When was the last time you were at a show and you were thinking “I am scared for my safety”, not because of the crowd but because of the band. Last time I saw Qui almost everyone in the front pretty much got knocked by the singer. The band themselves say bring a helmet to the show if you know what’s good for you. Qui is the combination of an ear piercing almost Jimmy Page/Steve Albini like guitar with HEAVY crashing drums and a psychotic singer. This combo results in one of the best live shows and music I have seen in a long time. Qui formed in early 2000 with Matt Cronk(guitar/vocals) and Paul Christensen (drums/vocals). Just recently the guys teamed up with ex. Jesus Lizard’s David Yow to take the front in Vocals and craziness. I sat down and had a few beers with the guys a week or two back to talk about Qui:

Randall:So what’s your story you dudes are from the Mid-West, so how come you guys aren’t saying you are actors and you got a pilot, causing all the traffic with your out of states license plates, and living in a 1 bedroom apt. in Hollywood with 4 other aspiring actors from Ohio or something?
MATT: Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. Actually Paul, David and I have all done acting. Paul and I are on this show on the Fuel network. I don’t have out of state plates because I don’t have a car. Paul and I’s first place was a 1 bedroom in North Hollywood. There weren’t any aspiring actors at the time. This 2 bedroom place now at one time there was 5 people now we are down to 3. So actually we aren’t really doing any of those things really.

Randall: Qui isn’t that “why” in French or was that unintentional.
MATT: No, that was Midwestern slang. The truth. It is an effeminate man or queen I think that’s the origins of it. Paul and I being rather Dandy FOPs we thought it would be rather fitting. I think David fits right in with that wouldn’t you agree?
YOW: I am a pretty Dandy Fop.

Randall:Anyway how did you and Paul meet?
MATT: In high school Paul you want to speak?
PAUL: Matt and I met at the Minnesota center for Arts Education. In Golden Valley, Minnesota, which is a western suburb of Minneapolis? It’s a state run school, however to get in you had to audition and prepare something about 250 kids for the 11th and 12th grade. We met in 93 we did not care for each others company. The first year Matt was kind of a right prick and I was a timid little geek. Any the beginning of our senior year we had chemistry together and sparks flew. CHEMISTRY. Chemistry class pardons me.

Randall: And your new singer how did he come into the picture?
YOW: Well being the new guy in the Qui band.?..Let’s see how that happened. One night after drinking a lot of beer and whiskey, Matt and I 69ed over at my place, in the morning we woke up and were kind of unhappy about all that and I asked if there was a way we could redeem ourselves, he said “Yeah why don’t you do a couple songs with us”. So we did some songs, then we did a couple more songs, I started contributing ideas, then we started talking about it then shit I’m in the band.
Randall:Awesome
YOW: Well you say that now.

Randall:Do you see it as a positive or negative thing that he can clear ½ a room just out of the audience being scared.
MATT: We have been clearing rooms since 2000. We really don’t need David to alienate our audience. We have been poorly received many times far worse than at that show.
Randall: 3 of clubs show, that seemed like it was kind of in a good way.
MATT: Yeah it was a blast
Randall: It’s not like people were throwing shit at you or anything.
MATT: Yup we have had that happen too.
PAUL: In a suburb of San Diego…(Yow shakes the room with a burp).. I don’t if you know who the Atari’s are they are a teenage Pop-Punk group. A friend of ours Chris fronts the group, and he liked us so he had us open up for his band and we weren’t well received they threw a golf ball at Matt.
MATT: There were about 1400 people there and we played our first song which was an eight minute long instrumental. There were a few claps, but mostly “FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!” Some girl down in front said play something fast. The time in Salt Lake City in a Tiki Bar. Yes Tiki Bar. It was one of the worst nights of my life. We played to 2 people. The first person was a woman that easily scaled 300 lbs and the other one was her friend which was a dwarf.
Randall: Didn’t you like that?
Matt: NO. I don’t like midgets to begin with, but being heckled by a midget, was one of the most demoralizing experiences I ever had.

