Finding Inspiration In The Quite Moments - Interview with Porch Fight

Had a great conversation with Porch Fight.

Check out Porch Fight!

For info on sponsoring or being a guest on the show send a message to swishermedia@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:18

Welcome to the producer chair. Thank you for listening. I'm your host, Steve Swisher. On the show, we interview people making music in their bedrooms, basements, and home studios. We're going to talk about hardware, software, tips and tricks, everything that goes into their creative process. Our special guest today is Tony, aka Porch Fight, and we're going to listen to a couple of his tracks and talk to him about his creative process and everything that goes into his music. So here is Porch Fight with Lamb of the Manger.

Song 1

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Sink and Swimming, Don't Forget.

SPEAKER_05 3:38

Same thing we're passionate about, you know? Absolutely, yeah. Any cool story behind the name Porch Fight?

Interview Part 1

SPEAKER_05 3:44

How'd you come up with that?

SPEAKER_04 3:45

I guess there was like a funny story. I was uh I'm part of uh another band, and it took us a long time to find a name for that band, which is called uh Sleep Here. And uh I was like, okay, now I want to have my own solo stuff. And uh we were just like sitting on the couch, I guess, me and two of my best friends. We were listening to a song called Porch Light, and my friend misheard it as Porch Fight, and then was like, Oh, that'd be a kind of cool band name. And I wrote it down in my notebook, and then like uh eight months later, I was like still struggling with it, and I found the note, and I was like, Oh yeah, it does kind of like I don't know, just spoke to me, I guess, and it's connected to one of my best mates, so I stuck with it. Nice.

SPEAKER_05 4:28

Yeah, I always like asking people that question. There's some pretty funny stories a lot of times and how they came up with their stage names or whatever. For sure. So, Tony, how how long have you been producing and what got you started into it?

SPEAKER_04 4:38

So I first wanted to like make hip hop music, I guess, when I was like 19, 20. And so I like I downloaded FL Studio on my like old laptop and and tried making like loops and stuff from YouTube tutorials. I was watching like a lot of Kenny Beats Twitch stream, just like him giving advice and saying, like, go out there, do it. And it and nothing clicked at that time. And so I kind of uh I went back and and learned bass guitar, kind of learned an instrument first, learned how to write songs, kinda have like a full piece, and then I got Ableton about two and a half years ago, and I guess haven't stopped since, I guess. At least weekly I open up my DAW, if not like I try once a day to to get in there and and do something small.

SPEAKER_05 5:26

Awesome, man. I really like that first track we just heard, Lamb of the Manger. Yeah, it's real real clean. Got some vocoder stuff, which I'm a big fan of. Yeah, and uh it's not overproduced though, which I like. I I like some of the raw feeling. Like you can tell that this wasn't done in a professional studio in LA. This is you know a guy doing his own production, and I love that. I love that sound, and that's uh a lot of the stuff I was I was listening to back in the 2000s, uh was that kind of stuff. Uh, you know, it kind of reminded me of uh Bride Eye's feel almost. And the second one we're gonna listen to, you know, is even more that way just because of the acoustic guitar and everything. Yeah, really dig what you're doing.

SPEAKER_04 5:58

Yeah, and I mean I think that like early 2000s kind of feel is uh is super integral to my music tapestry or or whatever you want to call it, the kind of makeup of of what I do nowadays. Like I I love uh like Boni Vare and and you mentioned Bright Eyes and a few other of those artists, even like Arcade Fires early stuff.

SPEAKER_05 6:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

Um but stuff like I guess I've gone back to and my dad listened to when I was growing up, and so mimicking some of that, and obviously I I just record everything in my home studio and at friends' houses if if I'm getting them to help me out. I actually got a friend to help me out with the bass on that song Lamb of the Manger. Okay. Um, so everything except that was recorded at my house. He had his own set up at his house to record that. Yeah, so essentially I just brought my laptop over. Oh yeah, plugged him in to my doll through his interface, and then just uh let him rep a couple of takes and and took the good parts.

SPEAKER_05 6:58

Delivery studio instead of making them come to you. Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_04 7:02

Yeah, like I I have a bunch of uh of outboard gear, I guess, or like field recording devices that I use to kind of at least record ideas whenever I want, or sometimes to I'm I'm hoping to do some kind of bigger stuff with the field recording in the future. Oh, that's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_05 7:18

I got a little uh Sony, it's an old field recorder, uh, and then uh the rolling uh binaural mics that's just little earbuds, but they also have mics built into them. I take it everywhere I go, you know, we'll slap those in and record, you know, anything that's going on around me, and then it it sounds amazing. Yeah, I love that little thing.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

Yeah, and just like picking up small stuff is awesome.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

Yeah. What's your main field recorder you're using right now?

