Art + Music + Technology
This podcast is about art, music and the technology that enables it. But it is also about creativity, motivation and the future of music and art. I do interviews with amazing artists and technologists, and hope to crack the surface of their practice. You can support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/darwingrosse
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Podcast Finale
05/15/2022
Podcast Finale
Unfortunately, today is the last day of podcasting for the Art + Music + Technology podcast. Health issues have gotten in the way, and it would be impossible to continue. You can read the transcription of this article, as well as finding some interesting writing on my Patreon page: Thank you for being such a great group of friends and supporters during this long series of music
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Podcast 380: Panic Girl (Martha Bahr)
05/01/2022
Podcast 380: Panic Girl (Martha Bahr)
Oh yeah! I’ve been working on getting this interview for a while. It combines modular synths (love ‘em), compositional techniques, an extremely busy schedule – and even using the voice as an instrument! The time that I got to spend with Martha Bahr (Panic Girl) was more than amazing – it was transforming for me. The way that Martha approaches her work is going to be helpful to anyone making electronic music. So I just spilt the beans on a few of the topic we covered, but we were all over the place. And we got along like old friends – even though I don’t think we’d ever met. Martha is super-easy to talk to, and leads a very interesting life, so doing this interview was like falling out of a tree. I don’t need to talk this one up much – truly one of my favorite interviews ever. Dig in! Oh, and you can check out her new album here: Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 379: Greg LoPiccolo
04/17/2022
Podcast 379: Greg LoPiccolo
So there are precious few music software packages that will come up during discussions at my family’s dinner table. Logic? No way. Ableton Live? Mainly because the kids really like their T-shirts. But if I want to get the kids chattering, I can bring up the family’s retro-love of Guitar Hero or Rock Band. And who was leading product development of those products? Today’s guess – Greg LoPiccolo! Greg has moved onto new things – including his new company, ToneStone () And while he’s no longer creating consumer games, the idea of combining a game mentality with music is still in his bones. But now, instead of trying to match riffs with Zakk Wylde or Slash, you are actually producing, mixing and sharing your own musical creations. Greg is really into many game-oriented ideas surrounding this effort, and it is really interesting to dig into his mind to see how he is creating his simple but deep music production project. I push to find out the limits, and to find out the perspective that make it unique in the marketplace. Enjoy! Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 378: Jean-François Charles
04/03/2022
Podcast 378: Jean-François Charles
What can I say about Jean-François Charles, other than he is amazing! He is one of the people in this world that has bothered to describe spectral processing in a way that is both musical and accessible (to the extent that it can be…), and has backed it up with a great career of both performance and academics. With training as both an engineer and a musician, he was perfectly situated for the oncoming rush of music technology, and both his musical work and his teachings are ground-breaking. In our discussion, we talk about his history, his current work, and his clarinet+electronics release Electroclarinet (). We also dig into what made him fascinated with spectral processing in particular, and how he was influenced by many (but particularly by Stockhausen) to feature that in his work. We also learn a bit about how he creates a ‘score’, including the processing bits, that are sharable with this world. You can hear the Electroclarinet pieces above, and learn more about his body of work on his website (). Check out some of those papers; they were seminal works that got a lot of people to dig in beyond just using someone else’s software. It’s also great that Jean-François not only sells access to the written scores for some of his work, but also bundles them with electronic forms for performance. You can see all of the on his Gumroad site: https://newfloremusic.gumroad.com/ Enjoy! Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 377: Udit Duseja
03/20/2022
Podcast 377: Udit Duseja
Udit Duseja has built quite a career. Starting off dropping Pro Tools markers while hanging at a recording studio, he is now doing sound design and sound editing work across a wide range of films. In preparing for this interview, I did a fair amount of research (watching films – oh, so hard!), and was blown away by the consistent quality, and often unexpected surprises, found in his work. In our discussion, we chat about his background growing up in India, his studies at University of Edenborough, and how he shaped his career to be a multi-continental sound artist. We also get some glimpses into how he approaches sound design, as well as some of the ways that he puts together the sound library that is at the core of his practice. We also dig into the details of the tools that he uses, and how he approaches layers (and in many cases recreating) the sound environments that are provided in a film. He also describes some of the details of working with directors – and especially how that works in our current COVID (and post-COVID) world. For more information, you can check out Enjoy! Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 376: Peder Simonsen
