Sohn
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Sohn

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Both a touring musician and a music producer, Taylor muses over the paradox created between the two roles and how he manages his creative output. “For this particular tour I have actually been really grateful that I haven’t had to write. It has been a really nice one and a half month period where I haven’t had to think about creating anything. In the last 18 months I have been so active in the production of the album, from the songwriting to the final touches on artwork, I have been really grateful for a little period to not have to think about that kind of stuff. I was able to recharge my batteries,” explains an audibly chilled Taylor.

Tremors is an interesting dance album because essentially, it isn’t a dance album.  It manages to balance accessibility with depth and texture. In order to understand Tremors’ complexity one needs to understand his journey as a musician. “I was always a singer, that was my first thing, and then I was in various bands as a teenager and I was always the person that wrote everything. I am 30 now. Basically throughout being a teenager I was the one pushing the other guys in the band and always wanting to record. So I just started playing around with recording; I had a 4-Track minidisc unit, then eventually a computer. From there it just got easier to make things on the computer than try and record when you didn’t know how to record well. I think that’s often where electronic artists run into trouble because they think ‘oh I’ll just record that drum kit but don’t know where to stick the mic so when they listen back and it sounds terrible but they don’t know why,” contends Taylor on the two-edged sword of computer production.

Listening to Taylor’s debut release as Sohn, The Wheel EP, it reeks of genius but also the limitations of a bedroom production. Whereas on Tremors the depth and warmth of the sound is all consuming, particularly on the song Artifice that has resonated with music fans globally.Taylor talks Mixdown through his journey into the world of hardware.  “The first piece of actual hardware that I connected with [pun not intended] was, just as it came out, a Dave Smith Tempest. This was the first time I understood, fully, a real analogue unit.” He pauses before delving further into the synths behind Sohn’s sound, “Control-wise I just got it straight away and then I got into Jupiter 6sand bought myself a Juno 60. My keyboard player in the band has a massive collection of vintage synthesisers and that was what opened it all up for me and it is a still a very recent thing, as it was only about two years ago.”

Having moved to Vienna five years ago to get a break from London, Taylor began the evolution from bedroom producer to the live EDM juggernaut that Sohn is today – this may not of happened if he hadn’t met Albin Jonoska, as the Viennese keyboard player had a huge influence on him. 

 “So I’d already made all of the music and that EP was doing quite well so my manager was talking about putting together a band to play a show. The first show was at a showcase event called Eurosonic, which is quite a big showcase where all the European booking agents and labels are there.  I was already working with Albin my keyboard player who was helping mix some of the record and through him I found Woody [Stefan Fulham] the bass player and we just spent a few months defining what would be our live show,” states Taylor.

BY DAN WATT

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