despite quickly becoming a close planet e associate in the last year or so, still leeds based paul woolford has also flirted with ‘bass music’ ever more openly.
teshno
'in germany, they can't say 'techno,' they say 'teshno'' ~ seth troxler [march 2008]
special request ~ lolita / alone on special request
paul woolford ~ achilles/razor burn on planet e
never one to tirelessly tread the same sonic waters, paul woolford’s sound has recently been shifting towards the bassier end of town. in fact, you’d be excused thinking his courting of the style may well turn into a full on romance with this release on planet e, but it doesn’t: rather it seems there’s one more – loosely defined – techno record in him, even if listening to the brilliance of his red-hot t williams remix suggests it may (should? probably a bit strong) be his last.
achillies, as you ought to expect, is composed of sounds you don’t just get from randomly selecting a plug-in and whacking a few buttons in ableton. the personality of each machine used has a bearing on the track’s overall charm… from the mike monday like cartoon acid belches to the menacing 303 melodies via the pulsing, monolithic kicks, there’s an economical efficiency to every sound. they melt and flex around each other (as if of their own volition, rather than being rigidly sequenced by some overheating computer) to create an occult atmos’ that doesn’t so much move forward as loiter menacingly for seven deep and mysterious minutes. it’s a mood track, basically, but one that keeps you delightfully on edge.
‘razor burn,’ on the other hand, is about marching rhythms, where punchy kicks and stripped bare beats pad out an earthy thud before filtered synth lines open and close to add breadth to the track’s inherent depth. the jewel in its crown, though, is the so-furiously-oscillating-it’s-fury-fuzzy-and-k-hole-like synth line (is it?) that assumes centre-sage at the midway point and again toward the end. it’s such a marvellously designed sound that it feels you could almost reach out and grab it. but you can’t, obviously, and instead you have to let it pan through your brain where it fires up synapses and sensations you never knew existed, before unceremoniously dumping you back in the woody bed of beats from which it came… simply great shit that’s, typically for wooly, incredibly hard to date, define or dislike.
interview ~ the art of production with paul woolford
this summer i wrote a feature on dj schools old and new for dj mag. as part of it, i was asked to speak to someone who really knows their shit when it comes to making electronic music. of course, my first thought was paul woolford – you only need listen to one of his records to see that he is a man with an acute ear for production. rich textures, deft flourishes and subtle sound designs all replace any painfully du jour motifs in his work for planet e, cocoon and of course his own label, intimacy, and as such the man has a lot of knowledge to impart.
and he kindly did, so much so i thought it a shame not to share our full exchange, so here it comes…
initially, what are your thoughts on the rise of djing/producing as an educational discipline? is production something that can and should be taught on courses and at university do you think?
as an educational discipline, i think it’s great that people now have a structured way of learning how to produce and engineer music. furthermore, most of these learning environments at schools, colleges and places such as s.a.e. are very practical, hands-on studios and this kind of direct experience is key to the development of any participant’s skills. overall this is a fantastic thing that, by and large, democratizes the process of learning, where once you had to slowly work your way up from the bottom by finding a job as a tea-boy at some large studio complex, spending 2 years doing that before they upgrade you to a tape-op.
these kind of positions were very hard to find, and although today’s music production courses have liberated the availability to learn, the irony is that the skill-sets of each approach are very different due to technological advancements. for example, you wouldn’t necessarily learn how to operate a studer 1/4″ tape machine on a standard music production course today, however there was a time where everything was recorded on to tape. likewise, back in the day you wouldn’t have learnt how to make a full production in a piece of software such as ableton so in the words of lcd soundsystem “there’s advantages to both”.
i understand you are self taught… what benefits do you think that has over one of these courses?
yes i am self-taught, and for me this has been of optimum importance because my sole motivating factor has been how things sound, the spirit of the production, and not wether they are sonically “correct”. this is something that makes a huge difference to dance music, although in other forms of music it is less useful – so for example it would be hard to make a modern country & western record that sounds great by badly recording the vocal, whereas in so many dance records these kind of quality issues can often be the things that give us a raw vibe, something that draws us in and charms us by way of the d.i.y ethos that pervades dance music.