Qui at Safari Sam’s in Hollywood

Randall: What is your opinion on shock value in bands; I notice a lot of bands out here in the east end. Are all about shock value especially in a very pretentious way? Like the getting naked over, overplayed high hats and abrasive 1 chord guitar parts is almost expected now.
MATT: To tell you the truth I haven’t seen anything that shocking. I see more of people trying to do tame stuff that won’t shock people.
YOW: It’s all been done.
PAUL: What’s shocking to me is when I hear a band I’ve never heard of play good music that’s shocking to me. That is truth shock value to be original and creative.
YOW: That was very intelligent!?
MATT: No more of this intelligent shit alright. Growing up in the Midwest during the 90s you would see all sorts of crazy noisy bands. Like The Cows. You don’t really see anything like that out here.
YOW: I don’t remember the last time I was shocked at a show.
MATT: Got shocked yesterday at practice because our wiring is fucked up.

Randall: What bands have really inspired all of you recently and in the past?
YOW: NONE
PAUL: He’s also talking about the past.
YOW: (in an asshole idiot accent). Well I really like the Beatles and there is an English group called Led Zeppelin that really did a lot for me. (Asshole idiot accent off). Well god there is 100 million of them. Fear, The Cramps, The Birthday Party, The Dicks…..maybe not a million… all the good ones and none of the bad ones.
MATT: Last recent show was the Kids of Whitney High.
YOW: There is a fairly recent band called Pearls and Brass.
MATT: The Melvins.
PAUL: Mastodon
MATT: Hardcore
YOW: What is your take on Atlantis Morissette?
MATT: I take her as this generations Curtis Mayfield or like the way Huey Lewis was in the 90s.

Randall: What would you say is the most important element to your music?
MATT: Ohhh great I get to answer this one…
PAUL: I like playing in Qui it’s coming from a different place then a lot of different rock bands. I like playing with Matt, like what he said he had kind of a hardcore background, where I grew up with a sort of Jazz and Classical background. The instrumentation, the lack of a bass. My drumming I often finding myself compensating for the lack of that. That sort of makes it interesting.
MATT: But without tooting our own horns I think we all can play pretty good.
PAUL: Both being classically trained as kids we have a different approach than a lot of punk bands.
YOW: The drumming and the guitar playing like when you are playing together one of you will stop and one keeps going. The song structures or the ideas that come out of their heads. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh just a great band what can I say. And now they got the new singer…. Were fucking tremendous.

Randall: What would you say is the most important thing happening in music right now?
YOW: Qui
MATT: Qui
PAUL: Qui

Randall: What sucks about music right now? I already know Reggae (according to Yow).
MATT: All kinds of shit. I don’t listen to a lot of music that sucks so I don’t pay much attention to it.
YOW: Of course all that fucking rap and hip hop garbage.
MATT: Well that to me does not suck…It’s terrible.
PAUL: We keep on trying to get David to rap and he doesn’t want to do it.
MATT: The shittiest thing about music right now is David won’t bust some rhymes.
MATT: One thing I don’t like typically in top 40 rock is production techniques, protools, quantifying rhythms, autotunning, all that stuff. That seems to be the way now that rock music is supposes to sound. Everything sounds the same, everything is compressed the same way and all the guitars sound the same, there is never a wrong note or a flub. It makes it real real fucking boring.
YOW: I kind of feel like things are too homogenized generally speaking.
PAUL: I think the thing that has always bothered me about the music scene is the people who have always been about living the lifestyle before their music. It’s always continued to bum me out.
MATT: To add to that I think people in music in general pretty much suck.
Paul: Not all of them. But as a whole pretty much like actors and lawyers
MATT: It’s probably a similar ratio of how many assholes there are in this world as opposed to cool people.

