Monday Commute (016) - Champ Fresnel

Champ Fresnel on the pod this week — hailing from Australia, Charlie packed his bags and moved stateside to chase the American dream. We get into adjusting to life in California, making music outside of trends, and why Aussies seem to be so efficient at putting out quality music.

Champ Links:
https://www.instagram.com/champfresnel?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7h9VJ9ln1N6Micnp9WmYPA?si=Vf7T4ECLS4qv-6EuFZrlXw
https://on.soundcloud.com/VbBtYbaeuP8mDnOcWo

Ian Myers links:
https://www.instagram.com/ianmyers_official/?hl=en

Monday Commute on IG:
https://www.instagram.com/mondaycommutepodcast/?igsh=MWpqczVmcjM4MHdvaw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Monday Commute on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@MondayCommutePodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Alright, sweet, we're live. Wow. Welcome. Good sir.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

On the orange couch.

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Uh thanks for doing this. Yeah, no worries. This was like kind of kind of last minute, but hey.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

We made it happen.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Yeah. Um this is a beautiful place. Thanks for hosting us.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Hey, no worries. It's yeah, it's a cool little spot we've got here.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Um remind me of your artist's name again.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Champ Fresnel.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Champ Fresnel.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Yeah, it's an anagram for French sample, because I like the way they do that.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

It's an anagram of a French sample?

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Like the words French sample, yeah. So it's taking all those letters, swapping them around, you get Champ Fresnel, and that's when I could not be fucked to think of a DJ name any longer. I'm like, yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

So you didn't have like an alias before that?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Uh no, I had a different alias uh for a while before that, and then before that I was just releasing not great music just under my own name, like when I first started dabbling in it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Yeah, yeah. I'm just rocking the the government name.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah. It's it's it's probably the way to go. If you can stand by your music, keep rocking the government name.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Yeah. Cause I don't know. I just like when I would introduce myself to people, I just felt weird introducing myself like as an A. I'm Nighthawk, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I'm Batman. Yeah, exactly. Uh no, yeah. We can get into uh we were talking about earlier you coming from Australia. I kind of wanted to ask you just your experience being over overseas away from home. Yeah. Um because you haven't been here for that long.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

I mean, yeah, it's it's it on one hand it's really cool and different because like I feel like if you just do the same thing every day for life, suddenly life might be over. So if you keep filling your brain and everything and life with new experiences, um that makes each moment more memorable, you know. So being here, it's a whole new experience every day still. Uh like it hasn't felt like routine at all, and that's been really, really awesome and and slightly weird and different, you know, because it's like outside of just living back home and having all my friends and family and comfort there, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

So what was the I guess the catalyst for you coming over to the States?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Um it was always in the back of my head for a while. I used to have a different career completely and just make music after work at night. And at some point I had a friend that passed away, it was really sad, but it made me realize that um we're all pretty mortal. Maybe I'm not gonna be uploaded and live forever. And if I want to do something, I should probably do it now. Um so started working on making that happen and like slowly just put more and more time into making music and getting connections and like a support network over here in in America. Um and yeah, it it just it took a while, but we got there, you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Yeah, and then what were you uh I guess doing before you kind of I guess did music full time?

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Yeah, uh so I worked in property development um on behalf of like a a private company or a builder or a client or something like that, um, doing the project management from the start of like finding the land to building and handing over the keys. Um it was a fun it's like a bit of a game, it's really fun, you know. You just gotta work out what the rules are and then kind of do that within what you can.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

Yeah. Um and then you were just doing music on the side.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yeah. So I used to be like a uh a DJ when I was a kid, around 18, 19. Me and my friend, uh he had some turntables, then CDJs in his basement. So we used to smoke cigarettes down there and play happy hardcore music. Uh and also like played saxophone and and guitar and whatnot as a kid as well. So I was really into music forever. And then at some point I'm like, uh, maybe I should work out how to get a job and you know, work a corporate life, and then got really bored of that at some point, you know. Um so it's come back around.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Yeah, as we all do. Yeah. Um so you flew over here, um, went through all the headache of getting your all your papers and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yeah, yeah, they don't make it easy.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Um have you got to I was kind of just going through your Instagram seeing like past shows and stuff. What have you have you gotten to play um some gigs out here?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Gotten to play a few really fun things. Um both like at friends' houses and clubs and like some stuff down in San Diego, and then like um played EDC a couple of times on the R car as well, and that's been like I mean it's addicting to DJ. And like seeing people dance to music that you maybe made at an airport or in your bedroom or in a studio or whatever is is amazing. And like someone connecting with something that you put out in there in the universe is um a feeling everyone should experience, no matter what form of art or or that is, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Yeah, can you pull the mic up? Oh yeah. I should know this. Yeah, there's like ten microphones behind the the camera. Um yeah, and then have you gotten to experience the LA that's how we met, first of all. Was that a like LA kind of after after hours thing? Yeah. Have you gotten to kind of experience like that side of things?

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah, we have. It's been really cool. Um just stepping back, it reminds me of like the first time we came to LA in like 2015. Me and my now wife didn't realize you guys had like a 2 a.m. no more drinking law, and that was baffling to me because I'm like, nah, surely LA is like a global city, they they wouldn't have that shit. Like Sydney has that shit where I'm from. That's that's like a weird thing. So we got locked out of our Airbnb and and didn't know where to go and whatnot, and didn't know that there was this whole after scene that was possible at the time. So I ended up in some fucking diner and back and forth in Ubers and whatnot. Um but since getting here a bit more and and seeing all that, it's really cool to see the underground like is still thriving. There's still like a a really good party scene that's happening there, kind of in the shadows of of society. Um more and more in the open, which is cool because more people get to know about it and go, but bad because maybe they're getting shut down. But I don't know, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

But do they have I guess after hours type things in Australia?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

I mean, yes, but like no. When when I was a kid there it was um 24 hour city, you know, there was always things open, everything like that. So there wasn't really an after hours culture other than like, hey, we're had too many drinks tonight, maybe we should go back to someone's house and and kick it there, you know. Um they're called kick-ons, they're very fun. But there's always been like an underground warehouse scene anyway. So like instead of it being like late night, it's like that's where you're gonna go spend your night. There's nowhere to go before that. Like you're just spending your night in the warehouse tonight listening to music and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

So there's no there's no alcohol like cut-off laws in Australia? I mean in the big cities there are?

SPEAKER_00 6:42

There was. So at some point they decided to bring in the lockout law after having a little bit of violence in King's Cross in Sydney, um, and also probably wanting to redevelop all the clubs there into apartments. Um, and then successfully did redevelop everything into apartments and then repealed the laws.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, that's how old is now. It's just all apartment buildings.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah, but there's there's a thriving scene there again now, you know. It's just shifted where it is in the city a bit. Um, like a new generation's come in to party and they they like to party in a different way, and then that's really cool, you know. So that scene's still thriving in Sydney.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Yeah, that's good to hear because there's a lot of really sick artists that come out of Australia for some reason. There's something there's something in the water down there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Like um, and it's really cool to see so many of them over here in LA and other parts of America, especially like Denver and stuff, absolutely fucking killing it as well. Like um having that sound resonate with all the audiences here. Yeah, and you're even saying that, like there's something in the water that like you know, there's there's yeah, they're batting above their average, I think for sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

And what kind of the scene over here, I guess, it there's kind of like ebbs and flows, but what are when you were going to parties, what were people playing, I guess?