increasingly we are seeing that the march of students graduating from production courses has meant that the general standard of production has improved over the years across dance music, but with this it would appear that in the rush to release music and to make a career, there are so many records emerging that are sonically “correct” (for want of a better expression), but redundant in terms of ideas, that the flooding of the market means the genuinely good ideas are getting missed.
recently i read a very harsh review on a website of a talented young up-and-coming uk producer’s new 12″. the record is a great example of being very well-engineered, everything was in the right place, an abundance of sonic detail and plenty of musicality. the reviewer basically said that it was all good, in fact, better than good, but that it felt bland. there was an outcry on the comments underneath from the public, with nearly all in support of the producer and saying what a great record this was. now, after repeatedly swallowing the information in the review, i realised that the absence of something raw somewhere within the production was probably the deciding factor in the reviewer finding the material bland. i know as a dj that when i spend 8 hours going through new promo material, nearly everything sonically is coming from a very similar place. the records i buy are sometimes alarmingly lo-fi – for example the works of theo parrish, moodyman, (and especially in their early days) can be so raw sounding, but the point of all this is that the balance of spirit and production is the common factor in all the best records. they charm you. some of today’s producers are regularly making their records with deliberate murky elements within the mixes, in techno look at the work of ben klock and especially belgium’s peter van hoesen who creates works of art from surface noise. the power of these records and the way they sound is simply not something that can be taught, it is about spirit.
would you agree the technology/software aspect has made production into a teachable science, as it were? has the technical aspect of the art meant that there is more to teach and learn within an educational structure? i imagine such courses were much less popular before logic, ableton and so on…
i agree that the software aspect has definitely made production a teachable science, and i would also say that the ease of these programs to learn has also been a key factor in the popularity of the courses and the uptake in them. of course there have always been sound engineering degrees, but many years ago before today’s courses, you could only do them at certain locations. one such example of a producer who studied at salford school of sound recording is brian dougans, one half of future sound of london, and these days, amorphous androgynous. this was the old-school approach i spoke of earlier so it is very different to what you would learn today. the sheer sonic richness in his music speaks for itself.
do you think it makes sense degree-level production courses are now in operation at places like leeds met? i’m no producer but it seems cynical; seems to bastardise the art a little…
| - this isn’t paul’s but i saw it in berlin and have been looking for an excuse to post - |
i think that it’s definitely a positive thing that you can easily study for a degree in music production. i am all for music being a universal thing, my view is of inclusive, i am certainly no elitist, although i am very specific and particular about what i seek personally in music. the view of some that this could be a cynical approach is quite a reductive argument i feel, in that for many, yes it is cynical, and here i am talking of those who purely want to make money from music with that as the primary motivation, but for others, the skills you would aquire on such a degree course are a springboard to unlocking further potential and furthermore for a still smaller number, with the eventual aim of becoming a recording artist in the true sense of the word.
where do you stand on the argument that production is about an artist expressing themselves vs it being a teachable science? isn’t the latter taking something out of the process? if you go on a course you can sidestep years of loving music, being involved, being influenced and just get taught how to make a track-by-numbers, then bam… unleash it to beatport et voila…
personally i feel that production is actually a process, you are speaking of artistry when you mention an artist expressing themselves. production to me is the actual process as well as the management of the process. the expression comes from the artist inside an individual. so for example, when rick rubin produces a band or artist, he spends so much time observing, listening, and understanding the artist, without even sitting at the console – he has a very comfortable chair and basically lays down in the studio – this is still production, but on a wider scale. his intention is to bring out the very best in the artist psychologically so that when it does come to the actual recording stage, the recordings will be at their optimum level-best. this is where the language has become skewed over the years because many people who come from studying may be able to make a track with the bass, mids, vocals, highs in the right place, but this is basically modern enginering
i feel that the point being made in your question is that there is a lack of true artistry within dance music in the light of things becoming wholly generic. modern technology has opened so many doors but it’s also true that it has made things very samey in some aspects depending on the inquisitiveness of the user. i think as you say, if you take one of these courses and then sidestep all the years of developing your own relationship with music then that is definitely taking something out, and it will show in the end result, there is no substitute for experience and everything you absorb over the years as well as your background and life experience influences your music sometimes subtly, at other times transparently. for those with little imagination and who are stepping in to dance music to make money or for lifestyle reasons, they are contributing to the rise of the generic. one of the problems in dance music is that people spend too much time looking at what others are doing and take the cues there rather than questioning if the way they proceed is really correct for themselves. this is particularly true in the dj world but this is another subject.
