they get. Nobody is forced to have families instead of being creative.

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:21 AM, Jev said:

Nobody is forced to have families instead of being creative.

 

 

what about the first part of what he said? do you think quality/interesting music inevitably rises to the top?

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:21 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 10/9/2015 at 6:52 PM, Danny O Flannagin said:

I like when he talked about releasing music today

 

  Quote

 

 

I really would not like to be coming up right now. If we just arrived and we were doing music at 19 again, honestly, no one would notice what we were doing.

 

This is the sad truth, there are so many great artists today that either aren't getting noticed or aren't able to refine their craft because their not getting paid

 

Bullshit. If you have a normal 40 hours/week job you have time and money to make good music if you are talented and devoted. It will just take longer time. If you have worse conditions than that, then I understand it might be difficult to really develop yourself. But most of the talented people are still able to refine their craft in their free time with the money they get. Nobody is forced to have families instead of being creative.

 

 

And i think one of the reasons why Autechre's music is so good is due to the fact that they can do this as a full time job. Instead of a 10-20 hour week working on music, they can spend 40 hours. This situation is becoming very rare with upcoming artists

I know plenty of people who work 40 hours a week who make amazing music, I don't think that factors in nearly as much as much as the main point Sean was trying to make ( at least i think he was trying to make). To me it has more to do with how big the goddam ocean is now combined with people having incredibly short attention spans. Back when Artificial Intelligence came out people were thirsty for weird/new music like that, now they have thousands of different choices. Combine that with much more $$ being pumped into 'experimental' and underground electronic music and now you also have the problem of very strategically marketed invisible payola campaigns, where a website like Boomkat gives you a false sense of walking through a cool indie record store where the employees curated the selection. Now instead you'll go into say an Ameoba records and find that these store employees (now the age of the children of the previous store employees) are actually getting their recommendations from fucking Boomkat and Pitchfork. its a clusterfuck, it really is.

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:21 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 10/9/2015 at 6:52 PM, Danny O Flannagin said:

I like when he talked about releasing music today

 

  Quote

 

 

I really would not like to be coming up right now. If we just arrived and we were doing music at 19 again, honestly, no one would notice what we were doing.

 

This is the sad truth, there are so many great artists today that either aren't getting noticed or aren't able to refine their craft because their not getting paid

 

Bullshit. If you have a normal 40 hours/week job you have time and money to make good music if you are talented and devoted. It will just take longer time. If you have worse conditions than that, then I understand it might be difficult to really develop yourself. But most of the talented people are still able to refine their craft in their free time with the money they get. Nobody is forced to have families instead of being creative.

 

 

a 40 hours/week job isn't anywhere near "normal" for anyone under 35

I think the system is equally as capable of being gamed as it ever was. You just have to know the rules. If you're not willing to play the game to make it to the top then you're not going to get there. Making good music is only part of the equation.

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:44 AM, AdieuErsatzEnnui said:

I think the system is equally as capable of being gamed as it ever was. You just have to know the rules. If you're not willing to play the game to make it to the top then you're not going to get there. Making good music is only part of the equation.

still remain fairly elusive. I think before it was a lot more simple, not saying that it was 'fair' during the era of say Soul singers. Almost all those songs were written by a group of old man jewish song writers in a high rise building, but I think these days what's different is this a very convincing false presentation of what is 'underground'. Back when the Sex Pistols were put together as an experiment, it was very easy for actual punk rockers to tell they were a bunch of phony fuckers. These days detecting the level of phoniness actually takes time and dedication. The internet of course drastically plays into these illusions, you can still find the 'real' good musicians in the physical universe and in your own internet exploration rabbit hole but that also takes time and dedication. People are lazy and want everything handed to them, the era of 'finding' cool music that speaks to you is pretty much over, you don't have to 'find' anything anymore (im talking about most people, the general public does not dive a fuck or take pride in discovering an artist out of obscurity) .

Cool stuff, esp. that part about the internet of old.

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:38 AM, poblequadrat said:

 

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:21 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 10/9/2015 at 6:52 PM, Danny O Flannagin said:

I like when he talked about releasing music today

 

  Quote

I really would not like to be coming up right now. If we just arrived and we were doing music at 19 again, honestly, no one would notice what we were doing.

This is the sad truth, there are so many great artists today that either aren't getting noticed or aren't able to refine their craft because their not getting paid

 

Bullshit. If you have a normal 40 hours/week job you have time and money to make good music if you are talented and devoted. It will just take longer time. If you have worse conditions than that, then I understand it might be difficult to really develop yourself. But most of the talented people are still able to refine their craft in their free time with the money they get. Nobody is forced to have families instead of being creative.

