Machinedrum — Staying Creative in Electronic Music for 25 Years

Twenty-five years is a long time to stay ahead in electronic music, especially considering how quickly genres mutate and scenes evolve and collapse. So I sat down with North Carolina-born beatmaker Travis Stewart, better known as the inimitable Machinedrum, to ask what his secret is.

Across records like Room(s), Vapor City and now the new mini-album BL00MS, Stewart has melded influences like jungle, footwork, UK bass, ambient, juke, techno, hip-hop and R&B into his own distinctive sound, and always managed to sound fresh and exciting. Along the way, there have been collaborations with Azealia Banks, A$AP Ferg, Tinashe, Dawn Richard and Hudson Mohawke, plus an insane catalogue of remixes: Solange, Boards Of Canada, The Glitch Mob, Bonobo and Johnny Cash (yes — THE Johnny Cash).

We talk about the cities that shaped him, from North Carolina to New York to three formative years in Berlin. We unpack how “gateway” sounds can lead people into deeper listening (and possibly — begrudgingly on both our parts — how brostep may have acted as a catalyst for deeper listening), and how he’s kept his work connected to his root influences without getting trapped by any one lane.

The second half goes deep on independence and the modern music business. BL00MS is his first self-released project after years with Ninja Tune, and he’s thinking hard about direct-to-fan release strategies, touring systems, and treating streaming like marketing rather than a lifeline. We also get into authenticity on social media, how to promote music without turning it into a clown show, and why self-imposed limitations inside Ableton Live can be the difference between endless tweaking and finishing a record.

So, it’s great to be back. Lost and Sound is now monthly. I started making episodes way back in 2018, and it’s gone on a real journey since then. Now totally independent, I rely on listeners like you to help keep the project growing.

If you enjoyed the episode, follow Lost and Sound on Substack and me on Instagram, subscribe to the RSS Feed, and share the episode with someone who’d be into it. Independent journalism and independent podcasting still run on word of mouth.

BL00MS on Bandcamp.

Transcript

A Rare 25-Year Run

Paul 0:02

So, how many producers can you think of that have been consistently good, being consistently on the cutting edge of underground electronic music for over 25 years? I mean, you know what I'm gonna say because you know already that my guest today is Machinedrum, but you know, have a think, have a think. Machinedrum is one of the few artists that have kept that level of creative inspiration up for such a long time in such a field like experimental and underground left field club music, where things do evolve and move so quickly, and he's done it for such a long time. And if you go back and listen to something like 2013's Vapor City, you can really hear like how contemporary that still sounds. This is a bit of a preamble to say Lost and Sound is back, and my guest on the show today is Machine drum.

Lost And Sound Returns Monthly

Paul 2:00

And we're back after a few months' break. This is episode 203, and in a few minutes you're gonna hear my conversation with Machine drum. But if you're new here, because I've been away for a bit, Lost and Sound is about music, but more specifically, it's about deep conversations, or rather, letting deep conversations happen with artists who work outside the box, and it's about slowing down and getting into talk about listening, about culture, about the artist's creative process, about how they make the work that they do. Not so much in a technical way, although sometimes we do get a little bit technical, but in the surrounding influences and backgrounds and life experience that informs the music. And I've been doing this now for almost eight years, and we're over 200 episodes in. And after this little break, the biggest change is that for a series of like different reasons, or all very, very kind of like key reasons. The podcast is now for the foreseeable future, immediate future anyway, is gonna be monthly rather than weekly. Um, I've mostly done this show uh I think since like the pandemic, weekly, with taking breaks every now and then. So it's gonna be a bit of a different change of pace. It's it's something that's been very, very necessary to do. I'm gonna be experimenting with expressing lost and sound as an idea in various other ways. So keep an ear out from that. If you follow me on the socials on Instagram as Paul Hanford or on my Substack, Lost and Sound Substack, you will be kept up to date with that. And the episodes will keep coming at slightly less of a frequency. So before we get going on the Machine drum conversation, taking this break for the last two months, I've been taking like a step back from like even like posting on social media mostly. I think I posted a few things about books I've read and a few nice coffees I've had, and going to the rather amazing Infinite Now 30-hour extravaganza in Berlin, which was a collaboration between Atonal and Unsound, which you you might have seen, you might have heard about but more of that anyway in some other space. But generally, I've kept a bit of a low profile. Um, and sort of doing that, noticing like the world carrying on with it me not actively taking part in it in terms of like podcasting and like commenting about music, um, noticing like the speed of it going past has been quite sort of eye-opening. Um, like the landscape in podcasting, in electronic music, in in online culture is always moving and moving, moving very, very fast. And so I don't really know if it was like me taking a step back, I just noticed that more, or whether taking a step back I noticed how actually fast it is and how faster it's getting is is hard to tell. It's very subjective,