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Over here, lots and lots and lots of tech house. Oh my god, so much tech house. Um and then you go a bit behind that, you know, and then there's everything. Um there's scenes for like liquid drum and bass here. I think that's one of my favorite things about LA as well, specifically, is if you like doing something really, really niche, like knitting a scarf for a lizard, you you're gonna find another hundred people who love doing that really niche thing. So there's like a little party for every every genre here, which I think's super cool, you know?

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Yeah. Yeah, and I almost think it's in a weird place right now, I feel. Because it almost seems like there's too many parties. Oh, is that is that possible? It seems there's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

There is, yeah, I guess there is a lot of people. Like what 360 something million people they could all rock up at your party at any point.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Yeah, I guess that's true. It's very crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

How do how do we let them find out about the party?

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Yeah. It just seems like there's so many things going on that it's kind of like you can't get as many people to go to your party.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

I mean, yeah, there's there's a lot of choice, right? Yeah. Um and I think maybe LA more than other places in the world, there's a lot of I want to be seen at this place as well going on. And so you're competing with that, with your underground party, where like, no, they'd rather be at a no Noble or some shit or whatever it is, than going out and being a dirty club rat or you know. Um I'm purely speculating, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Yeah. Because I don't know if I told you when we first met, but I throw parties in like the Long Beach area, and it's seems like it's gotten like less and less uh like people just have so many options. Like it's hard for me to create like a party or a space that people are gonna want to go to over some huge LA after party, you know? Yeah, and it's hard to pull those people.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

And maybe it's just a time and consistency thing, right? Like you start to build a crowd with those kind of things who like to come to the thing and see each other as long as it's recurring similar events, you know, like doing hardstyle one month and then like liquid drum bass the next and French house the next one or something. Yeah. I think that building a consistent audience is like the only way to really cut through these days.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Yeah. Yeah. And I just didn't wanna it's tough to do them every every month, every week, you know? Because then you're almost cutting your your audience down even more because if it happens every weekend.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah. I think to to to start doing something every weekend you need to know that it's successful like as a monthly first, you know? Like uh potentially like testing the testing the waters and building that crowd and then giving them more of what they're already absolutely loving might be the way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Yeah. It's a weird I've kind of like cut back just because it's so much work for the like the payout that you get. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a lot of work and it's just I don't know. You have a few, I ha I've had like a few like not bad parties, but just like low attendance parties in a row, and I'm just like eh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

I mean keep keep at it, because you know you're trying to put a specific stamp on something, right? You're throwing them for a reason.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Yeah. Yeah. But it's also the the venues that are available also are not like can really conducive, especially where I'm at. Yeah, yeah. It's a little different when LA has just so many warehouses you can kind of like rent out and anywhere from like a giant warehouse to like a hundred-person venue. Yeah, yeah. It's a little more access. He's gotta go hunting, find those super super underground, like grandma's back porch. You do. I actually have a friend that uh he does like printing um like for commercial stuff, um, businesses, and they just bought a warehouse in downtown LA, and then he has like a space on the side. I mean and he's trying to get um he talked to me, he's like, Hey, I know you know a bunch of like all these like parties and DJs and stuff. Like, can you connect us so we can start throwing events there? It's actually a really sick space. Alright. I think we're gonna have to have to have a body. Um, so um I was listening to some of your music this morning. Oh, cool. Um, I kind of wanted to just get a feel for I guess like your sound and what you've been putting out. Have you always kind of made that kind of style or has it kind of progressed into it?

SPEAKER_00 12:41

It's definitely changed into that. Um I I like making everything. Uh so I used to make like drum and bassy stuff, dovestevy stuff, trappy mid-tempo stuff, um random poppy stuff. Got a song about like bananas with Samantha, who's amazing. Um, her voice is so good for it as well. But then I found myself making the kind of stuff I'm making now a bit more when I had one AirPod in just watching a rerun of Friends on TV, and it's what my brain wants to make when I'm not really thinking about it. And I really enjoyed the output of it, you know. So I kind of decided at some point to lean into that a bit more, which is hence the French sample champ Fresnel name. Um and it's just fun music to make and play and dance to, and uh I really like that, you know. And then recently there's been a bit of a UKG influence as well, just because it has that same uh fun nature to it. Uh can be a bit bouncy, can be a bit darker, can be a bit disco-y, um, and can it can be taken in a few different directions as well, which is cool.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Yeah, yeah. I think it's cool that especially like you're saying the tech house wave has gotten so huge. It's nice to hear some somebody making something else besides tech house.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yeah, I'm telling you, I think like 2027 we're gonna see a lot more of the um electro style of music, like Nina Girachi or fuckers, that kind of stuff, where they're releasing what feels like a modern take on like very nostalgic stuff. Um from like, you know, the the Dart Punky wave of Electro back in the day. Um I mean I'm here for it, I like it. I obviously make that kind of stuff, but we're I'm starting to see it come through more and more um in music in my inbox, you know, sent through. Um which is which is cool.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Yeah, I think it's gotten so dark. You know, like the hard techno thing has gotten huge, and just even like the tech house sound has gotten really like dark and scary, which I I like all the dark stuff, not so like tech housey, it's a little more like underground dark stuff, but I think it's gone a little too dark.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

It can get that way, yeah. I mean, as well, like there's also the drum bass scene here, which I haven't mentioned too much, which is thriving. Like that that has been the coolest thing to see over the last couple of years, is it becoming more mainstream, becoming more popular, going to these festivals and seeing that stage be a bigger stage every time with a bigger audience and whatnot. Um, and I think that's the specific brand of American drum bass that's popping off here is tickles my brain in the same way as as as the other fun music, you know. Yeah, um, so it's bringing like a counter to that darkness, uh, and maybe isn't even a response to that darkness, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Yeah, that's one thing I w I've been wanting to go do because I I feel like I kind of just get stuck on all these house events.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of them.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Yeah, there's too many of them. I want to start going to just like more like drum and bass and just like different genres. Just because I'm just getting like I don't know if I'm getting like fatigued with just listening to house all the time, but it's nice to go like switch it up every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah. I mean, uh as someone who like listens to a lot of electronic music and makes a lot of electronic music and radio shows and all that kind of stuff, I sometimes am in the car and like looking for silence or like country music, even though I don't really love it, or something, something else, you know, and to to mix it up even as a palette cleanser. So being able to do that like just within the electronic music scene itself is amazing. Um it's the same as like going to a festival and then putting on some like chill salt and shepherd esque music when you're coming home, you know, you're just vibing out and relaxing.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah, I was listening to an old episode that I did with one of my friends and we were talking about Coachella and how it's become very just like one, it's like all the huge pop stars. Yeah. And then when did they start doing that? It's pop stars and just DJs now. I think Coachella used to be way more indie, and you got to see these like weird bands that you wouldn't normally get to see on like the same lineup, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Yeah. I mean I've never been to a Coachella, maybe this is the year, but it I've been or like you know it's one of those festivals you hear about from back in Australia where you're like, that's somewhere I have to go, like ADC or something, you know, or Tomorrowland. Yeah. And so you you look at the lineup every year, and I don't know, it's definitely changed. Like the death of the band is is really kind of happened, I I think. Um there's not as many like we are rock stars, they're pop stars now. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but there was a certain energy that came with a a band, a certain grit that's maybe not there anymore.

