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gasnewsletter · 2 years

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Alyag - Interview & Studio Tour

Studio

Gear List

Line 6 - Helix LT

Universal Audio - Apollo Twin X Quad

MOTU - M4

SPL - 2Control

Genelec - 8040BPM Monitors

Native Instruments - Maschine+

Native Instruments - Kontrol M32

Novation - Launchpad X

SubPac - S2

Guitars (some modded)

Schecter - C-7 Hellraiser

Schecter - SLS Elite E-1

LTD - Alexi Laiho SE-600

Fender - Player Plus Stratocaster

Taylor - American Dream AD17e

Headphones

Slate Audio - VSX

Sennheiser - HD650

Mics

Aston Microphones - Origin

SE Electronics - DynaCaster

Aston Microphones - Starlight

Plugins

UAD, SSL Native, Plugin Alliance plug-ins

Xfer Serum, Synapse Audio Dune 3, Arturia Pigments, Sonic Academy ANA2 soft synths

Native Instruments Komplete 14 Ultimate, and more sample libraries than I care to admit

Interview

Who are you and what is your relationship with music?

My name is Alyag, and I'm a lifelong tune-tinkerer, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and sassball extraordinaire, currently based in Victoria, BC, Canada.

I've been honing the craft of writing, performing, and producing original music since my early teens, and more recently learning how to actually build a business and a career through marketing and monetization.

My main background has always been in rock and melodic metal -- I've played in many a band over the years -- however, more recently I took up the mantle of fusing elements thereof with various genres of electronic dance music. Growing up, I'd always had a tremendous love for both, but the production elements in electronic music (specifically the sound design) had genuinely intimidated me. That is until about a half-dozen years ago when, utterly enchanted by the sights n' sounds of the Shambhala Music Festival here in BC, I'd felt called to take a serious crack at it... and haven't turned back since.

By day, I peddle fine instrumental and professional audio wares at a music store; by night (and every other available waking moment), I'm arranging noise into something that hopefully makes sense, and spreading its gospel across the Interwebz. I've made a humble but steadily increasing income from my creative spewings, via gigs / streaming / sales / sync licensing / etc, and certainly aim to make it a full-time thing at some point in the near-ish future.

I'd go absolutely bonkers were I not doing it, so for me music is literally the thing that gets me out of the otherwise inescapably cozy confines of bed in the morning.

Which piece of equipment in your studio is essential to your production process?

These days I'd say it's the Slate VSX headphones.

Since I'm not currently in a position where I can afford a dedicated studio space, being able to check my mixes in some of the most renowned control rooms on professionally tuned speaker systems, all within my headphones, has been absolutely game-changing, especially in terms of being able to trust that what I'm hearing will ultimately translate in any environment. And being able to do the infamous "car test" without actually having to go to my car is pretty handy.

Also, guitars. Couldn't do without at least one (or several) of those.

What is the most budget-friendly piece of studio gear that gave you the most results?

If we're talking bang-for-buck ratio here, I'd still say the Slate VSX. They aren't cheap headphones by any means, but when I think of the amount of money I've sunk into my monitoring environment over the years -- between speakers, room treatment, calibration software, a fancy speaker switcher/controller with built-in cross-talk emulation for headphone mixing, the headphones themselves, a Sub Pac, you name it -- the value I've gotten out of these particular headphones over the past year and a bit I've owned them has far surpassed anything I'd used previously, at a fraction of the cost.

Beyond that, I'm a big fan of less expensive gear that "punches up", if you will; stuff that is oft pitted against much more expensive brand products. For example, my favorite mic for anything acoustic or clean vocal is the Aston Origin -- relatively cheap when compared to the Neumanns and the AKGs of the world, but it's the one I always go for whenever I record any of that sort of material, just because I've always loved the unique character it would impart on the recording, and how little processing it would need after the fact to sit great in the mix. It's also quite forgiving on ambient noise, which helps when you're a bedroom producer with a less-than-perfect space.

I've also found that certain cheap, almost "throwaway" instruments for some reason can record inexplicably well compared to (or at times even better than!) their higher-end equivalents. And taking it further than that, the beauty of the amount of processing anyone with a DAW has at their disposal these days, is that you can take any recorded signal and transform it into something so much more than it once was in endlessly creative ways... so it really isn't necessary to have all of the best stuff to make great tunes. I'm a firm believer in the concept of, "good enough", rather than ceaselessly chasing better and more expensive gear.

Walk us through your process for creating and producing music.