SPEAKER_04 7:40

I have a uh a Zoom H4N uh handy recorder. Okay, so it's got uh got two built-in condenser mics on it, and then two all inputs XLR or quarter inch.

SPEAKER_05 7:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Um, and then you can like link it up to a camera as well. Yep. But yeah, it sounds great just off-rip. The the mics that are built into it are are fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 8:01

Yeah, Zoom's been a big player in that field recording space for a long time. They got some good stuff. I'm uh I'm wanting to get that F3 at some point. Okay, yeah. Yeah, that thing looks pretty awesome. You know, one 192 kilohertz, 32-bit float. That'll be a little bit better than what I'm what I'm currently using. And being able to plug uh condenser mics and stuff in there would be awesome too. Want to get a real long-range shotgun mic, feel like a feel like a spy or something, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

I'm I'm so with you. I've been wanting one of them for a while. I just I'm looking for a good secondhand one. Hell yeah. Yeah, they those shotgun mics can get expensive quick, aren't they? Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:31

Uh what what what kind of music were you listening to in your house growing up?

SPEAKER_04 8:34

Oh, it was uh, I guess like a pretty big mix. A lot of like REM from my mom and uh REM and Bob Marley, and then my dad was really heavy into like arcade fire, and then uh The Cure and New Order were like kind of always on rotation. And then uh I guess my mom's super into John Cougar Mellencamp as well. Nice. My dad had a a jazz playlist for cleaning on Sundays that he'd put on, which uh was it was like a lot of Davis and and Coltrane.

SPEAKER_05 9:07

Yeah. Let her know that John Cougar Mellencamp's actually from uh from where I'm from, Indiana. Okay. So uh I'll clue, right? Yeah, what what made you first want to create music instead of just listening to it?

SPEAKER_03 9:18

Uh I don't know. I I've always been like a a a walk-around singing kind of person.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

Like singing along in the car was like a big part of childhood growing up. And uh I I would always be like sitting back there and I'd like put my own lyrics in where I thought they could be like a little bit better in a in a song. And I guess over time that slowly evolved to the point where I was like, I I listen to this every day, I care about it so much. Why am I not like doing it? Why am I I just listening? And that kind of started me on a a path, especially uh like production seemed like a very like accessible kind of entry point. I was good with computers and like kind of understand the workflow of a DAW a bit better. And so uh yeah, I I tried my hand, I guess, kind of production first. I was in piano lessons as a kid, and so I had some background understanding of theory, and so it was really just uh taking the like the kind of lifelong influences together and uh putting like some real motivation behind them. And so like then when production first kinda hit a roadblock where I I just I didn't have enough stubbornness, I think, at first. I I decided to learn bass because everyone told me it was the easiest instrument to learn. And like sure enough, I was every day in my room just plucking away, and then like found some people around me who could teach me, and it all spiraled there, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 10:42

Sure. It might be one of the easy, easier instruments to learn, you know, four strings. Uh it's definitely easier than guitar, I guess. Definitely still on very high ceiling to be good at it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 10:51

Yeah, easy to learn, hard to master, I think. It's uh deceptively tricky.

SPEAKER_05 10:56

I started off with six string guitar and then you know was able to transfer easily to bass from that because it's the same, you know, four bottom notes and 100%, yeah. Uh do you remember the first song that you ever finished?

SPEAKER_04 11:05

Yeah. Well, I guess there is uh there's two. Immediately, I guess, upon getting Ableton, I was living with my bandmate and my other band. So we just started recording together right away. I think that song is called Coughing Fit, if I'm not mistaken. And it's uh I guess calling it fully finished is is one way of putting it. It's got a first verse and uh an empty second half that has a really cool instrumental. Sometimes when I listen to it, at least I think it sounds cool. And then uh the first song I finished myself, I was like uh back home at my parents' place and I had uh an old like family acoustic guitar. That's a song called uh Mulberry.

SPEAKER_05 11:43

Awesome, man. I'd be super embarrassed to hear my first stuff that uh you know that at the beginning stages your quality of production advances so fast that you know you stuff you made a month ago, you're like, alright, that's I need to pull that down on SoundCloud. That's horrible.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

Oh yeah, a hundred percent. I uh I keep it around kind of just to humble myself sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 12:02

Alright, yeah. Remind yourself where you came from. Yeah. Exactly. Oh, that's fine. Uh what was the moment where you realized I'm a producer now? What did you have a moment like that?