Art Vs Music Business Pressure

Paul 5:12

isn't it? But one thing I did notice that coming back into Lost and Sound that I think is worth reflecting on is and I'm certainly not the first to point this out, but that so much discourse in music now seems to be centered around the business of music rather than talking about the music itself and fundamentally where I'm coming from, like the creativity and culture around it. Like the music, the art history has become a little bit sidelined. Um, maybe I think this is quite a big part to do with a reflection of the business-led nature of music in 2026, that so many decisions have become business and tech informed rather than creative, and how I think that is driven by having by artists, by labels, by people making stuff, uh, content people, whatever artists, all different types having to come up with more and more vivid, on-the-nose tactics, rapid tactics, in being able to keep their little share of the marketplace and to stay afloat. And the biggest story in music, I think, of the last couple of months was probably that geese chaotic good reveal. I'm not gonna go and reiterate it now. I'm I know you know what I mean, and I notice in podcasting, too, this sort of accentuation of the business being like the main discourse. Like if I go on LinkedIn, well, I know I know it's LinkedIn we're talking about here, so fair enough. But what I notice on LinkedIn is as a podcaster, I get automatically sent this continuous stream of posts from the LinkedIn community about maximising content, about the pivot to video, about AI, about what you need to do to stay relevant, and it all points towards this sort of hyper ridiculous demand to create like the most supernatural amount of efficiency that I just don't think is sustainable. Um, I don't think that as a creative person, as an artistic person or just as a human being, we can really like sustain all of these things that we're supposed to be doing, on top of just making the things that we really, really love and holding down like day jobs or side hustles or or like just struggling. And I'm under no illusions at the same time that art can exist without business. That's not what I'm talking about here. And I I know that I think Scuba on his Music Not Diving podcast last week made some really good points about this. Um, he compared art versus business, the argument around it to going back to like Renaissance period, Italy, and the way that the Medici would fund a lot of art through nebulous ways. And so it's always been the so I'm not coming from an anti-business background, but what I want to do is basically sort of reiterate through Lost and Sound what I feel are is has always been the podcast's real strength, but something I'm so much more conscious of in taking this little step out is that I think it's just so important to keep the show as a place where your favourite artists can talk about their creativity and they have space and slowness to do it, and that's totally not to ignore the business climate. I mean, this is 2026, and I think it's more important than ever when we're discussing music to talk about like how the business and the drive and the tech is really informing the creativity of artists. Sometimes, like how the pressure of that can be very, like uh like very detrimental to like creativity, but also like hopefully about how artists are managing to cope with this, find ways that they're harnessing it in a way that suits them. Um, we can't ignore the business. So, despite what I've said, like this is just something that is just much more where I'm coming from is more conscious about like how the business and the art work together. But the important thing about Lost and Sound is that it's coming from the artist's perspective, and so with that in mind, Machine Drum, one of the most consistently good electronic producers of his generation, and he is my guest on the show today. Travis Stewart began the Machine Drum project when he was still in high school in North Carolina towards the end of the 90s, and now for well over 25 years, and across records like Rooms and the classic 2013 album Vapor City, Stewart has played a not inconsiderable part in shaping the sound of experimental club music. There's definitely go-to influences throughout his work. There's a real love of jungle, of footwork. You can hear UK bass, ambient, duke, techno, instrumental hip-hop, and RB, all sorts. But it's what he does with it and the way he naturally makes these sounds all kind of collide together in a way that never feels still, is what makes machine drum, I think, such a durable project. Along the way, he's collaborated with artists including Azelia Banks, ASAP Ferg, Tanashi, Hudson Mohawk, and I was having a look as well at his remix list. And oh my god, you know, he's remixed Solange, Boards of Canada, The Glitch Mob, Bonobo, and Get This, Johnny Cash. So I was really kind of curious about this, like remixing Johnny Cash. And it turns out to be a remix from 2010, I believe. And it was an official remix, yeah. Anyway, his latest release, Blooms, is his first independent project after 13 years working with Ninja Tune, and it's a lot more stripped back and collab-free than his recent work. I mean, there's lots of chop bits of vocals and voice, but it's not collab-based. It's just like really good, headsy club music. You can really hear like a connection to like the influences that have been prevalent throughout Travis's full machine drum history, but it sounds contemporary, it sounds more than contemporary, it sounds like I just you know, I I've been listening to it quite a bit, and I listened to it in a cafe this morning as I was preparing notes to talk to you, and I was just like, I was doing it's Sunday morning, and I'm doing these like little head movements. Like, God, people must have thought, what what the hell is he doing? Anyway, um, we talk about a lot of stuff, so yeah, we do touch a bit on the business side of things, but we talk a lot about like the creative impulses that have kept this such a durable project and about like his roots and his background, and it's quite a sweet story. Had a really good time talking with him. So I spoke with Travis on May the 12th, 2026, and in a little second, you're finally, after me talking for such a long bit of time, gonna hear what happened when I met Machine drum and just a little bit of housekeeping before we start. If you haven't subscribed to uh the show yet, please do so. It really, really, really does mean a lot. If you want to like stay updated for details, follow me on the socials, Paul Hanford at Instagram and Lost And Sound at Substack. And so, yeah, this is what happens when I met Machine Drum.

Cities That Shape The Sound

Paul 13:04

Thanks so much for speaking with me today. Great to chat. Where whereabouts are you? You look like you're in is this your home studio?

Travis 13:11

No, I'm actually uh at a friend's studio in uh New York City right now. I'm on tour and um have my some of my off days here in New York, and uh my friend was nice enough to uh let me use his studio for for this occasion.

Paul 13:28

Nice, nice. So are you not properly living in New York at the moment? No, I'm living in Los Angeles, right? Okay, yeah, because I think um I was reading you you have moved in around quite a few different cities. You I think you even spent some time in Berlin, didn't you?

Travis 13:44

I did, just around three years from uh 2010 to 2013.

Paul 13:51

Yeah, and what do you think like the different cities give you? Do you feel like there's a certain kind of energy look like, say living in LA now that you couldn't have got from your time in Berlin or New York or North Carolina?