SPEAKER_02 17:23

Yeah, I really uh that's one thing I I also enjoy going and doing is watching like going to see bands because they're actually playing these instruments like live in front of you. Yeah, it's cool. Hey, you know, like I really appreciate people that are good at like just playing an instrument.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's amazing. And then there are some people who are good at playing all the instruments, like they've picked up half of them and then like, yeah, I've got the rest. It's I'm all over it. Give me any instrument, and I'll just play it. And I'm always amazed by that.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yeah, and I I found this out like I don't know if I'm like so late on this, but like three months ago, I didn't realize that Tamin Paula was one dude.

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah, right. Like he's he's a talented individual, yeah. Um and uh I remember seeing like this a while back, like a news article about pictures of the place where he he, I guess, lives and makes music and everything, and he's got like a view of the ocean from up on the hill and an amputheatre with rocks that he can play. Like it'd be nice to have that level of inspiration around you every day. And I think you gotta ask what came first, right? Was the inspiration there to make the music, or did he make this amazing music and then get inspiration to make more amazing music? And I think it was probably that. So, whatever he was tapping into before he had this amazing place, I want I'd I need to know.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Yeah, yeah. There's just people that are ultra talented like that. Um, that are just I don't know, like these studio musicians, like that's kind of how kind of like Fred again came about. Because he was just working with like kind of behind the scenes, and there's these guys that are just you wouldn't know what their name was, like you didn't know who they were, but they're on every huge record that's been put out in the past ten years.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

I mean, yeah, there's a whole industry out there for it, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Um and like maybe there's a lot of those guys who don't want to be the the front front facing of it all, you know, they just want to be in the studio. Yeah, and if that's the case, props to them.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Yeah, which I totally understand, because like I've been DJing less and less just because I'm trying to get better at producing, because producing has just never it's never like come easy, so I have to like really put in like hours to like figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

Yeah, it's a rabbit hole for sure.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Yeah, so I can see why because now it's like do I really want to like go play this gig? Especially because you get into a routine where you're not like you don't have to be up at 4 a.m. to go play some after party. Yeah, you can kind of just like do your thing, get in the studio, like the same hours of the day, you know, you kind of get like in this little routine. Yeah. And I could see myself like not wanting to like go hop on an airplane and like tour, you know. Oh for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Like there's something to be said about like tending to comforts as well, but I don't know. I think you need to like do a bit of both and like have the instant reaction of seeing people who've never met you or heard your shit hear your shit. Yeah. Uh even if it's like not all the time, but if it was never, I think that'd be harder to get that feedback from the world, you know?

SPEAKER_02 20:26

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 20:27

But then there are artists out there who don't listen to other people's music and make amazing music and don't even like give a fuck what people um react to their music in any way. And so maybe it's not a necessary thing, you know?

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Yeah. Cause in like I don't even know what year this was. Maybe like early like 2010s-ish. You remember like Black Mill? No. They uh I don't even know what genre that is, but they put a bunch of these albums out. I don't even think the DJ thing was really like that big at that time, like in the mainstream yet. But I don't even think they really played shows or anything, and like their music has a million streams.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Yeah, it just resonated.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Yeah. What is that famous song that they have, Let It Be by Blackmill? No. You for sure heard it before. I'll have to show it to you after. But it's just interesting that like they were making all this music, and now if you make music, like the whole goal, I guess, of having music is to go DJ it in front of people.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

I mean, potentially, or at least perform it, right? Yeah. Um so I like the way I like it. What you're saying is really cool to see people playing instruments. I like it when DJs are up there with their synth, with their guitar or whatever it might be, yeah, doing their thing along to it. Um, someone like uh Flume back in the day or Maddie or Porter Robinson or something like that is just super super inspiring because they're musicians who happen to be doing electronic music. Yeah. Um who can also DJ very very well, but yeah. It's uh cool to see that live element, you know.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Have you seen Lucid?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Oh, like the group?

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Uh no. So um he's friends with Eric and uh Sonny. Okay. He plays it's it's not like I guess it's kind of like Tech Housey like Beltranny kind of sounding stuff. But he plays like live bass and sings on top of the tracks. That's fucking cool. Oh no, I'll have to say. Yeah, he he puts out um I don't know if they're live stream like sets, but there's like he puts them out and he's like playing live um in some weird location. Yeah, but he does that, which is really cool. Trying to think of somebody else that what's her name? LPGOB? Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

We we have her radio show on our station too.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yeah. Yeah, she plays piano like live, which is really sick. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. I think it's cool to see they do a lot of that at those not like indie festivals, but kind of like the smaller festivals. Yeah, yeah. They'll have more of like a setup like that for the the artists that they book.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Yeah, I mean that's really cool. I I've been wanting to go to more stuff that's like non-electronic music here, you know, like like the bands and stuff like that. So I need to find these indie festivals and get out there and just have a bit of a hoedown or something.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Yeah, I'm just so I'm so out of that world of just like I don't really know like bands. Yeah, I don't even know where to start. Yeah, they're asking Chat GPT. Yeah. Yeah, there's this uh have you ever heard of Glass Beams? No. Glass Beams, they're um they kind of like popped off on Instagram. I think Diplo or something reposted them. But they wear those like it's almost like uh like diamonds or like gold masks. Oh yeah. And they play it's like Middle Eastern alternative rock almost. Okay. And it's super trippy. Yeah, it's very different. I saw them, this is like maybe a year ago at uh the Wiltern in LA. It was really sick. Hell yeah. And they play they play instruments, but they also have like a lot like a synth in front of them too, which is really cool. Yeah, nice. And that was that was probably one of the best concerts I've been to, just because it's like all I'm going to is like DJ stuff. Yeah, like this is really sick.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Got him exactly. I mean, I miss being like as into rock as I was as a kid, you know. We had like a bit of a good scene in Sydney for that before I even knew what a rave was or whatnot. There was like those are all the first concerts I went to, you know, and it's just cool to see humans making sound happen on the spot.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah. Yeah, it's just a whole it's a like I said, it's just a different um just a different skill. Yeah, 100%. Because a lot of DJs just don't know anything about it like music theory or anything.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yeah, yeah. But they they still end up having an ear for it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Yeah, because you can like I don't really know I know like basic music theory, but yeah, you can hear use your ears, and there's so many things you can use now as an aid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Ableton, you just put like whatever key you want it to be in, and then you just can hit the notes. Yeah. Like you can set it up on the MIDI where like every note that you hit is gonna be in key.

