Hi ! Yep, a tad delayed this one. I apologize.

This time I have the wall of blinkers to blame.

The eurocrack has opened up and swallowed me! Haaaaaa. I've enjoyed being in the belly of the beast though I must say and now Im emerging with many a sonic memory etched on tape. I'll try to share these via a new venture, HOWA records. Yeah, its a new idea. Somewhere to put all this work. I pour so much of my heart and soul into these sounds and pieces that linger on the drive. Perhaps it's time to release them into the wilds.

EP107 is with Emmy Award winner Angelo Palazzo. He is a sound designer and editor on the highest level. His recent work on Stranger things session 4 was beyond epic. It's a pleasure to have him on to enlighten us about the dark art of TV sound on this grand scale.

We had the sad news of Dominic Hawkins passing away last week. Really really sad. He was such a positive and uplifting gentleman. I didnt know him well but always thoroughly enjoyed my chats with him on the sonic state pod. RIP Dom.

David Haskell is a professor of biology and environmental studies at the University of the South and a Guggenheim Fellow.

His 2017 book The Songs of Trees won the John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Writing. His 2012 book The Forest Unseen was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and won the 2013 Best Book Award from the National Academies, the National Outdoor Book Award, and the Reed Environmental Writing Award.

His new book, Sounds Wild and Broken is out now and I was thrilled to have a chance to sit down in person with him in my studio here Nashville to discuss it briefly.

Here’s a quick summary of the book from the official press release:

Starting with the origins of animal song and traversing the whole arc of Earth history, Haskell illuminates and celebrates the emergence of the varied sounds of our world. In mammoth ivory flutes from Paleolithic caves, violins in modern concert halls, and electronic music in earbuds, we learn that human music and language belong within this story of ecology and evolution. Yet we are also destroyers, now silencing or smothering many of the sounds of the living Earth. Haskell takes us to threatened forests, noise-filled oceans, and loud city streets, and shows that sonic crises are not mere losses of sensory ornament. Sound is a generative force, and so the erasure of sonic diversity makes the world less creative, just, and beautiful. The appreciation of the beauty and brokenness of sound is therefore an important guide in today’s convulsions and crises of change and inequity.

Here’s a link to the book in all it’s various formats (the link is slow but it works)

I can highly recommend you give it a read. It's just a wonderful read and full of insights that will stay with you.

There’s a Soundcloud link with sounds pertinent to the chapters which you can check out here

______________

I also wanted to give a shout out to pod listener Simon Taylor and his book

AUDIO MASTERING IN A PROJECT STUDIO: A PRACTICAL APPROACH FOR A PROFESSIONAL SOUND

Some great ideas and knowledge that’s not too overwhelming check these whee links:

US  Or UK 

______________

As always send music and stuff to

[email protected]

:)

Merry Chrimble y’all!

Here’s a sonic present for your ears to unwrap. 

It’s in the form of a nice fireside ramble with the excellent Stephen James Wilkinson aka Bibio. 

He’s a wonderful and thoughtful chap with a very unique touch and a searching soul. 

I love his musical range, his tones, his playing. YES

He’s rather good!

Im assuming you all know his stuff? If not you fools! 

You must immediately have a listen 

As in go here NOW!

https://bibio.co

 

It’s super ooper dooper inspiring stuff and I was mighty chuffed when he agreed to come on the pod.

Our paths never crossed as label mates on warp records which is a shame. God knows why. 

A couple of shy dudes making waves in different countries might have had something to do with it!

Ha.

Anyway we are finally in a chat and even talking about working on something together which sounds good to me. 

Watch this space.

 

He’s a wise lad so of course he has a nagra. A stereo nagra in fact. 

In fact it was this conversation that really made me want to find one of my own which thankfully I did.

He’s the one guest that actually recorded a backup to the tape machine. Proper legend

 

Roll it

____

 

Thanks for tuning in folks!

It’s been another bonkers year and having this show has been a huge part of keeping me going.

