Musician Mini Interviews

[backwardecho]

[Dear those in charge,

Had an idea for this the other day and couldn't find any posts on the topic, so if there is one already established that I missed, please let me know! And if I'm being inadvertently naughty in posting this, please also let me know! :3]

So I thought it would be nice to have a thread here to get to know our music artists a little better via musicians answering a few brief questions, such as;

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

How did you get into making music?

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

- what has been your biggest challenge?

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

Option: Include a song to share with all of us.

So this is just a sample I made up, you could create your own questions that would better tailor to you, or a little of both. I know for me, when I discover music I enjoy, I like to find out a bit more about the musician who created it, to get a better understanding. And having had the privilege of being interviewed in my formative musical years, I personally believe it's a rather fun thing to do!

Well, here we go, I'm going to click on the button and see what happens!

[8-bitheroes]

Sounds like a cool idea, let's see if anyone bites.

[backwardecho]

At 12/23/16 07:49 AM, 8-bitheroes wrote: Sounds like a cool idea, let's see if anyone bites.

Thanks! :) It would be lovely if someone did. Though I suppose if one does decide to take this new thread out for a test drive, they'll surely need a moment to type up what they want to say.

For now, tumbleweeds..

[Schematist]

This sounds like a good idea to me as well. People tend to have some unique stories!

[Troisnyx]

Oh go on then...

At 12/22/16 04:31 PM, backwardecho wrote: What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

Enya, Akiko Shikata, Ayumi Hamasaki, Utada Hikaru, Mylène Farmer, Alizée. And that's just the influences I had when growing up!

How did you get into making music?

I was given my first piano lessons at age 3. The rest is history...

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

Currently? I would say being played on BBC Radio Lancashire thrice. Though I cannot just stay there.

- what has been your biggest challenge?

Actually *making* music growing up. I was given music lessons as a prestige project of my parents'. It's all fine and good that I liked it too. However, when it surfaced that I was getting into music composition and performance more than they wanted, they beat me up, tore my sheet music up, disparaged me, prevented me from going to conservatory (on pain of death, which given their previous demeanour towards me, they WOULD have carried out).

After my mum's death my dad took this up to eleven. Even during my life as a student he would stalk my NG page and others, to find ammunition to use against me. This would happen for years.

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

I am a self-backing vocalist and multi-instrumentalist with LIFE! Or at least, that is what people around me say.

Option: Include a song to share with all of us.

At the risk of this turning into a self-advertisement thread, I will not do that. But I will recommend some hopefully good listens:

- Nightfall
- Light, Shine Down
- Uplift
- Terre des Hommes Libres
- What Child Is This?

Hopefully you might get a taste of some of the things I do. Happy listening!

[backwardecho]

The ball is rolling, thank you so much for sharing with us, Troisnyx! Fyi, I was already planning on checking out your music in near future, and will definitely be giving these suggested songs a listen! :D

[HighBallers]

Im bored so what the hey

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

I always wanted to be like Kirk Cobain. Then i realized hes pretty lousy at the guitar haha Still respect his song writing abilities. Alexi from Chidren of Bodom was a major influence for me fo sho.

How did you get into making music?

Some local dude blew my mind with his lil crude metal songs. Ever since then i started off making grind/death metal

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

Got the chance to play and record guitar parts for a band that played all through the south central region of USA.

- what has been your biggest challenge?

passing the CAR TEST. uggh.....

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

My music is technical death party metal

Option: Include a song to share with all of us.

• 

  Grandma's Secret Sauce

  by HighBallers

  Loop for intense action

  Loop

  Heavy Metal

  1,024 Views

  PLAY

[zybor]

At 12/22/16 04:31 PM, backwardecho wrote: What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

I was exposed to traditional music from different cultures. Mostly Asian, Russian and Middle Eastern folk music. I love them. Those were the ones I jam with when I was little. But I happened to like Celtic music, with musicians like Secret Gardens. I also listen to Ennio Morricone, with the Dollars Trilogy. Sadly, those were the only Western music I listened to.