SPEAKER_00 25:32

You can even make each note do a whole chord of that scale and stuff, you know, and like then play over that with the other hand and and whatever. So you can like really make it simple. So someone who isn't using a of that assistant thing, I'm like, wow, that's coming from your brain directly to your fingers, and then out out the what? Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Yeah. I have a friend that's he's uh like classically trained as a pianist. Insane. Yeah, like he he makes like he makes hip hop and he's like work with a bunch of like LA rappers and stuff, but like his brain when it comes to piano is just so crazy to watch. Yeah, yeah. Cause uh we've like worked on some like house stuff and I'll just have him like freestyle on top of it, and like it just it's so crazy to me because he's like explain also as he's playing it, he's explaining it like oh, this is like I don't even know what the lingo he uses because it's like it's just piano like music theory.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Yeah, yeah. I think you have to work with other people a bit as well, right? Yeah, um otherwise you're very much learning in your own silo with blinders on, like your horse going down a racetrack, yeah, and not seeing what any of the other horses are doing.

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Have you do you work with a lot of people?

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Not as much as I used to. Um for years I was like, especially during COVID, like you're online and you're at home and you can't really like get out and about. I was doing a lot of like online stuff with people from from LA here, from the the music school I went to Icon, rest in peace. And um that was great, you know. There was a lot of I made that's how I made friends here, and also like we made some cool music. We made some bad music, but we also made some some great music here. Um but it really helped with like seeing how other people approach the similar problem. They're like, I want to make a bass that is really thick and fat, and there's like a thousand different ways to do that. So seeing other people's approach on that to get the same results but very differently is is cool, you know.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah, there's a thousand ways to do one thing. That's why it's tough when you're first starting out, because there's so many different ways to do things, and you're trying to figure out like, is this actually the right way to do it?

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yeah, and we live in an age where people learn how to do 10% of a thing, and then are like, ah, cool, I'm gonna jump on YouTube and tell everyone how to do the 10% I know without knowing the other 90%, and then you've got misinformation out there that wasn't malicious, but it's just wrong or taking people in the wrong direction. So it's it's hard to get over that hump a little bit when you start getting into music production. Um, so you've got to have some people around you who've got the head on straight and can kind of tell you what's up a little bit, I think.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Yeah, yeah. Being around just people that have been doing it longer than you have, uh-huh for sure. I think is really important. Because you can only watch so many YouTube videos, I think.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Yeah, you know. Then again, some 13-year-old kid will come out and make an absolute banger and you're like, Ha right, I guess you just had a a bit of time on your hands over the summer break or something.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Yeah, well, I think that also is just when you're that age, it's so much easier to learn. Yeah, you're willing to just be like, what happens if I press this button?

SPEAKER_00 28:42

A lot more, I think.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

Yeah. And it's like if you're a 13-year-old kid, you have endless time to like just veg out on Ableton, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Oh man, miss miss school holidays as a kid. That was that was fun, you know. You had like no responsibilities really, just had to like enjoy your life a little bit. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

I saw this kid on Instagram the other day. He's making like that like Chris Dussie sounding stuff. I forget his name, but uh I think he's like Chris Dussie's been playing some of his tracks out. That's really cool. Like, how? Yeah, that's wild. I don't get how these kids just learn people just different people pick up things quicker than others, you know. Oh, for sure. For sure. I wish I wish someone had shown me DJing when I was like a six-year-old.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Yeah, I think I would have loved it.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah. Yeah, but it was also just not it wasn't the same back then, you know? The barrier to entry is so much like less now.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Yeah, for sure. For sure. Like any anyone with any kind of laptop can make music. You could there's browser-based doors now. Yeah. So if you just have an internet connection, you're good to go, you know?

SPEAKER_03 29:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Yeah, and like I was saying earlier, Ableton, like 10 years ago, didn't have all these uh like they didn't have that key feature where you could put everything in key. Like you actually had to know a little bit more than you do now. Like now there's just a lot of aid building.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

I mean there's something there's something to be said about limitations though, right? Like when there are all these options, you're like staring at the blank page, you're like, which one am I gonna start on the page first? Maybe. But when you're like, oh cool, I can sample something or I can use one of these four instruments, that's all I've got. I didn't even buy a serum or something, then you're like you you just have to work with what you have, you know. So you get to learn, I think, things a bit better when there are less options because there's less you don't have to learn 200 things well, you have to learn like five things well or something.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Yeah. Has the you said what instruments did you say you played when you were younger?

SPEAKER_00 30:36

I played saxophone for a while. So I was in like in like the school bands and stuff like that, and then I mean learned how to play keyboard, I'm still terrible at it, and play guitar, and I'm mediocre to terrible at that one now as well, because it's been a while. Um, but it was fun to be able to like play these instruments with other people, you know, and like um jam out the songs. Me and my friend used to busk up at the train station steps, and I guess people paid us because they were sorry for us because we we were terrible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Just like pity pity uh donations.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yeah, would you would you stop? We'll give you double.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Yeah. Has uh any of that kind of have you used any of that in your like production?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Um, a little bit. I have a MIDI guitar, which it's back in Australia, so I need to get it at some point. Um that is really fun for like vibing in or playing in a part, you know? Yeah. Uh never used the saxophone in my production because I think it's fits in electronic music when you're having a drink near the beach on a Saturday afternoon in the summer with bongos. But so I don't want to I don't want to put it in my song. Yeah. It's got a whole different vibe going on that's not. Yeah, it's more like a beach club. It's smooth, soulful, and I'm not really going for that when I'm making music these days. Yeah. Um but yeah, and then the keyboard, like learning from a kid, has just helped me able to like key stuff in quickly, but I'm not as quick at it as I would be with the guitar or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Um I wanted to ask you about your I guess like content. Oh yeah. Um I always like getting into this because it's like especially with like DJs and producers, like everyone hates doing it. Yeah, everyone just wants to make music, right? Yeah, everyone wants to just make music, but I kind of w wanted to ask you, like, what's your I guess like approach to making content?