Travis 14:06

I mean it's it's interesting because like you know, if I lived in Berlin now at 44, it would be completely different than when I was living there in my like late 20s, early 30s. I don't I definitely don't think I would have been I would be partying as much. I don't think I would have been uh you know uh getting a taste of what technoculture is like as much hands-on. Um but yeah, I don't know, you know, for for me at the time it was very impactful, especially um, you know, given the nature of like where electronic music culture was at in the states at the time. Yeah. Um it just felt really good for me to be enveloped in this like really rich and constantly evolving and and fresh hub for electronic music. You know, obviously people think of like Berlin being associated with techno, and of course it is, but there was so much other things going on there and so many innovative uh electronic music artists there, and and even club nights designed for artists that were doing music outside of the the techno realm, but still with these like magnificent uh sound systems. Um, I mean you know, you even have people like rhythm and sound that are are do you know would have these like big sound system kind of events, and um yeah, so it it just felt really good for me to be around my people at the time. You know, uh I I moved from New York to Berlin and there was definitely like there's obviously like a really healthy scene in New York at the time, but it was a bit narrow. You know, there was you know, obviously house music and and a lot of like dance music type forms, but then there a lot of the music that I was into at the time was uh UK based and still kind of is. It's uh I've always had that kind of connection to UK uh uh music since I was a kid, and yeah, there was uh a bit of that missing, especially just elsewhere in the United States, but New York at least I I got some sort of taste of of you know things that weren't that already bastardized by uh American newcoming EDM artists that were um you know experimenting with dubstep at the time. And I I think yeah, the the term was bro step, I guess.

Paul 16:46

I I remember that term only too painfully well. Yeah.

Travis 16:50

Yeah, and uh not to say that there wasn't that coming out of the UK either, but um it was definitely very popular in the US. So that being said, you know, I I loved New York, but anytime I would play outside of New York, it would just I I felt like I just people weren't really getting it. Um so I moved to Berlin and you know obviously Berlin was cool, but the just being in that centrific hub and being able to like you know boun bounce around and and play shows all over Europe. It was so easy to like and cheap to fly out of Berlin to uh basically anywhere in Europe and and actually play shows for people that uh appreciated what I was doing. Now, fast forward to now, things are completely different in the US. Uh something happened during the pandemic where some suddenly kids love fast music, and um I'm getting booked all the time now, and people are really appreciating uh my faster BPMs and uh heavier kind of um very chaotic rhythms and um this sort of like experimental nature of what I do. So um

Post-Pandemic Taste For Fast Music

Travis 18:02

yeah, I feel welcomed in my homeland.

Paul 18:05

That's great. I mean, I think that we can kind of see that the pandemic, there's quite clearly in my mind, anyway, like a need people had for faster music coming out of that. But also in terms of like experimental music, more experimental and underground approaches, which you've always personified. What do you think it was the the people uh that your audience in America were craving about the the more experimental and underground sound, like particularly after, as we say in the the bro step and which is still going on, but aside from that you know, I can only um theorize at this point.

Travis 18:47

Um I I've I feel like you know, with a lot of people that period of solitude and and uh introspection led to a lot of research, especially anybody that had even like a modicum of interest in in something and they didn't really have time before to really dig deep. And I knew this period was going to come, whether it took a global pandemic to usher it in or not. But you know, I I always like had faith that at least in the early 2010s I saw the shift was happening in America. There was more of a youth culture that was uh embracing electronic music and growing up a lot around electronic music, even if you weren't living in a major city. And so I knew it was only a matter of time that these kids would eventually start doing more research and like learning more about like the roots of a lot of um where these different sounds and and genres came from and start to dig deeper. And I think that really just multiplied um almost exponentially, maybe during the the pandemic of people just having deep interest in like discovering things outside of the American bubble of EDM that was there. And and even newcomers to electronic music at that time just had just this plethora of information and you know, like YouTube channels out there that are doing like um deep dives into certain genres, and you know, there's just a uh a lot more information out there, whereas when I was younger, I would have to like actively search it out, you know, or meet people that could inform me on certain things or like find rare documentaries that I would have to special order a VHS tape from the UK to even like find out like what some of my favorite artists even look like. Probably something like that was going on, I think.

Paul 21:00

I I I I mean again I can only theorize as well, but I I would I agree with that in terms of what I've seen and experienced, and maybe in that sense we can give Bro Step a little bit of credit for being the gateway drug. Like I think left-field club culture is very accessible to the people that have access to it naturally. You know, if you grow up in a region where there is a scene, then that's gonna be your entry point. But I think to so many people that don't have that proximity to something like footwork or or two-step garage or whatever style it is, then it does take a little bit of getting used to. It was like when I got into rock music, it was like Hendricks, who's amazing, but that was like the gateway drug. And then eventually I got into can, but it took a lot of like I couldn't jump straight into can, you know. I I've I think you have to go on a little process, and like you're saying, with the pandemic, it probably Created that sort of space where people just had all of that time at home to and YouTube to just really educate themselves on everything or find something that they feel they connect with that's a little bit deeper than they would have perhaps reached otherwise.

Travis 22:17

Or maybe just even accelerate the process of having all of that extra time that maybe they were already on that path, but it just you know shot up during that time of just like instant discovery and just like having the free time to like learn about new things. But yeah, I mean, I even going back to what you were saying about bro step specifically. I I hate that we're gonna keep using that term on this podcast, but hey, you know what? Let's give props to it. Let's uh you know, to your point, um even the nature of that kind of music lends to uh uh sort of creating this taste uh or or understanding of sound design because that is more or less like the appeal of bro step or these you know harder forms of dub step. It was just like how crazy can you make the bass sound and how like like who was making the the craziest sound and most like attention grabbing who had the most attention grabbing uh beats at the time, you know, and uh and I think that div helped you develop an ear of like listening for things that are more experimental at the end of the day. Um I mean you even like you you look at some of those earlier artists like Skrillex who ushered in that sort of movement in the US and to see like all of the forms of of music that he's in embraced since then and like has has ushered in other movements within the electronic music world in the US um by embracing artists from a wider percentage of uh types of electronic music.