How did you get into making music?

I made crappy remix of other people music on tracker. Wasn't even good. After a while I finally found out that I had been living under a rock. Hans Zimmer and Thomas Bergersen stuff for example. I finally dropped the crappy remix and took some guts to write original stuff. Bad stuff.

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

Ability to write the most emotional pieces with little effort, out of any style and genre. I just do it whenever I feel like.

- what has been your biggest challenge?

Self-deprecation.

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

They are with the strangest structures and style, because I'm 100% theory illiterate, therefore I break all the rules in music. But this also enables me to write heart tugging melodies or powerful theme with quickest method to grab people's attention.

Option: Include a song to share with all of us.

• 

  Edge of Time

  by zybor

  Epicness of time.

  Song

  Classical

  1,423 Views

  PLAY

[backwardecho]

Here's mine..

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

Basil Poledouris, Depeche Mode, Tool, Nightwish, Assemblage 23

How did you get into making music?

Older brother noted my interest in composing, tossed a keyboard in front of me and installed Reason on my computer. And the adventure began!

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

Once upon a time, on Myspace, I’d found it strange the only girls in my ‘genre family’ that I had come across were singers - not that there was anything wrong with that, but where were the girls who created their own electronic music? Also around that time, a female artist I did know of, told me about a careless comment an established musician had made to her after their concert regarding whether girls making aggrotech, ebm, and the like would ever be successful. All of this motivated me to spend several months of spare time combing through Myspace, country by country in search of female electronic artists.

In the end, I’d discovered a couple dozen, ranging from unknowns to those already on labels. I made contact with each musician, letting her know what I was up to and got a page set up for us, where some of the ladies popped in to say hi and others got to know each other and collab. A lot of good things resulted from this but in view of keeping it short, I’ll just mention one spunky gal who decided to make a record label and a couple compilations with us. :)

- what has been your biggest challenge?

Computer was destroyed, along with the music for my upcoming album at the time. That experience amidst other drama, knocked me sideways and hushed the musician I had become. Years later, I’d learned valuable lessons and I’m starting to make the time to compose again.

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

My music lessons never went beyond the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

• 

  My Kith, My Love

  by backwardecho

  Current pride and joy

  Song

  Cinematic

  967 Views

  PLAY

[Akaruhime]

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

Crystal Method, Special D and Alice Deejay

How did you get into making music?

started off with making little midi songs when I wanted to be an animator

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

Eh kinda cheesy but this one girl msged me and told me that one of my tracks felt relaxing and it helped her calm down when she was having a bad day

- what has been your biggest challenge?

After the 2k16 NGAUC I feel down in a bit of a hole wondering if I could even improve on music n basically stopped until a few months ago

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

I hate the sound of 808's so I always try to avoid using them

~music time~

• 

  The Pianist

  by Akaruhime

  I have returned!

  Song

  Techno

  1,057 Views

  PLAY

[Calamaistr]

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

Mike oldfield, Alan parson, Queen, MJ, Bach(i sang kommt ihr tochter organized by school), Eric clapton, Vangelis, Phil collins, etc. Later in life' Ayreon/Arjen lucassen, Nobuo uematsu, Fauré, Liszt, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Conor obrien(villagers), Owen pallett, probably a few more im forgetting.

How did you get into making music?

How did music get into me? I didnt get into music, i always have had music in my head and eventually just got the tools to pin it down.

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

Its silly perhaps but finishing any OST is always a proud feeling. Also being visited on ng by Dan paladin was pretty cool.

- what has been your biggest challenge?

Coping with depression and depersonalizations in life.

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

I do all effects manually, i never use filters, sequences or samples ever, and i compose a whole piece in a single pianoroll.

Option: Include a song to share with all of us.