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Um, just making sure you set aside time for it. I I've got a guy that helps us out, and his his brain is much better than mine will ever be. So having even just someone to like bounce these ideas over who spends a bit more time thinking about this than you do for maybe yourself and other people, um, has been really really helpful. And then just like having to squeeze in the time for that amongst everything else, yeah. Um and thinking about like the algorithm and the posting times and whatnot. Um it just it just is what it is, you know. It's a a free way to market yourself, and all you need to do is give it content. And we've got a camera in our pockets everywhere we go now, so you kind of have to do it, but you kind of should do it because I mean a lot of people say they don't want to do the marketing and the socials and this that the other, they just want to make music. But a DJ in the early 2000s would have loved to have free marketing that went into everyone else's pocket, that would have been the most amazing thing to them. Um, so I have to remind myself of that a little bit when I'm sitting there being like, oh man, it's Sunday, I just want to chill. I'm halfway through a song, yeah. We're gonna go do some stuff. Um, and then you know, it's uh I guess helps hopefully people connect with the stuff that you're doing, um, or at least get their eyeballs on it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 33:42

Yeah, and I always say it's a lot easier than selling CDs out of your trunk, you know.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah, I mean there's there's a certain genuine connection you get from being face to face with a person, yeah. Um but yeah, a bit more annoying. Uh maybe having to do that for every single person who like have a listen to my song. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Um has it ever gotten to the point where it's like you're just burned out, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Um I haven't had that happen from music yet. I have had it happen a few times where I'm like, what's the point? Why am I all doing this? And I just remind myself it's because I really like making music. I like I actually like the process of it, you know. Um it's more fun to me than playing a video game or something like that. Or it's about equal to going for a hike or a walk or something, something like where you like feel connected with the world. Yeah. Um how do I describe what I'm trying to say? When I first saw a DJ ever DJ, I'm like, holy shit, they're doing the drums and the sound and this, and I thought that was possible, you know. So when we're talking about like live electronic stuff before, it amazed me five years later to see that people did have the talent to do that. But being able to control what comes out the speakers, whether you're like DJing and choosing the music or or making a song, I think is uh powerfully addicting thing.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Yeah, yeah, I guess that's true. Cause when I first started, like I guess the goal for me was to like be able to play music out of like a huge sound system. Yeah, you know, like that was all I cared about. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Like you're kind of in in control of uh just the vibe, yeah. The vibe controller.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

And there are some songs out there which like I feel like that some songs are made for being by yourself and sitting at home and like I don't know, having a cigarette or something. Other songs are made for driving on the freeway at 2am, some songs are made for being out in the bush with all your friends and having a dance with no shoes on. Um and I don't know that that makes me think is it intentional or do they just this is the song I made and it happened to like be this really long build-up that everyone was really into, or whatever it is, you know? Um I don't know where I'm going with this, but like the context of songs matters, I think.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Um Yeah, like the idea behind the song, you mean?

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yeah, the idea behind the song, and then like I I don't even know when I sit down to make a song sometimes if I'm gonna make one of those songs that you want to like sit at home and listen to, or one of those songs that you want to drive to, or one of those songs that you want to dance to, you know? Like it's kind of just whatever's gonna come out today, and then what I finish might be like choosing one of those which is like a driving song or a dancing song or a chilling song or something. Yeah. But sitting down before I've made it, I've got no fucking clue what we're gonna make today, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Yeah, you kind of just have to follow the the like where the carrot is taking you, you know.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

It's it's quite rare that I'm sitting down being like, okay, this is the sample I'm gonna flip, or I'm just I'm just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks, and then hopefully most times now within like 10-15 minutes, I'm like, alright, we got we got a bit of something. Yeah. Uh sometimes it takes a few 15 minutes brand new projects until the fourth one's like, yeah, we got a bit of something going on, but just I've learned not to save the first three, they just take up hard drive space now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Yeah, I think the the burnout thing just comes from like making putting too much pressure on yourself for no reason. Yeah, like if you're a self-thing for sure. Yeah, like if you're just making music because you want to make music and like put it out, you know, like there's no pressure whether or not it like does well.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I I want to make music that I like to hear, I want to have music on my USB that I like to play and um have enough that I know that I can have this kind of song for that kind of vibe when I'm DJing or whatever it might be. But yeah, there was a time where I had way too much music on my USB and had to go through and be like, I'm only saving this song on there in case I'm doing a wedding or something like that and DJing at that. I'm like, A, I haven't done that in a bit, and B, it's I'm just I don't care, I don't like the song, so delete it.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Yeah, I just did that not too long ago. I just deleted everything off my USB. I'm like, I'm gonna have a clean slate. Because I was playing a bunch of like bar gigs for a while, and it was just a bunch of like tech house remixes and just like it was just a bunch of like bullshit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

How did my USB go feel up with fucking cheese?

SPEAKER_02 38:07

Yeah, and like it was just stuff that I didn't want to play anymore. Yeah, you gotta I'm slowly just like building up my my library again, but now I I'm actually playing a wedding coming up, so I just sabotage my whole library again.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

Oh no, just set it up on like a different computer or something, yeah. Yeah, delete them all after.

SPEAKER_02 38:28

Yeah, I just have a folder for that though. Um I guess what is your um goal at the end of the day with like all this? I don't know. Uh not that not that you have to like have like an end goal.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

No, we we me and my missus sat down and and a friend as well uh a few years back and kind of did like a what's our five, ten-year, fifteen year goals. And one of the major ones was to be able to play parties in cool places and show my friends cool things, and and that's happening, you know. Um beyond that, I didn't really think about it. Yeah, I I would have said maybe a private island, but they're a bit out of vogue at the moment given the politics going on.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

Um kind of gone out of style.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

Yeah, yeah, a little bit out of style that one. Um I don't know, I'd like to go to space. I think that'd be really cool. I think that's something that's technically possible for a human, yeah. And maybe maybe it'll become more commercial and I can buy a space ticket. Yeah. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Yeah, that would be cool.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Yeah, it's kinda cool. Maybe own a robot. I don't I don't have many musical goals other than just keep making music because I'm addicted to making music. Yeah. And then hopefully, actually, hopefully release the music because I get to a point where I'm like, oh, it's nearly done. Maybe if I spend a bit more time, it'll be done. They're never done. Yeah. You just gotta release the song. Um to just release more music that I'm happy with, which is happening much more quicker now. We've got a lot of releases coming up for the next few months. Um and buy a robot.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

I think it's uh you have to have like kind of s like little goals, but I think you kind of just have to like see where it kind of like leads you, you know?

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Yeah. I've found that every time I've released a song or played a gig, something's come of it. Whether it's like a new friend or like someone else to make music with or another gig opportunity or a remix opportunity or something like that. Um so going through periods where you're not doing any of that, you can feel like, oh, not much is happening, not much is moving. But then when you start doing stuff again, stuff starts happening again.

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Yeah. Yeah, you never know who you're gonna meet. They might give you this opportunity, you know. Yeah, yeah. You can't really it's imp it would be impossible to like plan it out, you know. Yeah. It it's impossible.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

I w I would never have guessed that I'd be over in California like seven years ago. There was an inkling that I might be like living somewhere else in the world, but not that I'd I'd be here doing exactly what I'm doing, you know. I could I couldn't have planned that at all until it became an intention. Yeah. And then it's suddenly like, oh cool, I'm gonna tell the people in my life that this is something we're doing, and um maybe maybe they'll help me make that happen, you know? Yeah. And it's it it works.