Paul 24:07

Yeah, no, definitely, definitely. So I think um I think we have to be careful about not giving any more props to Brostep because uh but no, it's good. It's good, it's good to uh I think it's good to kind of see that as what it is, or you know, look at it in that way. And

Veteran Status And Creative Pivots

Paul 24:23

um what I think is really interesting turning round to you now is uh so you've got Blooms coming out. Um it's mad to think that it's been 25 years or around about 25 years since the first machine drum release, you know, and that's not even when you started making music. So I think for someone who's always managed to sound so kind of fresh, it's crazy to think that technically now you're a veteran. How does that sort of affect you? That idea that you know you're no longer like the new guard, even though you're making music that still rests within the new guard and is still quite often like a step or two ahead. Do you feel like an authority figure, or are you still fresh with the optimism and daisiness of youth?

Travis 25:15

Yeah, you know, the the more you grow into your career, the more you start learning about imposter syndrome and and maybe like what certain thought patterns are going on in your head regarding like your status in the world and like maybe like how people perceive you, or you know, so there's a lot of times, especially you know, when I'm in between tours and kind of just like in creative mode, it's hard for me to have that perspective that like there's any I have any kind of authority in what I'm doing and and saying and and and putting out there. It's I I I think in regards to staying fresh, I'm just constantly excited by music, and I've always found it to be really important to follow my excitement, see where it leads me, even if that's discovering something really old or new, just doing it because I'm genuinely excited about it and want to like see where it leads me. And um, I think staying consistent with that has always, you know, given me some sort of fresh edge over maybe some artists that were fresh at one time but then kind of stayed on the same path forever. Sometimes that really works for people and they manage to like kind of continue that sound that they developed at a time and just take that, you know, uh uh perpetually like through throughout their career and it and it always works out for them. But for me, it's you know, it's been a double-edged sword in that uh a lot of times I can alienate sort of like a fan base that I've started growing because I take these pivots in sound. Uh, but on the other hand, I still do have a lot of die hard fans that are there for me every step of the way, and they recognize the the steps that I've uh how I've gotten from here to here to here, and how like made the connections that maybe I haven't even made, you know, just from talking to people at shows or seeing like feedback online or or or whatever on on my Discord or even talking personally with people on on Patreon, it's very um endearing to know that people are following along the journey, uh, again, probably even better than than I'm conscious of, and and connecting the dots. Um but yeah, in that same sense of like it being a double-edged sword, it's like, yes, there is that sort of potential alienation that goes on, but then there's also this longevity aspect that I feel like I could just keep doing this um through the rest of my days because of of this like endless need to explore and to like discover what excites me at the time and and kind of follow those pathways.

Paul 28:29

Yeah, I mean that sense of wanting to find constant enthusiasm, having this kind of constant enthusiasm to want to explore, as we get older, we do sometimes find we have these like natural conservative, small c conservative tendencies that kind of come up. Like I find I get them sometimes, and uh to check in with myself a little bit about them. I mean, for you, do these manifest at all? And and if so, do you have like ways that you step out of this kind of thinking and back into the thinking that you know is more useful and positive and conductive for your practice?

Travis 29:11

Um

Limitations That Protect The Process

Travis 29:12

yeah, I think in in general, like maybe the only way I end up finding myself in conservative patterns is that I do get kind of stuck in my ways when it comes to the process behind what I do. Like if I think back even 10 years ago, my process wasn't really that different as far as like how how I'm creating music. And maybe before then there was I I can like think back to like little pockets of time where I was like, you know what, I'm gonna try this now, or you know, I'm gonna stop using the software and use this one instead. And then yeah, as I got older, I kind of like leaned into you know, like one specific way of doing it. That being said, I do tend to come up with like restraints or frameworks for new projects so that I do kind of challenge myself when it comes to making like a new album or or a new uh EP or whatever it is. And you know, for for example, with my last album, 3 for 82, I had this like whole very specific like framework as to how I was going to make the the album, which actually, funnily enough, like was tapping back into older processes of like using um software that I used when I was in high school and and early college years to generate all of the sounds for me to use with my new kind of process of using um you know Ableton Live to create everything and arrange everything. But but you know, not only did I have like this like strict rule set for like what sounds I could use, but you know, there's also you know, uh like I had rules for how many times I could listen to a bounced demo of something so that I wouldn't end up having some sort of like demo itis type thing that would uh come along with it where I would just get stuck on an older version of something because I listened to it to death. But you know, there was there's various things like that, and even with the vocalists that I work with on the album, I was you know, um trying to be conscious of like lyrically, like how everything would be cohesive between songs rather than it just feeling like a bunch of features talking about whatever random thing that they wanted to talk about. Um yeah, so uh I think even though I do get stuck into a certain like way of um approaching writing music, I try to be conscious of like changing it up in that I create like rule sets or or some sort of parameters or um what's the word I'm looking for? Yeah, it's just like some something to to create some some kind of uh friction in a way, self-imposed friction, especially with the nature of what I do and and and and even with you know using Ableton Live, it there's almost like an infinite amount of directions you can go. So I I find it very helpful to create those kind of limitations. That was the word I was looking for.

Paul 32:33

Limitations, yeah. I I think that's been like one of the must be one of the biggest changes from when you started making music at a very young age to now is the the difference between like then having all of these limitations just technically in in what you've got and now just the unlimitless. Um, and so you mentioned there about you having certain kinds of limitations that you put in place, certain rules. Have you have you ever been in situations where you've felt the opposite end, like the kind of overwhelmingness of like, okay, how do I the gut the blank paper kind of feeling?