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Yeah, I I think so.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

I I think uh I moved last year from Halifax to to Ottawa and uh meeting like a kind of new musical community and getting ingrained with them and not being around the people that I had learned how to produce with made me like kind of place myself in the sphere of other people who like produced in a home studio and um were kind of like doing it as best as they could with the resources they had. And I guess that it kind of gave me the confidence to like finally be like, okay, I can call myself a a producer like with my chest and and be proud of it and and feel like I know what I'm talking about when I'm you know talking about stuff inside of my DA and you know mastering and whatnot.

SPEAKER_05 12:59

Sure. Awesome man. How long did it take you to make that track we just heard?

SPEAKER_04 13:03

It all came together actually pretty quickly. I just had bought a new piece of gear for my guitar pedal board. I got a uh a Chase Bliss lossy pedal. I don't know if you're familiar with the the company at all.

SPEAKER_05 13:15

I I don't keep up with guitar pedals a ton because it would be another area where I'd just want to spend a bunch of money, and so fair. Yeah, I you know, I I tried I try to keep that pretty limited, my exposure to the coolness of guitar pedals.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

That's fair. Yeah, so I mean this pedal is based on a uh a plug-in, actually, like the good Hertz lossy plugin, which is like modeling um faulty digit digital audio conversion. Oh, that sounds cool. So it kind of like rips apart and mangles your signal, and it's got a really good built-in uh plate reverb as well. And it's like stereo, so it ends up being a little bit more like a rack unit than a guitar pedal. But I got that, and then pretty much within two days of getting this new toy, I'd written like the guitar part, and then uh probably took a week to write the lyrics, and then once I had that all together, I uh threw together a drum track just like on a drum machine that kind of instead of a a metronome whenever I'm recording, I tend to try to make like at least a four on the floor drum beat or something of the sort. Yeah, what what machine? Uh I I was using an uh an Elisus SR16 for a while. Super bare bones, just like get the job done. Much cooler than a metronome, though. Yeah, and it gives you like some of the feel, especially if you lock in some swing. Yeah. Once I had all kind of all those pieces, it it was probably like a week and a half of me recording at home, making sure I got the vocals right. I kind of went back and forth with uh my old roommate who I uh I love producing with to do the the vocal chop stuff and just kind of figuring out the timing and and whatnot. Yeah. And then uh I was fighting the bass line for like a week probably on its own because I just I kept trying to get it right myself and I couldn't nail it, and it was driving me mad. And finally I was I was at a friend's house and I luckily had my laptop and I just got him to try. And after that, I I pretty much just mixed it in another day and it was done.

SPEAKER_05 15:05

Okay, nice. For a track like that, where does the idea come from? Do you start with chord progression on guitar, you know, a melody in your head that you you have to get out? Where does your beginning come from for a track like that?

SPEAKER_04 15:16

Yeah, usually I I think like a chord progression or uh or something of the sort, the ever-elusive flow state, I guess, where you're just like trying things out for fun. Yeah. And not actually thinking too hard about what you're doing is I find always a place that a good idea actually starts before the lyrics, too. So that was uh usually I I kind of come up with both at the same time a chord change and a chorus going together or whatnot. But that was a rare case of them kind of being layered more, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 15:46

That's awesome, man. What genre or category would you put your music into if you had to put a label on it?

SPEAKER_04 15:52

I always struggle with this, but I think uh I was thinking about it before we spoke today, uh going for a walk, and I I think at the the root of it it's pop music that I'm making. Okay. Um it's kind of got an experimental flair and and sometimes kind of a folk or uh like alt-rock, folk rock flair to it. But uh I'm always trying to make something catchy to myself, and I think that's kind of the root of pop music. So that's where I'd place it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:19

I think a lot of us producers struggle with putting labels on stuff, especially when we didn't intend, you know, I didn't like to open up the session saying, Today I'm gonna make a hip hop beat and you know, just start off that way. I just get in there and start messing around and make whatever sounds good to me, and then it's like, yeah, I don't I really don't know what to label this. There's a mixture of all kinds of shit in here.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

So yeah, and uh, it's like I think it's important to kind of do like that free-flowing kind of stuff where you start in one place and see if it takes you a whole nother direction.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

I guess it can be fun too to like give yourself the constraint of like, I want to make a hip-hop beat or you know, uh an EDM track or something today. Yeah, just full lean into that. Yeah, yeah, it breeds creativity in a different way, I guess. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 16:59

So you you start off with a lot with guitars and uh running through your pedals and finding finding a cool sound that way. Yeah. And but you also work out of Ableton. So what percentage are you saying you think you are uh uh in the box, out of the box? What percentage would you say?