SPEAKER_02 41:01

Is there anything you don't like about living here?

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Uh the food the traffic's fucking terrible, but luckily I live close to work at the moment. Uh the food is really tasty and good and makes me fat, and I don't like that. So it's really easy to like have a very high calorie meal here. Yeah, where I think that's not as easy back home. Um, it's still been pretty good. I d I don't like a lot of the things about the way people interact with information in this country, but I think that's becoming a thing globally and not like a super American-centric thing.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:35

Um I don't like that we might be entering a era of techno-feudalism where we've got a very tiny few controlling information for everyone, and you can't tell if it's true or not, and I don't really like that. Yeah. Uh I think we should do something about it, but I don't really know what I find that a bit annoying.

SPEAKER_02 41:56

Yeah, that's an American thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Um, but you know, it it is what it is, and so I'd try not to get distracted by any of that and just sit and make my music, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

Yeah. I'm just always curious, like, just people that didn't grow up here, like what their experience is, because we're just so everyone that lives here is so numb to just everything that goes on. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

My my lived experience here is completely different to what I read on the internet. Um if you take everything you read on the internet to heart, you think crazy shit's going on here, and it kind of is, but on a day-to-day basis, I see none of that. Everyone I've met here has been like amazing humans. All the parties I've been to have been really fun with great people and great vibes. I haven't seen much of the other side of the coin, I guess. And I maybe that's from a phrase of privilege, you know, just being around good communities of people or whatever. Yeah, um, but it's yeah, I I really like living here.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Yeah. Yeah, it's everyone complains, I feel like, too much about just LA and like the traffic and like it's all horrible. But it's like once it hits like summertime in California, this is like the best place to live.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Yeah, it's so nice. Yeah, it reminds me of Australia weather for sure. And like quite laid back. Everywhere I go, people are pretty friendly, you know?

SPEAKER_02 43:17

It's it's amazing. Yeah, just being able to go like the other day, I was just like hung over. I was like, let's go like eat somewhere by the beach. Hell yeah. Like, can you just go have a beer, have some chips and salsa? And like that was like such a perfect like day. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Because like, where else do you get to do that? Uh absolutely. And like, I don't know. I think I think everyone should experience having a drink in a salsa by the beach, you know? Yeah, it's it's man like if you've if you've lived in land your whole life, get there, get to the beach, start walking to the beach right now and check it out.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Yeah. Um I also wanted to ask you what has your experience been with running like the radio show side of things?

SPEAKER_00 43:59

Uh It's been really cool. So I I I work with um Insomniac Radio side of things and uh work on a few stations here and manage some tech stuff and it's been a learning experience, a really good one to get really into that. Uh it's a it's a fun world to to be in where you're helping music get heard, you know, and and helping break a new song um or support initiatives or like interact with the community, you know, we're we're doing this for the community. Uh and we've been growing that a lot this year, uh, and that's really cool, you know, even to the point where we're in a space now, which is uh the radio studio for that. Um we have a great team and great great radio hosts, and everyone's just well exceeded my expectations the whole time as well. So it's it's been awesome. I can't I can't say anything else about that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

So you just basically curate um what's being played, or do you have like guest mixes and we have we have lots of guest mixes, we have lots of artist shows, we have lots of hosted shows, we have uh our hosts choosing uh music to put on the radio that they like come across in their daily life, um, as well as like us sitting down and like debating what direction our channels should go and like um you know like uh what what kind of music we want to support and push, um and like how long, how often we should play that song and all that kind of stuff. It's it's cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Yeah. And how uh how is the music how are how I guess are you like finding the music and like do people kind of send it to like a specific We we have an email which we get lots of music sent to uh and then individually we also get that send lots of music and we also reach out to people and get lots of music that way as well.

SPEAKER_03 45:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Um people are pretty receptive to like, hey, we want your song to be on the radio, can you send us the song? Yeah, that we don't get too too many no's being like, oh, I don't know about that, man. Occasionally we get don't do it until this date or something like that. Yeah. Or no response. That's that's about it.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

Yeah. Um have you gotten to I guess like break any like big songs?

SPEAKER_00 46:01

Um I mean, yeah, there's a few that we've premiered. There's a a side piece one which we got out there before it came out last year. Um some Afrodeck stuff recently. I mean, uh there's a lot, and there's just the ones that come to the top of my head, you know. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there's plenty. I th I think we're generally constantly doing it without making as much fanfare as we should really breaking these songs, you know. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it's it's it's been really cool. A lot of the time we have this music before it's come out as well. So every time it comes out, I'm like, oh I'm a bit sick of that song, and it's just come out that week or something, but I've heard it for like a month or two already. Yeah. Um which can happen. Or or this song is still absolutely rinsing.

SPEAKER_02 46:37

I'm so glad it's already out, you know? Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of everything is just unreleased now. Like everything that people play, it's all unreleased. Like the what's that, Dean Turley? Oh, the Acting Tough one. Acting Tough, it's like that was already just like killed before it even like came out.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:59

But yeah, that happens to just a lot of music now.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

I mean, there's so much music these days. Like the the shelf life of a song is is much less. It takes I think there are less anthems or more anthems within subgenres rather than one song which kind of takes over everything like it did in maybe 2010, 2011, 2012, around then. Yeah. Like um, I mean John Summit's one of the only ones who really has an absolute anthem these days that I think everyone remixes across all genres and whatnot, you know? Yeah. Um, but then there's like really, really good music coming out every day, and it it within its specific community it gets received really really well. Yeah. Um, but then there's so much good new music coming out, and especially with AI, which will make better the music than that are soon, it's pretty crazy. Um we'll get to a point where maybe you can say this is the song I want to hear to the computer, and it will just give you the song. You're like, hey, I want to hear a bit of like Skrillex collab with Mozart, let's go. And it will start doing that maybe better than a human can, and then what what's the shelf life for the song the time you hear it?

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Yeah, that's very true. I think it just with radio not radio, but uh Instagram, once a video became a thing, now you could see all these songs being played out. Like it had a longer shelf life between DJs because they would like just only you would the only time you would ever hear this song is when it would be played out. Yeah so like they would like build the hype that way, and then when it would drop, then it would go to like the masses. Yeah, yeah. But now the masses have it before it's even released. You know, I mean yeah, it's happening more and more, right?

SPEAKER_00 48:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

Have you uh used any uh I guess like AI tools?

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Oh yeah, they're really cool. So um not to just be like spitting out a song from a prompt, but for sampling. Um I I do a lot of sampling from disco songs anyway. So if I'm like looking for some strings to chop up and sample, I might be using the AI for that or some vocal chops or something. Yeah, quite often I'll take my own thing through it and be like, hey, I want to have a feel here, and just kind of then use that to chop up a sample to pull back into my own song because it's made more sounds that sound like my sounds. Um but yeah, I think it's a reflection of humanity, and they've trained it illegally, or whatever they've done to get there, it exists now. And I mean it I think it's just fun to dig around with, you know. Yeah, it's like having a different way to paint, and asking it to do the whole image at once is a bit much, but like it's possible. But using it to give you like a new blend of those two colours or something, and it's it's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Yeah, yeah, it is. I haven't really messed with that much of it. Maybe like some stem separators, like an Ableton. I'm assuming you're on 12.