Randall: What does the word Indie mean to you? It is now considered a genre and almost a plague in my opinion?
ALL of them: Independent
Randall: Well now people see it as a genre of music.
YOW: Ya know pigeon holing and naming genres is a drag to me. At least Indie is a better term than Alternative. That always brought me down it’s almost like it’s Plan B. To me things like Bruce Springstein, Journey, Atlantis Morissette, or Christina Aguilera are alternative because it is definitely not my first choice.
PAUL: I can’t believe you would say that about Bruce Springstein.
YOW: It’s like peanut butter and chocolate.

Randall: What bands in your opinion should we all watch out for?
YOW: Pearls and Brass
PAUL: Matt and I have a band called Paul and Oates that sings weddings
YOW: Geronimo is a LA band you should watch out for, pretty talented and pretty creative.
MATT: a band called Lozen from Tacoma, Washington they are great.

The funniest part is after we went to Cha Cha lounge in Silverlake. They played 5 Springstein songs in a row. Anyway next time Qui plays, I would suggest going to see it. Also they have a full length coming out in 2007, be prepared for that. For now check them out on myspace.

MP3
Qui-Apartment

Myspace

Skot is an interesting dude, who I have had a lot of respect for his band 400 Blows over these years. I didn’t really meet him until recently when Danny Lanois introduced me to him at The Echo. His band 400 Blows have been playing shows across the world for nearly 10 years. Just now they are packing shows all across LA and are finally getting the credit and respect they deserve. Anyway after having a few at the Red Lion in Silverlake we sat down and shot the shit.

400 BLOWS AT ALEX’S BAR IN LONG BEACH

Randall: What’s up with the German thing its pretty rad?
Skot: Those are Navy CPO officer uniforms. The German issued uniforms tend to be grayer in color. What I was telling you earlier most people associate uniform code with Nazism because the Nazis were able to make the biggest statement with that. Everything is about packaging any military or any form of anything bands are about packaging. The uniforms are actually an anti-fashion statement. I didn’t want to worry about the way anybody looked. I didn’t want anybody feel like they had to wear a certain fashion or look a certain way. I figured we came up with these minimal looking uniforms and we would all be wearing the same thing and it would be just about the music. The equipment was all black so let’s come up with a dress code that was all black. Let’s take away rather than add to. In a sense when you minimalize things a lot of the times it can add to something. Even the Salvation Army has uniforms. I have a Salvation Army jacket that says SS. Does that mean they are Nazis? No they are helping poor people out. But 400 Blows has nothing to do with that no Nazi association what so ever.

Randall: New guitar player how did you find him?
Skot: Scott has been a buddy of mine for years; he’s played in bands that we have played with. He has always been that guy who I run into and see around who I thought, carried himself extremely well, was really funny, was really fun to hang out with and was really talented. So naturally when we lost our old guitar player I was at a bar and I saw Scott. All the sudden a bell went off in my head. This is the guy. I don’t want to just play with this guy I want to hang out with this guy. So I went up and asked him,”What are you doing right now? I don’t know? Hey you want to be in 400 Blows? Fuck Yeah, let’s do this!” He came to the first practice and it went so amazing. He learned maybe 2 songs and we stopped practice and ended up hanging out all night long. That’s what sealed the deal our love for music, what we were doing with music, and our ability to hang out with each other and treat each other as brothers. I don’t know of another person on the planet who would be a better addition to this band. It’s exciting, the level is raised.

Randall: Where are you originally from?
Skot: I was born in Simi Valley. Then my mom within weeks relocated us to Mercer Island a little island off the coast of Seattle. I spent most of my childhood there. Then I moved to Venice Beach as a young teenager got into a bunch of trouble moved to a reform school out east. Eventually came back lived in Venice again. Somehow along the line got the art bug in my veins and moved to the Silverlake/Echo Park/Downtown area of Los Angeles, which till this day is still one of the biggest booming artistic neighborhoods in Los Angeles and even maybe in most of the world. I still love it here I think it’s very thriving.

