text-interview with metusynth! -- magenta
<let's get into it!> notsleeping: hi there this is magenta skull (she/they) for Headless Blood Idol notsleeping: we are together for a short internet Q&A with MetuSynth! Hello! how are you today! metusynth: Hi Magenta! I'm doing well, thanks! It's hard to complain when you've got catchy synth melodies playing in your head. I hope you are also well! notsleeping: so we are conversing across the far reaches of time and the internet to conduct a cutting-edge ASYNCHRONOUS INTERVIEW. I wanted to take a moment and see what METUSYNTH had going on after that phenomenal set! thanks for joining us! metusynth: Thank you for the interview, and for creating the HBI community and bringing together so many talented artists!
notsleeping: where do you reside? where does METUSYNTH call home metusynth: These are two different questions. For the last six years, I've resided in Potsdam, Germany, and am originally from the US.
notsleeping: great set! you had both powerful footage emotionally, and powerful footage physically. bridge vibes metusynth: Yeeeah bridge vibes! Since I was really young, the Tacoma bridge and catastrophic failures/natural disasters in general have always fascinated me. As humans, we are mostly used to an environment in which, as a species, we have complete control and some sense of invincibility. Many of us still have a deep trust in our collective intellectual abilities and in the longevity of human civilization. The bridge collapse video is so powerful to me because not only does it showcase the opposite - that we are actually very fragile and vulnerable and prone to error - but the collapse doesn't happen instantaneously. We are given time to really absorb the entire process.
notsleeping: what led to you tackle the subjects you did in your set? do you wanna talk for a moment about some of your feelings relating to the set? metusynth: Moving to the heavier, COVID-themed part of the set: My original idea was to explore the concept of people using media such as games/music/video to escape reality, only to have their own lives resemble what they assumed would've remained fiction. The last track I played was a dark electro cover I wrote for the main theme of the adventure game "Shardlight" (originally composed by Nathaniel Chambers). The game focuses on a plague called Green Lung, which ravages a war-torn city. Vaccines are purposely kept limited to reduce the power of the working classes to rebel, and once people show visible symptoms, they are locked in a quarantine, left to die and eventually incinerated. Obviously this doesn't 100% parallel the current situation, but the game was developed a few years before the pandemic began, and many similarities are quite eerie.
notsleeping: do you have any projects that you wanna mention? where can people find the music of METUSYNTH? metusynth: Currently, I'm working on an album (title to be determined) that explores the contrast between the most meaningful and most horrific aspects of humanity, and the confusion about how both can coexist. Much of it has to do with my experiences during the pandemic and also moving to Germany and becoming more (but not completely!) acclimated to German than US culture. Referring to the already-uploaded songs on my soundcloud, “A Thousand Tiny Lights” reflects the joy in meeting my lovely girlfriend Dea Decay and how taken aback I was by her kindness and compassion, and also a bit of melancholy that due to the pandemic we haven't been able to meet in person yet (though it's going to happen eventually!). On the other hand, there's the shame in how the current lifestyles of those living in wealthier countries are doing irreversible damage to the environment and to economically-disadvantaged and minority communities. That's reflected in "The Final Choice", which is essentially about allowing humanity to die out (supporting antinatalism and assisted euthanasia) of its own accord. And the third component is more of a self-reflection, recognition of one's own involvement in both aspects, which "Obsolescence" covers through realizing both the beauty in life and human interaction but also its transience and the failure to perhaps recognize other peoples' impacts at times and to connect with others. metusynth: My music is available for free download on my soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/metusynth. There is a playlist for the songs on my upcoming album. There are ten tracks planned: four are finished, and I'm currently working on the fifth one, "Ich will euch alles begraben", which translated from German means "I want to bury you all". Once the album is complete, I will set up a bandcamp page as well. [METUSYNTH has a twitter account now! @metusynth] notsleeping: what are some of your motivations, musically? metusynth: There are numerous motivations! Especially in the past year, with the rise of DJ-ing on twitch and online concerts, I've been exposed to so much new music, in a very wide variety of genres. Especially DJs such as yourself (magenta skull) and Dea Decay, as well as corbden, Dead Souls Gothic Lounge, acidbitter, biochili, and the entire Obscura Undead crowd were instrumental in bringing me out of my musical rut and being inspired to incorporate additional styles into my own music. Originally, I was only listening to goth/goth-adjacent and industrial music, and not much released past 2006. It showed in my music, too - not that it was bad, but it was all noticeably somber, dark electro, the same chord progressions, similar slow, brooding rhythms. There are so many more musical environments to explore.
