Chattanooga Times Free Press music reporter Casey Phillips spoke with electronic producer Alex Botwin of Pnuma Trio about his solo show, starting his own company and busting people’s preconceptions about electronic music.
CP: Your bio says that you spend pretty much every waking hour in the recording studio. Why is that? What drives that kind of dedication to what you do?
AB: It’s just my love of music. It’s not even intentional. It’s just how it happens. As soon as I wake up in the morning, I get cleaned up and go into my studio room and put on some vinyl. That usually gets me inspired to top off a track or come up with some design stuff. It’s what I do.
During high school, for half a day during my senior year, I went to a web-design school. My teacher at the studio school said I seemed like I’d found my niche and said I should go to this college, Middle Tennessee State University, where I was a music production major, music business minor with a specialization in computer science. It’s pretty much everything that I’ve been studying for since I was 17 when I went to college.
I’m just focused. This is pretty much all I do and all I think about. This company, Element Oaks, that I’m running with my partner, Burke, who I met at MTSU, is now our design firm. We do web design, and we have a clothing line that’s coming out. It’s also our new record label, which we just got distribution for. Everything I studied for in life is what I do now, so it’s just totally inspiring to be able to do something that I love every day, so I just work as hard as I can at it constantly.
I’m also just constantly inspired by listening to new music. Vinyl records are a major part of my life. I just work on that stuff every day.
CP: How different is the format of your shows when you’re performing solo as opposed to as part of Pnuma Trio?
AB: I have two different sets. With my solo set, what’s happening is that I have all the tracks I’ve ever made in multi-track formula, so I can bring in the drums from one track with the bass line from a different track and really improvise live so everything is different very single time. I also have some of my favorite tracks from other people, exclusive tracks other people don’t have or haven’t heard. I like to mix it up and play stuff people have never heard mixed up with my drums and all that stuff.
For me, It’s exciting because it’s different every single time, but there are bits and pieces that are the same. I play everything in different tempos and different key. I can change all that stuff live. I’ve actually figured out a ways to change my MIDI mapping live, so I can make the same group of buttons do various things, and I can change that live without even touching the computer.
I spend a lot of time delving into the production side of things. I’m the type of person where, when I get a new program, I’m going to read the entire manual immediately and spend my time experimenting with it, so I know what each and every knob sounds like. It’s the same with all my computer programs.
I’m a drum sound collector as part of my hobby. I really like amassing drum sounds as part of my hobby and creating new and original drum sounds. I try to rip new drums once a month and mix them with other drums and create new drums once a month to make a new kit for the tracks that I’m creating. I have drum kits labeled by month. I won’t use them for every track, but I’ll use them for two tracks in that month and then pick out another month I like and change the way each and everything sounds.
My main thing is to get really intricate with every sound and treat each one like it’s its own piece. I’ll solo it and listen to it intensely and make sure it fits with the piece of music. I try to not use any stock tones.
From the hip hop stuff, I like to make sample-based stuff, but that was a while ago. Now, I like to keep with it until it’s completely solo to what I’m doing. I really try to push all the music pass that easy level where it’s, “OK, here’s a sample, here’s some drums, here’s some bass, here’s this.” I’m trying to create new sounds that are completely custom to my personality and really take the time to make the music. Sometimes, it comes right out, and some times, it takes time to get it to take it to the next level by experimenting and knowing what everything does.
That set is entirely improvised. The Pnuma set is similar, but it’s a different set of music. When I think about writing for Pnuma, I think about writing for a full band. With my solo stuff, I don’t have to think about writing stuff for a full band but for exactly how it sounds in my head and how I can make it as crazy or simple as I want. I can chop that up into multi-tracks and put it into my set, which is always growing larger.
I have this massive 20-gigabyte set with all my stuff in it. So when I go up to my computer to start, I have no idea what’s going to happen. I can gauge off the crowd where I want to go. It’s really, really fun for me. So far, I’ve had a really good reaction from crowds.
Many of my shows seem down tempo, but my shows definitely have their intense moments. I feel like a lot of DJs stick around a certain BPM (beats per minute) and within that realm, and that’s how they define their sound. For me, every time is different. I’ve learned from playing with Pnuma so much that the same piece of music can sound different to every person, every time. You’ve got to be in the moment with the audience to really get involved with them. That’s something I try to do, to really be in tune with what the people are interested in.
The way I have my stuff now, I’m happy out it because I can tell how the people feel about it and tell if I want to bring things down a little bit or make it more intense or more crazy sounding or more avant garde or more acceptable. I can create a path of where I want the show to go. That’s what I like about the live aspect of my show.
I’m definitely going to keep evolving it and working on it every day the way I do with everything else and try to take it to the next level as much as I can.
CP: What you’re talking about, being in the moment all the time and reacting to the music in the audience, sounds very much like what jam bands do. Jam bands also have moments when that desire to be constantly in flux and following the music can also lead them off a cliff, so to speak. Does that happen to you? How do you deal with it?
AB: Yeah, that’s happened. It’s happening less and less. I can go with this crazy stuff and not even really know what’s going to happen with it. I can turn on some effect, like an echo delays where the delay will cause this crazy sound, and through the show, I can lose track of the BPM and where it is. But getting out and taking your stuff to a level where you don’t know where it is feels almost the same as when I’m playing with the group. That keeps it interesting for me. I’m not sick of playing the songs, and I’m doing a bunch of solo shows, so for me, it’s still totally enjoyable.