Cheers to all the wonderful patrons for helping me keep this dream alive

Thanks to distrokid for their continued support as the most epic and long running sponsor of the pod. 

If you make music and need it putting out, just use distrokid! It’ll be everywhere like Santa before you know it 

Dropping that sonic magic down the chimneys of the world.

 

Thanks to Bibio

And I’ll catch you in 2023!

 

Make merry y’all 

 

 

Such a treat to chat with Jeremy aka Red Means Recording. Now you must know who he is right? If not well you're in for a treat. He's an amazing creative soul and funky chap that makes excellent music, teaches and creates exceptional YouTube videos that go deep into the synth and electronic musical world. Highly recommended viewing. He's just great.

Link to his YouTube here

HELLO!

Yes, I realize this has been a lonnnnng time coming.

What's been up?

The studio build is now hitting a new level of intensity and my Mum just left after a long visit and things have been a tad upside down so Im off my funk but here we are!

 

LINKS

Please go and grab this new release from friend of the pod Marta Salongi and Floating points.

It's a fund raiser for the charity Free Youth Orchestra which focuses on removing financial barriers between children and access to musical equipment and lessons

so cool.

the music is here to buy and thus support

looking for something to fill the digital stocking?

I can recommend this max for live device from the wonderful friend of the pod Ned Rush. It's called MIDI WAVES and it's ace and not expensive. grab here

Jim Keller has been helping me design the new studio. Great to work with him. So much knowledge! Check his beautiful work here

Thanks for Diana Walsch for pod support. Find her here

Website: dmwalshmusic.com

IG: @dmwalshmusic

Hello!

Jamie again.

I caught up with this busy Fred on his current US tour. 

He’s been busy you ask? 

Oh yes. I mean so so busy. 

For one thing he’s penned massive pop numbers with Ed Sheeran, Stormy and other huge acts

Did you know that? 

I mean BIG BIG songs. 

And YET his mentor and good friend is none other than 

Brian Eno!

 

Wait.. what? Ah yes, all shall be revealed.

See the thing about Fred is he will write a huge song for an act like Clean Bandit in the afternoon, then be on the phone to fourtet for arrangement advice on his solo work by dinner time. 

He can write on the road, he can write in the club. He’s prolific as they come this man!

 

Fred has been doing so well and it was great to get this chance to chat with him 

What an exceedingly positive and fun chap he is. So much talent and a very good outlook

Lots of nuggets in this chat. Obv we get into the Eno connection and the come up and 

Fred reveals some massive beat making secrets he learned directly from Boi-1da. 

I get some advice mid show too which I think might be a first :)

We are here in part to discuss his ace new LP “Actual Life 3” which you can find in the usual streaming zones.

 

It’s a real pleasure to welcome on to the Show for the first time Fred….. Again

_____

 

Making music? Want it out in the world?

Take advantage of the savings HOWA offers ya!

Use this 30% off code

http://distrokid.com/vip/lidell

Max Tundra is Ben Jacobs

A man that was a child that grew up in London.

As pointed out on his bandcamp, he went to the same school as Jude Law and a Chemical Brother, but didn’t know them.

In this disposable content age, there’s an undeniable urge to go for quantity over quality is there not?

The music Ben makes as Max Tundra comes as rarely as a celestial event.

We forget the rising and falling of the sun each day but we don’t forget a total eclipse now do we?

This is how it felt when Mocky and I came across the LP “Mastered by guy at the exchange”.

We were without sun for a while. In an unknown land that felt Most welcoming and yet most peculiar.

It was genuinely new music. Something so rare that still feels fresh all these years later.

Here’s what hyper pop bloke A. G. Cook said of Max Tundra’s legacy:

“‘Mastered by Guy at the Exchange’ is a true cult album - a playful monolith that sounds both nothing and everything like the 2000s. Stumbling across it as a teenager, it reinforced a hunch I had: that music is a place where anything could happen, and total chaos could be held together by the lightest of pop hooks. There’s an oddly British quality to Max Tundra’s work, a soft and polite maximalism - pioneering, eccentric and infinitely remixable.”

