As ephemeral and thought-provoking as late night vapour trails hanging in the sky – what created them? where are they from? – Cirrus glides us through his sinuous workouts ‘No Matter’ and ‘Originals’ recently dropping via Terabyte.
Cirrus hey, how’s it been since we last spoke? What’s been happening?
Wow, so much ha ha. Probably the main thing is that my wife and I moved from Boston to the Washington DC area about a year ago. Luckily the local D&B scene here is a very welcoming and solid community and I found my niche pretty quickly.
The solo productions as well as the label Terra Null Recordings have kept going steadily despite a new home, new job, getting married and everything else.
Don’t think I could stop even if I wanted to!
LOVE this new material, when did it arise or start to?
Glad you like it! Both tunes were completed in early 2015. Really happy that they’re now widely available. Very proud of both of them.
I am blown away by the vibe and we touched on sci fi before in a chat: what sort of things permeate the brain as it were, for inspiration? Maybe it’s films, TV shows, art, travels…
I will always obsessed with dark and gritty sci-fi but any media that touches on philosophy and existentialism in a grounded way really does it for. Ex Machina was probably my favorite movie from last year. As far as TV goes the first season of True Detective is still untouchable. The most perfect season of television ever made if you ask me.
You can probably hear these types of vibes in the majority of my music!
Take us behind the killer ‘No Matter’? Love this. You must have some DJs after this one!
It’s been very well received which has been great. ‘No Matter’ started as an experiment in drums and percussion to see if I could come up with a break that was as interesting as the stuff I was hearing on Blocks and Escher’s Narratives Music and Cern’s Under Another Sky album which were both on heavy rotation in my headphones at the time.
It took a very long time to get the break finished and polished, but once the drums came together everything else fell in to place very quickly.
‘Originals’ takes us into more scattered, abstract territory: a f*cking mind melter.
Glad you think so! My obsession with half-step minimalism is still going strong so if you like that then you might like some of the material I have forthcoming too.
Where did that wicked title come from then? I had to ask.
Titles for both these tracks were inspired by the vocal samples that they each contain. If you can find the source material then the track names will start to make a lot more sense. Dark and gritty always!
You mentioned production, so what tips would you give to someone in production? So much choice out there.
The best advice I could give in terms of sound is to not force yourself to be glued to any one sub-genre. It’s way more important for the process to be fun and rewarding.
If that means straying away from what’s normal then go for it!
Experimentation will only ever help you grow as a producer and an engineer.
Leave the job of categorizing your art to others. Music is about expression of self, not fitting into a scene or getting signed to this label or that label. At the end of the day if making music isn’t fun then you’ll never be able to progress as far as you want to.
What’s on the horizon for you then?
I have another two-track single and a four-track EP slated for later in the year. Keep an eye out!
Final shouts, Cirrus?
Big shouts to the Translation and SubDistrikt crews here in the DC area, and of course the Elements family up in Boston. Respect to everyone who’s working to keep D&B strong here in the USA!