Travis 33:08

Yeah, I think if anything, this current project blooms. I I definitely had more of a free kind of approach to it, in that I didn't have this like strict rule set that I imposed on myself. At the same time, a lot of what I learned through the process of the previous album kind of carried over into this one, and not in the way that I had to like stick to the rules, but they just became kind of inherently part of my new process. Uh, for example, a lot of those same instruments that I built, um, the virtual instruments that I built for the last album, I I had this realization when I was writing 3 for 82 that I'm probably gonna use those instruments like forever because they're essentially connected to like the core of who I am and and my origins as a uh musician and and uh electronic artist, specifically in in the the timbre of those sounds and how they're nostalgic for me, but also there there's just something so uh uh like easy about it that that just feels natural and and uh which leads to expressing myself uh very easily when it comes to like writing new melodies or uh progressions as compared to like getting some new synth plug-in that I'm definitely having fun exploring and and learning about like how it works and you know maybe that becomes a discovery in itself, but at the same time, I I find that that that lends to less of a songwriting type of thing and more to like a sound design, like creating inspiration kind of thing. Um, so yeah, I've I I found that like uh I I've created a nice template for me to like work with for the next few years. I I don't really see an end to it at this at this point.

Paul 35:23

Would you say that they've become like part of your identity um in the same way that when we get like a certain like haircut, and as a maybe a stupid example, but like a sort of a the haircut that works for us, we tend to sort of yeah, we maybe get variations on it, but we know that for the next period of a few years this is gonna work, other fit other things can change, you know. Maybe there's certain things in the kitchen that are the same where you know you can have the chaos, but you do need the these other things do represent part of you. Would you say it's a little bit like part of your identity?

Travis 35:58

Yeah, I I think that's kind of spot on um the the metaphor. Uh even makes me think like literally back to in my 20s and early 30s, how I would try different hairstyles or even clothing styles or different, you know, like uh it almost like aligned itself to even different kind of periods of approach to writing music or or things that I was excited about. And then yeah, the older I I've gotten, I've the kind of leaned into like one thing. There was a period there that where I started growing my hair long again uh in the late 2010s. And um I was at some point in um post-pandemic, I was like, what am I doing here? I'm going back to my origin origins, my short hair.

Paul 36:52

I think a lot of people, I think I did that as well during the pandemic. I think probably was not being able to find a good hairdresser that was open, but also a little bit of just like it that felt like everyone we were all going back to we're all going back to something as well as going forward, you know.

Travis 37:07

Yeah, exactly. But it wasn't working for me, so I I abandoned it. And I guess you could say the same for um, yeah, like uh how you approach your creative process.

Paul 37:18

Yeah, yeah. And

Childhood Recording And World Building

Paul 37:20

interesting sort of make it talking about these instruments then the and the the the nostalgic factor, because I wanted to sort of tap a little bit into your origin story because like I mean, different magazines, different articles, different things about you say different things, it's always the way it is. But so I wanted to sort of just see if it was true that you apparently you were kind of recording from about around the ages of five or six. Is that true?

Travis 37:46

Um, yeah, just you know, I would go over to my uh grandfather's place, who is still with us uh to this day. Um love him so much. Uh just called him for his birthday last week.

Paul 38:01

Oh, bless. How old is he if you don't mind?

Travis 38:03

Uh he turned he turned 93. Yeah. Um, so he's he's up there. Um, but he's still with it and very much can like have a lot of banter with me when it comes to music and touring because he, you know, that that's a lot of what he did when he was younger, um, you know, with country music, he he would tour uh playing the the pedal steel, uh, and he was even a singer and songwriter. So we could totally relate on that level. But yeah, growing up, uh, I would spend pretty much every weekend at his house and you know, go into his studio and play around with his drum machines that he really just had to like keep tempo while he was practicing. But of course, I would like figure out you could turn a tempo knob and make it like go super fast or you know, like press buttons a bunch, and it would kind of like make sounds it wasn't really supposed to, uh just uh having that childlike approach to his things that were just uh meant to be very utilitarian. Um and you know, he also had uh like a four-track tape recorder that uh he showed me how to use and uh I would play like fun little things on the guitar, uh, even though I didn't know how to play. But you know, learning that I could record myself from an early age, I I think definitely planted something in my brain that um there was a way to get out any like ideas that I had in in my head and like put them down somewhere was like very important to me. It was between that and like you know, I was like maybe not when I was five or six, but definitely like uh when I was like around age nine or ten, was like really into video games, and I would fill up notebooks with so many video game ideas, just like full maps of levels and character development, the inventory, like it's as in-depth as I could could get, and there there was just something about like being able to record like these ideas from my head onto something that was like uh very exciting for me, and just being able to like create worlds uh in a way, and I think that that was sort of yeah, the initial interest uh with recording.

Paul 40:30

It's interesting seeing that because it was talking about creating worlds, because there is this aspect with uh quite a big part of the music that you do of like creating worlds, like for example, Vapor City, the 2013 album. Um, there was this whole kind of concept around it. It was very much like a world or or a city. Do you feel that that's something that's always with you? This idea that now that you know it's not just the music, it's like something that you can kind of climb into or you know, something you can vision in a certain way.

Travis 41:02

Yeah, definitely. And and I think of uh a lot of my favorite albums from other artists kind of have that same feeling, whether they're intending it or not. I think that when when you release an album, it's kind of uh just capturing where someone's head was at at a certain time and and what they were going through, what they were listening to. Uh so in a sense, even without it being conceptual, people are capturing these worlds essentially within their work. And I think I started leaning more into being intentional about that with uh Vapor City and recognize like how just having that intention behind the music was actually like even more inspiring to me and and kind of like gave me more fuel to continue like building new worlds with with new records. Even if I had been doing that before, I was way more conscious of it now. And um, especially once I started like recognizing that initial childlike uh excitement about developing those worlds when I was a kid, like uh the like video game ideas and like really thinking about uh how I could um yeah, create some sort of like fantastical other realm outside of like my own reality.

