music: interview: fe_bac
subject: Bryn aka fe_bac, age 24, from East London and playing at
Bleepfest Berlin 3 over Easter weekend 09.
file under: 8 Bit vegan core
web: myspace page
How did you get started playing music?
I guess like most musicians, spending hours and hours locked in my bedroom, writing stupid music that no one would ever hear. Slowly learning how to get gigs around town, and working up to the point where I had a body of music that I was happy to play to more than just strangers. Since moving to London, and more importantly moving onto 8 bit I've been playing lots more of gigs and squat party's [which seem to be making a come back in the U.K scene] as well as a few radio shows. Things are picking up nicely.
What led you into it?
Well, I would say it was in 2005, writing Sound-Scape pieces for art installations, but a friend of mine claims its was earlier on with the explosion of the telecommunications networks, where primitive monophonic ring tone sequencers resulted hours of fun for me, but anger for everyone else on the bus. Anyway it was a short step on to writing generative Noise. And from there I've genre hopped from Gabba to Breakcore, from Dubstep to I.D.M. Finally getting unequivocally addicted to the 8 bit synthesis.
Your first Bleepfest performance was at the ICA in London in late 2006 while you were still a student in Portsmouth. What tools were you using then and what sort of aims did you have?
I had just started to really get to grips with Renoise, and I was writing some really crazy glitch/mess core on a 'day glow' orange Panasonic Tough Book CF_27 Pentium II [a very 'special' computer; which was capable of being run over by a car but had troubles starting Ableton Live]. Back then I was annoyed at the total lack of wrong music coming out of Portsmouth, and traveling to London or Brighton on a regular basis would have left me very much out of pocket. So I was writing music that I wished I could listen to on a night out, hearing that music now does make me question where my head was at...
Recently (a couple of years ago) you changed over to 8 bit. What was behind that decision?
Well it was partly searching for a new [or maybe not, so new] sound, which lead me to 8 bit. But it was around that time that i started squatting, and when your moving house every 3 months or so, it helps to have your entire music production studio fit into your back pocket. The Gameboy is truly the travelers friend.
Are you still using the Gameboys and the Kaoss pad?
Well, since last Bleepfest I've dropped the Kaoss pad side of it, i am more interested in trying to extract music from the mess that is pure 8 bit synthesis. Trying to create a whole sound with only four channels at my disposal, quadraphonic style. And ultimately trying to write music that sounds nothing like Mario.
What software?
In short, LSDJ. A tracker written by Johan Kotlinski, which gives independent manipulation of the four channel spectrum [pu1, pu2, wave and the noise channel] that the Game boys CPU is capable of producing. Like most trackers it works by programming hexadecimal code in substitution for visual wave forms.
At first, I found its G.U.I very raw, and its found its layout difficult to adapt to having come from a strictly Renoise background. But the lack of short cuts and pre-sets, leaves a perfect blank canvas for you to start writing on, I love it to bits.
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Have you developed any special compositional techniques for using those devices?
Patience and lots of it, game boys have a nasty habit of dying on you at the worst possible moment, wiping cartridges and losing songs to the digital ether. It also requires more thought process than more advanced programs, partly because there is no 'back' button, this raises certain issues to the 'Ctrl Z generation'; But I guess that's what comes of using technology which is the same age as me.
The game boy [unsurprisingly] has a very limited audio range, for example it can only get down to the third octave, which when your trying to write bladder crushing bass lines it doesn't leave you much room for maneuvering. But by rewiring your old DMGs you are able squeeze that extra range to create a much deeper sound.
Have you any plans for more gear? Different gear?
Not at the moment, i seemed to have reached a plateau of spending, I think I have finally broken free from the arms race most musicians love to love. Although that doesn't mean I don't have large stacks of game boys, mixers, keyboards, laptops, midi controllers, fx boxes and sound cards cluttering up my life. But at the end of the day, its all about a dot matrix screen with stereo sound and 5 buttons.
London has been cursed for a while now with super-high rents that really drive out the indy/alternative/cutting edge side of things as far as venues go. The current bad financial situation should, at least theoretically, provide some redress - is there any sign of this happening? ... aside of the odd pub or squat night that almost no-one gets to hear about.
The U.K indie music scene has always been shaky, and it certainly isn't a lucrative business, like in Europe. But there will always be people to host events irrespective of costs, and if the credit crunch helps to re-enforce the anarchic sentiment of music for appreciation rather than profitization purposes, then roll on negative equity, roll on financial downfall.
What are your plans after Bleepfest Berlin 3?
I've just finished story boarding my first music video and I am gone to start shooting it when I get back from Berlin. Its a kind of 'through the looking glass' evil petting zoo affair. So watch this space.
Also I would like to host an 8 bit rave, gather 8 bit artists from around the country for one night of seriously low tech madness.
And last but not least - write, play, live more Nintendo Dubstep
Thanks a lot.
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