notsleeping: how long have you been making music? metusynth: Playing music: since I was 8 and learned to play piano. I currently play flute and violin as well, and would love to learn to play theremin more proficiently! metusynth: Writing music: since maybe 14? Back then, I wasn't allowed to listen to most music. I had an electronic keyboard and would secretly arrange covers of multiple songs - there were several floppy disks full of contraband tunes. :) That led to writing original rock/pop/electro jams as well. Simultaneously, I played violin and flute in various orchestras and symphonic bands throughout high school and university, and composed multiple pieces for orchestra/small chamber ensembles. During undergrad, I acquired my first synth and mixer, and started learning the basics of writing electronic music as well, though it wasn't until the end of grad school that I actually started releasing tracks in this genre. metusynth: A few years before moving to Germany, I was in the UCLA Game Music Ensemble, a wonderful and talented group of musicians who play video game music and are just really kind, supportive and creative people in general. They inspired me to get more serious about learning music production, and my first electronic music was released with Materia Collective, as part of several video game soundtrack cover albums. A few years ago, I decided I wanted to dedicate more time to writing my own original music, and have primarily focused on that ever since.
notsleeping: so what led you to start making music in the first place? metusynth: Aside from that I mentioned in the last question: Throughout almost my whole life, I've often composed music in my head for fun. It normally starts with introducing variations or abnormalities in much of the music I hear. So many of the same chord progressions, for example, are used in music, and I'd tweak some of the harmonies or instrument choices to create an entirely different atmosphere. Gradually, that expanded into developing these ideas from the beginning. I just wrote what I wanted to hear, if I felt like certain ideas weren't being adequately represented.
notsleeping: are you making the same type of music you started out making? metusynth: Not entirely. I've always been drawn to dark music and themes in general, but used to have a very closed mind regarding how "dark" is defined. My earlier orchestral music, for example, uses strictly minor keys, and often cliche chord progressions that are meant to be ominous or melancholic. The same patterns persisted throughout much of my earlier electronic music. In the end, repeating the same ideas reduced my inspiration to write new tracks, and it made me wonder how the concept of darkness in art and music is even culturally defined in the first place. Why not define that for ourselves? metusynth: In the goth subculture, there is a large emphasis on finding the beauty in darkness. My current musical philosophy is the inverse of that - finding darkness in beauty. Taking some idea or environment that's originally intended to be peaceful, cheerful, familiar, or predictable, and introducing something to disrupt the listener's original interpretation. Essentially, to betray the listener by removing some sense of predictability or comfort that they might have expected. It could be through abrupt changes in musical styles, or through multiple interpretations of the lyrics, or through dissonant chords. In this regard, a major musical inspiration of mine is Yendri (Nina Cording). Much of her music combines upbeat rhythms and basslines with very melancholic lyrics and ethereal synths, but it's never overstated. Using my own influences from music and life in general, I seek to compose music with a similar degree of subtlety that, while catching the user's attention, also allows them to develop their own interpretation of my music.
notsleeping: so what do you do during the day time? ([if you are comfortable discussing it. if not we just we delete the question!]) metusynth: It's absolutely ok! I'll start with the best part of my day: When I wake up, usually my love Dea and I chat for a while before she leaves for work. And we chat again in the evening, usually on video, so her sweet, smiling face can be the last thing I see before going to sleep and every day ends on a positive note. :) [awwwww -magenta] metusynth: My days tend to be pretty chaotic. As a freelancer, I can often set my own hours, which can be both a blessing and a curse. For work, I'm currently a geotechnical consultant who develops seismic hazard (ground motion) and earthquake-rate models for areas experiencing induced seismicity due to natural resource extraction. I'm very lucky to be able to continue to explore my research interests outside of academia. metusynth: Both to be able to more easily find future projects and out of personal interest, I really enjoy learning more about machine learning concepts and statistics, anything that quantifies predictability of a phenomenon in general. And I love learning new languages, both programming and spoken. Anything logical and predictable in general is comforting, so the more time I can spend absorbing all of this information, the better. metusynth: Of course, in the end I'm still human and the more abstract part of that still needs to be acknowledged, which is where music comes in. Music is strictly a passion for me, even a form of self-therapy, so I try to decouple it from anything business- or analytics-related as much as possible. I tend to write music in the evenings, when I'm feeling most awake and creative. Usually I'll start with some abstract concept or environment that I want to put into music, then fragments of lyrics form from that. Once the lyrics are finalized, I experiment with different melodies or motifs on Cubase, find something catchy and representative of the atmosphere I have in mind, and the rest falls into place from there.