Ben Jacobs invented hyper pop

As they say in the UK

FACTS

It’s a good time to be a Max Tundra fan as domino has reissued his first three studio albums to be found HERE

2000s Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be,

2002’s Mastered by Guy at the Exchange,

and the 2008 masterwork Parallax Error Beheads You.

We get into a lot of his formative years and thankfully he kept so much of his sonic ramblings from that time and they can be found on his band camp page

It’s a real treasure trove.

Here it is

What a legend. If you’ve never heard of him before, I’m so glad I get to make the intro.

He’s a true original and a very nice man

Please welcome on the show

Max Tundra

Nigel is my kind of producer He has a strong sense of quality, a strong sense of who he is and what potentials artists have to be cultivated and captured. He’s my kind of producer because he gets his hands dirty and doesn’t just act as a fan of the band and take on that guru role but he’s in the trenches, setting up the mics for perfect phase alignment, getting all the sonic chains correct but without a limiting rule book. There’s so much inventiveness in the productions alongside the incredible, undeniable tone. Of course there’s that ego and strong sense of self and I ran into his resolute perspective a couple of times by asking questions he deemed sub par or misguided. Let’s put it this way, you know where you stand with Nigel and of course he has a strong perspective. Imagine the courage and strength of conviction it would take to tell Thom Yorke or Paul McCartney that they could better a take or that a lyric felt cheesy or what have you. We might all think we want to be told yes all the time but Nigel, it feels, understands when to say no and let his point be known and I love that about him. I have immense respect for him. He's made some of my favorite records and I think it's fair to say that he's my favorite living producer. So needless to say it's an absolute thrill to have him on the show. It’s even more special to me that he agreed to do episode 100. NIGEL!!!!! Nitty 100 is a BIG one I get my hands on a rare Chamberlin M1 from the excellent Rob Burger and sample it in a most painstaking manner yielding a set of 8 instrument captures that showcase the sounds on the tapes in a way that’s never been heard before. I sent the finished pack to some amazing musicians and they all came back with beautiful music to demo the sounds. You’ll hear tracks from Dave Sitek Hainbach Dana Wachs Andrew Huang RJD2 Money Mark and I also made one that sneaks in at the end of the show 🙂 EP 100 Baby! bringing the heat!!! I only managed to make all this with the expert kontakt and decent sampler scripting help of Owen Bolig and GUI design from Tobias James. In the sample instruments you can blend 3 different layers. The DRY is a direct output from the instrument running into a Telefunken V72 preamp The DIRT is the signal processed though a silvertone amp head into a Roland RE-201 space echo in spring reverb mode 3+4) The DUAL MONO ADT NAGRA recordings are the star of the show and the motivation behind the instrument. The output of the Chamberlin was sent to 2 nagras at the same level. I played with the varispeed of one nagra tape machine and not the other so when the NAGRA channel on the kontakt or decent sampler is set to mono you hear unique ADT style phasing that’s varied per key press using scripting magic (Kontakt only). So there’s 3168 samples that make up the 8 instruments with a total of 4.62Gb of audio. Get ready! The Chamberlin ADT is available to Patreon members on the soul science level! Music for EP100 comes from Lok44 who’s LP 44problems is to found on TRUST. I was bugging out to this. I think he triggered something from my youth and I very much enjoyed the flashback! Thanks to sonible for their kind sponsorship Their plugins are well worth checking out. smart, clear and good sounding. Triple wammy! check them out 🙂 Thanks also to access analog for THEIR kind sponsorship Good news! They have given me a code to share with you all at check out so you can try this wild service for yourself and remotely control a pye compressor from the comfort of your studio or roaming about with a laptop with wifi. True 2022 business. The code you need at check out is....... trial-howa enjoy! Drums from this ad spot are from the That Sound “Hanger” library here shouts to my studio building crew! Jim Keller at Sondhus and Matthew Marinelli at coral sound thanks to Diana Walsh for cleaning up the audio as ever Last my most certainly not least, thank you to my lovely wife! Without her this show never would have been. Just would not have ever reached episode 1! Im so proud of her. She’s having her first solo art show as a painter here in Nashville at the brand new ZieherSmith Gallery. The show is called STIM and it’s going to be up from the 24th September. Check this link here for info! BYE x

TEED has an excellent new LP out now called “When the Lights Go”

available on his Nice Age label. Check it ooot!