Paul 42:34

Yeah, yeah. And and on another note, on Vapor City, I was actually like listening back to it again this morning just to kind of re-get in the zone of your your work, you know. And one of the things that really surprised me, because I hadn't listened to it for quite a while, was just like how it didn't feel like it was totally. I think a lot of electronic music, you go back to even great albums and they feel very much of their time, you know, and for good or bad. And and Vapor City sounded very timeless to me, you know, it sounded like it could kind of come out now, it even though you could still see see, like, oh yes, I remember that kind of feeling in 2012, 2013. It doesn't, it didn't feel like a timepiece. Um, and I was wondering if that is a conscious thing for you when you're making music, because electronic music has such a so many subgenres are sort of springing out and combinations are continually, it's continually mutating and being alive. Is that where, you know, is I don't know if it's the if a concern is the right way of asking, but like, is that a thing for you to make music that extends beyond like whatever you're listening to now or feeling now and making something that has like got a timeless element to it? Or do you feel like that that's something that where we can never really perhaps. Have too much of a foot in or be too concerned with, you know, because the music does stand up, you know, it does have that timeless feel to it.

Travis 44:09

Yeah, I mean, I'd be curious if anybody actually thought what they were making at the time was like, oh, this this is timeless, you know what I mean? Like, uh or I mean that there could be that realization, like uh like at after the fact and and kind of listening to it and being like, oh man, like I've really done something here that that could really stand the test of time. But for me, it's like I could specifically look back to Vapor City and know what was going on at the time and how I arrived at that sound. But to your point, you know, I am discovering new artists now that are making very similar music, whether they were inspired by that or not, that uh people are are gravitating toward or you know, it's becoming like a popular sound or whatever. And yeah, I mean, it it does, you know, give me some kind of um validation that when I do just kind of trust my intuition and and and follow my excitement when it comes to like discovery and and embracing my influences, that every now and then that combination just kind of works out. Um, even if I am being very specific at the time about like certain things that are of the time and and how they're uh influencing my work, uh I think you know sometimes those combinations will firmly plant you into a certain time period and you can listen to it and be and it's very obvious to many people of like what you were trying to get at, and then other times maybe those combinations just create its own beautiful amalgamation of like what your like ultimate sound is, and um you know I've even found maybe not so intentionally, but like a lot of my recent stuff uh music has been kind of tapping into that sort of era that I was experimenting with at the time, and I'm even having a lot of people like I I kind of felt like maybe that's what was going on, and then as I've been rolling out some of these singles, uh a lot of the feedback I've been seeing is like uh finally the Vapor Cities era has returned, and I'm like, oh that's fine. That that is that is kind of a uh a sort of critique. Uh I don't even know if it's a critique, but maybe like a yearning that I I do get from people where they're like, oh man, I just wish he would just keep doing that Vapor City sound or however they're gonna say it.

Paul 46:48

Yeah, but it's weird because I guess when that bus comes round again, it's because it's naturally come round, not because people have asked for it.

Travis 46:56

Exactly. I mean, I I even think back to and and I use this example uh a lot when you know I receive this critique or whatever you want to call it. When I discovered that sound for myself, that Vapor City sound, it came from the same process of following my excitement, seeing like how I can combine different things that I'm listening to at the time. And you know, I I there there wasn't as much of a conscious effort to like create, I was like, you know, ultimately leading up to that sound in in a way that I was like being very intentional about. Like, I mean, yes, you can again, like some people probably better at it than I am, but you can maybe connect the dots between like my first few albums and and how it led to Vapor City, but yeah, I don't think an album like Vapor City would have happened if I had just kept following a certain sound that people were resonating with before then, because there were sounds, and and and even at the time of Vapor City, I do specifically remember getting some sort of negative feedback from early, early fans that just wanted me to keep making glitchy hip-hop kind of stuff or IDM, like whatever you you you want to call it, or or even getting like way more specific about other side projects that I had, and were like, I wish you just made music like that. And it's like if I had listened to any of those voices like too much, I don't think Vapor City would have ever happened, and so that's kind of like what I always say to people. I'm like, well, just let me do my thing because maybe I'll land on something that you like at a certain point.

Paul 48:42

Definitely, definitely, definitely. If

Independence After Ninja Tune

Paul 48:45

I think, yeah, because it's interesting you're saying that there's that sort of element of coming back to that with blooms. Um, there's I think there's a few interesting things there that you know we could dig into. Like, for example, like a lot of your recent work has been more collaborative, and there's been a lot more like features on records and releases with blooms. That's mostly stripped away. It's also your first independent release for quite a few years. There's a lot to sort of indicate that you know, from a pundit's point of view, that there's a little bit of a reset going on.