Randall: Best Gig?
Skot: I could not answer that. We have had so many amazing gigs with some many amazing people come out. Even our last gig at The Echo I was sick as a dog and I felt like after I walked off that stage I accomplished everything I wanted to. On our tour Flagstaff, Arizona we played in a tiny basement and it was packed you couldn’t breathe I almost passed out. Everyone was singing our songs girls standing in front of me like 19 or 20 singing the songs hitting it right on the beat I almost wanted to give them a microphone. There was sweat dripping off the ceiling it was pretty hot in there. That was a beautiful gig. Can I say it was the best? I don’t know.

Randall: Worst Gig?
Skot: Actually it was on this tour Eugene, Oregon. Fuck Eugene. I hate that town you and your puka shells and your sandals can fuck the fuck off. I hope I never see you again I will fly over you before I drive through you ever again. Thank You, Good Bye, Good Night.

Randall: Metallica or Slayer?
Skot: Fucking Slayer come on. Slayer is a petrified tree they do not move. They are who they are and nobody is going to change that. Metallica obviously got too big for their britches and obviously lost some of the passion. I’m sorry Metallica I love Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning. I love a couple of songs on Kill’em all the rest of that record is pretty ridiculous. Cliff Burton a god but he is gone now. Most of the new Metallica shit…..Shit is the keyword. They are talented, but I think they got tired and lost passion.

Randall: Who do you think is the heaviest band ever?
Skot: I don’t think there is such a band as the heaviest band ever. Hard to answer you can say a lot. This isn’t really a band I listen to all the time, we talked about them earlier Slayer. Slayer has never been anything, but Slayer. You go to a Slayer show and there will be 10,000 dudes and maybe 3 chicks, but they will be the sluttiest chicks on the planet. The last place I want to be is a dude ranch, but when I go to see Slayer I AM FUCKING PYSCHED! Those dudes fucking rock out. I would never even want to open up for Slayer their fans are so into them that any band that plays before them will not get any props until Slayer hits the stage. The reason why there is no other band out there that is unrelentingly themselves in what they do than Slayer. Except the Fall which really isn’t a band, but it’s Marky Smith. Marky Smith and Slayer consistently put out the best records. Some bands are like”Oh they are just putting out the same record”. I see so many bands putting out records changing their style and changing what they do. Most of them are sucky and self indulgent. I would rather see a band do what they do and just keep on getting better at it rather than change genres and genre hop, very few bands do that well. Radiohead I think does that very well. It is a rare quality though. Most bands don’t have it. I say if you got a good formula stick with it the possibilities are fucking endless. I don’t get sick of Slayer ever. I think all their records are rad. And I think the same about The Fall. I think everything Marky Smith does is worth while and everyone should here it.

Randall: Best band in LA?
Skot: I couldn’t answer that. I have a lot I can name that I like. Autolux the band that practices next to us, nothing like us. I like them they are more of a pop band. They are fucking beautiful and they have an edge. They are all amazing people. I can’t say a band is my favorite band I like them all for different reasons. I love New Collapse just a keyboard player and drummer. When they play nothing but pure passion. Another band, from the Mid 90s, now broken up, is Festival of Dead Deer, still to the day one of the best live bands I have ever seen. Best band I could not say I like them all for different reasons. It depends on the mood. When I am at home Animal Collective, I want music that won’t just sink me into a chair, but through the chair into the floor. I love jazz I love a lot of stuff.

Randall: Top Five Desert Island Discs?
Skot: Your killing me.
The Beatles- Revolver
The Birthday Party- Hits
The Germs- GI Record
Mahler- 9th and 10th Symphony
Captain Beef Hear and the Magic Band- Lick My Decals off Baby

Randall: I met you through Daniel Lanois how did you meet him that’s a pretty awesome combo 400 Blows meets Daniel Lanois?
Skot: I meet Daniel Lanois through my work. I would play music at my work. He is a music man. He would ask me questions about the music I would be playing. So we formed this relationship based on music, I had no idea who the guy was. It wasn’t until my friend Greg who is in this band the Afghan Wiggs came in and explained to me who this was. I can be a star struck guy, but I didn’t even know who Daniel Lanois was. Even after I knew that I was impressed, but the thing that I like about Danny is he always has talked to me as someone who he works with. To this day as a friend as someone who I drink with go to his house and hang out he treats me as an equal. On the food chain he is at the top and I am close to the bottom. One thing that I will always respect about him is when he introduces me to people he would make it seem like I was no bigger than them or them no bigger than me. To me I love that. In this world none of that shit should matter. I don’t care how many awards you won, how much money you have, what is more important is are you a real human being. The guy who matters is the guy who is going to jump in front of the bus and push you out of the way. It’s not really that deep but what I am saying is mutual respect, and that guy has always been respectful.