SPEAKER_04 17:12

I'd say it's like a good like 60% in the box, 40% out of it kind of thing. Sure. I like to to kind of like do the songwriting side of it and like create the bones outside of the box, but then uh get everything together and kind of like chop it up and and align things, put effects on it. There's like a a couple of uh Ableton stock effects and stuff that like I feel like are kind of like quintessential to what I love doing. One of them being like the auto tune that's like all done in the box. I like the sound of that stuff and the vote the vocoder type stuff. That's fun. Yeah, right as I was kind of hitting teenage years, was right at like the the surge of tea pain and yeah, yeah, like it it coincided hard, so it's just like my favorite thing in the world. Yeah, A Con. Yeah, yeah. Right on, yeah. I yeah, I liked that stuff back then too. That's fun. Yeah, and then I mean, even like 808s and heartbreaks and stuff, as much as uh Kanye can be a a touchy subject these days.

SPEAKER_05 18:10

Well, he's a great producer, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:11

Stuff he kind of pioneered was crazy.

SPEAKER_05 18:13

Yeah, no, uh for our purposes, he's an amazing producer. Yeah. We don't need to get into any of his personal shit. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 18:20

Yeah, I've been trying to kind of figure out a way to to take the box out of itself, I guess, a little bit more. Recently I bought a uh an SP404 Mark II. Okay. I've been using a drum machine, as I said, for a while and love it, but uh felt like I could do a little bit more with like proper sequencing and like wave file manipulation inside the sampler.

SPEAKER_05 18:41

Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

And then also it's like uh an effects processor on all on its own, so it does like auto-tune and and kind of harmonizer stuff.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

Absolutely. That's that's fun to run your guitar into. There's a lot of effects, uh having a bunch of pedals combined in one basically in there.

SPEAKER_04 18:56

Yeah, and uh running vocals through it too is like a a big one.

SPEAKER_05 19:00

Yeah. Do you normally start off with music or you have lyrics written and then try to write some music to those lyrics, or how how does that work?

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Oh no, it's uh I'm a I'm a music first person for sure. Sure. If like the sonic textures, I guess, and like the the actual sound behind it isn't isn't something that's like kind of drawing me in. I I usually am not motivated to like kind of see it out to the end.

SPEAKER_05 19:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:22

What's a plug-in in the box that makes it into every song? Probably my favorite plug-in is the uh the Ableton stock plug-in roar. I guess it's it's not stock to everything, but stock and suite. It's uh a multi-band saturator with uh like a built-in modulation matrix that you can do a whole bunch of kind of insane stuff with, and you can run it either in parallel or in series. Nice man.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

That's fun. Okay. Um what's your dream hardware would be that you don't have yet?

SPEAKER_04 19:53

I'd I'd love a full modular synth setup would be like the the the dream, but uh gotta hit the lottery for that or something. Yeah, exactly. I guess uh a slightly more realistic thing is I would love uh a really good condition like Juno synth or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 20:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 20:12

A a good workhorse that's like full of classic sounds.

SPEAKER_05 20:16

Yeah. There's been some reissues of of stuff like that, and and uh even companies like Barringer making stuff uh modeled off after that. Have you have you tried any of those?

SPEAKER_04 20:25

Yeah, I I have a friend who's been trying to get me into to more of the Behringer and uh like realistic stuff recently. I just haven't found any second hand, so I've been kind of just eyeing the market seeing what what pops up. Yep. Seeing if the drive is worth it sort of deal.

SPEAKER_05 20:40

Awesome. Yeah. What's your desert island piece of hardware? Ohce is on fire, you have time to grab one thing.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

Yeah, I mean I I feel like the the the cheat answer is my laptop because it it has everything. But if uh like the the box or the the thing that has the DAW is out of the question, probably probably a good sampler, like the the uh 404.

SPEAKER_05 21:02

Okay. What's a piece of hardware or software that you think is underrated?

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Ooh. I think uh bass amps are really underrated as like workhorses in a studio that you want to run anything through. Yeah. Um if you want like a a room sound, running like keyboards, uh guitars with just like the the bass kind of knob cut all the way. Most of them are really just like great clean amps.

SPEAKER_05 21:26

That's a big 15-inch speaker.

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Yeah, exactly. And uh especially like in a home studio setting, they sound loud without uh necessarily needing to be as loud as like a tube amp is, like just a solid state one will do you great. Nice.

SPEAKER_05 21:41

Uh is there any hardware or software that you feel is overrated?

SPEAKER_04 21:44

Uh really expensive microphones if you don't have a specific reason for needing something that that microphone is capable of.

SPEAKER_05 21:54

I 100% agree with you. Yeah, I I have my bachelor's degree in audio production uh from the Art Institute of Atlanta. Okay. And down in school and then afterwards, working out of studios, I've used every mic, you know, that you can think of. Vintage stuff, you know, really rare, rare mics, you know, ten, twenty thousand dollar mics. Yeah. Yeah, there's there's uh way cheaper mics that I would put up against those and you know can get it just as good a sound. Yeah. What's a piece of gear that you've outgrown and then one that you'll never get rid of?

