"Hey, had a crack at those questions," wrote Andrew Stratton in an e-mail that landed in my Yahoo account yesterday, courtesy of his own account at Hotmail. Ahhh, the marvels of modern technology, I mused. "Still trying to find a decent photo... the only photos I really have of myself are me completely and utterly wasted... and the pictures are worth more than 1,000 words."
Andrew is one of Melbourne's current new wave of talented electronic producers, and if you've missed the several waves that've come out of that Australian city since the '80s and Ollie Olsen's outfit, Orchestra Of Skin And Bone, you've got an extensive back-catalogue to try to hunt down.
I have a lot of unrealistic, uncompromising affection for Melbourne--it's my hometown, after all, and even after 8 years in Tokyo, the two things I miss most about Melbourne are the fish & chips and the local music.
And while everyone sings the archival praises of Detroit, Chicago, London, Berlin, New York, or wherever else with a population in excess of a million people and a cool landmark or two, it's high time Melbourne (population 3.8 million, but no decent landmarks at all) got the praise and recognition it deserves, having nurtured Ollie Olsen, David Thrussell of Snog/Black Lung fame, Steve Law (Zen Paradox), Voiteck (Kne'Deep), Adam Raisbeck (Sense), Digital Primate and Blimp (Pro-Jex), and our own IF? Records crew.
You may notice that I harp on about IF? a mite too excessively within these twee articles and interviews, but it's my second li'l baby (after my 3-year-old daughter, Cocoa), and a lot of the time the artists I love and respect I end up releasing through the label precisely because of that--which then gives me the motivation (and excuse) to interview 'em.
So, anyway, back to Andrew Stratton, and a classic case in point.
The whole Melbourne thing has its root within the discussion of Andrew and the release of his brand new Koda EP on March 15th. It's titled 'Indix', and we're pushing it through via IF? with a swag of additional remixes by 4 of Andrew's Melburnian contemporaries: Bitch Shift, Son Of Zev, Little Nobody and Enclave. Gives it that "Made In Melbourne" vibe, which truly is something rather special.
"I guess the coolest thing about Melbourne at the moment is the constant mix of these artists who are still playing 'their' sound. The veteran/old school artists are still getting booked for gigs, playing next to the newer guys, so for a night out it totally sexes it up," Andrew muses.
He's been producing music himself for quite a time now.
"I guess it's been about four or five years, on and off, around DJing, but since I stopped DJing about three years ago, it's given me time to focus on live projects; change keeps me motivated, but at the same time it's very frustrating. My favourite sounds are things like Speedy J and older Grindvik & Hardcell. Chris Liebing, Hertz, Joel Mull, Adam Beyer and Si Begg are artists I've been into for years, and are always pushing the limit, and I'm liking a lot of Dominik Eulberg and Reinhard Voigt at the moment, too.
"The sounds have changed so much, so quickly, and it's nothing like what it used to be--but this will all change too, and I'm sure it will be really cool and definitely motivation to keep up!
"I have a range of hardware which I'll use when I see fit to, I guess; most of all I use a Yamaha SU700, which is great in the studio for starting a track--I can easily get sounds and ideas onto it and get a good feel for a track before I get it into Logic; it's also the centerpiece for my live shows. For years I was using Reason for production, and I still do for some certain bits and pieces, but I've found a really nice work-flow inside Logic 8: it's a very intuitive daw, and there's not much it can't do. I like to dabble in sound design and soundscape, but it all ends up being techno at some point."
CDs seem to be a disappearing facet of the electronic music industry, and some people would have it that labels are cutting back on vinyl production these days because they say it just doesn't make back the money invested.
"Yes and no," Andrew muses.
"Coming from a DJ background myself, I could never accept the move from vinyl to CD, let alone digital download; for me it was a very purist/audiophiliac/honourable thing to own vinyl of your favourite artists. While I still cherish my collection, I have now come to greatly appreciate digital download--for everyone involved, it makes everything so much easier, DJs are finding what they want, artists are being promoted, and the scene here in Melbourne seems to be flourishing at the moment."
Which brings us back to IF?, a label that was set up in 1995, when Andrew was just a kid.
"You guys have been doing it for so long--I have 'Zeitgeist 2: Sounds of Future Melbourne', from 1996, in my vinyl collection. There's not a great deal of crew who stick it out for this long and still have a passion for it. Keep it up!" he enthuses.
But I'll let you in on a little secret: It's the constant discovery of far more talented new artists, like Koda, that've kept us on our wee toes and inspired all along the bumpy trail.
Shhh...
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