Randall: If you watched Danzig and Henry Rollins fight, who would you be rooting for?
Skot: Booth those guys are steakheads, but they both have done work I love. I would have to say if both those dudes got in a ring I would probably have to give it over to Henry Rollins. Henry Rollins would probably kick some ass no offense Danzig. Neither of those dudes should be fighting.

Skot: Now, Why did you want to do this interview? Why would you want to interview a dude like me that is my question?
Randall: I am a fan of your music. You are a great LA Band. This site is mainly geared for LA.

Skot: How do you feel about the Los Angeles music scene, your asking me all these questions?
Randall: LA has a lot of potential there are many great bands out there. The problem is we need to stick together, that’s why I chose you guys. You play with many random LA bands, but they are all good. A lot of blogs and websites now have this boner over anything that is “new”, or bands who have this pretense where they try and be indie and original where they just ended up forming a style and trend driven genre in itself, just like disco punk, screamo or something lame like that. You guys keep it real.
Skot: Sounds good. Lets smoke a bowl now dude.

Myspace
400 Blows Root of Our Nature
400 Blows The Ugly Are So Beautiful

400 Blows is playing next in Los Angeles Jan. 5th at Safari Sams in Hollywood with The Bronx, and Qui (David Yow from the Jesus Lizard recently joined this band! It should be terrifying and fun!)

In music there are definitely people who get more credit than others. Everyone knows who Sid Vicious is, what did he do? A lot of heroin, broke a lot of objects on stage, killed Nancy, and played bass for the Sex Pistols for a bit. Then there are those who are responsible for the setting the standard in modern music. Most people today don’t know this ,but there is one guy in this world who is responsible for helping invent ambient music and a lot of today’s great modern music. That man is Daniel Lanois. I met Daniel randomly. I was DJing a fashion show in Downtown Los Angeles. It was kind of funny considering all the fashion people there didn’t know who he was and were too concerned with who had the coolest pair of skinny jeans on to even care. Anyway, he was nice enough to let me hang out with him at his place in Silverlake and do this interview. Thanks again Daniel.

Randall: What do you do to coin your style for your music and producing? I know people as long I have been alive people have been trying to capture something similar.

Daniel: My style is really an approach, and the approach seems to vary from application to application. I have that beautiful Steinway piano behind us and I have a stereo microphone hooked up to it. If some happens to pay a visit and they play the piano and then we are ready to record. So preparation is a big part of what I have always done and it still is. I keep instruments plugged in basically and that increases my chance of some lovely spontaneous moment as people stop by. So there is not really a lot of preconception to my sound beyond preparation. That’s really what it’s all about. At any given time I will be excited about a few tools, a few bits of processing and I will become a master of those tools at that time, and that has evolved over the years

Randall: In your opinion, how does your style fit in with modern music?

Daniel: I think there is a quality that has never gone out of fashion or has been given stylistic boundaries and that is having soul. And that is what we respond to as music listeners. When we get the impression that the person making the music is a believer, and they were just pouring themselves out and doing the best they could with what they had that is a very contagious quality. I think that is what is ongoingly present in my work. In reference to contemporary sounds it’s hard to define because it’s so referential living in post modern times, for example a lot of the rock and roll we listen to is borrowing values from the 70s and is essentially is using guitar basses and drums. As far as electronic comes that’s where the ambient sounds would exist in contemporary efforts.

