So having listened to the 3 podcasts again, I’ve tried to summarise Fred’s music making theories.
Technology. Fred is noted for his use of technology, and he speaks glowingly about the iPhone mic, as he loves the compression in Voice Notes. He says that the phone is both his favourite mic and speaker. He talks about the human qualities this has, which he thinks comes from the fact that it’s a sound that’s part of society.
Subtractive Sampling. This isn’t unique to Fred, but I find this the most interesting aspect of what he does. You can find traces of this approach in lots of other electronic music from the late 00s, and likely before. The general idea here is that samplers are more interesting than synths (the theory goes that trying to find an interesting sound in complexity is more interesting than taking a sine wave and making it complex.) Maybe this is something that is more simple with advances in technology and increases in sample time/granular plugins etc. From memory, it goes back as far as Wolfgang Voigt and The Field with microsampling & minimal techno; into artists they directly influenced like Tourist (who was the first person I saw talking about this technique). Then it’s a short hop/skip/jump into in the music of Jamie XX, Four Tet and Burial - the last three of which went to the same school. (Fred knows Four Tet and has worked with Romy from the XX, and it feels like there’s a definite kinship there.) I wonder if that’s how he ended up using that technique; as I notice some of the sounds on USB EP are not unlike some of those in Jamie XX tunes.
Big clarity moves. Fred talks about how it’s super important not to get lost in the detail when writing. Instead the focus needs to be whether the emotion and the arrangement is right, above all else. He talks about how he deliberatley uses non-pro tools like his phone to judge song structures. Fred seems to recognise that audiophiles/producers are prone to going into “mix mode” before the track is done. Using non pro-devices prevents this, and encourages what he calls big clarity moves.
The devil isn’t in the detail (at first). Along a similar line, he also says the benchmark for good writing in electronic music is like on acoustic guitar. You you can build the core motif of a song with an acoustic guitar and 3-4 chords, and the core of that tune is distinctive without any anything else. His point here is that if the song is right, it’ll still feel right even if you’re using the “wrong” kick. Linked to big clarity moves he also advises things like not changing the kick until right the end, and rather than EQ’ing the one you have, try 20 and see what works best. Also don’t A/B your mix until the song itself is actually finished.
The state of play. Fred talks again and again about how being playful is the key to arriving at the songs he wants; referencing that he picked this mentality up from Brian Eno. He mentions that it feels like there’s a balance between head and heart. But we only have a limited amount of heart, as those emotions are fleeting. He wants to keep the emotion alive as along as possible while writing, before then you end up in your head and over thinking things.
Out of control On a similar note, Fred seems to enjoy technology that you don’t or can’t control. He mentions the OP1 and modular where a lot of the time you actually don’t know what is going on, and suggests instruments like these can be rich tools for creativity. If you have any technical chops, you’ll fight against the not knowing part, but if you let that go, you’ll go into a song focus because you’ve given up on controling the technology. Also see: Portal, Morph and other VSTs.
On or off? Another aspect of play is that he talks about having plugin setting that act pretty much as an on/off switch. He talks about watching Boi Wonder and how they have no plugins on their mixes in the early stages. No EQ/no compression etc, and that only comes in right at the end.
Versions not version. Fred likes to have several versions of the same song, that he will often make and remake rather than a single version that he tweaks. He specifically references speed several times, talking about how he tends to work on a song for a few hours and move on if it’s not working. He mentions using time limiters on writing sessions like an hour or 15 minutes and then moving on. He says that experience has taught him this is like buying “more tickets to the lottery.”
Sonic stamp. Famously, a lot of the stuff he samples is stuff found on social media and background noise recorded on his phone. The way he describes this sounds almost like a sculptor chipping away at material, rather than a painter and a blank canvas (note; this sculptor analogy is also a more eastern way of looking at art.) He talks about how he starts a song with either background noise from his phone or a drone of some sort. This sets the tone and emotion and colour of the song.
Hope this is a useful summary…
