He’s made IDM. He’s made soundtracks. He makes his own sample packs and has a 300lb piano harp in his bedroom. He’s made us melt into our seats with a sense-hole-slapping EP on Sub Slayers.
It’s none other than Cali-based bass magician Anodyne Industries, the man behind the barbed emotional cinematic beatdown that is LH1013…
Backed up with two more unique narratives – Reach Within Strike Out and She Breathes Moonlight – his In Memoriam EP is a precision balanced exercise in emotional, cinematic dynamics, tightly weaved drum magic and raw, guttural bass drama you need a hug after you’ve experienced them. File under: unique. This is what he has to say for himself…
From beginning to end I’m always telling a story. It’s too bad you can’t see the movies in my head that these tracks are the soundtrack for haha!
What’s popping sir? Tell us what you’re all about…
Hi! Thanks for having me! Anodyne Industries has been in production since about 2009. I’d spent the last 10+ years before that writing IDM and soundtracks. As much as I wanted to, I was too nervous to start making actual D&B because I had too much respect for the artists and the skills they had… I didn’t want to muck up the airwaves with my n00b tracks!
Making AI was a way for me to play around with D&B beats and tempo without actually calling it drum & bass. It sounded good and people liked it so I haven’t stopped!
I’m sensing some serious gravity behind the In Memoriam EP on Sub Slayers…
Yes. Last October a very dear friend/mentor/ally passed away pretty suddenly. When I found out I turned on my workstation and spent a day writing LH1013. It was one of those tracks that just writes itself. I just sat there staring at the screen watching the song come together.
A few months later I went on tour in Australia and played these tracks for the first time live at Earth Frequency Festival on a perfectly tuned Funktion One system. The experience was absolutely unreal.
Writing LH1013 and this EP is the best way I know how to tell my friend, ‘see? I’m doing it. I’m living my life the way I should be. Thank you.’ I’ve heard this release a million times and I still get chills when I play it.
Beautiful. That one’s unique… But how about the creative process behind other tracks? Do you start with an end result in mind?
“I don’t ever start a track with an end result in mind. I like things to flow naturally. I guess that limits my output since it can take me a while to finish a piece but I like the organic feel of slowly nurturing something and letting it grow on its own more than trying to force a final too soon.
I like to think that the process of writing music should be like telling a story. I always start with the intro. It helps build the mood and gives me an idea of what kind of energy the song will have. I’ll lay down a quick beat and start playing around with the bassline from there. From beginning to end I’m always telling a story. It’s too bad you can’t see the movies in my head that these tracks are the soundtrack for haha!
In terms of my creative process, there’s a lot I can tell you… I don’t spend hours making the perfect bass sound from a synth while I’m trying to produce. I actually write almost exclusively from sample packs I’ve made myself over the years. It just makes it easier to pick out the sounds I like and arrange them to fit together easily.
I spend a couple of weekends every three or four months recording noise out of my synths and feeding it through guitar pedals. Or playing around with the 300lb piano harp in my bedroom recording crazy dark string effects with a contact mic.
When every sound has its place I’ll start tediously massaging out the details (dynamics, EQ, arrangement, etc.) and making the track actually sound good. That’s the part I hate. It’s mind numbingly boring. I don’t think I’m a very technical, detail oriented, artist. So I have to force myself to really finish a track instead of just saying, “well, I know what it’s supposed to sound like. I’m done now.”
Great insight! So how’s the D&B scene over your side of the pond?
The US D&B scene is interesting. I didn’t come up in it so I can’t speak with complete authority on the subject… I was big into raves in the 90s and then got into the Burningman and festival scene after that. So I’m kind of looking at things from a slightly outside perspective.
There are small pockets of it around. D&B was always the sound relegated to small back rooms with a crap soundsystem at raves back in the 90s and never got the respect it deserved. So even now it doesn’t bring in a big crowd in most places, but the people that do show up are so incredibly passionate about the sound! It’s a small (but growing) and dedicated family out here and I love that.
Before 2014 becomes a distance memory to us how was the year for you?
2014 was the most profoundly challenging, painful and bewildering year of my life so far. But, it was also the most rewarding, successful and exhilarating. I’ve done amazing things I only ever dreamed about in the past. If this is anything like what I should expect from 2015 I say bring it on. What a wild ride! Let’s do it again!
2015… Any plans for world domination planned?
Oh hell yes. I’m leaving to tour Australia again in a week. I’ve got a couple of releases already pretty much finished that I’m hoping to release in the next few months and madly working on collabs, remixes and new things every day. I’m consulting on a couple of new and exciting labels out here in California. I’ve been secretly working on a new anonymous music project that I’ll be quietly releasing into the wild soon. Yes. Big plans! World domination is imminent.
Excellent. Final shouts please!
Thanks again! Big shout out to Jay Cunning and the Sub Slayers family, Toronto Is Broken, the SF Bay Area bass music and D&B scene. Thanks Mom and Dad for buying me my first synth. Lord Huckleberry (RIP) for being such an amazing human being. And last but definitely not least thanks Wildflower for being a huge source of love and inspiration.
Support In Memoriam EP: iTunes JunoDownload
Follow Anodyne Industries: AI Facebook / Sub Slayers Facebook