Randall: Last I heard you were working on producing Dashboard Confessional’s new album. What kind of touch did you plan to add to his music? According to Wikipedia ,which we all know isn’t always accurate, Don Gilmore took over production. I was hoping for you save poor Chris from the teeny bopper scene.

Daniel: I didn’t produce the Dashboard record, Don Gilmore did. I was asked to do a few demos with him and there were a couple of things that may survive the finish line, but Don Gilmore is the man. He went on the investigate other possibilities for himself.

Randall: Which Artists you have worked with that have been the most interesting to produce?

Daniel: Well I have been very lucky because I worked with some of the greats. Bob Dylan is very fascinating to me. He is one of American’s great lyrical treasures. It was very inspiring to work with him. Just sitting next to the man himself and watching him weave his lyrics was very fascinating to me. Eno, we always have done very beautiful and innovative work together. So I think about him all the time and the same kind of thing in the early 80s we did a bunch of ambient records and those values were a great part of my bedrock and have been with me ever since. Small toolbox, a lot of dedication and becoming a master of a few ways of doing things. I still do that now. Don’t embrace too much at one time only embrace what you are excited about.

Randall: What work were you most proud of?

Daniel: The Pearl, which is an Eno/Harold Budd record. U2’s Achtung Baby was a strange and bizarre masterpiece. There was a lot of torment in that process, and it shows up in the music, but it has beauty in it as well and it’s kind of a strange furry beast that you would be happy to have sit at your dinner table.

Randall: When I last saw U2 on the Vertigo I noticed they had The Arcade Fire open for them for some dates and at an LA show they came out to “Wake Up” off of their latest album Funeral. Would you have any interest in ever producing them?

Daniel: Oh, I like them ,I heard them at Spaceland. I thought they were great. I think they have some special qualities. They are upbeat, rhythmic, kind of celebrative, but they have melancholy in there too. Joy surfaces as well it is a unique combination of feelings. When I did come out to the Spaceland show I did think that the singer had come out of the David Byrne School, but then a friend of mine said not only the David Byrne School, but the Bob Marley and David Bowie School. I guess they should carry the torch and show us to the next level. In regards to me producing them I operate by invitation.

Randall: You mentioned you go between 3 different locations Jamaica, Toronto, and of course Los Angeles. Why Jamaica, Why Toronto, Why Los Angeles?

Daniel: I went to work in Jamaica to work on some recordings with Jimmy Cliff; I kept my work papers alive and have a place down there. Toronto is sort of home, stomping grounds, I’m French Canadian I grew up in Hamilton which is next to Buffalo on the Canadian side, and that’s a stone’s throw from Toronto, so I keep a nice apartment in Toronto. Los Angeles I don’t know how that happened, my manager moved to Los Angeles and it sort of turned out like this.

Randall: Favorite Venue out here?

Daniel: I really like the Henry Fonda for sound and visibility. It has a good size. About 12-1500 people. I like the sort of panoramic view, it’s a nice long stage and the same thing kind of gets mimicked in the audience, everyone gets a nice point of view. For smaller venues Spaceland. The only problem is you can really only hear the band if you are in front of the stage. I did a little experiment there when I had a spontaneous show. I had these almost headphone packs you put on your belt and you broadcast yourself to that belt and you turn it up into an ear piece so you can hear yourself. That same little contraption can feed a powered speaker. So I had a few people in the audience wear the packs and walk around with blasters. So my sound would be coming out of these blasters and I peppered myself through the audience. It was kind of an experiment to get the sound out to the people.

Randall: Any local artists off the top of your head that have been impressive?

Daniel: I heard a nice band at Spaceland a few weeks ago Sea Wolf. I liked them I thought there was some imaginative writing, a nice way of looking at the world. It didn’t seem to be built on bragretry, or posing, nice songs, well presented, smart people lots of heart.

Randall: At the moment what has been inspiring you to write?

