Monday 23 May 2011

[Interview]: Alecks Awklr

Hey everyone.

I hope you all remember Alecks Awklr, if you don't, you can catch up by reading the album review.



Hi Alex! Could you tell us a bit more about yourself? How did you get into music, what did you do before this album?


Hey! Well, starting off I’m 23, I’ve lived in California my whole life. Grew up around music, my family was always really into music specifically my mom, she was kind of obsessed with music and I suppose it rubbed off onto me. Noone played instruments, I had to pick that up myself I guess. When I was a kid I loved Nirvana, Michael Jackson, and I remember my first favorite band was Linkin Park haha, a good while later I was in a few bands, mainly vocals for experimental hardcore music, stuff like botch & fear before, and on breaks or between practices I’d make beats on my computer. Soon it grew into its own kind of force of nature; I just was all about music in a new way than before. It really was a period of transformation for me I guess, going from playing hardcore shows to making the stuff I do now, it seems kinda far out, but it makes sense to me. I just kinda moved on from that and kinda got my head clear I guess, music is such a big world.


Alecks Awklr - Archepeligo

What are your biggest sources of inspiration?


Personal relationships can always get me really inspired to make some tunes, aside from that, Video Games. Right now it's all about pokemon, I also read a lot of mangas that always get me , a good anime can produce a great jam haha. Science fiction movies too, Blade Runner, Post Apocalyptic, Children of men, The Matrix, stuff like that. But besides that on the music side of things it's all about Justin Broadrick, Teddy Riley, Aphex Twin, Talking Heads, Boards of Canada, Thom Yorke, Andre 3000, Ben Gibbard, Flying Lotus & the whole low end theory roster really got me excited about music again, they’re doing some incredible stuff down there.


With whom do you dream of working with?


I’d Love to make music for an animated series, the opening song or ending song. But when it comes to performers, Kanye West, Flaming Lips, Thom Yorke, Eminem, The Blood Brothers(RIP); I’d love to work with any of Animal collective, Andrew Aker, Susumu Hirasawa, Fear before, Tycho, anyone out of the low end theory circles.


What software/hardware do you use?


At the moment I’m using all sorts of gear and softwares. I use fl studios, logic, in my room right now there’s 2 Gameboy LSDJs, 2 keyboards, one waiting to be a little mod experiment, a Kaosspad KP3, an Akai Mpd26, a few midi keyboards, two acoustic guitars and a bongo. I have a bass guitar elsewhere and a whole other slew of stuff in Los Angeles, a lot of what I just listed is new to the collective arsenal.


Alecks Awklr - Harps At Ease

How do you process when you’re making a song?


It depends, I need to have a vision usually, I try to kind of create a world or a story through the music so I sit and try to create an atmosphere, I do this before or after I create the general melody or the main chords. From there I add details and intricacies or take away the "fat from the meat", and what usually survives is a song I thoroughly enjoy. I need to be able to feel it deep down, and then I would leave it alone for a few weeks and go back to it and relisten for any kinda issues, jam to it till I felt it again and add more to it.


What are you working on right now? Any gig planned?


Right now I’ve been writing a ton, I’m jamming on a live electronica set with my buddy Josh Mcadams & Andrew Carpio, they actually own a lot of the equipment I mentioned above, he’s also part of the exp collective along with a few others I haven’t put up there. Recently I got really into songwriting again, Roxy Redding and I started writing some stuff recently and it’s coming out really good! So there’s a lot of stuff coming up. I’m going to be releasing another EP of electronic instrumental songs soon, in the meantime while I’m working on these new songs. I’m trying to get this live show set up for a tour of some sort, I haven’t done anything like that yet, so I’m excited to jump in and get it going!
Going to play a local show here pretty soon and from there start booking shows!


Alecks Awklr - Snakeway

The artwork of your album is beautiful, did you make it?


No, no I couldn’t take the credit for that beautiful piece. It’s actually concept art for a video game for Playstation 2, Shadow of the collossus, it’s really beautifully made, the story is epic, the visuals are intense, it’s a very very good game. It’s about a knight who finds a princess asleep; a spirit tells him he must defeat these giants that roam the land and when all the giants are defeated she will awake. Very vague and kinda art nouveau at times, it’s actually a sequel to a game called Ico It’s really rare out here, I have a copy, just found out recently it’s pricey these days on ebay haha. I just always wanted to make music after playing that game, and that drawing I found in my photobucket, it fit so well to what I had in my head, it was just perfect.


You've talked about the Exp Collective, what is this project?


The exp collective is basically a group of musician I put together with my friends Daniel (Xen) & Trenton (Eclectic), it kinda took off. It’s not really a label, but it kind of acts as one, it’s a place for us to post updates, releases, etc. It’s almost all producers except for one band and a clothing company at the moment; we have a lot of releases coming up soon actually. Eclectic’s been making beats for the days, me and him have been in touch since around the time I started this. His new EP, called “The Takers” is dropping soon, I’m stoked on that! Xen's tight, really outspoken, anarcho punk meets the beat generation, he’s really low key about stuff, known that guy for the days too.

Pheonix Nieve’s on it too as Vs. The Pheonix, I’m excited to hear where that guy's going to go with his stuff, his new stuff is off the chain! But it’s mainly a kind of family of motivated individuals who need a headquarters. You can check that page out, we have a ton of releases on the horizon, I’m excited for the future!


You can follow Alecks Awklr on:

Soundcloud
Tumblr
Facebook
Twitter


And remember that his album Believer is available for free on his Bandcamp.

Enjoy!
-Here

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