Travis 49:16

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is kind of my um return to independence era, I guess you could say. Um, a lot a lot of factors kind of converged at the same time, you know, me doing my fourth of four albums with Ninja Tune, and we both haven't like actively reached out to each other to be like, hey, should we do something else again? There's just sort of, you know, like a quiet period there after the I mean, technically, you know, the last thing I did with them was was only a year ago, anyway, with the the remix album. So, you know, it doesn't feel like there's been a a ton of time. Well, actually, the way I do feel about it, I I do feel like the past year of me embracing this newfound independence has felt like a long time. Um, just you know, between like not having a label, um, not having management. Uh, you know, I was working with the same manager for about eight years, and then we parted ways in uh uh late 2024. And so there's been a lot of just kind of kind of finding like who I am amidst all the silence of like other voices, because like you know, even though Ninja Tune gave me a lot of freedom at the end of the day, they were would would always like be very um conscious of saying like at the end of the day, it's like whatever you want to do is fine, but you know, I'm like a very sensitive, empathetic person, and you know, if I have an A and R saying, we really think you should be doing this, it's gonna plant something in my head that it does something psych psychologically to me to make especially if they're very enthusiastic about it and like, oh, we really, really love this, and we really think you could go far with this, but do what you want. But you know, that's you know, we really think that this could go far. And then I'm like, Oh yeah, okay, let's see what happens. Um I I sometimes, you know, maybe regret isn't the right word, but um would be curious if I like where things would have led me if I had the wherewithal to kind of stand my ground on on certain things, like for example, you know, going back to the Vapor City thing, um, I did more or less create a follow-up to Vapor City after that album came out. So it was in between Vapor City and Human Energy, there was uh a body of work that felt like a continuation of that sound. Now, to be fair, the critiques that I was getting from the label was that I it to them it didn't feel like I was taking like a step up from that. It just felt like like a continuation, and that kind of stuck with me and made me at the end of the day lit a fire under me that made me want to try to explore something different and get out of my own way. And and even when I listened back to it, the the music that I was making then didn't really sound like above and beyond what I was doing with Vapor City, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you know, I I I do appreciate you know the feedback that I was getting. But um, with all that said, not having those voices now has led to a lot of decision making, I think, that I wouldn't have made previously. Um, not just in regards to stylistic choices or creative choices, but even to like the release strategy and and and how I want to structure it. And, you know, for example, doing these like pre-release drops, like before streaming, you know, just like really kind of like tapping into doing direct to fan kind of um like building more of that relationship as opposed to like appeasing the streaming overlords and and giving them exclusivity. Like those are things that I don't think I really could have gotten away with with Ninja Tune. Um, I think maybe even I had suggested at certain points, like, hey, could we try this or could we try that? And they're sort of like, you know what, we got our our thing, it works. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, uh, kind of thing. And for me, it's like I I get really excited about taking risks and and trying new things, especially this day and age with you know, there's a lot more disruptors um coming out in the industry that are trying to fight back uh against the system that we've kind of found ourselves in where music is devalued, um just creativity in general is devalued, or or it's the the value has shifted into like content or or whatever, like creating a a service of entertainment that lives outside of any sort of like monetized way of making a a living, essentially, unless you're like just selling your face and your your image and and like a sort of um like clown show, essentially, like uh trying to entertain people like you've uh you're on TV or something. Um, so I I I am you know embracing that and like trying different things with releases and trying different formats, you know, like with this um with the floppy disk USB thing, which funnily enough, Sean from Ninja Tune, who makes a lot of their like production decisions and manufacturing decisions and packaging, you know, I was um continuing to s uh to speak with him, and he was like giving me some ideas and was like, hey, here's a cool idea. Like especially like once I told him like the the whole idea behind the EP or mini LP and sort of the aesthetic behind it, uh it being like sort of like leaning into like embracing my earlier nerdiness and like kind of like archaic kind of data sort of aesthetic thing that was going on. He was like, Hey, I've just recently saw that uh um this one company was doing floppy disk USBs. I was like, Oh, that's sick. And uh, you know, and so it's it it's cool um to still be connected to to some of those people and to feel their support even after you know I'm not uh with Ninja Tune anymore. Uh I still feel you know greatly supported and and uh encouraged to keep on this um independent journey.

Paul 56:10

Yeah, and it it's really nice to hear those thoughts that there's like you know, that it seems like you a lot of things that you think about in in different ways. There's a lot of uh the pros and cons. And um what you were mentioning about like this kind of hyper acceleration of the sort of algorithmic qualities of the industry.

Authentic Marketing Without Selling Out

Paul 56:31

There's something I've been I think we all experience if we're involved with music in our own different ways. You know, I don't know if you've read Liz Pelley's book, Mood Machine, which is about like the inside of Spotify and how that platform's been built up through basically being an advertising agency and and how it's like devalued artists. It's all stuff that we know, but she just manages to articulate the kind of uh the investigative journalism behind what is what is built up, you know. And it's interesting what you were saying about like how you've been able to reach out to like your community more directly now you're independent, and is the sort of algorithmic nature of I think you mentioned about like all having to dress up in clown outfits. Um, do you feel that that is a threat to what you do?