do you think production can actually be taught at university level? isn’t that intellectualising it too much and missing the point? are there hard and fast rules everyone can benefit from or should producing be more about your own journey?
i think there are definitely some hard and fast rules, but these are very specific engineering things, about bass placement and not muddying the lower and lower-mid frequencies. learning this stuff academically is a very definitive way of absorbing it. you learn in different ways by being self-taught. as much as i prefer to listen to music made from people at the vanguard of scenes and movements, most people do not, and it would be selfish for me to think everything should be done the way that i like it to be done. and of course, what you are saying is true in that for most of the people who’s music i admire, you just cannot teach it, it comes from the artist. i think there are good elements of both learning your own way and taking things from the “proper channels” shall we say (another expression that doesn’t quite sit comfortably).
now, going onto something that has been a corner-stone of dance music’s creative development over the years; the mistake. going back to the time when phuture and pierre’s batteries were running down on their 303 leading them to make ‘acid trax’, the mistake has been something that has repeatedly changed dance music time and time again. these mistakes are statistically far less-likely to happen if you have studied strictly by the book, so there is a huge case for treading your own path.
do you think there are any common floors in productions today? anything specific which seems lacking/not up to scratch across the board in the music you listen to/get sent?
from the perspective of somebody who is sent a stack of fresh music daily, i’d say the most common flaw is the derivative/generic sound of things. this is why when somebody who has a genuinely original take on things rapidly emerges – good examples from recent times would be joy orbison, floating points and james blake. all three of these artists have a different and very musical contribution to make and have shown that there are always new directions for those with the desire to take them. and artists is exactly what they are. naming no names, you can clearly make the distinction between those that are firing out fodder to drive a dj career and those who are more interesting and relevant and i think we need more artists and less button pushers.
old school, new school, dj schools
this summer i was asked to write a feature on production schools and acadamies for dj mag. it involved a trip to the quite excellent akg / scholarship of sound as well as chats to plenty of other people… read on to find out about various sorts of dj courses; the scholarship itself and for some top tips from key industry people….
in the early days of our still young scene, music making and music mixing was the preserve of professionals and diehards – a wholly different beast than it is in today’s democratic world. aspiring djs necessarily wiled away their youth hunched over a pair of decks re-enacting that epic nine minute mix digweed pulled off last weekend, but that’s where it ended. dj schools were very basic, church hall affairs and, if you wanted to make music, you either had to rob a bank to buy the kit, or else you had to slowly work your way up from the bottom, starting out as a tea-boy at some large studio complex before, two years later, getting upgraded only to… tape-op. even then, those sorts of positions were rarer than a drizzle free day in sunny manchester and were certainly not for the faint hearted.
in 2010, though, you no longer need to save for years to buy a pair of decks then endure months of frustrating trial and error self tuition before you can even loosely claim to be a dj. instead, courtesy in large part to the rise in popularity of electronic music; the ensuing hoards of careerists, as well as the improvements in djing and production technologies, there are affordable courses available to all… from the established dj who wants to write a record, to the middle aged saturday hobbyist who has some disposable income and a few free evenings via the already well equipped producer who craves a wider, deeper understanding of sound, there is something – from a week to a year in length – for everyone. that includes, of course, courses for the wholly uninitiated (from all musical backgrounds, too, not just electronic) like ‘how to dj’ run by dr alinka greasley at leeds met as a module option for music technology students looking to broaden their horizons.
“there’s an important distinction between careerist people and those wanting to just get a little insight. we don’t have industry pros per se, this course is more of a taster” admits alinka. “i focus mainly on vinyl teaching (although we do teach cdj mixing later on) as i think it’s important to learn how to mix with actual records so the foundations are there for things like scratching later on. i think people go away from the course understanding djing more, understanding how much work and practice goes into the art and often they go off wanting to pursue what they have learnt on a more in-depth level.”