notsleeping: what kind of music did you listen to as a teenager. do you still rock the stuff you rocked back then or has it changed much? metusynth: Until I got my first computer at around 16, I was really limited in terms of what was accessible. All I had was FM radio until then. Mostly I'd listen to a local rock station. At some point shortly before I got my computer, they'd have a metal/hard rock night, which by their definition was stuff like Korn, Manson, Rammstein, etc. At the time, this was (embarrassingly) groundbreaking for me, given how little access to music I had, and it started an interest in darker music in general, which quickly expanded to include industrial, goth, post punk, synthpop, darkwave, many different genres but strictly related to the goth subculture. Some of my earlier favorites included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Front Line Assembly, Das Ich, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Bauhaus, Christian Death, The Damned and 45 Grave, among many others. It was all the music I'd ever wished existed but never knew how to articulate exactly. metusynth: Unfortunately, I became overprotective of these genres due to a combination of having been denied access to them for so long and receiving a lot of criticism from colleagues and friends about my music preferences. It led to becoming very closed-minded about other types of music. I didn't break out of this until moving to LA for grad school in 2010, where I slowly started allowing older electro such as Kraftwerk, Space Art, Jean Michel Jarre, and notably Yellow Magic Orchestra into my playlists. metusynth: With the exception of artists who have been proven abusive/racist/homophobic/transphobic/xenophobic/etc., I still listen to all of the artists I enjoyed as a teenager. There’s just a lot more variety now.
notsleeping: can people expect more video sets from you in the future? metusynth: Absolutely! I had a blast with making the video sets for the last two HBI Community Group Shows. Many thanks to you (Magenta) especially for teaching me the basics of video design. As long as there’s enough room for new artists as well, I would love to keep participating in these shows.
notsleeping: so youve been working on video for a short time, and that may not be enough time to get any tips, but is there anything you would want someone who is maybe thinking about starting doing their own videos to know? metusynth: Don't psyche yourself out like I did at first and think that it won't be possible to learn how to make videos if you're new to it! Honestly that goes for pretty much anything, not just videos. My girlfriend Dea had the same issues initially when starting her set, and her video sets have all been awesome! Luckily we were able to support and help each other break through that initial doubt and just start developing some ideas. One of numerous reasons I admire her is her ability to tackle new and often intimidating challenges. She only started playing synths a few years ago and in the last year alone has released her first album, plays in a band in addition to her solo music, and has started DJ-ing on twitch. I'm so proud of my Synth Kitten and try in general to challenge myself like she does. metusynth: Wait, this question was about videos. Whoops, I digressed. Anyways, just have fun with it and for software I recommend Vegas Pro, as the interface is very intuitive.
notsleeping: so i think thats about it for length, i feel like i just scratched the surface here but i dont want to make the interview too big-- so before we wrap up is there anything you wanted to bring up that we didnt get into or that we could maybe get into next time? metusynth: I can't think of anything specific right now - maybe just some advice to other newer artists: try not to get caught up in having the perfect gear, getting a ton of fans, selling a bunch of albums. Don't worry about sticking to a specific genre. Trust your instincts and in the end, evaluate your music purely based on if you personally enjoy listening to it. In the end, it's the culmination of many musical and nonmusical influences, it's valid and it's beautiful. :)
notsleeping: heck yeah. i dont even know what you typed yet but i already feel like we have established some good vibrations here! it was a pleasure to shoot the breeze with you across the bounds of time! metusynth: It was lovely talking to you too, thank you so much!
notsleeping: for the road, to leave the reader with a nice warm vibe, what has you hyped right now? metusynth: Music has never been more accessible than now, both in terms of listening to and writing it. Gradually our dependence on labels and on corporations is weakening, and it's paving the way for so much creativity that hardly got any exposure even a few years ago. I really hope this continues on its current trajectory. metusynth: In general? My family, friends and girlfriend have stayed safe and healthy so far throughout the pandemic. I have wonderful communities of people to talk to now, really kind, caring people who I don't feel like I need to hide anything from. I woke up this morning with peace of mind. A couple of years ago, I didn't think I'd ever be as happy as I am now. There’s a lot to be grateful for.
MetuSynth interviewed by Magenta Skull |