Every tune is different, and while I do try to mix things up every once in a while (starting with drums or a bassline instead of a melody, for example), I'm always open to where a new idea might spark.

Sometimes it could be as simple as flipping through presets in a new plug-in when something clicks; sometimes it could be a cool arpeggio stumbled across by happenstance by fretting the guitar in some unusual way; other times a random melody will pop into my head, and I'll try to map it out either on the guitar, or directly via MIDI in Ableton, and build on it from there.

A lot of my catchier tunes will typically start in the latter way, with a couple having even come to me in a dream... which is always a rare and precious moment followed immediately by my frazzled half-awake self scrambling out of bed and toward the computer to try to somehow capture the damn thing before it completely dissolves into the ether.

What is a production technique that you always come back to?

I don't know if I'd necessarily call it a technique so much as a preferred method, but I've never gotten out of the habit of programming all my drums entirely by hand via clicky-mouse -- as in, I literally write in every single note and adjust its velocity with the pointer.

Sure, I have drum pad controllers I could use to actually play in the percussive parts, but I've done it this way for so many years that it's just faster and somehow more efficient for me. It doesn't matter if I'm making melodic death metal or electronic dance music; the method is exactly the same, just the samples are different.

How would you explain your style?

Historically I've referred to my tunes as an eclectic amalgamation of Electro-Psy-Funk-DnB-nuDisco-Trance-Metal, which is a bit of a mouthful, hah. Thus far it's the best way I've come up with to describe my noise making antics, as they very much are as cohesive a blend of all of those conventionally-rarely-seen-dancing-together elements as I can possibly muster. Being a tremendous fan of a plethora of highly varied genres and styles, I've never been keen on pigeon holing myself into any particular one, rather opting to fuse together as many of my favorites as possible.

That being said, I'd say a fairly accurate (as I imagine it) explanation for my music would be the soundtrack to a high-stakes hover car race in a dystopian future cityscape whilst in the midst of a legendary boss battle.

What’s your biggest struggle?

Ironically, being the jack of all yet master of none in terms of niche genres makes it very difficult to appeal to curators or even labels that specialize in specific styles of music.

Often times if I try to pitch my stuff for promotion, I'll get feedback citing that it's too much of one thing and not enough of another (namely the one that they specialize in), and thus it doesn't quite fit their mold... which is precisely why I've remained 100% independent with all of my releases to date (with the exception of a couple of collaborations with other artists on their labels).

The benefit thereof, however, is that I retain all the rights to and creative control over my work, so I don't have to cater to anyone or anything other than my zany imagination.

Has building a hardware setup changed your perspective on music or life in general?

I actually do most things "in the box", and own very little hardware, as I'm pressed both for budget and space.

If anything, I've been trying to simplify my setup more and more over the years, downsizing quite a bit from what I'd used to have. For example, instead of a hefty studio rack, I now do everything on the Apollo Twin; in place of a gargantuan tube guitar amp, all my tone comes from the Helix floorboard; and instead of a band, I have my laptop, hah.

So I suppose that if I've drawn any life lesson parallels here, is that the simpler the better (at least for my own peace of mind), and the less I have to cart around to gigs and such.

One tip on how to spark creativity?

I think creativity is akin to a muscle -- exercised regularly, it grows stronger and more efficient; left to stagnate, it atrophies. So based on that analogy I'd say the most important way to maintain it is to keep doing creative things, even if only a little bit each day. Taking that same analogy a tad further, there have been studies in physical fitness that show that one receives the same amount of health benefits from light daily exercise as they do from a couple of heavy work-outs with longer periods of recovery in-between. Which is to say that, even shorter bouts of creative output multiple times a week will likely yield similar amounts of progress as one solid day of continuous flow.

And here's the thing: in the context of, say, an independent music producer who already wears many hats in the writing/engineering/producing/releasing/marketing process, creativity doesn't just mean making music. It could pertain to making a social media post; writing an email to your mailing list; updating the bio on your website; designing new merch; creating ancillary video content that delves into the production story of your new release; answering questions in an in-depth interview (ahem) -- you name it -- it's all a form of creativity... and at the end of the day, as a creative person, all of those many ways amount to flexing that muscle.

The goal is merely to keep doing the things.

A book, movie, article, or album that has inspired you?

"The War of Art", along its follow-up, "Turning Pro" by Steven Pressfield are a absolute must-reads for any creative.

Relatively quick reads, but the sense of creative empowerment and drive they instill in you cannot be understated.

Where can people find more of your music and connect with you online?

Official Website

Bandcamp

Spotify

SoundCloud

Facebook

Instagram