HERE is Link to the album, tour info and loads of ace merch!

If you didnt already get the

Chamberlin ADT sample instrument I made here

https://www.patreon.com/HOWA

4.64 Gb sample instrument of the instrument used by Bowie on Low!

ahhh yes…let’s get on with the show…..

It’s high time I chatted with this chap. We’ve hung out at multiple LA gatherings over beers and somehow never ended up in a suitable setting for a good chin wag. This has now been completely set right in what is a true alpine ramble twixt myself and the excellent TEED.

We pass many a scenic wonder on our winding adventures. Touching on:

the LA twilight zone

Honesty and ambition

Being cool

TEED history

Unknown music!

The making of the new tones

Equal love of jungle and Bach

It’s just my kind of hang. Hope you enjoy it!

Music comes from Andrew Huang !

he made his track exclusively with the Chamberlin ADT sample instrument I made from over 3000 samples of the VERY rare Chamberlin M1 all running to 2 Nagra tape machines simultaneously with a varispeed on only one deck to create phase and ADT effects PER note. EPIC! get it now!

https://www.patreon.com/HOWA

Ep101 ! YES

It’s a shortee this time. I’m trying for a half bi so I can keep up with the DELUGE of interviews I’m been doing of late. Such good people, I want to hurry them out.

art lovers !

Please check out my wife’s first solo paining show here

it’s called STIM. I’ve been present for all the making of these and I’m so proud of her.

It’s huge news for our family and I think so many of you will love the style and also the story behind the work as we discover about out autism. More on this soon 🙂

Thanks to Distrokid for the kind sponsorship :)

Get your music steaming in minutes!

Take advantage of the savings HOWA offers ya!

Use this 30% off code

http://distrokid.com/vip/lidell

You may know him for his soaring solo musical adventures or maybe you’re old school and you were always down with his band The Invisible. Perhaps you’ve seen him playing with Amy WInehouse or Grace Jones. Perhaps you’ve heard his collaborations with Adele, Yoko Ono or Tony Allen?

Perhaps you’ve not come across him yet, in which case I’m very happy to make the connection.

I know him as  a genuine, fascinating, generous and ultra simpatico friend that I see far too infrequently.

There are few people I know that enjoy talking as much as Dave. He leads you into wild and wonderful places in his delightful and engaging explorations and I’m always keen to see where we might end up. In his presence, time seems to slow down and I find that deeply relaxing and very welcome. I often feel a tad in my head, or even headless but Dave brings a groundedness that is very settling.

Those who know him have experienced his radiant smile and his tremendous, heart felt hugs.

I feel very lucky to be friends with Dave. He’s a real one of a kind and an absolute beast of a musician.I had the chance to get a sneak peak of his new LP and it’s really mind blowing stuff. Just wait !

Ah yes. At long last, I’m so happy to welcome my friend on the show. Please welcome Dave Okumu

Nitty 99 is an exploration of the Eventide H8000 and its excellent 4 part MIDI pitch shifter which appears to be the sound we know so well on the Bon Iver track 715 Creeks. I run all sorts of stuff into it and it's a delight! Can't believe this is my first time using it.

Music for EP 99 comes from the rather excellent Botany! Superb.

https://botany.bandcamp.com/album/deepak-verbera

Still available for download is This EP FORUKRAINE

performed by Rob Burger and sonically crafted by me

all proceeds to the Ukrainian Redcross. Please consider a small donation :)

I’d like to thanks Diana Walsh for her help prepping the interview audio

@dmwalshmusic on the gram 🙂

PLEASE

keep the music coming !

send submissions to

[email protected]

 

side orders:

Dave mentions Elizabeth Fritsch pots and how he'd like to live in one.