03/06/2022
Podcast 376: Peder Simonsen
Sometimes my attention is grabbed by something unexpected. In researching Peder Simonsen, I was very impressed with his production work, his work with modular system – but then I read about his work with the tuba. Microtonal tuba. In a group. That stopped me in my tracks, and I had to learn more. I ended up having a fascinating conversation with Peder, and got an amazing education about so many things! In our discussion, we talk about microtonal tuba – and it, how does it work? – the application of microtonalism with his modular system, and his unique compositional and structural concepts. His recordings have a unique way of developing over time – there’s a linearity to them that I found really intriguing, and we explored how he hears the music that he’s making. Peder is also involved in a lot of groups, and also does a fair amount of production work with others. This puts him in a position to work on many types of collaboration, and we dig into this as well. How do you write for a microtonal tuba trio? How do you mix a modular system with an experimental jazz orchestra? So damned interesting… For more information, you can check out the following: Peder’s web page: Robin Hayward’s microtonal tuba - Sofa Music - label of microtub and many other experimental Norwegians: Tubbutec microtonal tuning module - Enjoy! Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 375: Steuart Liebig
02/20/2022
Podcast 375: Steuart Liebig
Steuart Liebig’s story is quite amazing. From high school jazz gigging, through extensive touring, to a spot as part of LA’s verdant experimental jazz scene, Steuart’s life of music is quite amazing. A proponent of the 6-string bass, you can find Steuart working in groups with Nels Cline, Wayne Peet and G.E. Stinson. His listing on discogs.com is pretty stunning, as is the stack of tracks that he has made available on his Bandcamp page. So, of course, I had to have a chat! What I found was an interesting guy that has that laid back attitude that clues you in on his experience. In our discussion, we chatted about his history, his instrument selection, how he approaches effects use, and how he’s integrating his new modular synth into his musical work. Check out Steuart’s work here: https://steuartliebig.bandcamp.com/ Enjoy! Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 374: A Q&A with David Zicarelli
02/06/2022
Podcast 374: A Q&A with David Zicarelli
OK, so this is a little different… I, and many of my coworkers, tend to do special things around the number “74” (the company name is Cycling ’74, if you didn’t already know). For #374, I decided that I’d talk to David Zicarelli again – just like I did in #74. When I asked him, he rejected the interview format, and wanted to do a Q&A, where we’d each get to ask each other questions. It started off interview-ish, but ended up with some interesting personal revelations. It helps that David and I have a great relationship, and that we’ve been chatting each other up for decades. So, given the chance to ask anything, what did we ask each other? Well, it ranges from vinyl, to performance context, to self-motivation – and a million other things. Frankly, it’s hard to even remember everything we talked about, but you get to find out yourself! Enjoy! Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 373: Elainie Lillios
01/23/2022
Podcast 373: Elainie Lillios
I’ve been trying to get Elainie Lillios on the podcast for some time. I’ve seen her, and heard her work at SEAMUS conferences in the past, and she has come up in conversations several times during the course of the podcast. So I was quite excited when we finally were able to pull this together. This interview gives me a great opportunity: I get to quiz someone on how they compose – but also, how they get their compositions into the hands of people that will perform them, and how to deal with the peculiarities of individual performers. Elainie’s work has been widely performed, and getting to the point where that is doable – well, that’s a challenge. In addition to her work and her process, we also get a look into Elainie’s background, and particularly how she was able to combine her education with personal perspectives to achieve her standing as a composer-of-note. We also learn about her relationship with teaching (and students), and the effect that teaching has on her compositional efforts. As hoped, this was a wonderful discussion, and I’m really glad I can share it with you. Enjoy! Transcription available at Exclusive extra content on the Patron page:
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Podcast 372: Cameron Warner Jones
01/09/2022
Podcast 372: Cameron Warner Jones
Cameron Warner Jones is the kind of person that, once you’ve heard of him, you just want to get to know him. Imagine a person that gets his start creating the Synclavier Digital Music System, which was used by everyone from Laurie Anderson through Frank Zappa. Great stories, right?
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Podcast 371: Peter Albrechtsen and David Barber
12/26/2021
Podcast 371: Peter Albrechtsen and David Barber
Peter Albrechtsen and David Barber worked on the movie The Killing Of Two Lovers, which is unique because it has no traditional musical score; all of the sound in the movie is a combination of location sound, foley and designed sounds, carefully mixed into a minimalist-but-complex soundscape.