“one of the biggest challenges with these sorts of courses is the individual nature of djing” worries alinka. “as my students are often totally new to it, teaching things like beat matching can take a lot of time and that’s why this course is more of a taster. more personal sessions and smaller groups at other courses in the country can then take things to the next level.”
one such course for those with some pre-existing skills is run by ministry of sound which, the club’s phoebe smith tells us, “aims to specialise in live, club based performance. the students are based in the club so are learning, first hand, on industry standard equipment and booths on one of the world’s best live sound systems” that important fact is what separates this course from university tuition which instead often relies heavily on theoretical teaching.
phoebe continues “our courses are not a golden ticket into the industry and we always make that clear, they are just a more industry focused alternative to the classroom lead or theory based courses that you may see at other dj schools.”
for those looking for something which combines theory with practice; djing instruction with more techninal aspects of production and sound, there is the point blank school in london. one of the oldest schools, it was started by rob cowan in 1994 and, in the early days, was only a basic djing course. but, as the school’s david reid tells us “technology developments mean the courses are much broader now – we have 8 studios in total teaching dj skills, music production and sound engineering. we try and introduce people to the building blocks of beats, bars and phrases before they even touch a deck to get them thinking like a dj – that way it makes it easier to understand where and when to mix and they better appreciate the role of a dj.”
“although we run an ableton course which takes in production, djing and recording (because there is so much to learn we split it into modules and teach it over 12 months) our most popular courses are still the hands on practicals taught by pro djs” offers david. it seems, then, that the romantic idea of mixing two 12”s together (at least for beginners) still curries as much favour as it ever has, despite technological advancements.
so, how else have things changed since the early days? we rang up hospital producer and ex-college tutor, danny byrd, for his take on things…
“15 years ago i was doing stuff at my local youth club but it was really basic. the technology and computer software has definitely made these courses much more viable – mainly because kids can now go home and practice what they learn and simply because there is more to teach you can go into as much granular details as you need to with things like cdjs and ableton.” danny points out that, whilst such courses are brilliant and advance you much quicker than would self tutelage, there are potential drawbacks…
“when i started making music it was purely out of a passion for it. you had to be super dedicated back then as it cost £2, 500 (even in those days) for an akai sampler to play with whilst these courses now can rather sell a false dream…’come and do our course as a career move and, hey presto, when you’ve finished it you’ll be a superstar dj/producer.”
there is, however, a new type of schooling which certainly doesn’t aim to sell a dream but rather builds on a strong, pre-existing skill set and already burning passion – the inaugural, weeklong scholarship of sound course in berlin as put on by high end and long running technology company akg. it offers a fully expenses paid trip to the german hot bed of electronic music for ten handpicked students from all around europe. when djmag flew out to observe the course for two days, organiser nick sabine was quick to point out the positioning of the course as against those already mentioned.
“we wanted this to be a really special, submersive and intense weeklong session which offers all round industry insights these students simply couldn’t get anywhere else.” important, too, is that with this course being a scholarship scheme, financial implications are removed from the equation so enthusiasts from any background can apply.
it’s clear as nick continues that this course is born from the genuine passion of a few key figures in the electronic music scene who simply want to share their knowledge and passion to those who appreciate it most; those who are already seriously involved in pursuing music careers…
“it means a lot to all of us involved to really get it right and make this a one-off experience. dixon, for example, broke off his honey moon to come and give his presentation on tuesday, whilst stefan betke [aka respected mastering technician, vinyl cutter and dub techno producer pole] spent time learning the names of the students before they arrived and prepped lots of music and blank vinyl for them to use in his session.”
said students range in age from late teens to mid twenties and all are either currently studying on music technology courses or are graduates working as composers, sound engineers and musicians of various types.