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Yes, yeah. I've been using the stem separation for a while because I love making a good matchup or remix or like um that kind of thing. Um yeah, it works really well. Yeah. Yeah. Um I mean, 10 years ago I would have I mean, I still am mind blown, so impressed by it, but like I didn't think we'd be getting there this quickly for being able to do stuff with audio, like strip out everything but a vocal and have it be pretty clear. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Yeah. And I I was like, when the whole AI thing was going on, I'm just like, I don't know how much more time we have left until like you were saying you could just like give it a prompt, and then it's just gonna give you like uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:20

I I think we're like behind closed doors, probably there now, or like getting very close to that now, and they're trying to sit there and work out the implications of it maybe before they drop it. But maybe next week someone will just drop something that's suddenly better than anything we can do, you know?

SPEAKER_02 50:34

Yeah, I mean they were putting out those Drake songs that weren't even real, yeah, and those were good, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

Yeah, I mean, and if it comes down to like the Westworld thing, if you've seen the TV show, if you can't tell, does it even matter? Like, and it does because millions of humans are out of jobs and whatnot, but like to the consumer, does it matter to them? I I think we'll get I think we'll get to a point where yeah, like they just love the song, you know?

SPEAKER_02 50:57

Yeah. Cause most people are just like everyday listeners, you know? Yeah, the only people that care are us. If you had like a spice sample, no one in the crowd knows that that's a spice sample unless they're a producer. Yeah. Which is a good probably a good majority of the crowd know.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

I mean it's like it's sitting there in the corner that they don't even know there's a spice sample either. Yeah, fuckes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

I mean, it does bother me a little bit. I mean, if the vocals especially do.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

The only time the spice samples bother me is when I've used one that I didn't hear someone else's. I'm like, oh damn. That they did pretty good with that.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

Yeah. You're like, damn, that sounds better than mine. But yeah, people big DJs still use them. I still hear them all the time.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

That semi vergie track, uh, if you need it, is a spice sample. And it it's amazing. Yeah. I hear I hear it in other songs, and suddenly I can do like a DJing with the two of them together, and it makes like a whole little montage of it.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

Yeah. There's a I think it's Max Dean. Max Dean or Josh Baker? They had some huge song that was like the vocal was just a spice sample. If it works, it works, you know. If they've done it better than anyone else.

SPEAKER_00 52:12

Yeah, that's true. They then own that sample, it's theirs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

That's one thing. It's with Suno, I feel like it's kind of fucked up just like for vocals, because like you're not using vocalists, and like it's kind of like taking away their work.

SPEAKER_00 52:28

But for for me, for vocals for Suno, it does a better scratch vocal than I can do, like singing in Falsetto or something. Yeah. Um, so I use it for that, and then it ends up being like just a placeholder for the most part. And I'm like, if you sing and you sing music like the music I make, you should hit me up. So because I I really would like uh people to sing instead of these placeholder Suno vocals, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

Yeah. Cause with Suno I feel like there's gonna be more the reason people use Splice is because one, they can't sing and they probably don't have access to somebody that can sing. Yeah, yeah. I think with Suno, you're gonna hear a lot more original stuff, you know?

SPEAKER_00 53:13

Yeah, and I think like that I think they've just done it this week where you can sing your own voice into it now again, and it like then trains on your voice if you want to have it have it do more ideas for you in your own way. And like, I don't know. It's a it's a weird thing, right? Yeah, it's a really cool tool that's been trained in a really unethical way. Um, so I feel weird about using it still. Um, but I do want to play with the cool tool, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

Yeah. Because if you don't use it, everyone else is gonna use it.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

Yeah, the cat the cat's out of the bag on that kind of stuff now. Yeah. Um, so just to have it there as like a production partner or something to bounce an idea off, or or like I was saying before, use to like chop as little micro samples because you know, they just need to be a sound with a tone.

SPEAKER_03 54:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:01

Um, I mean a lot of sound design for me at least is like taking something and turning it into something completely different anyway. So using as a disco song or a spice sample or a pseudo sample as the bass sound is almost much of a muchness. I'm just looking for like a tonality to kind of pull out of it sometimes, you know? Yeah. Um, but yeah, I don't know, it's it's here to stay, so you might as well like see what's up with it.

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Yeah. What uh what plugins are you using as for like synths and just like what's your go-to ones that you're using?

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Nearly always serum too now. It was nearly always serum. Um contact for certain things occasionally. I have a lot of synths on my computer, but I don't really use many of them anymore. Uh some of the Ableton stock stuff uh is pretty fun still, like the wavetable they've got in there. Operator's still pretty fun, but 90% of the time it's serum. Yeah, yeah. It's just so versatile, and I don't I don't know. It's what I'm quick at, you know. So if I'm like, oh I want this sound in my head to come out the speaker, that's the quickest route to get there, is using the thing that I'm comfortable with. Yeah. They all kind of do the same thing now.

SPEAKER_02 55:03

Yeah, yeah, they really do. It's just like the the UI, yeah, it's like different.

SPEAKER_00 55:09

Yeah, and now now that serum's got like granular stuff in it as well. Like I haven't messed with it too much, but if it can do that, like the more I can just do in the one plugin, the the better, right? Yeah. Unless I'm looking for some specific flavor it doesn't do. I I use Fab filter stuff a lot, um, but not for synths, just like because it's good and surgical. Um yeah. Uh I mean some uh emulations and some analog stuff just for the warmth of it. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

So you're pretty well versed in like sound design.

SPEAKER_00 55:38

I I feel like I go through phases where I completely forget how to do it, and then I'll come back and like spend a f like a few weeks just making beeps and boobs again, and then I'll chop them up into new beeps and boobs. Um there are people again who are out there who are absolute freaks at it, but it's just something I enjoy messing around with, you know. So a lot of the time I write a song with like a very stock sound just because I really want to get out the melody and the arrangement and whatnot, and then come back and change it up. Um but sometimes I get really attached to the quite stocky video gamey sound of a song.

SPEAKER_03 56:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:07

Um and get demo it on it, you know, so then have to come back to that one a while later and come back and do the sound design.

SPEAKER_02 56:13

Yeah, because I used to not really do too much sound design, but I think that's what makes these bigger producers sound different.

SPEAKER_00 56:24

Yeah, it gives them a uniqueness, you know, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 56:26

Because they're not just using these uh just like patches, just like straight up.