Travis 57:22

Well, I think at the end of the day, um, you know, even what you were getting at with Spotify being just this advertising machine, like you have to look at these things as just marketing. And that was kind of even my approach with doing these pre-digital download only releases, and then thinking about once it does hit streaming, it's less about it becoming like my source of income and more like a marketing strategy and just being able to like spread um, you know, uh get new fans and and like uh uh be able for for people to discover my music in that way because that is how a lot of people discover music these days. Um, so I look at the the cloud show of uh social media uh as also an extension of that. It's essentially just getting the word out about your music, and you know, I've embraced some of the things that I in the past vehemently did not like and just avoided like the plague as far as like being like having my face on camera and kind of uh connecting with people in that way and and and trying to like let people know about my music or shows or whatever it might be at the time. There there was definitely a long period of time where I was like, I'm not doing any of that, like that's not me. I'm gonna be Apex Twin, I'm gonna be hidden, no one's gonna ever like maybe they'll get like a little like archaic blurb every now and then to kind of further confuse people as to like my identity. But then I recognize okay, I'm not Apex twin. Maybe I do need to like find ways to get excited about helping people discover my music and helping people connect to it, even if it's not necessarily the way I'd like them to. Um, I can't really control that at the end of the day. And um the most important thing is for me to get get the word out as much as I can, and and and if that involves me stepping outside of my comfort zone and trying new things to do that on a uh marketing kind of angle, then I'm I'm gonna do that. And and again, like try to find ways that feel more authentic and less forced. Because at the end of the day, I think there was there was a sort of early period of of social media where you didn't really have to be authentic, and almost like the least authentic you were, the more like you could connect with people because you're just being bombastic and um just trying to like say, hey, look over here, kind of thing. But now I think we have entered a period of time where people gravitate towards authenticity, and so finding ways that I can be more authentic in the way that I market myself and and uh could continue like growing the brand, even though it's it feels very cringy saying that. It's like really uh I'm embracing a lot of that stuff now, especially now that I have this like new independence and I don't have a team of 20 people that are thinking about that stuff for me. Um it's honestly kind of exciting, and and I do get nerdy and granular about all the details, and and I'm a very systems-based kind of person when it comes to not just my creative output, but just in how I organize my career and like everything that I have going on. And now I've like really had to embrace that, especially like self-releasing music and even doing this sort of like more independent model of touring that I've been doing recently with like people buying tickets directly from me as opposed to like through a ticketing company. I it's made me embrace uh the the systematic approach of like gathering all this data and like being able to look at it and and just having more insight that I didn't really have before. It's intriguing to me, and and it doesn't necessarily affect well, I it's it's hard to say right now, it's very early on, but I haven't noticed it necessarily affect my creative output. Yeah, but it is uh very insightful in the ways that I can iterate my approach to marketing or like getting the word out, um, which at the end of the day, that's ultimately what I want to do. The music is bigger than myself. I want to share it because I feel like I'm a channel for something that's greater than me. And, you know, when I see the reactions from people that say that my music has helped them through a really tough period in their life or you know, helped inspire them, like want to make music for the first time in their lives. Um, and people just sharing these like really heartfelt stories of like the healing nature of the music, that gives me even more purpose to like make sure as many people are hearing it as possible, not in a way that like it's going to fuel my ego, but more in that it's just it feels like a bigger, like important mission. So I have to like think about that too when um there comes that like sort of inner resistance to not putting myself out there to like market my own music, and uh even if it it feels like a little cringy saying that, like all these sort of uh I don't know, business like terms when you're thinking about like your soul, essentially, which is your music, uh when I do have that disconnection or um not disconnection but more detachment of it of the music being like me, it does become easier for me to like think about like how I can like market it or or whatever.

Paul 1:03:26

Yeah,

Advice To Younger Travis

Paul 1:03:27

that's just a beautiful answer. And and just finally, if you could go back and tell the young Travis, just as you were about to settle on machine drum as your moniker rather than other aliases, um at the turn of the millennium, let's say, what would you what would you what's the one piece of advice that you would tell yourself?

Travis 1:03:52

Uh maybe think about your name a little bit harder. Uh don't just land on the first thing that comes to you. Um no, no, it's fine. I've in embrace the uh generic nature of it. I mean, you you think of uh the Beatles and like how how they must have happened upon that name, um, and how it never at the end of the day, no one was like, I'm not listening to them. That's that's such a contrived name. Like the Beatles, come on, yeah. I'm sure they probably got that, but uh no, but I I I think uh really just um you know and my last album was really an exploration of exactly what we're talking about right now, like kind of sending a a love letter or message of encouragement to my younger self to just know that through the tough times of like thinking or overthinking, or or maybe even just um second guessing myself and thinking like what am I doing? Like, I don't think anybody's ever going to understand my music. I don't think I have an audience for this, you know, the the really low times, which there were a lot of in that early period, especially being a young electronic music artist in uh the Americas before you know it was really embraced um culturally here, to to just let that that kid know to keep sticking with it because I'm gonna do things that are above and beyond what I even think I'm capable of at that time, and to just um keep keep my head up and and and keep um believing in the vision and trusting my intuition.

Paul 1:05:48

Great answer. And I think that's something that I think resonates probably with a lot of people, you know, at different and also not just when they're young as well, at different points in their life. I think it's definitely something we have to check back in, you know. Each time we level up or our situation changes, there's a little bit of like, am I doing the right thing? You know, am I sure about this? Do I even need to be sure about this? You know, where do I put the next foot? So yeah. Um thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing your time with me there. That's great, thank you. Of course, thank you for having me. This is a pleasure. Okay, so that was me, Paul Hamford, talking with Travis Stewart, aka Machine Trump for the Lost and Sound Podcast. And we had that conversation on May the 12th, 2026. Thank you so much, Travis, for sharing your time and thoughts with me there. And the album Blooms is already out, and it's on his own I am S I Am label. I I really I know I I I know I've pronounced that wrong, right? But it's Sunday afternoon and and yeah, yeah, you know, in Germany you're not even supposed to work on Sundays, so I I I feel like I'm being a little bit cheeky, sort of sitting on a bench. I'm right by a church as well, actually, where you know that's like the foundation if you shouldn't work on a Sunday. Obviously, it's totally hypocritical uh and full of shit because like people in cafes and restaurants and service people, people in hospitals work on Sundays. So people who do important stuff working are working right now. And so me sat on a bench is is is perfectly fine talking to you anyway. Yes. If you like the show and you haven't already, please give it a subscribe, give the show a rating and a review on the platform of your choice. It really, really, really, really does help. Um, you can follow me on the socials at Paul Hamford on Instagram or my Substack, Lost and Sound Substack. Yeah. That was it. I hope whatever you're doing, you're having a really lovely day today. And I'll chat to you through Lost and Sound in a month's time. All right. Have a good one.