Daniel: I go back to a lot of old records for inspiration. There is a record I like if I am being Romeo I put on Stan Getz called Bossanova. I’ve been enjoying listening to my pedal steel guitar recordings that no body has ever heard. After the singing record we are putting out I am hoping to put out a steel guitar record. They are really beautiful and delicate.

Randall: From one of your more recent albums Shine “J.J. Leaves LA” is one of the best instrumental pieces I have recently heard these past few years. What inspired you to write that?

Daniel: I wrote J.J. Leaves LA in my theater workshop up in Oxnard. I had a nice little shop a fews years back in an old Mexican theater. It came out of a batch of steel guitar recordings that I did over a course of 3 weeks. I was kind of in a funky state of mind a little on the lonely side of the fence and I just poured those feelings into my instrument. Just sitting at my instrument playing and playing and playing I was also using this pedal called a boomerang which would allow me to put in a chord sequence, then I would press repeat to repeat the sequence, and then I would play on top of it so it was 2 steels and that was how JJ leaves LA was born.

Randall: Top 5 Desert island Discs of all time?

Daniel: Miles Davis- Kind of Blue, Jimi Hendrix- Are You Experienced, James Brown- What ever has sex machine on it, hah Just so I don’t’ lose my way keep my head on straight. I would take my own record Apollo a record I did with Eno and Rodger Eno out of a moment of bragetry. There is a record called Fresh by Sly and the Family Stone, it’s got the funkiest track ever on it called In Time. They do a nice combination of live drumming and beat box. On that track you hear that combination and it’s really really good.

Randall: What is the most modern piece of technology you are currently using to cut tracks and what is the most primitive?

Daniel: I am using a computer based recorder. It is a Canadian machine they call a Radar. It’s a bit like protools; it’s in that realm, but a higher grade machine. I make a special effort to hold on to equipment I used for recording, for example I use an RCA ribbon mic there are two models a 77 and a 44, they are kind of like Bing Crosby sort of microphones, where you see old Nat King Cole pictures. The one looks like a Contact C cold capsule I think Larry King had one on his show as a prop for a few years. The 44 is a much bigger angular looking sort of thing. They have a ribbon in them and they give you a real velvety vocal sound so you get that Patsy Klein sort of Elvis sound because they are very kind to low and midrange and vocal sounds really the density is in the low midrange so you have to be careful not to notch that out and ribbon mics are great for that. There is a number of pieces use. I still have these Neve consoles for preamps. In my opinion the preamp is the one link in the chain that did not need to be reinvented. They were great in the 60s and 70s and are still great today. I have a bunch of effects boxes. Then musical instruments that is very important to my work. I collect pieces I got various organs, this Steinway piano, it’s been restored so it has that crystal top end and that deep bottom, hard to find on contemporary pianos. The contemporary ones are a bit harder more brittle. I like Korg too I was introduced to a Korg machine when I went to go work with U2. Edge was using a box called a Korg SDD3000 and I still have some of those as does he does. It’s just really the sound you get out of it. It’s an echo machine that has vco possibilities as well which is that human voice vibrato sound. Then this has an adjustable output so you can hit a guitar amp in a much hotter fashion than you would just straight out of the guitar. I also use an AMS harmonizer. It’s an English company that came out in the 80s and I have used the harmonizers every since.

A Moog Bass module used to create the low end on many of his recordings
Randall: Since you are one of the best ambient producers in music what are your favorite noises and least favorite noises. How do you go about capturing your favorite noises?

Daniel: It’s funny the term ambience gets thrown around very loosely. When I first worked with Eno we had very limited equipment to create those sounds. We had an AMS harmonizer, Lexicon Primetime, and an EMT 250 which is essentially a reverb type of unit. So we made the ambient sounds by re-routing back through the initial processing equipment. So lets say we do a bit of processing on a piano, we would print that sound onto the multitrack, which would then free up the processing devices to handle another job. We would send the already printed processing back to the original boxes. That’s when it starts getting interesting. That’s when you start adding VCO on top VCO and you get these little irregularities. The best of ambient music has that in it. The constant motion of nature that never repeats. Like when a sunlight shimmers on something it won’t be the same in a minute. It keeps moving. So introducing irregularities and the bits of flow that life has to offer within, that’s what gives ambience it’s trembling effect. There are lots of instant ambient sounds available at music stores. When you take them to the workplace and challenge them on with process on top of processing that’s when you get something really organic.

