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Travis Stewart is one busy dude. In recent years, it's hard to think of another artist within the bass-music sphere who's put out more releases, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that Stewart also maintains a rigorous tour schedule that keeps him constantly hopping around the globe. Operating solo as Machinedrum and working as one half of Sepalcure (with partner Praveen Sharma), the American-born producer resides in Berlin and does much of his music making in a bedroom studio located in the city's Kreuzberg district. Curious about his current production methods and how they've evolved over the years, we paid Stewart a visit earlier this summer, and somehow got him talking about the essential role that Weezer played in his musical coming of age.



XLR8R: When did you start producing?
Machinedrum: I was making electronic music when I was 12, 13. I didn't even really know what producing was. I used mainly software, but I also played guitar and had some keyboards, almost exactly what I have now. But the software was very different, it was very old school, like Cakewalk and Impulse Tracker.

You mentioned playing guitar. Were you in bands?
Yeah. I grew up in a really small town in North Carolina, so a lot of the musicians that I was friends with weren't necessarily into the same music that was into. I was getting really heavy into electronic music, and probably the most electronic music that my friends knew about was maybe Fatboy Slim, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, or something like that, which was fine, but I was really interested in making [that kind of music]. This is my roundabout way of telling you that I was in a Weezer cover band. [laughs] We covered Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, Hum...



Were you recording any of that stuff?
No, we had some videotaped performances. We'd get to these points where I was like, "Guys, let's try to write some songs," and we would start to, it would be fun. I think we played some of them out, but everyone got really frustrated and it was like, "Let's just stick to covers." But I was also in the jazz band in high school. They already had a guitarist when I joined, so they needed a bassist. I had never really played bass before—my brother had. So I decided, "Why not?" and I ended up playing bass throughout high school, all four years. I was also playing marching snare in the marching band. I was in African ensemble, the community percussion ensemble that was based out of Lenoir-Rhyne college in Hickory, North Carolina. I was involved in a lot of different stuff, but not necessarily what I wanted to do. It was just whatever I could get.



Going back to your electronic-music production, you mentioned that you started with Cakewalk and Impulse Tracker. How has that evolved over the years?
The biggest part of the evolution has been the process and the understanding of how to get ideas out of my head. For the longest time, maybe 11 or 12 years, I only used Impulse Tracker, which is just a sample-based sequencer. It's very limiting, but I kind of liked that. It was very hard to move on to other programs like Logic, because I felt like there were too many options in that kind of software. I think using Impulse Tracker for so long and just basically having everything primarily be sample based, which required me to build up a huge sample library and always be recording stuff—recording any sounds I heard, like field recordings, guitar, my friend's synths, singing or whatever. I still work off that same sample library. I've been building it for ages now, I don't even want to say how long. I use that same approach now with Ableton, which I've been using primarily for the past four years for production. I go into making songs, or starting a track, by going through my sample library and finding something interesting that inspires me.



Do you tend to start with a loop or beats or melodies? Do you have a set songwriting process?
It all depends on the mood. Sometimes I'm just feeling like making some ambient sort of song, so I'll find field recordings and start adding little melodic things over that. Suddenly, I'll start adding some pulsey bass or something. Eventually, I'll say, "Now this needs a beat," and I've totally gone way left of that ambient sort of direction. Other times, I'll find some funny, ghettotech-sounding vocal sample and loop that over and over and throw a beat over it. It's always changing, it just depends on the mood.

You definitely put out a lot of material. Are you a really fast producer?
I've become a lot faster in the past few years. I think a lot of it has to do with the discovery of the idea of externalizing the idea of genius—which I think anybody can really tap into—externalizing this creativity. Like, rather than putting pressure on myself to think that I have to pull out these ideas, all I feel like I'm responsible for is practicing and learning about my craft as much as possible so that when the ideas come—from wherever they come from; a lot of times, I have no idea what's happening when I'm writing a song—I'm able to at least understand the idea and translate it into a track.



When you talk about learning your craft, are you referring to learning shortcuts in Ableton or making plugins?
It has to do with that, [but it's also] collaborating with other people. A lot of times, you'll learn so much, just through their own process using the same software. The beautiful thing about Ableton is that I feel like every single person that uses it has a different sort of approach. None of them are wrong, they're all just unique. So, I've learned from that, and yeah, it's exactly what you said, [learning] little shortcuts, different tricks. But also, learning tutorials, or even just studying music in general and the history of music—how a certain sound has gotten to this point, and who the originators are.

