Sarah questions Matthew:
What is one of your earliest musical memories?
Being seven-years-old and having a group of friends sitting in a field all in a row and making them cycle through sounds that I designated each of them to make.
Do you have any upcoming releases planned?
I have a number of 12 inches coming out here and overseas in the next few months.
Was there any particular musician you saw playing with machines that inspired you to take up that instrumentation?
No. I think it was film music more than pop music. The way I initially imagined this sort of music being made was so far from the truth, so futuristic and abstract.
There has been a rise in the solo producer-performer. Do you think this is to do with a fading romanticism with the band format, or is it a response to changes in technology and economic sustainability?
Technology and economics are always shaping factors with music per se but fashion is the main influence when it comes to the public’s demands.
Where do you stand in the analogue versus digital debate?
I think it’s irrelevant. It’s the interface that is important. If you put the time into any instrument you will discover its voice and find a place for it.
What is one of the vital things about media in general?
That you the consumer must become the collaborator, whether that be by dancing or singing or having it motivate you to do something you wouldn’t normally do. To be a spectator is a terrible sin.
Matthew questions Sarah:
What do you think of this latest resurgence in electronic music?
At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how a piece was created, by whom or the delivery format, it’s what happens to the listener’s brain between those headphones or PA the moment the music hits their ears. A connection has to be made.
What is it like playing solo in comparison to playing in your band?
They are two completely different creative outlets. Within Tantrums I am an organ in a larger body and we all have to play our part to make the larger organism function. I do enjoy the creative freedom of being able to make something completely by myself, getting in the zone and chipping away undisturbed, then looking back at what I’ve done and thinking, ‘Jeez, I don’t know where that came from but it sounds like me.’
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Write more solo electronic music as Drill Folly. Release it. Play more shows. Curate follow-up Binary Solo events.
A portrait of the artist as a consumer: What are you listening to?
At the moment I’m really into lo-fi, off-beat electronic music coming out of the UK. Patten and Nathan Fake are on high rotation along with my staple diet of Warp records artists.
MATTHEW BROWN and DRILL FOLLY play Binary Solo #1 – A Festival Of Electronic Music at The Evelyn Hotel on Saturday December 15 with Document Swell, The Townhouses, Miles Brown, Justin Fuller, Ckd and many more.