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Podcast 370: Chris Coleman
12/12/2021
Podcast 370: Chris Coleman
Part of my history is attending and teaching at University of Denver. One of the professors in this department is Chris Coleman, and he was a fascinating person to be around – he was always digging into new technologies, checking out both software and hardware opportunities, and inspiring people to try things outside their comfort zone.
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Podcast 369: David Donaldson and Steve Roche (Plan 9)
11/28/2021
Podcast 369: David Donaldson and Steve Roche (Plan 9)
When Andrew Pask pointed me toward Plan 9 (and made an initial introduction), I couldn’t really tell what I was getting into. The soundtrack work was very interesting, and their recent releases mapped out a compelling set of skills. But then I checked out Modwheel – which is their sample library company – and started to connect the dots: Really unique sound design and instrument design led to quirky soundtrack work, which led to crazy sample libraries, which leads to even more sound design work.
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Podcast 368: Eric Fox (Buchla USA)
11/07/2021
Podcast 368: Eric Fox (Buchla USA)
One of the big surprises of the late 2010’s was the acquisition of Buchla and Associates by someone local to me: Eric Fox of Foxtone Music. I’d heard of Foxtone, but never visited, and never expected something like this to happen in good ‘ol Minneapolis. But sure enough, Buchla was now based out of the Twin Cities.
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Podcast 367: Mike Metlay (Bjooks)
10/24/2021
Podcast 367: Mike Metlay (Bjooks)
Well, we welcome Mike Metlay back to the podcast. It’s been a while, and a lot has changed for Mike since our last discussion (episode 69!), and we find him in his new venture: as the editor-in-chief at Bjooks. If you are paying any attention to the world of electronic music, you’ll know that Bjooks just released a new book, entitled Synth Gems 1. Mike had a big hand in this release, and we quiz him about it in this interview.
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Podcast 366: Paula Maddox
10/10/2021
Podcast 366: Paula Maddox
Paula Maddox is a wonder. She’s got an amazing history of synth design, and the work continues; her current company (Dove Audio) produces modules in Euro and 5U format, featuring her unique take on wavetables-as-oscillators. We share a passion for wavetables and single-cycle waveshapes, so it was a natural that we talk.
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Podcast 365: Mark Fell
09/26/2021
Podcast 365: Mark Fell
Mark Fell is one of my favorite artists – his work is the right mix of comfortable and challenging, and his music is truly as good as his ideas about music! As a result, I end up listening to a lot of his work, from the SND material to his recent experiments with live musicians. I’ve also had the chance to speak with – and interview – him in the past (for Cycling ’74), so there was already a comfort level there between us. So that should have made for a good conversation…
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Podcast 364: Carl Stone
09/12/2021
Podcast 364: Carl Stone
Carl Stone has been a huge influence on me – his work transported me from “Interested in that music tech stuff for making pop tunes” to “Let’s get serious!” His exploration into the nature of sampled sounds – and sampled/mashed/twisted tracks – took some of the ideas explored by Schaeffer, Cage, Reich and others, and gave them a whole new context. His recordings blew my head open, and continues to do so today.
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Podcast 363: Jeff Rona
08/29/2021
Podcast 363: Jeff Rona
Jeff Rona has fascinated me ever since he first appeared in Keyboard Magazine with his “The Reel World” column. It was a time when music-for-film was becoming interesting for tech-savvy musicians, and his writing fueled a lot of people’s interest in that work. With a background that includes working with Mark Isham and Hans Zimmer, Jeff has been in the mix for some of the greatest soundtracks in the last quarter century.
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Podcast 362: Will Kuhn
08/15/2021
Podcast 362: Will Kuhn
Will Kuhn is well-known in the Ableton Live community. He pioneered the use of Ableton in the K-12 classroom, and recently released a new book: Electronic Music School: A Contemporary Approach to Teaching Musical Creativity. I was happy to corner him recently, and we had a great chat about his background, how he approaches teaching, and how he developed the system described in the book. We also dive into some ‘hot takes’ from the book, which adds a little flavor to this important text.
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Podcast 361: Luke Thornton (Elder Island)
08/01/2021
Podcast 361: Luke Thornton (Elder Island)
Luke Thornton, one of the three people that make up the band Elder Island, perfectly embodies the self-learning/DIY perspectives that are fueling the exciting edge of current music making. Outfitted with a studio full of interesting gear, a lineup of dedicated friends, and the time to focus on production, Elder Island is producing some gorgeous house-infused pop music – and pushing the envelope on both sound design and production quality with their work.