 

a 40 hours/week job isn't anywhere near "normal" for anyone under 35

 

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:57 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

These days detecting the level of phoniness actually takes time and dedication.

Not if u have taste

  On 10/10/2015 at 1:00 AM, th555 said:

 

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:57 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

These days detecting the level of phoniness actually takes time and dedication.

Not if u have taste

 

lol true, but what im finding is that the people i thought that used to have taste (experimental music fans) are a lot more ok these days with being handed on a platter a bunch of bland bullshit. far less discovery oriented these days. At least with the end of the IDM scene there was still a fairly standard metric of 'damn this mother fucker just won the trick war', I sorta miss that.

  On 10/10/2015 at 1:07 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

 

  On 10/10/2015 at 1:00 AM, th555 said:

 

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:57 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

These days detecting the level of phoniness actually takes time and dedication.

Not if u have taste

 

lol true, but what im finding is that the people i thought that used to have taste (experimental music fans) are a lot more ok these days with being handed on a platter a bunch of bland bullshit. far less discovery oriented these days. At least with the end of the IDM scene there was still a fairly standard metric of 'damn this mother fucker just won the trick war', I sorta miss that.

 

What do you mean by this? Like production tricks and how fans tried (and still do) try to figure out how an artist conjured a sound?

i mean like how Squarepusher broke the glass ceiling of beat programming with Go Plastic and to this day that album still remains relatively untouched. Or Aphex Drukqs. Even with a decade of breakcore after, no one imo has come close to 'beating' the trickery in those albums. With IDM there seemed to be a competitive spirit or a race that actually deduced down to level of skill, or at least thats how it seemed for a small slice of time. During that era if you were someone who could throw down the gauntlet and prove you could do tricks more complex than most or get close to the 'gods' you were instantly respected. Its not like this anymore. If someone like Keith Fullerton Whitman or Kid606 tried to come into the field now, they would have a really hard time capturing people's attention. They entered at the perfect time where after a few complex tracks, they had sort of proven themselves to the rest of us. It sounds cheesy and dumb to say it this way but I think there is some truth to it.

  On 10/10/2015 at 1:58 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

i mean like how Squarepusher broke the glass ceiling of beat programming with Go Plastic and to this day that album still remains relatively untouched. Or Aphex Drukqs. Even with a decade of breakcore after, no one imo has come close to 'beating' the trickery in those albums. With IDM there seemed to be a competitive spirit or a race that actually deduced down to level of skill, or at least thats how it seemed for a small slice of time. During that era if you were someone who could throw down the gauntlet and prove you could do tricks more complex than most or get close to the 'gods' you were instantly respected. Its not like this anymore. If someone like Keith Fullerton Whitman or Kid606 tried to come into the field now, they would have a really hard time capturing people's attention. They entered at the perfect time where after a few complex tracks, they had sort of proven themselves to the rest of us. It sounds cheesy and dumb to say it this way but I think there is some truth to it.

Okay, i see. And i think the fact that breakcore artists are doing it for fun instead of getting paid has something to do with not coming close to Go Plastic or Drukqs. Richard and Tom simply had more time on their hands.

I mean im sure money played a small role, knowing that warp will pay you X amount to deliver an album is probably a motivator but i don't think that's why those artists made such good shit, they are brilliant artists. If everybody had the same opportunity + time very few would still be able to produce what they did

  On 10/10/2015 at 2:24 AM, Danny O Flannagin said:

 

  On 10/10/2015 at 1:58 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

i mean like how Squarepusher broke the glass ceiling of beat programming with Go Plastic and to this day that album still remains relatively untouched. Or Aphex Drukqs. Even with a decade of breakcore after, no one imo has come close to 'beating' the trickery in those albums. With IDM there seemed to be a competitive spirit or a race that actually deduced down to level of skill, or at least thats how it seemed for a small slice of time. During that era if you were someone who could throw down the gauntlet and prove you could do tricks more complex than most or get close to the 'gods' you were instantly respected. Its not like this anymore. If someone like Keith Fullerton Whitman or Kid606 tried to come into the field now, they would have a really hard time capturing people's attention. They entered at the perfect time where after a few complex tracks, they had sort of proven themselves to the rest of us. It sounds cheesy and dumb to say it this way but I think there is some truth to it.

Okay, i see. And i think the fact that breakcore artists are doing it for fun instead of getting paid has something to do with not coming close to Go Plastic or Drukqs. Richard and Tom simply had more time on their hands.

 

I would say the main reason why those artists are so good is because they are insanely talented and devoted. I am pretty sure Autechre would do great music even with regular jobs. It would just be lower in quantity and would take more time between releases.