I could be arrogant and share my best work but ill just choose to pick a recent one :P

• 

  Astraea OST - 2 spring (day) - Thickett.

  by Calamaistr

  Astraea OST

  Loop

  Video Game

  559 Views

  PLAY

-cal

[UltraMX]

At 12/22/16 04:31 PM, backwardecho wrote: [Dear those in charge,

Had an idea for this the other day and couldn't find any posts on the topic, so if there is one already established that I missed, please let me know! And if I'm being inadvertently naughty in posting this, please also let me know! :3]

So I thought it would be nice to have a thread here to get to know our music artists a little better via musicians answering a few brief questions, such as;

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

Hmm... I would say Pegboard nerds and Skrillex

How did you get into making music?

When I was 9, i used to use Mario Paint Composer to arrange my own tracks(they were nothing more than a mess at the time so...) Later, when i was 10-11, i found out about Sunvox and decided to use it for making my own music(keep in mind i was 10-11 at the time and did not know how a tracker worked) and so i decided to create MORE messes. Then i found out about FL and started actually composing music through it and here we are now!

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

When i actually created my first ableton track(recent one). It was one of the biggest efforts in making a new track. And the fact i am limited to 8 session view scenes(don't judge me, i have live 9 LITE) makes me more inclined to keep my songs as simple as possible.

- what has been your biggest challenge?

I actually tried to get some NI Vsts(demo version or reaktor 6 player) to work with fl, i tried to see what was going on, and i gave up when i went nowhere.

Oh, songwise? I tried to make dubstep sounds with sytrus, but i got WHITE NOISE. Yuck. Eventually i got a growl. So rewarding!

- describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

They are somewhat simplistic. Nothing too much behind the song, just the main melody, secondary melody, the drums, the bass, the sub bass, some automation and FX, some effect spice, mastering is common, and, if i am feeling extra creative, i add the third melody.

Option: Include a song to share with all of us.

So a song you say? Does it really have to be a song or a loop? I'm going for loop today. Nothing too long, nothing too loud, just a simple loop. It emphasizes the "simplicity". It actually loops well =). But as it loops it's hard to tell where it starts or where it ends.

• Unpublished Submission

[Rampant]

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Danny Elfman, Russell Shaw

How did you get into making music?

I used to listen to classical music when parents dropped me off at school; when I was in sixth grade, I decided, "I want to do what these guys did."

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

I recently just finished scoring my first short film, and it was pretty humbling to be part of a large group of artists and creators all putting in so much hard work to create something much bigger than any single one of us.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Finishing a multi-movement piece of concert music, like a symphony or even a sonata. My mind races from one theme, set of instruments, or tone/style, to another, so I have probably hundreds of partially-completed or abandoned themes and motifs scratched out on paper, but very little to show in the way of actual finished concert music.

Describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

I went through a phase when I was quite young where I wrote really bad techno music.

[SoulSecure]

What bands/composers/etc influenced you while growing up?

My influences when I was younger were just as eclectic as they are now. In fact writing about it here would take up far too much of my time (I just deleted a bunch of text)

How did you get into making music?

Grew up with an electric organ in the house, then we got a keyboard and I played video game songs on it and then I got a B.C.Rich 6 string and played metal until I got a bass and continued to play metal. I got into music because I love music and wanted to be a bass player in a nu metal band.

As a musician - what's your proudest experience so far?

My 3 year old son being able to tell me all the names of the four courses on mandolin by himself and sing their pitch after I only showed him once.

what has been your biggest challenge?

Gee, IDK. Switching between G and D chop chords on mandolin. I'm still learning this. Speaking of, I guess my biggest difficulty is just the fact that I was never properly taught to play anything (except classical upright bass in high school and I don't have one now) and I wasn't taught at a young age, compound this with not practicing diligently enough (various reasons including bad excuses) and I feel very limited in what I can do. The fact that I was a good bass player and then switched to mandolin doesn't help. (I only started playing mandolin, like 2 years ago)

describe something quirky or unique about you/your music.

My current music is Christian lounge/chillout/downtempo with vocals and I've been told that it still sounds like metal music lol. The best part is that I hear it too :)

Option: Include a song to share with all of us.

• 

  I'd Die Trying (Without Your Truth)

  by SoulSecure

  Christian Lounge w/vocals

  Song

  Experimental

  850 Views

  PLAY