SPEAKER_00 56:32

I mean that there's something to be said about using patches occasionally, right? Like a combination of both is probably best because like the patches have been made to be used. Like if you want to quickly bash out an idea, it's what it's there for. And if it sounds really good anyway, you're like, oh cool, that's a cool pluck. Fuck it, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 56:46

Yeah, yeah, that's very true. It's uh every time I'm just like producing, I'm just like overthinking every possible like it's only the producers who give a fuck how it came out the speakers, and even then like fuck them.

SPEAKER_00 57:02

Yeah, um, it doesn't doesn't matter how you got that sound to come out the speaker. If you're vibing and other people vibing, that that's it. That's that's uh it is a little bit disingenuous to take all the stems of a demo pack from a sample release and just release that as your own song because that was that was already a song. So when you do that, that's probably the line. Don't do that, yeah. But if you take a bunch of sounds from the one sample pack and chop them up into something new, that's a song.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

Great, you gotta and you really don't have to do that much to I guess like make the sound your own, you know?

SPEAKER_00 57:34

Yeah, there's there's there's again a thousand ways to change it, right? So like have an explore of what your computer will do to your sound and and see what's cool and what resonates with you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

Um you're uh I guess like production. What uh what what did you say you were making before?

SPEAKER_00 57:59

Yeah, like bass musicy stuff, and but also like whatever I felt like. So some housey stuff, some poppy stuff, but a lot of like drum and bassy mid-tempo stuff.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

Yeah. And was I guess the people around you were they making that kind of sound?

SPEAKER_00 58:15

There was there was a scene in Sydney for it a little bit, uh, more on the dubstep side of things. Yeah. Um that was very supportive. There was a thing called The Wall that happened every week. It used to be at Wellbar, then it was down at home nightclub and stuff, um, which was a little Wednesday night scene, you know? Yeah. Um so I I was still working full time at the time and pretty crazy hours, but that was my like one time a week to go out, and it was a it's a really cool scene, really cool people and great music, you know. Um so it was cool to meet other people doing similar stuff, and that's kind of how I got into this side of it. Yeah. And like met some people who were Australian who had moved over to America and started talking about like their experience in that and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 58:51

And where where did those where did your friends move to? Do they come to LA?

SPEAKER_00 58:56

Um no, most people are still back in Australia. A couple of them are out are out here in LA or like um in Denver or something like that. Um, but yeah, a lot of a lot of people I know are just still back home doing doing stuff in the scene, or like a lot of my friends are not really in the music scene and just like friends from back home, you know. Yeah. Um, but we'll be going back there a little bit this year um to catch up with everyone. So I'm really looking forward to it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

Did you line up any gigs out there?

SPEAKER_00 59:21

No, I haven't even thought about it too much. I'm just uh working out when we're going at the moment, but I should, that'd be really fun.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Yeah. I've been trying to kind of like get out of the not just like the LA scene, but like go to other like states and try and like play out other places. Yeah, sounds cool. Because it's it's super competitive here, but I think going and experiencing like other scenes in other places is really cool.

SPEAKER_00 59:52

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, some of the best parties I've been to have been in random countries like on the beach or in like some warehousey thing or whatever. And you just kind of stumble across that stuff, right? So like there's really cool stuff to be out there out there to be played.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:04

Yeah. Have you gone to anywhere, I guess, like any other states besides California since you've been over here?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

We've been to Denver, I've been to Nevada, we were just in Miami for Miami Music Week, but we're working at Factory Town, which is really fun. Um what else? Not since I've moved here. Um I came as a kid in the band and we did like a whole band tour of North America and stuff to like a bunch of middle of nowhere places that I don't remember the name of, so who knows? I was I was young. Um but no, there's there's there's been some cool parties there, but also like there's like parties and beaches in Thailand and stuff like that where you like it goes all night and all the next day and stuff where the sun rises, and there's a bit of that lacking here, you know. I wish I wish you could have the same in Australia, like we're we're pretty strict on like where you can party and how long for and all that kind of stuff. Um so I kind of wish there was a bit of that here as well, you know. But it's got its own thing going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:59

Yeah. I know I think it's West Hollywood. Uh they changed the law so they can go to like 4 a.m. Oh yeah, that's cool. Nice. Yeah. So like I don't know if Exchange is over there. I know Academy is able to go later. Oh, nice one. Because they're I saw Clooney. The last time I was there, I saw Clooney and Sosa. And they played I think his set ended at like 3 30. Yeah. But I think they're I think that might be one of the sound. Have you been to Sound?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:34

I love Sound, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:36

Can they go later? Or they close at two?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:39

I think it was Last Drinks at 2 last time I was there. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:43

Yeah, maybe I think Academy might be the only like bigger club that goes like late like that. Yeah, yeah. Um Miami Music Week. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. I've never been, I want to go, but it was cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:59

We we we were all all posted at Factory Channel for the whole time doing like interview sets and uh like live sets and broadcast stuff. Um, but it is such a cool venue. Yeah. Um I'd say my new favorite venue in in America, um, second maybe to Red Rocks. Um that kind of feels like a little bit apocalyptic, but then someone's come and like cleaned it up and stuff and throwing a party there. Yeah. Um so that was that was really cool, you know. They had a really good lineup all week. Um I saw Justice there, I was mostly working, but I got to see that set. That was really cool. They're always amazing. The lights were very bright. Um, but yeah, I loved it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

Yeah, I uh did you get any a chance to like venture out to like not not too much this time? No, it was all work.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:43

It was all it was all work this time, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

Yeah, yeah, because I just see all these videos online and I'm like everyone is at space in Miami, and like all these little like side parties, it just looks like chaos. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:57

We'll head back next year and check it all out.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:59

Yeah. Have you been to um what's the one in in Europe? Um they just had it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:08

Yeah, probably not. I haven't done too much partying in Europe. You mean Tomorrowland, maybe?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:12

No, it's like Miami Music Week, but it's in ADA.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:17

Yeah, no, but I really want to. That sounds quite fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:21

Monday soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:22

What time are we at? Hour, hour and five minutes? Yeah, we can uh we can wrap this one up. Oh, this is being fun. Yeah, I uh always try and keep them at an hour just because people's brains. Yeah, that's all they can take. But uh yeah, plug yourself. Where can people find all your music?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:45

And yeah, at Champ Fresnel on all socials, platforms, everything. I've managed to be really consistent with it. So if you're on Spotify, if you're on SoundCloud, if you're on Instagram, uh check it out. If you're on TikTok, you're fucked. I'm sorry I don't use it. Um but maybe maybe I should. Maybe you're in for a treat. We'll find out. Uh a lot of new music coming out. Uh, listen to weekend shenanigans every Friday night, 10 p.m. on Insomniac Radio Analog. Get the app, it's great. Um, and you you can listen to that on like Apple Podcasts or on demand in the app or on SoundCloud as well. It's uh every week I put together an hour of music that I am absolutely loving right now. Uh send me songs for it, and yeah, uh love to hear from you.

unknown 1:04:25

Sweet.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

This has been great.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:26

Thank you. See you guys in the next one. Peace. Late.