When you're writing your music, sequencing and stuff, are you using MIDI controllers, the keyboard, or both?
With all the traveling I've been doing the past couple of years, I've gotten really into just having my laptop, record arming a track, and tapping a beat on the computer keyboard. Even in Impulse Tracker, that was how you inputted a lot of the notes. I'll find myself doing that, even if I've got my MIDI keyboard sitting right next to me. I switch it up a bit though.



Looking at your setup, are the guitars the only items that aren't digital?
Yeah, although I use microphones to record my voice, or tapping on the table, any sort of weird Foley sounds, stuff like that.

You have another project, Tstewart. Is that more of a band?
It's a folk rocky, but also synth poppy sort of thing. It's very lo-fi, shoegazey... sort of going back to a lot of my '90s influences, stuff that I was really into. It's something that I've always been working on, but the releases have been very limited. I put out a cassette tape last year on LuckyMe, and we're supposedly going to be doing a digital release of that sometime soon.



Does Sepalcure have a different sort of production process than Machinedrum?
Not necessarily. We actually approach it very similarly, with the obvious advantage of having another person there. If anything, it's the fastest project that I have. We are both very strong working within Ableton, and we're both very strong instrumentalists. Praveen actually has an advantage over me. He has a lot of different analog synths. He has a Rhodes piano. He's got a lot toys to play around with. It gives us a nice balance. One person is manning the computer while the other person is playing stuff. Then, once one person gets too computered out, we can switch it up. It keeps this really nice flow going.

Are you always in the same room when you're making Sepalcure stuff?
Yeah, we decided that it has to be that way. It's really important to us. The Fleur EP was the only time we didn't do that. Of course we really like those tracks, but when we listen to them, we can hear who had a heavier influence on the track, whereas with our LP, we'll listen to the songs and forget who did what. I think that feels nicer, more like a collaboration and less like a nerdy file swap.



Sepalcure generally has more organic/analog elements than Machinedrum. Is that something you purposefully don't put into in your own music?
Not necessarily. I think it's interesting that you're coming to do this interview now, because I'm finally saving up enough money to build out the kind of studio that I would want. Praveen has been fortunate enough to acquire a lot of these analog bits that have definitely been influential on the sound of Sepalcure. But I still [have] the extensive sample libraries, and [I'm always] really adamant that if I'm at a friend's studio, and they have a really cool synth that I like, I'll try to record a bunch [of sounds] from it, as many as possible, so I can use it later. So [Machinedrum] still retains some sort of analog influence. It would still be nice to just have it in the room, of course. So, maybe come back in a year and we'll see what [the studio looks] like.

Over the past 10 years, Travis Stewart aka Machinedrum has honed and refined his sound - a (mostly) instrumental fusion of hip-hop, juke, jungle and house - earning a reputation along the way as an adventurous producer who also understands how to fine-tune his intricate compositions for the dancefloor. In 2011, he received much deserved praise for his Room(s) album on Planet Mu. Since then he’s relocated to Berlin, kept up a dizzying touring schedule – both solo as Machinedrum and as one half of Sepalcure – and released a number of singles, EPs, and mixes that further explore various bass-heavy musical dimensions. In this interview, among other things, Travis talks about inspiration, frustration, and self-imposed limitations. In addition, he shares a track from Room(s) along with its downloadable Live Set - including all the sounds and effects that went into its making and then discusses his production techniques and approaches.



What got you started making music?

I started playing piano and guitar pretty early on, maybe around 5 or 6 years old. I never took lessons or anything. I was more or less ear-trained. I would often listen to my favorite bands and try to learn how to play it just from listening. My family was quite musical as well. My mother played piano so I grew up with a baby grand piano in the house, my grandfather played pedal steel in a country band (and still does!), my cousin was a singer songwriter who played guitar and my dad was always collecting different instruments. I guess they rubbed off on me.

What kind of equipment did you start out on? And what are you using these days?

