Andy has been deeply engaged in digital music making, but he's still human after all. So we sat down for a chat, talking about his transition into electronic production, his experience with Kayne, how Sia is an extreme version of himself and his thoughts on the new wave of bedroom beat-makers like Flume and Chet Faker. We also spoke about how a tweet from Megan Washington led her to star in the "Talk Too Much" video clip.
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Andy Bull: Yeah, with a couple of exceptions. There were a few tracks where I didn't play drums or guitar, but 90% I did everything.How did that work, writing more as a producer who's in control of every sound?
The process of song writing is that it's like- where do you start? With a band, more traditionally, you might have some chords on a guitar or piano or have a riff or something and you get together and start rehearsing and flesh out a structure. When you are on your own, you might often start with a bass or like a 2-bar or whole bar chord progression which is more how you would put together dance music, but I'm not making dance music. I'm sort of making something that is, I guess half way being electronically produced but more traditional song writing. It was a pretty inefficient and clumsy way of doing it. Making dance music can be really streamlined. You make loops and build on it and you drop things in as you go. With traditional songwriting you have verse and choruses and chord progressions, but I was sort of doing a mix between the two. There was a lot of back and forth. Working on your own, there's no set way. You start with the most important element of that song.It's great there's so many different ways of approaching the music making process, and interesting to hear what's happening with a whole new wave of self-produced artists. Home producers have been around for a while, but the technologies and software available are advancing all the time. What are your thoughts on your peers like Flume or Chet Faker who are essentially making major releases from their bedroom?
There's a number of things that can be said about it. I think being able to make music in your bedroom is really good. I read an article this morning, saying that EDM is a 20 billion dollar business or something like that. The accessibility of dance music to people who just want to make music is great. It makes sense economically because it doesn't cost much to make it. You just have to be able to afford a laptop. Creatively, everyone uses the same tools which is a bit of a challenge because people have access to all the same tools and you have to then, like any technology, find new ways to use them. Everyone uses Logic or Ableton and all the instruments are built in, with the same plugins. It can direct you in a certain process of making music and a certain structure. For example, dance music has a structure that is repeated a lot. Like anything, it has it's massive benefits but you also have to think originally.
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The line the was taken from the first line of Keep on Running, but I think I meant it ironically. There's obviously a bit of a contradiction in me saying things like, I want to self reflect and have autonomy. When I think about things, the most important is that an individual can explain who they are and what they stand for. Then, on the other hand, releasing something publicly you kind of succeed or fail based on whether or not people like it or not. Well, at least from an outside perspective anyway. It was just the irony of that, and my way of saying not to take yourself too seriously.A lot of electronic music thrives on anonymity and on your album cover your face is completely concealed. Are you taking a page from that book, or perhaps following in the footsteps of Sia who also did this recently?
Yeah! (Laughs) It's funny because someone drew my attention to this Sia link recently. I reckon it's really cool. I mean, she's an even more extreme example than me, because she's really well known and making huge pop songs and success but at the same time she's turned around in every performance. I think it's really cool because, you want to perform and you want to play the character and everything but you're not trying to make yourself a star or draw attention to yourself. Like, a runner runs and a surgeon cuts and a musician plays music. You don't want to necessarily make it about you, which is really hard because it's a performance industry and the assumption of you doing it is to be centre of attention, which is not necessarily true. It's kind of a complex thing. I wanted to give a sense of a character on the record so I wanted to put a character on the front but kind of not be on the cover myself in a way. That was sort of the idea behind that, but there was also a visual link to Sea Of Approval as well.
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It was a little while ago now. I think at the time, he was working on his third album which was called Graduation and he was on tour with U2. I met him at the studio and he was really polite and a real gentleman. He was really passionate and really talkative but really nice, just intensely involved with music back then as much as he is now. He was really forthcoming with his opinions and advice which I guess has not changed. It was a really cool little experience. I spoke to him for a couple of hours and he was showing me demos that would become Graduation and I was asking questions and he was very open. He's kind of getting it rough at the moment. I suppose at the level of his fame life must be pretty awful. But I think underneath all that, there's just a guy who's really passionate about music and wants to perform.What are some artists on your current playlist rotation?
I've been listening to Mac Demarco. His record Salad Days is just great! And St. Vincent, I've been listening to as well. I saw her for the third time a couple of weeks ago and she was amazing. Her new record is really great too. I try not to listen to much during the making of the record except for old favourites because I don't want to be overly influenced by current trends. I'm coming back out of that cave again now and listening to more music. I like Blood Orange as well. But I always go back to old favourites like Bowie. It's nice to listen to them and it reminds me why I do this.Darren Luk is always surfing the new waves of sound, follow him here