SPEAKER_04 22:20

Ooh, I've definitely outgrown my original Elisus little drum machine. It w it was great for making like a super simple loop. Yep, it served its purpose. Yeah, unfortunately I like more complicated drum patterns and it can kind of do in a way that's not frustrating and spending 10 hours sitting on the floor poking buttons on it.

SPEAKER_05 22:40

Is that able to be triggered by MIDI?

SPEAKER_04 22:42

Uh I've never owned one. You can't trigger it by MIDI, so you can switch it between the A and B patterns with MIDI. Okay. And uh I guess pause start it. But you can't trigger trigger the individual samples. No. Maybe there's a way if you're uh smarter at roading your MIDI than I am. Sure. Yeah, I don't open anything up. I'll I'll break it and void my warranty. So exact that's my my whole opinion too. Yeah. And uh piece of gear I'll never get rid of, I guess. I bought the microphone I'm using right now is uh a Sony condenser mic. I forget the exact model, but I found them in a bargain bin for like $50 each. Oh hell yeah. Um and uh I was like doing some research in the store trying to figure out if they were worth it, and I saw that uh they were the mics that John Lennon used on a lot of his solo albums for both the acoustic guitars and the vocals. Yeah, that that's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_05 23:33

If a software or hardware engineer is listening to this right now, what's a plug-in or hardware piece that you would want them to create? Maybe something that doesn't exist yet. Oh that's a hard question.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

I know there's a there's a few plugins that simulate like modular synth setups. I would love someone really creative to make one that is easier to use than a real modular synth setup. Uh just like good UI design, as like a a more sound design thing to just like find the the happy little accidents and the good ideas that that come about just when you kind of sit with something for a couple of hours and and make it just intuitive to use. And I I would be uh a very happy camper.

SPEAKER_05 24:14

Nice. I think on the episode I did with Grimson, he was talking about there is a software company that just made a modular thing, or they're it's like in beta right now. Uh I think he referred to it as mesh or something like that. I'll have to look that up. But yeah, it sounds like it sounds like there is something like that uh in the pipeline. That's pretty cool. Wow. Well, your dreams come true, I guess. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Uh all right, uh, we're gonna take uh listen to this second track you got here, and then uh we'll jump back into the interview and talk some more about your creative process. So uh we're talking with Tony, who goes by Porch Fight when he publishes his music, and this is a track called Snowblind.

Song 2

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Having a snowplay, trying to clip some but we're a snowplay, trying to see what I can, having a snowplay, having no snowplay, having a snowplay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:48

Tony, do you consider yourself a hobbyist or professional?

SPEAKER_04 28:51

Uh I'm definitely like still at the hobbyist stage. You know, it's a a work in progress towards professional, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

Sure. And if if you had, you know, one long-term goal you were chasing, what what do you think that would be?

SPEAKER_04 29:04

I guess it would be to at least uh have

Interview Part 2

SPEAKER_04 29:06

like half my income be supported by by music is kind of the end goal, be able to work like a proper part-time job and have the other half of my time for for purely music would be ideal.

SPEAKER_05 29:19

Sure. Yeah. I I really like that track we just heard too. You can tell it it's it still fits in right with the other one, but it's using completely different instrumentation and uh you know, it's a different sound. And in that one, you're not using the pitch correction and vocal, you know, got the acoustic guitar playing a leading role in there that's a really good sound.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

Yeah, I think that one um I I I used to use auto-tune a lot to kind of hide behind my own insecurities with my voice.

SPEAKER_05 29:43

Very common.

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Yeah, as I've kind of grown into like just hearing it more often through recording more music too, it's become easier to not hide behind that as much and and let it kind of be a little bit more raw. Yeah, I think just like uh a a kind of more traditional piano sound and and guitar sounds fit the essence of that track a little bit more than what I was doing. And I think the drums were a little bit electronic enough to hold down that part of my sound that didn't need much more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:15

Yeah, that's great, man. I'm really enjoying that. We'll get our listeners' uh links posted up wherever this podcast is. They'll be able to connect with you and listen to more of what you're putting out. Yeah, absolutely. What's the hardest thing about producing from home?

SPEAKER_04 30:28

I guess it it can be uh a variety of things, but uh not having a lot of control over like your room and kind of the the outside sound that can be going on. Okay. What's a skill rule that you're trying to improve right now? I've been really focused on on dynamics, so I guess uh just trying to really lock in on on the like parallel compression, I guess, and compression in in general to really make it feel like a mix is is breathing with the song rather than holding a song in to itself.