That being said, I yet have to hear a producer that matches the insane, unbelievable quality and uniqueness that Aphex or Ae can produce. Artists like this are simply rare. They will be music legends on par with the biggest names in the music history (if they are not already). It is impossible to not share artists of such quality with other people. They would get their fans even if they started today I believe. The reason why others get no attention is that they are simply mediocre or too niche IMO.

  On 10/10/2015 at 1:58 AM, John Ehrlichman said:

i mean like how Squarepusher broke the glass ceiling of beat programming with Go Plastic and to this day that album still remains relatively untouched. Or Aphex Drukqs. Even with a decade of breakcore after, no one imo has come close to 'beating' the trickery in those albums. With IDM there seemed to be a competitive spirit or a race that actually deduced down to level of skill, or at least thats how it seemed for a small slice of time. During that era if you were someone who could throw down the gauntlet and prove you could do tricks more complex than most or get close to the 'gods' you were instantly respected. Its not like this anymore. If someone like Keith Fullerton Whitman or Kid606 tried to come into the field now, they would have a really hard time capturing people's attention. They entered at the perfect time where after a few complex tracks, they had sort of proven themselves to the rest of us. It sounds cheesy and dumb to say it this way but I think there is some truth to it.

I'm sure this is true in some way, but I still find people who make music themselves can be puzzled by how a complex track was made, I see it myself. However I have not been myself sort of in the competition lately, it still feels like the game is on still. I think even non-musicians can hear that Autechre for example is unusually produced. I had a twitch streamer call an autechre track 'next level' or whatever and he's not sort of into music at all it's seemingly just monstercat type stuff. I think musicians who produce music will always be interested in music (maybe a certain type of music or a certain type of workflow only? that has complex production but that may be just the people I talk to are old timers idk about all the new kids

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:38 AM, poblequadrat said:

 

  On 10/10/2015 at 12:21 AM, Jev said:

 

  On 10/9/2015 at 6:52 PM, Danny O Flannagin said:

I like when he talked about releasing music today

 

  Quote

 

 

I really would not like to be coming up right now. If we just arrived and we were doing music at 19 again, honestly, no one would notice what we were doing.

 

This is the sad truth, there are so many great artists today that either aren't getting noticed or aren't able to refine their craft because their not getting paid

 

Bullshit. If you have a normal 40 hours/week job you have time and money to make good music if you are talented and devoted. It will just take longer time. If you have worse conditions than that, then I understand it might be difficult to really develop yourself. But most of the talented people are still able to refine their craft in their free time with the money they get. Nobody is forced to have families instead of being creative.

 

 

 

a 40 hours/week job isn't anywhere near "normal" for anyone under 35

 

how so?

everyone I know, myself included, who is under 35 works at least 40 hrs a week to simply pay rent, bills, and live somewhat decently

anyone working less than that is either in school and living off loans and/or supported by their parents and/or trust money

that's the harsh reality in the U.S. anyway

Good read. Unfortunately the not being able to make music for a living thing unless you've already established your career early on is all too real. But that doesn't mean we should give up on it, even if only a hobby.

artists have always struggled.. but if it's important to a person to do it then they find a way. i'm a geezer in at 44 but i have friends who drive cabs a few times a week.. share a house w/3 or 4 other people who do similar.. they pay their bills and get by and have time to make music/art or write or whatever. some of them are even above mediocre niche ;) but it's not quite the same thing as being able to shrug off the real world and get lost in the art for a month and lose track of time etc and be "all about it" because you've made a nest egg from your last musical output and don't have to worry about shit.

the landscape is totally changing all the time but there's still labels doing interesting stuff and finding new artists worth our time who aren't banging out crap... look at PAN and RasterNoton for example. but distrobution, live performances and all that stuff i mean... i can't even collect my thoughts on all of it. people have to do other things than purely make music.. they have to get sound design jobs and make VST presets or ghost write for steve aoki to pay the bills ;)

oh, and not even squarepusher has come close to the greatness of squarepusher's Go Plastic. ;) though venus 17 and a few other things are pretty amazing. Go Plastic is the thing though.

i've always found it interesting that in music reviews if there's an album that is outside the box a little.. a little weird..a little dark.. a little deep.. autechre gets mentioned.. you can't make some experimental music without the person doing a review referrencing autehcre somewhere in the review. everything gets compared to autechre but nothing sounds like autechre... but autechre.

and oops. i posted this interview again somewhere. doh.

  On 10/12/2015 at 7:02 AM, ambermonk said:

Good read. Unfortunately the not being able to make music for a living thing unless you've already established your career early on is all too real. But that doesn't mean we should give up on it, even if only a hobby.

Well and also, theres this funny idea in modern culture that you need to make money off of something for it to be worthwhile.