John blogs on his recent history, journey to “one man band”
Many have wondered, and some appeared to be confused about it, where did this Progressive Synth Pop, that later turned out to be a genre-crossing, boundaries-breaking wonder came from. You will definitely love reading John’s most recent blog entry, My recent history; where he describes the journey that started with Acid House and ended with what he calls a one man band.
He reveals that he’d had been playing guitar to synth and sample-based music for good ten years before starting to think about making it himself; that the theory was not what he was used to in standard genres of music and that he started programming in 2007.
I was obsessed with music where machine intelligence and human intelligence seemed to be bouncing off one another, each expanding with the incorporation of what it received from the other.
Further on, he reveals more…
I had lost interest in traditional songwriting and I was excited about finding new methods for creating music. I’d surround myself with machines, program one and then another and enjoy what was a fascinating process from beginning to end. I was so excited by the method of using numbers much in the same way I’d used my muscles all my life. Skills that had previously been applied by my subconscious were gradually becoming conscious, by virtue of having numerical theoretical means of thinking about rhythm, melody and sound.
…and confirms that he indeed started using a computer, after having begun to play with two unnamed friends; which lead to coming up with his new style, Progressive Synth Pop – still based on Acid House in its core – came from. For a period of time, he was not including guitar and voice on these recordings, but then he started doing so again; and came up with an approach that was different to what he was doing before.
He then shares some insight of the creative process between Letur-Lefr and how the approach changed even further for PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone, where he started implementing the guitars again. He also mentions playing them on Swahili Blonde’s Psycho Tropical Ballet Pink (referred to as “my wife’s second album”), in a disciplined manner.
Aspects of PBX are the realization of combinations of styles of music I saw in my head many years ago, as potentials, but which I had no idea how to execute. I’m so happy that I’ve had the opportunity to focus exclusively on music for music’s sake, and also so thankful that I got to spend all those years active in the music business whilst keeping my head in music all the time. I was free to spend most of my time playing along with records, writing, and dreaming. I have so much gratitude for everyone who made that possible.
In the end, he calls himself an one-man band. After such a detailed description, all of us are looking forward to PBX…aren’t we?
These outlines might not be doing justice to such a complex blog entry, so make sure you read it all, carefully.!
Discuss previous blog entries, if you like!
John blogs on both album titles
Letur-Lefr EP in July, PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone LP in September!