SPEAKER_05 30:59

Sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:00

What's your favorite part about the creation process? The best part is when it like almost like feels like improv and like you're whether it's like sitting in the dar or anywhere else, but I think it's usually more in the in the box that you're just like and what if I try this plugin? And what if I try this and you you truly do just kind of take all the things that you're kind of familiar with and stack them in a way that you've never done before, and you know, whatever sent-through tweaking or vocal chop or even drum sound just ends up being brand new even though it's still familiar. And I guess like that that is my favorite dopamine rush. Buying little things out of the experiments, yeah, a hundred percent, and kind of like realizing all the ways that like the the things I already use and love can be put together in in different ways to to make something I haven't been familiar with as much.

SPEAKER_05 31:55

Sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 31:57

Oh, what's your least favorite part? Well, I guess I have two. Like, obviously, I think writer's block, but uh the second one, mastering my own songs. Just that process of listening to it so many times that you grow tired of what you're hearing.

SPEAKER_05 32:11

Sure. You know, ear fatigue is a is a real thing, and you gotta take breaks and do other things and then come back to it with a fresh set of ears. You'll end up missing a lot of stuff if you try to do it all at all at once.

SPEAKER_04 32:22

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 32:23

What's something that you wish someone would have told you early on?

SPEAKER_04 32:26

Uh just keep trying and just kinda be stubborn about it. There's like a lot of days where it feels like you're not making any progress or you haven't made any progress. Sometimes telling that voice in your head to to quiet down and just kinda exist in your space, especially if it's at home and it's a place you should be kind of relaxed at least somewhat, um, is really important.

SPEAKER_05 32:50

Absolutely. You've mentioned writer's block a couple times. What do you normally do when you have writer's block?

SPEAKER_04 32:55

Uh I try to and I I say try, I I try to take a step back and do something else for a little bit, whether it's like play video games or read a book, go for a walk, just kind of something to to try to stimulate a part of my brain that I've been maybe neglecting because I've been tunnel visioned on trying to write a song or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 33:16

Yeah, I've had a hit where it's months at a time. I've had to come to a point where I'm okay with that. Like sometimes I'm really inspired to make some stuff, and then other times there will be months where I just don't have any inspiration. There's not nothing in my head that I feel like I want to get out, and I'll find other things to do, find other things to enjoy, other hobbies.

SPEAKER_04 33:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:34

And then at some point, something'll trigger in my head, and all of a sudden I'll have this idea of a little melody or something, you know. Wake wake up one day and like fire up the drum machine, fire up the synth, and uh, you know, turn on the computer. 100%. You know, and then there it goes again, and then I'm off off to the races on a heavy bender of making music. Yeah. That's a continual process that I've I've gone through for at least 30 years now.

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Yeah, and I think there's like a lot to be said. Uh sometimes you have to stop listening to music to to make music. You kind of have to like let your brain fill in itself and come up with its own like little melody or whatever in in quiet moments. And like those are kind of the the best moments of inspiration where you just take it and and run with it, and that can lead to you know, like a couple weeks of of good ideas or or whatever.

SPEAKER_05 34:16

Yep, 100%. For sure. What specific thing do you feel like you spend the most time on while creating a new track?

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Probably like uh getting the vocals dialed right is always a thing I I nitpick the most over.

SPEAKER_05 34:29

Okay. Um, I mean, we're always our own worst critics, especially when it comes to the sound of our own voice. Uh that takes years to get used to hearing it recorded because it sounds different than when it hits your ears. Yeah. The recording, you know, is way different. True. Yeah, I that that took me a long time to get used to the sound of my own voice as well. What's a secret trick that you use to get your sound? You got any any secret tricks you want to share?

SPEAKER_04 34:49

I don't know if I have many uh many secrets. I guess m my secret trick is uh to use like a lot of instances of soft compression to make things sound uncompressed, but still loud in a mix and and present and different types of compression too. I really like using uh like an LA2A or something like that on both synths and and keyboards and guitars, and then like run that into a multi-band, like uh OTT style compressor, I guess. Okay, and then all of that into like kind of a final bus compressor, glue compressor with a bit of saturation in there as well.

SPEAKER_05 35:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:28

Especially with like working with stereo stuff. I find bus compression incredibly helpful for kind of not making it all sound like it's floating in space, but that it's like actually in one space altogether. Cohesive unit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:41

Yep, okay, totally. What's the weirdest thing you do in your production process?

SPEAKER_04 35:46

Oh, uh, I really love just throwing like a plugin that doesn't make sense at something and and seeing if it works out. Like what? One of my favorite plugins is called pitch hack, but it it essentially just takes uh small snippets of your sound, pitches them up, and then it can both like loop them and reverse them.