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Podcast 360: Lisa Bella Donna
07/18/2021
Podcast 360: Lisa Bella Donna
Lisa Bella Donna is somehow algorithmically connected to me – her work shows up consistently in my social media feeds, the sites that I read cover her work, and (of course) the music really speaks to me. So it’s kind of odd that it has taken so long to get her on the pod. Maybe it’s because she’s pretty laid back about her self-promotion, and maybe it’s because she is very busy. But in any case, I’m really glad to be able to talk with her about her career, her background, and her love of synths.
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Podcast 359: Tim Exile
07/04/2021
Podcast 359: Tim Exile
Tim Exile has been involved in the Music Tech world for a long time. As the developer of a number of effects and instruments for Native Instruments, he became well-known for pushing the envelope on what we considered to be ‘normal’ devices. Now he is working on a platform, called Endlesss that brings all of this together. In our discussion, we cover everything from his background, to his growth in Reaktor-based development, and on to his efforts in bringing Endlesss into being.
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Podcast 358: Alessandro Cortini
06/20/2021
Podcast 358: Alessandro Cortini
Recently, the Mute label reached out to me to see if I wanted to interview Alessandro Cortini, I had to chuckle a little to myself. Alessandro and I have had great conversations over the years, and I jumped at the opportunity to talk to him about his newest release: Scuro Chiaro. It’s an amazing work – added to an already amazing body of work.
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Podcast 357: Drew Schlesinger
06/06/2021
Podcast 357: Drew Schlesinger
I’ve been a synth-head for a very long time. As a result, I have these little personal dropping-off points of favorite bits of gear: Ensoniq ESQ-1, Roland JD-800, E-mu Proteus and Morpheus. So imagine my surprise when a recent parcel of Facebook paraded all of my favorite synths. And it was put out there by today’s guest – Drew Schlesinger – who was deeply involved in sound design for synth preset for all these devices!
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Podcast 356: Alejo Yael (Yaeltex)
05/23/2021
Podcast 356: Alejo Yael (Yaeltex)
Despite the fact that I feel like I’m ‘dialed in’ to everything going on in the MI industry, sometimes I just get whacked in the head by something unexpected. I chatted with Alejo Yael, once of the team that builds the Yaeltex devices. We chat about hardware development, software integration of controllers, the evolution of their business and the nature of doing it in Argentina. But it’s also interesting to hear the passion that is clear in Alejo’s description of what they do – and what they are
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Podcast 355: Gary Chang
05/09/2021
Podcast 355: Gary Chang
Gary Chang says it himself: “I've always portrayed myself an obscure electronic music composer, whose side gig is scoring Hollywood movies and tv shows.” I don’t think I could frame his work – or his attitude – any better. He takes an artist’s view of everything he does, whether it is his own music, the music he does for ultra-popular directors (like John Frankenheimer), or even assembling the musical instruments that fill his studio.
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Podcast 354: Steve Horelick
04/25/2021
Podcast 354: Steve Horelick
As the head of content development for Nonlinear Educating (the home of MacProVideo, Ask.Audio, Ask.Video and more…), Steve Horelick has been in the media tool education game for a long time. He’s had his eyes on music software since Logic was an Emagic product. But he also has a long history as a musician and sound designer, with some pretty impressive scoring projects under his belt – most notably, the musical world of Reading Rainbow!
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Podcast 353: KamranV
04/11/2021
Podcast 353: KamranV
KamranV is dedicated to new technology for music. From his work at Interscope New Media, through his work on the Phonocut vinyl lathe, Kamran is pushing envelopes at every turn. One of his on-groing projects is the QUARK plug-in system, which provides and easy-to-assemble toolkit for quad encoding and decoding of tracks. The stuff is ‘cooked’ enough that it was used for Susan Ciani’s Live – Quadraphonic record; if it is good enough for Susan, it’s good enough for me!
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Podcast 352: Anthony Rolando (Make Noise Music)
03/28/2021
Podcast 352: Anthony Rolando (Make Noise Music)
For my audience, Anthony Rolando probably needs no introduction. As the product designer at Make Noise Music, his work is found in almost every modular system you’ll run across. From his earliest designs (such as the Maths) to his latest (like the Morphagene), he’s helping to define the future of modular systems.
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