Black Research _ Interview with Fausten
Julien, I see that you are a professional sound designer for TV / Radio? Do you ever have to stop yourself from slipping in parts of your alter-ego into your day job? Is it tempting to push the envelope?
Julien: Yeah. Sometimes I use stuff from work inside a Monster X or Fausten project, and vice versa. It is always tempting to push the envelope , but you need to stay away from weird time signatures and not end up sending a Breakcore / IDM / super crazy mangled beat to a client asking you a D’N’B track with a ” modern sound”. If you do, you might scare him and lose the contract.
Exactly! That probably wouldn’t go down well at all, would it? Haha
And from a production point of view, what is best? Spending time creating samples / patches etc.. and then arrange? Or do it as you go along?
Julien: It depends on the mood. I try to use different approaches often. It can be boring always working in the same order, or using the same process. Of course when it’s for work stuff, I need to be more organised; but I like to jam for hours , record everything , then process it. And then jam with the processed samples again and again and again.
What about general influences Guys? What tunes / artists will you always listen out for?
Derek: It would sound cheesy gushing over how much we like these tracks, but suffice it to say these are hugely important to us and will always be on the playlist.
Scorn – Take Someone’s Eye Out
Milanese – So Malleable (Cold mix)
Autechre – Basscad (Basscadoublemx)
Funkstorung – Punk Motherfucker – Richard Devine Acid Rev
Slayer – Reign in Blood
Autechre – Ganz Graf
Bile
Autechre – Draun Quarter
Underground Resistance – Final Frontier
Great stuff. Thanks for those.
If I combine your Bio’s, I see Warp Records, Jungle, Electro, Dub and Thrash Metal listed as influences.. Did you have a reference point for this album or a mutual interest that you could call upon? Was it a vibe – or did you have something more tangible in mind?
Derek: The sound of Scorn, Milanese, Autechre and visuals from dark films are probably the main common points. And a black sense of humour.
Music production and history are my biggest passions in life.
Though people often say that Techno is faceless and should be about the music blah, blah, blah.. I believe in the need to document the people and stories behind it. Techno is a very small world in reality and I think it needs a proper resource.
I hope that everyone who is interested in Techno finds this blog accessible in terms of the way that it is written. I personally prefer to hear the artists voice as loud as the music and never enjoy synopsised and pasteurised versions of old conversation; the sort that's peppered with the occasional quote here and there.
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