I just finished a mix from Rain Theater, which has had 15,000 downloads on their Web site and a lot on mine, so it’s really getting around. I can tell people are responding well to it, and I just finished my solo record, which I’ve spent about two years on. We’re getting ready to put it out on Element Oak Records, which is run by me and my partner. I just want to make sure it comes out exactly the way I want to. I’m thinking that will come out in early April. We’re in the process of finishing that up.
CP: You’re also a bassist. Which came first? Production or bass?
AB: I started with bass. I started playing classical music when I was super young. I got my first guitar when I was 12 years old. My teacher told me that if I really wanted to understand it, I’d also need to learn the bass and the drums. So the same teacher was giving my drum lessons and showing me stuff on bass. When I picked up the bass, that became my main focus for a long time. Then I went to high school and saw the possibility of computer recorded music, and that’s all I wanted to do.
My friends would be like, “Hey, come over,” and I’d be like, “Nah, I’m working on my stuff. If you wanna hang out, just come over here.” With the touring, right now, I’m doing three shows a weekend every weekend until the Pnuma tour starts.
I always try to stay up to date on what the current trends are in music, what the hot stuff is. Staying with the times is important. With electronic music, you’ve got. I’m still going to do my thing, but you’ve got to be open to hearing new sounds and ideas.
With the Element Oak thing, we’re trying to create a central location, a hub. There’s a really strong scene in Colorado, which is why we moved here from Tennessee. We want to put out some forward-thinking music that we’re into and stuff that people will latch on to. We’re really just excited. We have our lift off party for Element Oak Friday.
My passion is making the stuff that really lets me experiment with music. I feel like no matter what I want to make, what kind of music, I’ll just do it if I want to. It feels really good to be able to put out music, and I’m very happy with the response I’m getting because I haven’t even been doing the solo stuff that long. Pnuma was always my project where I always gave it my all, but with this, I can express myself whatever way I want, and I don’t have to think about any kind of boundaries. It’s really kind of relieving for me. I’m grateful to have fans that let me live that type of lifestyle where I devote myself completely to making music, making art.
CP: How long have you been doing the solo thing?
AB: I’ve been making beats since college, really diving into it in freshman year, but as far as making it a project and playing shows and putting out mixes, it’s been a couple of years. I’ve never really put it at the forefront, but at this point in my life, I’m trying to get serious about it. I feel like this first album is really strong.
CP: A little while ago, Art Voice referred to Pnuma Trio as “The Music of the Future.” Applying that kind of a label to someone’s music seems like it would place a tremendous amount of responsibility on the artist. What was your reaction to that piece and that label?
AB: It’s cool, man. I would say that they don’t even have any idea, though. I think it’s awesome that he said that and it’s dope, but until this next album comes out, I feel like I’ll always be trying to push that exact idea. I don’t really feel a sense of responsibility.
Right now, I feel like I could make indie rock or rap if I wanted to or R&B or whatever, and right now, I’m super into making electronic music. I don’t see that changing, but I’m always going to try to be forward thinking and learning new processes and ideas. That’s my main goal, whether or not other people think that, that’s what I’m trying to do.
CP: When people hear the phrase “electronic music,” it seems like there’s this preconception about what that involves, basically just one guy standing behind a laptop with a boat load of speakers. Judging by bands like Big Gigantic and Pretty Lights and yourself, electronic shows are more involved than that.
AB: Definitely. That’s amazing for me. For me, when I watch some people – and won’t say any names – they’re not doing anything on stage, and that’s what sets people back. Sure, their music is super-dope produced, but I want to be doing something. I’ve been playing in a band for five years, and I’ve been playing longer than that, so I can’t just go to my laptop and hit play and do nothing. That is so awkward to me. When I see people not doing stuff, it’s like, “Man, you’re not doing anything right now.”
For me, I’ve designed my set so I’m doing something 90 percent of the time. Right now, people are like, “OK, I’ve got a laptop, so I’m going to get Reason and Ableton, and I’m going to do a show.” You can, but to really learn to be involved with your music and create a live show where you’re actively doing something takes time.
I’m totally supportive of people making beats, because to me, it’s almost therapeutic. You can just zone out and get in the groove. It’s almost like playing an instrument, but different. But people don’t want to get involved enough. They want to get out there so bad and so quick that they don’t make a set the way you can be integrated with the audience. Young artists just need to take their time and figure out the program well enough to interface during a live show so they know what they’re doing. That’s super important because the people who don’t do that, who just start playing shows and don’t figure out how to do stuff live, that’s not cool to me. I personally try to make sure I’m super on point with doing stuff consistently throughout my set.
CP: Do you find your shows, where you’re actually involved in the on-the-fly production process, bust people’s preconceptions of electronic music as a passive form of music?
AB: I would say, definitely, especially right now. I spent so much time on my new set trying to push boundaries. Even if you’ve listened to my mixes, you have no idea what’s happening with these shows unless you come out to my shows.
I went to Chicago last weekend, and it was super packed with people just freaking out. It was crazy, and for me, that’s super exciting to see. I was always making this stuff for my personal enjoyment, and now I’m getting to play that stuff and seeing people reacting to it is crazy.
It’s super dope to see what’s happening right now. I don’t think people will understand unless they come out. People have a better grasp of what I’m doing when my CD comes out. The set is going to grow and get better. We have plans.
E-mail Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com