“the knowledge of the students has been really impressive – they know their stuff and are asking some really good, insightful questions of our panels” continues nick as we walk to the ableton studio where kompakt label manager jon berry is about to give a three hour talk. in it, he uses kompakt act the field as a case study and goes through – in compelling and minute detail – everything from signing the act, recording the album, mastering it, sorting artwork, accruing worldwide press teams, radio plays, booking a supporting live tour and a lot more.
over a beer afterwards, the students buzz with enthusiasm after what they have just learnt, particularly 24 year old dane matias “i really love kompakt so that was amazing – jon really went into an awful lot of detail with facts and figures i didn’t get on my course back home. i think i’d be able to run my own label easy after all that information – i wrote down every word!”
as the students disappear together for the evening, a representative from akg, ashely, tells us how this has been the norm all week. “they’ve hung out as a group, shared music in the hotel together, bounced off each other in the discussion sessions and generally shared their collective knowledge – that’s been nice to see and is what, we hope, makes this scholarship so worthwhile to them”
after sessions earlier in the week on mastering (both practice and theory) an ableton workshop, a discussion on ‘artistic development in times of information overload’ and, amongst other things, a morning working with microphones and headphones, the final day sees up close and personal vinyl cutting sessions with the aforementioned pole in his own private studio, before a 90 minute, hands on session in a boutique synth shop (as frequented, we’re told, by ricardo villalobos et al) playing with walls of modular synthesisers whilst receiving instruction from shop owner and super-enthusiast andreas schneider.
“that was my highlight of the week” bristol post-grad joshua tells us. “i love weird noises and even though a week’s drinking has caught up with me [joshua is in and out of the toilet all morning] there was no way i was missing that. had it been a normal uni class at home, though, i probably would have stayed in bed!”
for the students, one last thing remains on this final day – a trip to watergate hours before opening and the opportunity to spend time with the sound engineers and club promoters setting up the whole place before seth troxler headlines later in the evening. it’s the final impressive insight afforded to these students, and, along with the other incomparable edifications offered up throughout the week, is a final invaluable opportunity for these young sonic enthusiasts.
so what does a self taught producer make of all this? is production something that can inherently be taught? we asked intimacy label boss and respected producer paul woolford who points out that there have always been sound engineering degrees, but they were limited compared to today’s courses.
“the software aspect has definitely made production a more teachable science – there are definitely some hard and fast rules, but these are very specific engineering things, about bass placement and not muddying the lower and lower-mid frequencies for example.” as paul continues he is quick point out that such courses are not necessarily a fix all cure for everyone.
“skills you would acquire on such a course are a springboard to unlocking further potential.” paul points out, before going on to underline the sentiments of many of the tutors we have spoken to. “modern technology has opened so many doors, but it’s also true that it’s made things very same-y. learning aside, the ability to make good music all comes back to the inquisitiveness of the user. there are so many records emerging that are sonically ‘correct’ but that are redundant in terms of ideas.”
it seems, then, that whilst there is a wealth of courses available to anyone wanting to improve their djing and production skills, they aren’t there to lay down hard and fast dj or production rules. in the same way that a fine art degree doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be the next david hockney, these courses aim to give students all the understanding they need to be able to go away and make their own art, without restraint, and to allow passions and idiosyncrasies to shine out as they always have. at the same time it’s also true that, given technological furtherments, the arts of djing and producing have been somewhat intellectualised. all that means, though, is that in 2010 there are no excuses for substandard productions; no get-out clauses for shoddy mixes and no reasons for those with a passion not to indulge themselves and their art as best they can.
top tips for djs/producers:
from pole: “if you have to use digital files to dj, make sure they are wavs as mp3s – even at 320kb – just don’t sound nice. seriously, they hurt my ears.”
from andreas schneider: “don’t just think you need to use moog because it’s the name everyone knows – effectively they are now mainstream machines which only use presets so don’t allow endless creative possibilities like modular synths do.”
from jon berry: “make sure you build yourself a good profile online, and make sure you work hard at getting yourself well known in your own local area. going to labels and telling them you have a solid local fan base is a good way to get in.”
from paul woolford: “something that has been a corner-stone of dance music’s creative development over the years is the mistake (for example when the batteries on phuture and pierre’s 303 were running down which lead to them making their classic ‘acid trax’). these mistakes are far less-likely to happen if you work strictly by the book, so there is still a huge case for doing things your own way in spite of the draw of all these new modern courses.”