Randall: How do you think music is going to change in the next 10 years?

Daniel: Easy access to tools by everybody. The same thing is going to happen with filming everyone is going to have a camera. Renegade folks are going to make cool films. The successful films will not only belong to those with big bucks. I think the economy is going to be a big drive in music. I don’t think the ratio will ever change from special records to forgettable ones. I think that will always be the same, but there will be a massive amount of volume of it. So you are going to get a lot of people trying to get there foot in the door and to be noticed. So that is going to make it tough on listeners, because they are going to have to wade through more and you are only awake so many hours during the day. So we operate the same way by recommendation. The easy access to tools means you will get more renegade records out there. You might be fooled now a days so many times because you will find yourself listening to a stylist rather than an artist.

Randall: With music technology what is your preferred environment to enjoy music?

Daniel: Some of my favorite listening moments have been by surprise. A lot of the time I will be in a coffee shop and there will be a smart person behind the cash register and they have made a compilation or pull a record out or play something I have never heard. I like surprises. If I put a record on myself I kind of know what is coming. That’s where I have enjoyed my own work best is when I happen to be in a place and someone plays it. Sometimes I think this a great record, but I would never put it on in my own house. I also like sound system installation. In Toronto I have a 5000 square foot loft and I am going to revisit this idea I experienced as a kid when I went to the Canadian National exhibition. It was the 60s pyshcadelic era and someone had did a beautiful installation with about 200 speaker cabinets, hung from the ceiling, all different kind of sized ones and they were all above your head almost like a warehouse kind of a place. The speakers were hung about 5 ft. about your head and they were piping electronic music of the time. Like early electro and it was fantastic. They had a way of distributing these speakers so everywhere you walked without bumping into anything you had an interesting sound. So I already started this experiment of installing a multi speaker system in Toronto.

Randall: What two artists would you like to collaborate with the most?

Daniel: There is a great singer from Montreal called Martha Wainwright. She visited me here a couple weeks back and we recorded one of her songs and she did a little something on one of my songs. When she was leaving I told her I was experimenting with different tracks and she said if you want to sample my voice on one of those and put it in be my guest. So I did that on the weekend and came up with a very very beautiful mixture. She is a very soulful singer. My track is just something I have had on the burner for a while, but I didn’t have any singing on it. It turned out beautiful so I am going to send her a copy of this and there is a chance if she is in agreement with this idea just start a new project you know give it a name and she can be the singer and I can be the musical mastermind.

Randall: What type of Edge do you think is best? No hat Edge? Cowboy hat Edge? Or Beanie Edge?

Daniel: Is this referring to doing eras? HAHA I’m going to get myself in trouble here. I love the Edge in anyway I can get him. I’ve had him in Barcelona, I’ve had him in Malibu, I’ve had him in Dublin, and I’ve had him in Berlin. I will take him anyway I can get him. What is nice about the Edge is he is a very consistent man and always dedicated to innovation and always open to surprises. Anytime we hook up I try and bring a pedal to the project some little gimmick. There have been a few of them. Eno brought in the whammy pedal somewhere in the late 80s. A lot of Edge sounds came out of that. I brought him this little Fuzz Wah pedal. Edge is always great. I do always have a soft spot for where he was it in the 80s. Perhaps it’s because we were absolutely dedicated to the work every minute of the day. I don’t know if he was wearing a hat then.

Randall: Last question you got to jam with Tortoise wasn’t totally awesome or what?

Daniel: AHH Tortoise we toured right across the country. A bus with 10 guys in it. It was great. They are really great people and real smart, really have done their homework. By the time we got to LA we were sounding pretty good ya know. Nice guys I wish them the best and we all share a passion for instrumental music so it was great.

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