“The majority of music that I listen to I like to listen to it as an album, rather than as individual tracks,” he says. “An album should have a start, middle and an end, which is very contrary to the way that people listen to music these days. So I think trying to get people on board with an album is a huge task.”
While he remains a purist, Thayer’s had to accept that EPs are better suited to contemporary listening habits. Still, even when he’s working with a shorter running time, Thayer endeavours for his releases to have a holistic identity.
“For me, EPs are like mini albums,” he explains. “I’m certainly trying to write EPs that have a theme running through all of the tracks and discuss certain issues as a whole. I want people to interact with it as a whole body of music.”
Thayer’s latest EP, Dominion, came out in early July. The four-track release explicitly focuses on corporate corruption in the modern world. And on that note, Thayer boldly decided to give the EP away as a free download.
“Part of the reason behind doing the Dominion EP as a free release was I wanted people to listen to it all, instead of skip through fifteen seconds and then pick the one of two songs that appeal to them.”
This is certainly a risky release method, but the risk is tempered by a donation campaign, which coincided with the release. Listeners are welcome to download the EP completely cost and guilt free, but the option to donate money to the cause is also there.
“It is on iTunes and it is on Beatport as well,” Thayer says, “so those things are covered. But I thought ‘let’s try a new release model, the old models aren’t working anymore’.”
In recent years crowd-funding campaigns have become a go-to funding measure for artistic projects. What Thayer’s done essentially turns the crowd-sourcing method on its head. He explains why requesting fan donations prior to the release didn’t seem appropriate.
“If you’re a band or a singer, those crowd-funding things can be incredibly important because there’s so many different costs involved up front. You have to hire a studio, you have to get an engineer, you have to do string arrangements and all the rest of it. As an electronic musician, the only upfront costs you have really are the artwork side of things.”
Thayer’s donation campaign has been fairly successful so far, but the prospect of generating huge returns remains unlikely. Electronic music is often portrayed as a realm populated by super-rich mega DJs, but Thayer reveals his income is far from enviable.
“Earlier this year I came up with the concept of ‘medium font DJs’. We’re doing OK, but on a flyer with a bunch of people we’ll certainly be in the medium font. I wrote a blog piece on how much medium font size DJs – myself in particular – can expect to make off music. And it’s basically nothing.”
So, are we expected to feel pity for DJs in Thayer’s position? No, that’s not what he’s suggesting. When it all boils down, his salary mightn’t be enormous but there’s not much else he’d want to do with his time.
“I’ve never been in this to make a lot of money,” he says. “If I was I’d be making very different music, I guess. I just have an unquenchable compulsion to write music and to write music about things that matter to me, and music that makes me feel. As long as I can still pay the bills and keep afloat, then I will certainly never stop making music.”
As mentioned, Dominion concerns itself with global economic disparity. Opening track Our Rules, features rapping from N’fa Jones. Thayer and N’fa previously teamed up on Like Boom in 2012,as well as a couple of tracks from Thayer’s 2010 LP, Just Let It Go.
“N’fa’s a very close friend so we just hang out in the studio, drink some whisky and talk about the way the world is and then go, ‘Hey we should write a song about that’.”
Our Rules makes it clear that Thayer and N’fa aren’t too pleased about what’s happening in the world at present. In fact, it’s one of the angriest songs in Thayer’s repertoire.
“We were talking about how the Gina Rineharts of this world, and the Rothschilds, just have this stranglehold. It did make us very angry. It’s a very real anger, but it’s very targeted anger as well.”
Thayer returns to the Melbourne club scene this Friday night, taking over Brunswick’s Rubix Funhouse. He’s spent the majority of this year working on new music and promises punters will hear a stack of fresh sounds.
“There’ll certainly be songs from the EP and VIP versions of stuff from the EP. I’ve basically finished the next two EPs already, so I’ll be playing that stuff out as well.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