When you see them you'll understand why. She's an absolute master and channels such beauty in her work. link HERE

Mr maker of the odd circuits, Mr man with a vision to create a company from the ground up that dramatically changed the modular synth world forever, Mr maker of synth woven musics.

Please welcome Mr Make Noise himself, Tony Rolando!

We get into chatting about his excellent new album “Breakin’ is a Memory”

Which you can find here

Come and delve into this new work and imagine where Tony’s head is at. Making all these incredible instruments for us all make NOISE with whilst keeping his passion for the original motivation ---- the music making itself.

He has the irresistible urge to create sound and frame these nocturnal excursions into an LP. He's made all this in his few free hours outside MN to stretch out and fashion a record, his way in his home studio. I’m really glad found space for this. It’s a great result and this LP is a rich listen! We get into all the juicy inside knowledge about how it was made from Tony himself. What machines were used and how. The mindset, the techniques, it’s all here!

This chat is not an attempt to dive "Biographical". For that I highly recommend you listen to this interview that mylarmelodies conducted with Tony as it contains a quality insight into the Make Noise back story and Tony’s history, philosophy and such.

Fantastic listen! Click here

In the nitty I crack out an early version of the Make Noise Strega which was a collab with Tony and pod guest Alessandro Cortini. Such a powerful and fun little box! I put it together with a Befaco Noise Plethora (which is a self contained sculpt-able noise bath of a module) and use my voice to populate three loops that don’t care about one another. Like dogs, they all run free. Once you fill up these three, free loops, you can bounce them all to a virtual cassette deck alongside any input that might also be coming in to spin to tape. Once this new bounced recording stops, the 3 main loopers you used to make the 1st layer are emptied automatically and you can fill them once more and then bounce them to a 2nd tape deck until you reach the 3rd wave of loops that go to a final reel at which point you are all full up and need to delete either all or some of the parts you made to make room for new ideas. Birth and death is one of reasons to love looping. To know you must destroy to grow something fresh. So yes, I used the excellent Loopy Pro on an M1 iPad to build this looper with an Akai APC40 connected via a Hub the USB-C port on the iPad Pro. I was able to run signals to physical channels of a mixer using a class complaint audio interface with multiple outs. The whole idea behind this setup was to be as close to the moving parts as possible and to be able to reach all the controls extremely easily to manipulate all the important aspects that need to be influenced by hand as it’s all a performance and this makes it somewhat like making food. For stir fry, you need your ingredients right there. If you have to drive to buy ginger in the middle of a cook its akin to needing to halt the flow to get a machine recorded right if not easily connected and playable. This is key. All the factors from sound tone shaping, to levels to FX they need to feel playable. Having used loopers as my way of expressing myself live since around 2000, I have a very strong connection to working in this way. I made my loopers in Max/MSP but I must say, Loopy pro is a wonderful tool to build custom live looping setups in 2022 using a tool like an iPad that has a superb touch interface is a bonus. It’s all very welcome and I think it’s really the best tool you will find to make a custom looper that allows more options than a Boss 505 or any other hardware unit. I will include the loopy pro patch I made for this nitty for all the members of the HOWA Patreon on the soul science level :)

The music for EP98 comes from Raj Pannu. Really unique stuff I feel. He has a patient and detailed flow that bubbles along in an immersive bass aquarium with subtle motion charted throughout. It’s like minimalism in the evolution of parts with a lot of sound pressure pushing and with a bold forward motion. Here’s a link to some of Raj’s music.

I’d like to thanks Diana Walsh for her help prepping the interview audio

PLEASE

keep the music coming !

send submissions to

[email protected]

Thanks to Distrokid for the kind sponsorship :)

Get your music steaming in minutes!

Take advantage of the savings HOWA offers ya!

Use this 30% off code

http://distrokid.com/vip/lidell

show music

Highly recommended pod for these times:

LIVING MYTH with Michael Meade