When I started making electronic music I was mainly using software like Cakewalk, Impulse Tracker, Rebirth as well as any additional freeware I could find. The first hardware I bought was the Yamaha CS1x and Boss Dr. Sample 202 plus some random FX pedals. My family wasn't exactly rich so I had to work within my limitations. I think this had a lot to do with how I approach making music to this day. Now I still have a quite simple set-up using a Macbook Pro running Ableton Live and some MIDI Controllers. I don't really use many plug-ins apart from a few go-to's like Michael Norris' SoundMagic Spectral plugins and Native Instruments Reaktor + Massive. For the most part I've found that the built-in Ableton plugins are sufficient.

How much does music technology inspire and/or frustrate you?

I think we live in a very blessed time right now due to music technology. Some would beg to differ but I really believe its an incredible opportunity for us to be able to write and record music with such ease. It's really kind of mind-blowing to think about the incredible amount of musical geniuses that nobody will ever know about due to the simple fact that they couldn't record the music they were making. It was near impossible for anyone that was ear-trained – without the knowledge of music theory who had an avant-garde or abstract approach to songwriting – to ever have their music passed on to newer generations let alone even their own generation.

The only problem or "frustration" I can see coming from music technology would be the seemingly endless amount of options when it comes to software, plug-ins, synths, etc. I feel like a lot of people can become lost trying to get the best gear instead of really honing in on their craft and developing their own sound. I think it’s really important to set limitations for yourself in order to find your own creative space and workflow. Otherwise you just end up sounding generic without your own sound. I used to talk shit on people who use the same synth on every song but now I realize how wrong I was! How else can people instantly tell who they're listening to if you're constantly changing your setup?



In order to illustrate just how the Machinedrum sound is constructed, we asked Travis for a peek behind his production curtains. He’s been kind enough to share the song Sacred Frequency from his latest album Room(s), as well as the Live Set in which it was created – including all the sounds, instruments and effects he used.

Soundcloud

In the second part of this interview we talk to Travis specifically about the production techniques and ideas at work in Sacred Frequency. There’s a lot to sink your teeth into here. Therefore, we recommend you download and open the Live Set before we dig into the details.

Download the Live Set here
* Requires Ableton Live 8 or Suite 8 for full functionality. May be used with Live Intro and Live Lite in demo mode.

What was the starting point for this track (Sacred Frequency)? What was the first element you worked on and in what way (if any) did it determine what should come next?

I originally started the song with a random sample I had recorded a long time ago named "sacredfreq". It was a recording of feedback from a guitar plugged into a tape delay and spring reverb. The funny thing is this recording/sample never actually made it into the final version of the track! It did however inspire the lyrics and title. I ditched the sample, and started sampling a marching band video recording I had on my computer. I started noise-gating this grain delay synth sound to the drum track and the rest was history.

One track of Sacred Frequency is what sounds like a field recording of running water and children’s voices. Do you often use these kinds of sounds as textures in your music? Also, the water sample nicely pumps in time with the drums. Can you explain this technique?

Yes, I tend to use field recordings as layers underneath my tunes. I feel it gives the songs an environment or space to exist in, and makes the listening experience a more visual one. I used a noise gate on the water sound that comes in with the drums. It gives the drums a new texture and keeps the song sounding a bit more organic.

The main keyboard figure is made up of short fragments of a longer audio clip. How do you go about finding the right segments to use?

I used Impulse Tracker to produce music for almost 12 years before I switched to Ableton Live. Impulse Tracks is a sample-based sequencer originally based in DOS and later emulated for Windows and Mac. There is no MIDI or VST instruments in Impulse Tracker so you’re forced to rely only on samples. This method of sampling and searching through long recordings to find the perfect sound has stuck with me to this day, so it’s kind of second nature for me in a way. In Live I usually just drag the play marker around in a clip until I find something that strikes me. In Sacred Frequency I used the audio clip, but now I usually load whatever sound I find into Simpler or Impulse. Most of my tunes these days use almost entirely all MIDI tracks.

How important is EQing and how much time do you spend making everything ‘sit’ in the mix?

I tend to use filters a lot in tracks, if not too much. I use them to give movement to the tracks, build ups, fade outs, tension, etc. Mixing is part of the creative process for electronic music I think. So it’s important to me to find a good mix while I'm working on the track before deciding on other things to record or add. Sometimes if you get a mix sounding perfect with just a few instruments going, you realize you don't really need anything else. I consider dynamics almost like an instrument in itself.

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