SPEAKER_05 36:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

And uh putting that on something like an acoustic guitar and then beat syncing it with your drums. And then I'll uh I'll put the acoustic guitar on one side and route that as a send, that kind of like looping, reversed, high-pitched thing on the other side in the stereo field, so you get kind of a a regular acoustic guitar sound and like this almost synth-like kind of high high-end thing going on that's in time with the drums and adds to the groove. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:34

Are you able to change the timing on the samples? Like, you know, do some granular stuff with it?

SPEAKER_04 36:38

You can do a little bit, you can change the uh how long the sec like the sample it will grab is. So you can either do it based on like the beat division if you're beat syncing it, or you can do it based on a time division.

SPEAKER_05 36:50

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 36:51

And it this is one that's uh Ableton has max for lives, so it's kind of like me uh community based.

SPEAKER_05 36:57

Okay. Yeah, that that's awesome, man. Do you struggle to call a project finished?

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Actually, no, I'm a I'm a pretty decisive person. When I decide something is done, I'm I'm pretty good. I'll usually I have like three people I really trust that like once I feel like something's done, if I send it to them and they're also like, yeah, sounds sick, I don't know what I would change, then I I'm good to call it done.

SPEAKER_05 37:21

Okay. Uh that's that's good. I used to waste a lot of time not putting things out because I keep opening the mix, you know, weeks later and tweaking little things forever and uh just struggle to put the brush down and put the thing on the wall, you know. Yeah. Is there something unique that you do that you feel distinguishes yourself from uh other people that are kind of creating the same style of music?

SPEAKER_04 37:40

Uh I I don't know if there's if it's like uh unique isn't I'm the only person doing it, but the the way I've acquired gear, like half of my gear has been either given to me or uh I've found for dirt cheap randomly. Like the I have a Korg keyboard of some kind with weighted keys that an old lady was getting rid of and and donated to me very graciously and stuff like that. I guess like my sound is is kind of an accumulation of of my lived experience, and so I think what makes it unique is is kind of constrained by what I've been able to afford to buy myself. Sure, yeah, the the tools give a lot to the different sound.

SPEAKER_05 38:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

What's the best feedback you've ever received? The thing a lot of people have been saying about the project I just put out is that uh it sounds really clean, and and that was something I was really focused on, so that that felt great. But then I guess in in a kind of a funnier sense, I sent my dad a song recently and he said uh Asimov and and Carl Sagan would have found it really cool. So if I can make physicists and science fiction writers impressed according to my dad, I'll I'll take it.

SPEAKER_05 38:48

There you go. Yeah. Sounds like a good compliment. Yeah. Uh what's the worst advice you've ever been given?

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Uh to stop, I guess. Or uh that was one piece of advice, but I I think uh my dad actually, to bring him up again, used to get mad when I'd whistle a tune like just randomly and that there was like a melody in my head. And I I think uh that prevented a lot of early musical exploration I was doing. And I think you should always, if you have something stuck in your head, sing it out loud. It won't affect other people that much, but it'll make you happy and maybe you'll make something out of it.

SPEAKER_05 39:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:22

Do you think he regrets stopping you from whistling when you were a kid? I doubt he even remembers it, is it? I think he was just annoyed that day or something.

SPEAKER_05 39:33

I'm not here working 12 hours a day and have to come here listening listening on that. Alright.

SPEAKER_04 39:39

Yeah, deep and meaningful to me. But you know, two minutes of his life kind of deal.

SPEAKER_05 39:45

Yeah, adulting gets tough. Uh what habit has improved your music the most?

SPEAKER_04 39:50

Like deciding that I was gonna learn one specific thing that either fulfilled like a a need that I had, or like sitting down and and just like only messing around with like compression kind of for a session, or really trying to figure out the difference between like what a chorus and a flanger is and and that sort of thing. And and slowly trying to break it down into bite-sized pieces has helped a lot.

SPEAKER_05 40:16

Absolutely. Well, that's awesome to continually learn. Yeah. You'd already talked about your dad, and uh sounds like he's pretty supportive of your music at this point. Yeah. Uh how about other other family members, neighbors? How do how do other people react to your Yeah?

SPEAKER_04 40:29

I mean, I uh I live with my uncles right now and uh like they're super supportive. If I have stuff going on, they'll they'll come out and show love. And my mom and dad as well. They're they're great about it. I in just in general, I feel really lucky to have like a pretty tight-knit community.

SPEAKER_05 40:46

That's awesome. Yeah, that that's important, especially if you're trying to do some live stuff and uh you use that you do some live performances.

SPEAKER_04 40:53

Yeah, when when I get the opportunities, I have a a show coming up in August that I'm gonna really try to dial in something cool for.

SPEAKER_05 41:00

Yeah. If music's your main thing, what's number two? What's what's the second hobby?

SPEAKER_04 41:04

Ooh. Uh probably like uh rock climbing. I'm a I'm a big outdoors person. And I used to have a fear of heights, and it got me over that and got me back into shape when I was really out of shape at one point. So and it's uh it connects me to my brother. So it's uh it's just good all around.

SPEAKER_05 41:23

Yeah, have you have you ever climbed up anywhere and taken on guitar or taken a little beat machine with you, groove box with you, and make something up on a cliff?

SPEAKER_04 41:30

I actually I have. It ended up being something I uh I look back on and laugh at a little bit, but the experience itself was was awesome. It was it was a good time.

SPEAKER_05 41:39

Yeah, I bet. Yeah, you never know when the creativity's gonna hit though. Yeah. Um what advice do you have for someone just starting out in the production world?

SPEAKER_04 41:49

Just uh try to try to copy your favorite artist without like searching up a video on how to recreate them. Just kind of like based on year, and like let yourself get frustrated and you will learn a lot, I think. Both what to use and uh probably a lot more of what not to use.

SPEAKER_05 42:07

Sure. I I think that's really good advice. Trying to trying to mimic the sound of someone else, and then uh you can branch out from there, but it at least teaches you a lot of stuff to begin with of how they achieved that sound. Yeah. If you could be transported with your gear to anywhere in the world to start working on some songs, where would that be?

SPEAKER_04 42:25

I've always wanted to like make music in like one of those like super forested beaches in New Zealand, middle of like the jungle, warm everywhere. Yeah. Nice. But not too warm. A good temperate. Temperate.

SPEAKER_05 42:40

Yeah, humidity's kind of dangerous around some of this equipment.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:43

Yeah. Um, what else would you like people to know about your art?

SPEAKER_04 42:51

I guess uh I don't put it out under my own name because it's it's always a group effort at the end of the day. And so like if I ever do live stuff, um I have people helping me out. And like even in the recording process, usually there's at least one or two other people who get credited at the end of the day. Cause uh as I said, like without my tight knit community, stuff probably wouldn't happen at all.

SPEAKER_05 43:16

So that's awesome, man. Yeah, give give some credit for the people that are behind you and helping you out. If you could have a creative session with any other producer or uh, you know, have another singer uh come on and do a duo on your track with you, uh, who would that be?

SPEAKER_04 43:29

I think for artist, I would have to go with Justin Vernon or uh Boni Bear. But uh if I could have someone produce with me, uh there's a guy, Andrew Sarlow, who's a pretty famous recording engineer and producer who's done a lot of stuff within the the kind of indie scene in the past uh couple decades, who I'm just in love with all his work and I'd love to get in his brain.

SPEAKER_05 43:52

Awesome. Yeah, well hopefully that'll that can happen at some point. What would you say is the single most important thing in your life right now?

SPEAKER_04 43:59

Tied for one and two is is music and just trying to live with integrity and uh be honest to myself and and be honest to the people around me and my actions. That's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_05 44:10

Yeah, that's a that's a great answer. Yeah. Very cool. Well, the show's called Producer's Chair, so I gotta ask uh what what kind of chair you sit in to make music?

SPEAKER_04 44:20

Uh since he made the first episode, I've been dreading this. My my my roommate gave me this old freaking gaming chair with like the leather cracking on it and stuff. And I've been I've been rocking it for like three years. Nice. Yeah, and like I mean, even now my sit bones are are feeling it a little bit. So I I probably need to upgrade at some point, but oh well. It does the trick.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

Alright, uh, where can our listeners connect with you online and uh hear some more of your music?

SPEAKER_04 44:47

Yeah, so I'm on uh all uh all streaming platforms under uh Porch Fight, the space in between those words, and then uh I think it's porch.fight on Instagram.

SPEAKER_05 44:58

We'll get all these links put with the podcast, so wherever it's playing, the links will be there. People can click on them and go check out some more of your stuff. Yeah. Man, I really appreciate you coming on the show with me. This has been a lot of fun, and uh hope our listeners will enjoy this and hope to hear more of your music in the future.

SPEAKER_04 45:12

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute treat. I love talking shop about production and songwriting and everything in between.

SPEAKER_05 45:20

Absolutely, brother. All right, thank you for listening. If you're interested in becoming a sponsor or a guest on the show, use the provided email and follow me on social media for more updates. We have a lot more interviews coming up, so until then, I'm Steve Swisher, and you've been listening to the Producer's Chair.